[nsp] Cat6500 as core

[Robert J. Adams (jason)]

Hello,

We're a large hosting company that currently uses a Juniper M5 for core, 
a cat3750 for gigE server aggregation (gigE from the m5) and a cat 3508 
for peering (vlans off a gigE connection to the m5). All of our upstream 
connection are over gigE.

Our growth has been pretty rapid and we'll be reaching over 800M/sec 
here in the next month. We're trying to decide which route to go (so 
scale over gigE upstream) and I wanted to get recommendations.

Since the M5 only has 4 slots we don't have much room to grow gigE 
upstream connections. We're considering bundling two gigE connections to 
   a cat4912 (which would replace the 3508) and two for the cat3750 .. 
this would fill our M5 and would solve the problem for now..

Downside: The gigE cards for the M5 are expensive and if the 4912 dies 
we're SOL.
Upside is this would be easy to implement.

We're also considering taking out the M5, 3508, and 3750 and replacing 
them with a Cat 6506. I've read on here that people are using the 6500's 
for core (a few full bgp views etc) ..

Downside: I have to deal with Cisco's damn IOS (I love my juniper)
Upside: I can get a 6506 with tons of gigE for less than two juniper 
gigE pics. It also seems a bit "cleaner" than using vlans over to a 3508 
for upstream connections.

Ideas and recommendations wanted ;)

Thanks,
Jason
SISCOM