[c-nsp] SFP & GBIC module compatibility

[Richard A Steenbergen]

On Thu, Dec 28, 2006 at 09:22:58PM +0000, Phil Mayers wrote:
> >"Genuine Cisco" SFPs (that work) can be found online at about 70% or
> >greater savings over Cisco on SX SFPs.  
> 
> Sorry, but IMNSHO, this is very bad advice. I and many others on this 
> list have had extremely bad experiences with "cheap cisco" SFPs which 
> are in fact forgeries.

All the Cisco-labeled optics I've run across are counterfeit in name only 
(i.e. they are produced on the same lines as the Cisco-labeled ones just 
at night and under the table).

Personally I'd like to see people get off this "Genuine Cisco" kick. 
Nothing about optics having a Cisco label make them any more or less 
genuine than any others. Do people really think that Cisco sends a team of 
engineers to China to hand-pick only the finest SFP's fresh off the 
production line, then polishes them to perfection and sprinkles them with 
magic fairy dust before delivering them to your router on fluffy white 
pillows?

If anything, Cisco is responsible for the flood of substandard optics in 
the marketplace. By implementing vendor locking, Cisco has prevented the 
legitimate sale of competing optics directly to consumers. This makes 
Cisco a sole buyer among many sellers (called a monopsony), and it allows 
them to extract massive profits while the optical vendors themselves see 
almost none of it. This is the way that Walmart purchases from its 
suppliers in China etc, except Cisco isn't rolling back any prices :P. 
With the only means of legitimate competition blocked, the only 
competition which CAN happen is illegitimate, i.e. counterfeiting and 
serial number cloning. If the only competing product you can buy is from 
people who are already doing shady things and who have no brand name 
reputation for quality to maintain (the counterfiets all say Cisco on them 
after all), how long do you really think it will be until they start 
churning out substandard non-working parts to make more money. Cisco 
brought this upon themselves by FORCING people to counterfeit their 
products to compete.

It continues to amaze be how absurdly stupid and naive this industry is as 
consumers. We are all the ones who are empowering Cisco (and everyone who 
wants to be like Cisco) to abuse us as consumers, by buying in to their 
fearmongering marketing tactics. Can you imagine an auto manufacturer who 
refused to warrantee a cars if you bought industry standard parts for it 
from someone other than them (at extreme markup)? How far do you think the 
sales people would get if they called your used car "grey market"? Every 
time someone pays Cisco $500 for a $10 GBIC, $900 for a $50 compact flash 
card, or $5000 for a $100 piece of RAM because it has a Cisco label, we 
all lose as consumers.

-- 
Richard A Steenbergen <ras at e-gerbil.net>       http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras
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