[c-nsp] Nexus 7000

[Justin Shore]

Ian Cox wrote:
> At 08:48 AM 1/29/2008 -0600, Justin Shore wrote:
>> Tim Stevenson wrote:
>> > At 10:18 PM 1/28/2008 -0600, mack observed:
>> >> No mention of MPLS though which gives the CRS-1 a leg up on the
>> >> backbone routing market.
>> >
>> > NO MPLS (though the h/w is capable). No immediate plans for it either.
>>
>> This would be a show-stopper for us in our Data Center.  We have to have
>> MPLS support for MPLS VPN.
> 
> Nexus 7000 supports VRFs for IPv4 and IPv6, so you can still use VRFs to 
> separate traffic between customers. You just do not have MPLS. You can 
> have VRFs supported without having MPLS.

Yes, if we're talking about VRF-Lite.  What about multichassis VRF 
support or VRFs in diverse geographic locations (ie data centers in 
different locations for DR purposes)?  Doesn't that require MPLS VPN 
support?  VRF-Lite is great but it's very limiting.  I can think of a 
whole host of situations where VRF-Lite just can't cut it.  Our DC is 
small but even in that environment I don't have a use for VRF-Lite.  I 
hate to think of what new scenarios the big DC players bring to the 
table that require MPLS VPN features.  Of course if you're that big you 
can afford to home-run your 7000s to 6509s to get the missing L3 
features.  That's not an option for us I'm afraid.

Justin