[c-nsp] Softnet replacement?

[Justin Shore]

Gert Doering wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 01:41:59PM +0200, Hank Nussbacher wrote:
>> That provides RMA which we do not need.  We want *only* TAC access and IOS 
>> downloads.  Softnet provided that option - which Cisco has abolished.
> 
> Oh.  Interesting.  Softnet would have been what we've been asking Cisco
> for for years - but it has never been offered to us :-(
> 
> (With a high number of similar boxes, hardware RMA quickly becomes more
> expensive than just having a spare box - but IOS downloads + bugfixes
> is definitely a useful thing to have).


There is a SmartNet option with software, TAC support, and no advanced 
replacement in SP Base.  Specifically you want SP-SW for your device. 
To give you an idea of the price difference for a 7201 with no on-site 
support, 24x7x4 is $3226, 8x5xNBD is $2016, 10-day return-to-factory 
(RTF) is $1764, and finally software and TAC wo/ replacement is $1638 
(MSRP on all).  If you're big enough to justify a sparing strategy then 
SP-SW is for you.

We're aren't big enough at this point to eat the cost of a failed router 
so I implemented a sparing strategy with the 10-day RTF SmartNet.  I 
took all our gear and grouped it together in groups of common devices 
that could be covered by a single spare.  That gave me 5 different 
devices that I had to buy for spares.  I covered all those devices with 
10-day RTF coverage.  The remaining items that we simply didn't have 
enough of to justify buying a spare (7600s for example) we bought 24x7x4 
or 8x5xNBD depending on the device.  In the end everything we have is 
covered with a sufficient amount of support or a spare to ensure that 
we're only down for a few hours.  We saved money and used it to buy more 
hardware (spares) which will allow me to build a lab.  So far so good...

Justin