[c-nsp] Softnet replacement?

[Hank Nussbacher]

At 11:22 AM 11-01-09 -0600, Justin Shore wrote:
>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

Turns out that Cisco terminated *all* Smartnet for Israel.  It is now 
impossible to order any Smartnet option for Israel.  The only service one 
can select is "shared support" (SSPD) which is supplied via a silver or 
gold partner.

What Cisco probably did was see that most companies ordered shared support 
and decided why bother to keep Smartnet.  But I don't think they realized 
how easy SP-SW would be to support (only IOS downloads and direct TAC 
support w/o RMAs).

Any other country run into this latest (as of Jan 1, 2009) Cisco-folly?

Thanks,
Hank