[c-nsp] ASR1004 vs 7606(RSP720-CXL)

[David Hughes]

On 26/11/2009, at 5:46 AM, Łukasz Bromirski wrote:

> As for something for the next-gen - 8200... competitors would like 6500
> to be dead soon, because after all those rants it still wins the deals,
> it is still a platform of choice for technical not marketing reasons,
> and it still, after so many years, excels in different dimensions
> It is roadmapped far into the future, and there's place for it.

From a customer perspective who uses 6500s for L2/L3 aggregation in the DC and MPLS/IP core functionality, I can see them losing their shine.  They are a solid platform and I do like them a lot but working with the caveats can be a pain.  N7K is starting to look like a winning platform  :

* 2nd Gen 10GE ports will be reasonably priced
* Price for line-rate 1GE-TX LC's is attractive
* Switching capacity upgrade path looks fantastic
* Smart guys doing smart things (like OTV) 
* An OS that delivers on all the broken promises of ION / Modular etc

Ok, so it's missing some functionality but lots of the important stuff is being worked on.  There's no service modules but personally I think thats a good thing.  I still have nightmares about running Gen1 FWSM in the same chassis as a Gen1 CSM.  (Here's a thought - make a good standalone firewall that can compete with Vendor J, and a good standalone loadbalancer that can compete with Vendor F )

If there's a 4 slot chassis in the 2nd generation then I could see N7K and N5K / N4K as a possible end-to-end platform for L3/MPLS core, L2/L3 aggregation, and L2 access.  And it would all run the same software !!!  Pinch me - I must be dreaming  :)


David
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