[c-nsp] New Service Provider?

[Mark Tinka]

On Wednesday, August 10, 2011 01:04:42 PM Ryan Finnesey 
wrote:

> If we are a new service provider and building out a new
> network does the group have any recommendations on the
> best way to work with cisco?  Do we want to join there
> partner program?

Ask a vendor to stand you up a network, and they'll be all 
too happy to :-).

My advice, if you can, use your own in-house design (since 
it's new, and perhaps small for now) and implementation 
team.

As much as the vendors offer consulting and professional 
services to ISP's, you really aren't the only customer they 
have. You won't get the same amount of attention from the 
vendor that you would put into your own network, whether 
technical, operations or commercial, despite how many nights 
they spend in your office.

Also, your own deployments (especially in the early days) 
give you a lot more experience which you can use to call the 
vendors on when they think they can take you for a ride in 
the future.

From an engineering standpoint, the best networks on the 
Internet, I believe, are those that refrain from wholesale 
out-sourcing of network design to vendors. As networks 
scale, it's not uncommon to out-source deployment, but I 
strongly believe design should be driven by the ISP, and 
include the vendor as and when required.

Mark.
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