[c-nsp] sup2 lead times/costs

[Jeff Bacon]

> That said: the sup2T would have been a KILLER box if it had been
> delivered on time. Now: not so much. The slow delivery and presence of
> the N7k give me cause for concern. The "roadmap out to space year 3000"
> rings a bit false, frankly...

On the other hand, if I understand correctly, the 6500 BU is
fighting the Nexus BU for production capacity for the EARL8.
There's only so much to go around. One can complain that they
should have foreseen this, but when has Cisco ever managed
to accomplish that very well? (ASA, anyone?) 

I've got two-month lead times on my sup2t orders. 


> Second: I'm curious if people are seeing prices that "make sense" for
> the DFC4 upgrade parts for 67xx linecards. They were about 50% more than
> the equivalent DFC3 parts. When we costed out the upgrade of our main
> core routers to sup2T, the DFC parts made it quite pricey, and pushed us
> to look at "more radical" options.

What I'm seeing is a lack of discounting, so to speak. And
practically infinite lead times. Again I think we're back to the
EARL8 problem. There's only so many to go around. Nexus7k will
get first call. then sup2t. then DFC4s going into 69xx and 68xx. 
Finally DFC4s standalone. Not saying this makes sense at the end 
user level, since we buy a sup2t then need to swap DFCs, but from
a profit-per-card level... 

In due time it will sort out. In the meantime, ouch.  


Gert - and with all due respect, I value your thoughts and
opinions - nothing's perfect. Yeah, I'd rather not fork piles
of bux for sup2t. You have to replace some linecards.
But it's Cisco. It's new. They never have enough stock. They
have too many accounting weenies. The comparison against
the refurb/grey market is terrible (in cases). 

But... it wasn't any different when the VS720 came out either. Or
any other new thing. We've just gotten very used to grey/ref market
because there's been so little change in the 6500 market in eons. 
Give it a year or so. Then there will be supply on the ref/grey
market and prices will normalize and you will be able to get DFCs. 
And I'm sure this year will bring a few large bankruptcies of
European (and American) financial institutions which will cause
a bunch of new-new kit from big banks to hit the resale market,
further helping your cause. Then you can get your toys. :)

-bacon