[f-nsp] Brocade (VDX) VS. Cisco (Nexus)

[Robert Hass]

On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 11:35 AM, Nick Hilliard <nick at foobar.org> wrote:
> leaving aside marketing noise for the moment, Cisco have three completely
> separate nexus products: N1k, N5k and N7k.  The N1k is a software switch
> which integrates into VMware ESX and takes over from the vmware switch
> system.  The N5k is a fixed-configuration switch, and the N7k is a large
> chassis+blade switch.  Notionally, the three systems run the same software,
> although in reality the three nexus development teams use separate code trains.

VDX advantages comparing to NX2k/NX5k:
- VDX6710 has 6x10GE comparing to 4x10GE in Nexus 2248
- VDX6710 has better functionality on Edge ports than NX2k (on nexus
you cannot do many things - eg. filter BPDUs)
- VDX6710 has bigger buffers (12MB shared total on VDX versus
90/100/160KB per port on NX2k)
- VDX has hitless software upgrades and RILOM ports (true OOB)
- VDX is much smaller than NX5k (depth)
- VPC (NX) has some limitations comparing to vLAG (VDX)