[j-nsp] Juniper MX104

[Saku Ytti]

On (2013-11-12 20:14 +0000), Tom Storey wrote:

> Why so much just to enable some ports? How do they come up with that
> kind of price? Pluck it out of thin air?
> 
> The hardware has been paid for, and I know thats only list pricing,
> but it still seems ridiculous.

The question might have been rhetoric. But I'll bite.

The BOM on these boxes is nothing, I'm guessing less than 1kUSD. But the
volume you can sell them also is very very small, so the margins need to be
very high to be able to design and support them.
Licensing allows you to sell to larger group of people, people who normally
would buy smaller/inferior box, now can afford it,  which in turn allows you
to reduce your margins, making you more competitive.

I actually like it. I wish vendors like Agilent/Ixia, Spirent would sell
test-kit with some sort of 'per hours used' license. Lot of SPs have need for
proper testing kit, but only will need them very irregularly. And renting is
always such a chore. It's same thing there, BOM is nothing, but volume is even
lower, so prices are ridiculously high, consequently proper testing is very
rarely done by other than telco size SPs.

-- 
  ++ytti