[j-nsp] EX4600 Vs QFX 5100 VS ACX 5048

[Mark Tinka]

On 3/May/16 15:05, Saku Ytti wrote:

> I agree, MPLS to the edge is great idea. What do the boxes need to
> cost? I know someone who paid 3500EUR per MX80 (years years ago, when
> MX104 nor MX5/10/40 didn't exist) and deployed many hundred if not 1k
> of them as seamless MPLS access/edge device.

They didn't do their homework.

The MX80 is a terrible idea for an MPLS-capable Metro-E device. The baby
MX80's aren't a reasonable price to make it worth a reconsideration
either. That was Juniper trying to address that market half-heartedly.

Back then, you had two real options - the ME3600X/3800X or the
CER/CES2000. Anything else was just asking for it.


>
> MX80, MX104 are competitive against ASR9001 purely from BOM POV, as
> they are single chip fabricless devices. But still, similar box with
> pipeline/low touch asic style solution would be even cheaper, it is
> just how it is.
>
> I don't think JNPR will ever compete with Trio platform against ASR or
> ME, ACX is for that segment, but perhaps ACX is not there for all
> use-cases.

Well, the MX104 provides some competition against the ASR1000. But the
ASR1000 has moved leaps and bounds since the MX104 was a rumour, so
Juniper are falling behind again.

Against the ASR920 and ME3600X/3800X, Juniper don't have a real answer,
to be honest. The ACX is a try, but Juniper need to commit more. I just
don't know why they are letting this business go Cisco's way, but
well... I won't stick around to find out.


> What are you missing in ASR920 or ACX2k?

From my testing, the ASR920 does it all.

Your only real issue with the ASR920 is the small FIB, but we work
around that with BGP-SD.


>  But I do think that
> inevitably what happened to L3 in switches will happen to MPLS, soon
> you just cannot buy non-consumer switch which does not do MPLS.

The merchant silicon has paved the way for commoditization of MPLS,
which is great.

The issue now is whether that silicon can deliver other solutions we are
used to from in-house chips. So far, my luck hasn't been great in that
department. But, I think this problem will resolve itself in time.

Mark.