[j-nsp] Cost of vMX

[Mark Tinka]

On 21/Apr/18 02:19, Saku Ytti wrote:

> >From BOM POV if you have to pay for the XEONs it probably isn't very
> good value proposal per Mpps. However if you have poor pricing for MX,
> good pricing on your XEON and modest pps need, maybe it makes sense.

This...

Looking at virtual routers - even from other vendors - what quickly
stands out for me is that if your traffic volumes are typically low, but
you get value in things such as being able to host a ton of customers on
the same chassis/VM, hold millions of routes for several years without
worrying about hardware resources (in the case of RR's), need to crunch
numbers very quickly in CPU (in the case of a virtualized Netflow
collector such as Arbor), then it makes very good sense.

If you're trying to forward 10's of Gbps through a virtual router on
general-purpose x86 hardware at any meaningful scale, you're quickly
going to see all your money go into:

    - The server hardware
    - The hypervisor license
    - The VM license

Doesn't make for a good prospect, if I'm honest, with today's
state-of-the-art.

While you could build a virtual router capable of forwarding 100Gbps
aggregate, it's going to be cheaper for you to work with a purpose-built
router/switch.

Mark.