[j-nsp] Thanks for all the fish

[Mark Tinka]

On 1/10/24 09:04, Forrest Christian (List Account) wrote:

> I find it frustrating that things one would expect to be included in 
> any layer 3 switch has become additional revenue opportunities.
>
> "The switch hardware is $x.  Oh you want the software too?  Oh,  
> that's an additional cost.   L3 switching?  Oh,  that's an extra 
> feature.  OSPF? Oh that's not included with the L3 license so that 
> will be extra too. Oh and by the way,  you aren't buying a perpetual 
> license anymore so be sure to pay us the fees for all the software 
> functionality every year".
>
> Yes I know the above isn't completely 100% accurate but it definitely 
> is how it seems anymore.
>
> I get charging extra for advanced features,  but when basic features 
> that pretty much everyone wants and uses becomes an add-on and not 
> perpetual,  it tends to make me start looking for a different vendor.

In our hubris to "decouple the control plane from the data plane (tm)", 
we, instead, decoupled the software/hardware integration from a single 
vendor.

So hardware folk make their own cut, and software folk make their own 
cut. And they are not the same people.

Welcome to the "white box" and "software-only" era.

Mark.