What’s the biggest barrier to upgrading switches/networking?

[TP-Link_Gary]

Poll

[PotNoodleTech]

"SLT Buy in" followed by Limited Budget.

 

Problem is SLT don't physically see network switches (like they see ipads or chromebooks having an effect)  or understand their significance so it doesnt really exist to them.  A lot of schools find it hard to get across the importance.

[TP-Link_Gary]

Agree - this is what we see predominately in Primary Schools.

 

Edited August 6, 2025 by TP-Link_Gary

[k-strider]

I must be really lucky (and appreciative) i basically told my FD we need upgrade the wired network which was all Netgear kit that is all between 15(maybe pushing 20) and 5 years old. So I  got a paper done on how to upgrade and what to put where and a cost  that came in around the 100K mark and i was just allowed to do it.  I did all my diligence checks etc but i guess what I'm saying is the SLT team trusted my knowledge and experience and if i said it needed to be done they accepted it.  After all some of the kit hasn't had active firmware updates in years and switches at the end of the day are just computers.... so need to be patched like anything else.  and its another step away from something i know means we can't meet cyber security essentials.... 

[TP-Link_Gary]

Interesting take and I like what you say about the patching etc.

[psynegy]

I'm not sure how typical this is, but our estate is large and sprawling, many separate buildings have been added over the years. We have 33 switches total, 8 of which are long overdue replacement have been marked EOL by the manufacturer.

 

Our most recent purchase of 3 switches, only maybe barely meet the DfE standards and was already an eyewatering purchase to say the least (a mixture of the Aruba 6200M and F series for those interested).

 

It's a tough sell to say we need to replace something that cost £300 15 years ago, with something that costs £3000 now, and will bring no immediately tangible end-user benefits. (Beyond feeling all safe and secure from those mean EOL switch firmware hackers...!)

 

Centralised management is not attainable in our budget, nor do we really see it as being necessary given the lack of changes we regularly push out. Unfortunately the centralised option for our Aruba 2930F's which make up 20 of our switches was not fit for purpose anyway. Luckily a few powershell scripts here and there makes bulk updates fairly trivial.

 

DfE standards have been helpful in convincing SLT that spending £1k now, will only mean we still have to spend an additional £3k later when say we want to update the wireless access points. Also helpful has been the CyberEssentials framework which by it's very name implies it's the minimum standards we should be meeting.

 

I would love to entertain the idea of the new enterprise Ubiquiti switching, but because of the number of cabs we have up on walls, they're just physically too deep to fit in the majority of locations, and the smaller switches aren't even close to DfE standards compliant.

[TP-Link_Gary]

Interesting and not uncommon - the cab depth presents a hidden hardware, labour cost - too easily overlooked.

 

The Omada range https://www.omadanetworks.com/uk/ is a solid alternative - ticks the DfE boxes and can be managed for free.  The 2930F is a decent switch with a decent warranty.....

 

Is it very much the case that as it is not shiny and on the desk, SLT do not see the benefit - and can this be overcome?

[msi_school]

17 minutes ago, psynegy said:

It's a tough sell to say we need to replace something that cost £300 15 years ago, with something that costs £3000 now, and will bring no immediately tangible end-user benefits. (Beyond feeling all safe and secure from those mean EOL switch firmware hackers...!)

 

I agree its a hard sell for a much more expensive device, but these devices become far more fragile as they get older. I started to see 10 year old Cisco switches not restart after power failures at a previous job.

[TP-Link_Gary]

3 minutes ago, msi_school said:

 

I agree its a hard sell for a much more expensive device, but these devices become far more fragile as they get older. I started to see 10 year old Cisco switches not restart after power failures at a previous job.

Then it becomes a firefighting job, rather than a smooth, controlled update..

[k-strider]

yes thats true with Cabs and switch depths we have fudged at least 2 cabs brought the front rails forward just to get the switches in and will have replaced 5 by the end of my upgrade project 3 done so far just because they werent deep enough for the new switches.

 

For thoes intresed we have  ICX8200-48P,  ICX8200-24P,  ICX8200-24ZP,  ICX8200-C08PF,  ICX8200-C08ZP ranging from 22cm up to 37cm for the 48 Ports 28cm for the multi gig 24 port switches in cabs...

[psynegy]

1 hour ago, msi_school said:

I agree its a hard sell for a much more expensive device, but these devices become far more fragile as they get older. I started to see 10 year old Cisco switches not restart after power failures at a previous job.

 

I wish that was our experience. We've had more problems with the switches that are brand new and 4x the cost. Had a good few dead ports on our 2930F's for sure.

 

Say what you will for those old Netgear switches, but I think we've only RMA'd 1 in 15 years... Lifetime warranty too, so, I think when we did do that, they sent us out a far newer model as the returnee was no longer available.

 

Not many manufacturers doing lifetime warranty any more, eh...?

 

1 hour ago, TP-Link_Gary said:

the cab depth presents a hidden hardware, labour cost - too easily overlooked.

 

Not a mistake you make twice... 👀

 

1 hour ago, TP-Link_Gary said:

Is it very much the case that as it is not shiny and on the desk, SLT do not see the benefit - and can this be overcome?

 

It's not even that I don't think, it's just that unless you're lucky enough to have 1-2-1 for staff and students, the requirement for multi-gig is currently pretty negligible at the edge, so the actual real-world benefit to end users is practically nothing.

[Davit2005]

I think the oldest Aruba 2930F switches we have are about 3-4 years old now, we have about 50 but no failures as of yet. Put in about 30 Aruba 2530s about 8 years back and not one failure. 80 or so Aruba 2540s and have had 4 of those fail.

 

A lot of old HP 2650's but in middle of replacement project so they will all go, they are prob the least reliable with PSU problems but they are very old. HP 2810 or 2620's are next unreliable but again those switches are old.