Does it have to be Cisco?

[broc]

Let us suppose you were starting from scratch, building a school network that will support a mix of wired & wireless clients; a network that can be managed remotely; a network that is scalable and uses technology & products that can be integrated & deployed across multiple schools as time goes on ......

 

The vendor of choice would probably be Cisco..... but I am guessing at a cost premium which must be born by the school(s).

 

Is there anything unique to Cisco that other top tier vendors such as HP cannot deliver to justify the premium that the school might have to pay, or is it merely a case that nobody ever got fired for buying Cisco?

 

Has anyone seen/prepared a 'best value' justification for buying Cisco vs other vendor products?

[DMcCoy]

Let us suppose you were starting from scratch, building a school network that will support a mix of wired & wireless clients; a network that can be managed remotely; a network that is scalable and uses technology & products that can be integrated & deployed across multiple schools as time goes on ......

 

The vendor of choice would probably be Cisco..... but I am guessing at a cost premium which must be born by the school(s).

 

Is there anything unique to Cisco that other top tier vendors such as HP cannot deliver to justify the premium that the school might have to pay, or is it merely a case that nobody ever got fired for buying Cisco?

 

Has anyone seen/prepared a 'best value' justification for buying Cisco vs other vendor products?

 

Cisco is good

 

Cisco is not best value imo. The NON transferable software licenses and the REQUIRED support contract for upgrades for every device make it far too expensive. Procurve and Netgear have lifetime warranty and free software updates with very few additional cost features (some Procurve stuff has one year warranty, but only the 8/9000 switches).

 

Cisco wouldn't be my choice even if money was no issue. This is despite having bought hardware and paid for support contracts in the past.

 

 

 

EDIT: Features they provide - hardware upgrades of RAM etc in devices, old switches get quite a lot of features backported.

[Tricky_Dicky]

The nice thing about Cisco is the training courses they offer and the brand name means there are quite a few people who are well trained to use their equipment. That being said, IMO they don't offer anything that unique from any other supplier, but they do offer a very wide range of products so not only networking, but phones, cctv and pretty much anything in between.

 

Like you say, no one ever got fired for buying Cisco, just like IBM back in the day

 

Rich

[bossman]

@Broc:

 

Our full infrastructure is Cisco and for the better part of 8 years it has been the (forgive the pun) very backbone of our network in many ways, totally flexible and once set up you can rest assured it ain't giong anywhere. Solid from day one and has remained that way since.

 

Expensive, well IMHO it depends on which way you go as everything can turn out expensive if not planned right. If you are planning for a ten year lifespan + then it would have to be Cisco.

 

I have heard too many stories of HP procurves breaking even though they have a lifetime warranty.

 

Like for like the cost factor for the technology is much the same give or take a few quid but on the other HP hand you do get a lifetime warranty which for some is the clincher as well as the cost.

 

Also as 80% of the www is built on Cisco technology I think this speaks volumes.

 

Total cost for our school was approx 40k and with the fibre backbone being OM3 all I have to do when ready is swap out the switches for 10Gb ones which will be a few years yet as I have no problems with speed.

Edited November 25, 2009 by bossman