Cox Launches 50Mbps Service In Lafayette > why pick Cisco?

reply to DarkLogix

Re: why pick Cisco?

A "degree" in IOS is not needed, but you do need good experience and knowledge in it to actually use the product to its fullest potential.

Cisco products are really business class. You need someone who knows what they are doing. A Cisco router will far out perform and do far more than any other router I know of. Juniper and the other carrier class routers have the same issue, you have to know what you are doing.

Cisco has provided a GUI interface, which sucks. So does there VPN client, which is not needed if the router is programmed correctly... you can use the typical Windows VPN client, whatever one comes with that particular operating system.

Basically, use an off the shelf router with a pretty GUI and few options to do your routing if you want to. However, Cisco products, if you have the knowledge, are a far better class of equipment. Solid and can do just about anything... far more than any thing you may buy at say Walmart.

This is no different than say a Windows server and a Unix server. If you do not know how to program a Unix server than what good is it to you? However, I would say that uptime on a Unix server compared to a Windows server is considerably higher. Admins use windows servers because they are easy. If you have a person that can correctly configure a Windows and Unix server PLUS has Cisco experience, the earning power of that person doubles, in my opinion.

Wow... you have ideas, but not much knowledge. Sounds like the marketing teams have gotten to you. I use 3Com switches in our datacenters, and they perform flawlessly so far up to their 1Gbps potential and now we're moving on to 10G with the same hardware.

I use linux servers for some of our high-traffic websites (Alexa rakings higher than 4000), and Windows on others. These are sites with over 150,000 uniqe visitors per day, and neither Linux or Windows is more or less stable. Each has its purpose, but it isn't a superiority issue.

In one installation, we had to replace Cisco equipment because it couldn't remain stable at 100Mbps - this was after two ISO certified technicians did their best. Faulty equipment? Perhaps. But the 3Com stuff hasn't failed us yet. I'd say Cisco is NOT #1 at this point, just another choice. And now with the aquisition of Linksys, they are more like the McDonalds of routing.

What do you use for routing?

The 3Com switches do it for us. We just setup two VLANS and route the second one over the first and voila - layer 3 routing baby!

Uh, OK. How many top internet sites are you managing again?