I am at work (sob, sob on a Saturday night) upgrading our switch from some aging (ancient!) 3Comm boxes to a shiny new set of HP chassis. Ah, the beauty of tidy cables - is it odd to be excited about that - please refer to the pictures below!
This is actually the culmination of a very lengthy process which involved deciding stackable v chassis and HP v Cisco v NetGear. NetGear got left off the list pretty quickly - they make decent stackables for the edge, but I am just not comfortable having them at the core. In the end we decided on the HP ProCurve Chassis solution (3 chassis with a backup). I like the modular nature of chassis (perhaps this is the programmer background, but it just seems a much more elegant solution than the stackables). And of course, you have the advantage of the backplane speed and redundant modules.
The decision between CISCO and HP wasn't as easy. The thing that turned me off CISCO was the maintenance. You have to pay yearly maintenance in order to gain the latest software updates and to have access to support. HP offer a lifetime warranty on their chassis, with a guaranteed next day replacement of parts if anything goes awry. They also have access to software updates without paying a yearly fee.
In then end, it was this that really made it clear.I have talked to a few IT managers of law firms and many of them do use the HP solution - and have found it to be robust. Eventually CISCO will need to review their SmartNet as I can't imagine we are the only potential clients to have decided on HP because of the ongoing cost of ownership.
Now, the before and after photos, so that you can understand my excitement....
The mess before...
The tidy bliss after....
BTW - Thanks to those who have left comments recently!
1 comment:
Oh Bean ... I must admit this IS an organisational dream :) I am no stranger to the cable tie and do know the sense of satisfaction one feels when your equipment no longer resembles a black widow's nest ... well done!
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