Force10 Gear - Opinions

Sun Aug 24 05:52:55 UTC 2008

On Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 10:34 AM, Matlock, Kenneth L
<MatlockK at exempla.org> wrote:
> Sorry for the off-topic post.

Don't be; it was acutely on-topic.

> Does anyone here have real-world experience with Force 10 gear
> (Specifically their E-Series and C-Series)? They came and did their
> whole dog and pony show today, but I wanted to get real-world feedback
> on their gear.
>
>
>
> I need to know about their
>
>
>
> 1)       Reliability
>
> 2)       Performance

EANTC did a comprehensive study of the E-series:

http://www.eantc.de/en/test_reports_presentations/test_reports/force_10_sfm_failover_video_ftos_6211.html

http://www.eantc.com/fileadmin/eantc/downloads/test_reports/2006-2008/Cisco-Force10/EANTC_Full_Report.pdf

http://www.eantc.com/fileadmin/eantc/downloads/test_reports/2006-2008/Cisco-Force10/Section_8.pdf

> 3)       Support staff (how knowledgeable are they?)

I'm not a customer, so I can't speak to this.

> 4)       Price (higher/lower/comparable to comparable Cisco gear)

Comparing list pricing, it looks like Force 10 would have you pay more
for less features.

As a box designed with the enterprise datacenter in mind, the E-series
looks to be missing several key service provider features, including
MPLS and advanced control plane filtering/policing.

http://www.force10networks.com/news/pressreleases/2007/pr-2007-02-05.asp

https://www.force10networks.com/CSPortal20/KnowledgeBase/DOCUMENTATION/CLIConfig/FTOS/E_CONFIG_6.5.4.0_7-Feb-08.pdf

Paul