Yankee Group declares core routing obsolete (was Re: Anybodyusing GBICs?)

Fri Oct 31 10:02:02 UTC 2003

Thus spake "Daniel Golding" <dgolding at burtongroup.com>
> Hmm. Don't you just love it when folks say things like "Layer 3 Switches
are
> better than routers". Its very illuminating as to clue level.
>
> I suppose what they were trying to say, is that products that were
designed
> as switches, but are now running routing code, are superior to products
that
> were designed as routers, and are running routing code. Of course, this is
> demonstrably false.
>
> "Layer 3 Switch" is like "Tier 1 ISP" - meaningless marketing drivel,
> divorced from any previous technical meaning.

I've always stated that "switch" is a marketing term meaning "fast".  Thus a
"L2 switch" is a "fast bridge" and a "L3 switch" is a "fast router".  In
this light, the Yankee Group is just now catching on to something we all
knew a decade ago -- slow (i.e. software) routers are dead.

There's a more interesting level to the discussion if you look at what
carriers are interested in for their backbone hardware today; while I'm
obviously biased based on my employer, I've seen a lot more emphasis on
$20k-per-10GE-port "L3 switches" than $200k-per-10GE-port "core routers" in
the current economic climate.

S

Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking