router lifetime

Mon Oct 4 02:49:16 UTC 2010

On Sat, 2 Oct 2010 22:27:32 -0300
jim deleskie <deleskie at gmail.com> wrote:

> If you can do a business case to support replacing routers every 3years you
> doing much better then most.  IMO a router should last 5 yrs on the book,
> but I expect to get more life then then from it.  You core today
> is tomorrow's edge.  I've seen more then one network with 10 yo kit still
> being used.
> 

Agree. If you're large enough to have your own pool of replacement
hardware for anything critical, then using it until it fails isn't a
bad strategy. That being said, support for fixing of software security
bugs has probably shortened the production life of a lot of perfectly
useful hardware.

One risk people haven't mentioned is the risk of leaving it in
production so long that people think it is fake ;-)

http://groups.google.com.au/group/comp.dcom.sys.cisco/browse_thread/thread/7f74397a10380a7a/66c3dfb0f280e830?hl=enBc3dfb0f280e830

> -jim
> 
> On Sat, Oct 2, 2010 at 10:22 PM, Brandon Kim <brandon.kim at brandontek.com>wrote:
> 
> >
> > Well a lot of routers even 3 years ago support IPv6. You can dual-stack
> > pretty much any router today if you have
> > the right IOS. But I do understand your concern, if you want to future
> > proof your purchase, I'd think any modern
> > router today with a good support contract will take care of you for quite
> > some time.
> > Make sure it's not close to EOL.
> >
> > What kind of router are you considering? Is this for a large network? What
> > are the network needs?
> >
> >
> >
> > > Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2010 17:09:20 -0700
> > > From: franck at genius.com
> > > To: nanog at nanog.org
> > > Subject: Re: router lifetime
> > >
> > > I'm looking at various scenario, but basically it is looking at IPv6 in
> > fact.
> > >
> > > It seems to me, that using a router/network appliance today for IPv6 will
> > need to be replaced in 3 years or less.
> > >
> > > Looking at past, anything older than 3 years is not a viable solution for
> > deploying IPv6.
> > >
> > > So I feel that routing/network appliance equipment have a life cycle
> > similar to a PC, despite the fact as someone pointed out, they will run fine
> > for many many years.
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Heath Jones" <hj1980 at gmail.com>
> > > To: "Franck Martin" <franck at genius.com>
> > > Cc: nanog at nanog.org
> > > Sent: Saturday, 2 October, 2010 4:34:40 PM
> > > Subject: Re: router lifetime
> > >
> > > > How long do you keep a router in production?
> > > > What is your cycle for replacement of equipment?
> > >
> > > Hi Franck
> > >
> > > It really depends on the type of network you are running, the rate at
> > > which new features & bandwidth are required, and the availability of
> > > software and hardware upgrades. Also, in a lot of cases it is vendor
> > > driven - devices that are still very much in production are forced to
> > > be replaced because of vendor product lifecycle and the phasing out of
> > > support, even when serving their requirements well.
> > >
> > >
> > > Care to elaborate a little more on your planned scenario?
> > >
> > >
> > > Cheers
> > > Heath
> > >
> >
> >