A case against vendor-locking optical modules

Tue Nov 18 00:02:42 UTC 2014

Hello Patrick,

Le 18/11/2014 00:17, Patrick W. Gilmore a écrit :
> You like Arista for price, density, etc.? Then factor in the cost
> (OpEx & CapEx) of vendor-specific optics and see if they still make
> sense. Don't just look at the per-port cost of the blade. See, it's a
> simple business decision for you too.

You got my point : I do care about per-port cost, but the actual cost is
a composite of :
- kit price
- licences
- optics
- spare optics
- power per port over expected run time
- collocation space

> Besides, what's wrong with using something (as Nick mentioned) like
> FlexOptics programmable optics? Haven't tried it in Arista, but other
> kit works fine.

Programmable optics are fine, but then you'd have to keep your
programming gear available and train your techniciens on it, or keep
pre-coded spares for every locked manufacturers.

It's probably fine in a pure DC environment with few locations and only
one SFP+ type, but it's rapidly a total mess when you have to manage 40
channels for 3 module types over dozens of locations AND the added
manufacturer specific pain-in-the-ass.

-- 
Jérôme Nicolle
+33 6 19 31 27 14