No one has ever questioned whether the need for increased networking bandwidth exists. Let’s face it there are many reasons why businesses need to adapt to the ever-evolving technical requirements. As these numerous reasons explain why incorporating “the latest and greatest” into your IT infrastructure makes sense, have you really ever been encouraged to consider why it may not make sense?
In other words, has the same vendor who depends on your purchase of new equipment every 3-5 years really encouraged you to consider whether or not this strategy is what’s best for your organization, your particular needs, or at the very least, understand why? Additionally, is it possible that the “need for bandwidth” has also been underscored with the looming end-of-support dates within your current production environment? If you’re like 80% of IT decision makers that don’t know of any alternatives to Cisco’s maintenance and support1, the likelihood that you’ve been critically reviewing whether these said upgrades are necessary, and why they’re necessary for your particular business is slim.
Questions of whether the need for flexible high-bandwidth exists, or whether redundancy, scalability, space consolidation or power conservation are all very real and important factors that IT leaders contend with. What Curvature does question, and encourages our clients to continue to question, is whether those needs are required throughout the entire network, and whether you’re being advised appropriately based on your particular technical requirements versus the lack of support options if you choose otherwise.
There may very well be a need in your regional headquarters for the bandwidth that a WS-C3850-48F-L delivers. However the technical requirements of your satellite offices may be vastly different, making it difficult to justify the CAPEX incurred when replacing the 100+ WS-C3750E-48PD-S with 3850’s series switches solely because you cannot get support from the OEM.
Increased bandwidth requirements exist—and so do the benefits of understanding why you may not have been encouraged to research where the supposed need exists, why it exists, and which options are available to you.
1Challenging the Status Quo on Maintenance Contracts and Refresh Cycles to Lower Costs, Forrester Consulting, May 2013. For more information, visit here.
