Enterprise networking switches

**badkuk** · February 17th, 2017 09:42 AM

Hoping that some resident gurus can help me out as i'm a bit out of touch with the local scene. What local brands are available here, and who has a track record for providing support? We are currently looking to replace some very old core switches. tia

**oj88** · February 17th, 2017 10:44 AM

Can't go wrong with Cisco. HP would be a far second.

PM me and give me more details and I might just be able to provide you some preliminary recommendations... Lets start with what your current core/distribution/access switches are and their quantity, number of users and VLANs in use, whether you're using VoIP/IP Telephony, and what sort of traffic flow is going on within your network (80:20 or 20:80?), etc.

FWIW, I hold several Cisco certs.... so there.

**jodski** · February 17th, 2017 10:48 AM

Laging problem yan when it comes to suppliers ng ganyang equipment.

What we do na lang to avoid the headache is to get 3 different companies and they are evaluated annually.

Kung sino yung madalas pumalpak at umabot sa threshold papalitan namin ng iba and they know it kasi nakalagay yun sa service level agreement.

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**oj88** · February 17th, 2017 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by jodski

Laging problem yan when it comes to suppliers ng ganyang equipment.

What we do na lang to avoid the headache is to get 3 different companies and they are evaluated annually.

Kung sino yung madalas pumalpak at umabot sa threshold papalitan namin ng iba and they know it kasi nakalagay yun sa service level agreement.

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That usually happens when procurement only cares about the lowest bidder. Walang due diligence in determining the SI's ability to deliver as well as their post-sales support SLAs and capabilities.

**jodski** · February 17th, 2017 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by oj88

That usually happens when procurement only cares about the lowest bidder. Walang due diligence in determining the SI's ability to deliver as well as their post-sales support SLAs and capabilities.

Depends sa objectives ng company bro.

We cannot afford downtime just because of equipment failure na hindi mapalitan agad aside from the redundancy in place

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**oj88** · February 17th, 2017 11:15 AM

Originally Posted by jodski

Depends sa objectives ng company bro.

We cannot afford downtime just because of equipment failure na hindi mapalitan agad aside from the redundancy in place

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Good service costs money. That's why we have SLA's. This basically binds the vendor to respond to a support request within an agreed time frame. If you don't have an SLA or a support contract, that means that you only have the standard support warranty and the vendor is under no obligation to respond to your support needs immediately. This is also known as best effort.

If you deem your infrastructure as a critical business enabler, you MUST get into a support contract. Due diligence comes in when you do actual site or office inspection of the vendor to take note of their operations.... how many technical engineers do they have? Do they have an escalation matrix, etc. So for example, if the vendor is just a four-man crew (Owner, his secretary, a sales agent, and one engineer) operating in an apartment space smaller than your own pantry, I think it's safe to say that their 24x7x4 SLA is BS.

**jodski** · February 17th, 2017 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by oj88

Good service costs money. That's why we have SLA's. This basically binds the vendor to respond to a support request within an agreed time frame. If you don't have an SLA or a support contract, that means that you only have the standard support warranty and the vendor is under no obligation to respond to your support needs immediately. This is also known as best effort.

If you deem your infrastructure as a critical business enabler, you MUST get into a support contract. Due diligence comes in when you do actual site or office inspection of the vendor to take note of their operations.... how many technical engineers do they have? Do they have an escalation matrix, etc. So for example, if the vendor is just a four-man crew (Owner, his secretary, a sales agent, and one engineer) operating in an apartment space smaller than your own pantry, I think it's safe to say that their 24x7x4 SLA is BS.

I don't disagree with you on this bro kasi we also implement these.

We still require 3 suppliers to ensure na meron available na units in case wala dun sa iba.

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**oj88** · February 17th, 2017 01:56 PM

It still depends. No vendor will stock cards, modules or rare slow-moving parts unless it is part of the SLA. In Cisco, parts are flown in directly from the principal through DHL the next-day. That said, vendors may only need to maintain (again, subject to SLA) service units as temporary equipment until the actual replacement part or module arrives.

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