[vcf-midatlantic] OT: free Cisco managed router/switches

[Dave McGuire]

On 10/18/2016 02:17 PM, Joseph Oprysko via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
> Dave, I've always worked on large corporate networks, as well as doing
> network security, so it's always been greatly complicated networks I've
> worked on.

  Same here, though with different use cases. (ISPs and colo facilities)

> Yes, I agree the device as a service is ridiculous.  It makes
> general administration much easier, as for the licensing, every company
> I've worked for would usually have the maintenance or service contracts on
> their hardware while it was in use.

  Yeah.  That's a big luxury for when there's money to burn.

> I don't like that once the contracts on the Cisco Meraki hardware expires
> that it ceases functioning.  But in a production environment, having the
> contracts is part of the cost of running/maintaining the network.  Since
> there is no "local" way to manage the hardware, the used hardware once
> they're taken off a production network, has significantly less value on the
> back end.  But also helps to control 'loss/theft' of said hardware, since
> each device talks to and is managed centrally.

  It also helps to control the secondary market, which Cisco despises
with every fiber of their collective upper-management being.  They'd
love it if every device suddenly became a brick when the service
contract expired, but a real production environment would never tolerate
such crap, thank heaven.

              -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA