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HP puts the thumbscrews in Cisco

by on14 July 2011


About that upgraded Catalyst 6500 switch
The maker of very expensive printer ink, HP has gone on the attack against Cisco, who has been claiming its new improved Catalyst 6500 switch us better than anything HO offers.

Cisco announced a long-awaited upgrade to Catalyst 6500, which is its most popular  product. It comes with Cisco's Supervisor Engine 2T, a 2-terabit card  which can manage 80 Gbps and triples the 6500's throughput from 720 Gbps to 2Tbps and quadruples the number of devices that can connect to the network, at least if you believe Cisco. Cisco also claimed that an upgrade to Sup 2T on existing Catalyst switches would run customers about $38,000, while an upgrade to a comparable HP switch architecture would likely cost that customer more than $100,000 and gives the customer only 720 Gbps of throughput.

Needless to say HP said that is rubbish. The comparison itself is for an upgrade to the Catalyst 6513E and not the entire Catalyst 6500 portfolio. HP said that Cisco failed to point out that to use the virtual switching system (VSS) on the Catalyst 6500, an upgraded line card is required. Looks like there could be a fight brewing in the networking world.
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