[geeks] switches, when rack space is at a premium

[James]

Francois Dion wrote:
>
> > I'm looking into getting a pair of 48 port 1u 10/100 managed switch.
> > Usual suspects are HP procurve 2650 and Cisco 2950 48 port. They look
> > to be exactly the same, spec wise (altough, I have to real world
> > performance comparison), but the 2650 can be had right at $950 or so.
> > Why would I shell so much more for the Cisco? Then there is the Dell
> > 3348,  base price is also $950 but the SFPs for the uplink are half
> > price. Who makes the switches for Dell? Dell is always hit or miss,
> > always a risk. Anybody has been running some of these for a while?
>
> I forgot to mention this:
> http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pwcnt/en/tollyreport
_3348comp.pdf

>Why is it kicking the cisco's butt so badly? Why is the HP not in the
>comparison, maybe because it performs better?


after a quick look and no research all I can say is that the type of traffic
used in the testing is not typical of real life traffic and also doesn't
make heavy use of the switch fabric. In other words, it smells like a
Microsoft-paid type of PR research piece.

I don't know where Dell got their switches (I doubt they developed them
in-house), but if they are hot technology why didn't the original
manufacturer succeed in the marketplace?