[AusNOG] 3rd Party SFP+ Optics

[Julien Goodwin]

On 26/03/14 18:11, Greg Anderson wrote:
> Good evening Gentlepeople,
> 
> I will keep this simple and straight to the point:
> 
> You buy 10G network switches from recognised brand name vendor(s).
> 
> Please do tell me why you chose (or chose not to) use 3rd party SFP+
> optics in your gear at 1/4 the price rather than going to your vendor
> for the modules.

OEM's are only 1/4 the price, you're lucky, 10x is hardly unusual.

Out of interest, has anyone *ever* had an optic compatibility issue (as
opposed to say a laser dying or lockout) from one of the top-level
vendors (ex, JDSU, Finisar) on decent vendor (Cisco, Juniper, HP,
Extreme, etc.) kit?

With the price differential I find it nuts that people would do
differently in most cases, excluding 100g and some of the odder DWDM or
high-power types, it's almost certainly cheaper to treat optics as
consumables than try and get support for them, even a NOC staffer or
logistics person probably costs more than $100/hour, and you've got a
very good process if you can work your way with a vendor to giving you
an RMA (and send the faulty one back) in less than an hour. Even a 40g
QSFP doesn't multiply that by a huge amount.