[AusNOG] 10G/SFP+ Router for NBN Enterprise Ethernet

[Luke Thompson]

Hi folks,

For a long while we've leveraged 1G hardware within our office 
environments. Thankfully, we're soon to have fibre at work.

We're waiting for NBN Enterprise Ethernet to be fulfilled now so we can 
transition from copper to fibre, and it presents a good opportunity to 
replace our non-DC routers while we're at it. The hand-off will be SFP+ 
rather than SFP.

Ideally keeping away from lock-in models (ie. Meraki), what's 
recommended and where would you seek it out? In terms of slot failures, 
we'd probably prefer 2x SFP+ cages rather than 1x, and to have a bit of 
resource overhead (ie. 2-4 cores rather than single-core, and 1-4GB RAM 
rather than 512MB/etc) so we have room for other services (VPN, DNS, etc).

What do you recommend? Ubiquiti make some options, likewise MikroTik 
have some RB/CCR models that look suitable. WISP seem to have some 
low-spec MikroTiks in-stock that would suit, though without much 
resource overhead to leverage. We're happy to compromise, the main 
consideration is that it balances out to being a solid all-rounder.

This is a situation where we haven't changed the configuration in a fair 
while, so are open to ideas. We'd rather get this change right and 
repeat it as time goes on, rather than make the wrong move and look to 
re-do it again fairly soon.

One final factor is security - we'd prefer a vendor who issues patches 
as-needed, rather than quickly EOLing devices and/or hiding them behind 
a subscription. If the value's there, we can look at it, though would 
rather keep that for the DCs.

Any and all insights much appreciated!

Cheers,

Luke Thompson
Operations Manager

The Network Crew Pty Ltd
https://thenetworkcrew.com.au