Discussions

Budgets are tight for many sectors, there’s no denying that fact. Some of the biggest, most demanding users are seeing their finances slashed back to the bare minimum and it is not uncommon to see essential projects and maintenance programs downgraded or even abandoned. This affects schools, health care, businesses [Read More]

Discussion: The Cheapest Isn’t Always Cheaper

6 Mar, 2018 in Discussions by Chris Kennett

10Gigabit networking has, until recently, been regarded as the de-facto standard for top of rack and datacentre applications. The arrival of the QSFP+ and QSFP28 formats enabling 40G and 100G in relatively low cost packages has driven those types of networks to upgrade at astounding pace, and the 10G SFP+ [Read More]

Discussion: 10G Over Copper & SFP+ Modules

11 Aug, 2017 in Discussions by Chris Kennett

There is a common argument that rolls on between the supporters of third party components and those that prefer to only use vendor branded components; warranty. There is no disagreement that compatible products, such as Advance brand optical modules more often than not have a better warranty out of the [Read More]

Information: Demystifying The Vendor Warranty Stance

20 Apr, 2017 in Discussions by Chris Kennett

In 2008 we were witness to a global credit crunch and from then everything we knew changed, in my opinion, almost irreversibly. Interest rates, price fluctuations and economic uncertainty all went through periods of ups and downs. Safe to say it was a pretty rough time. It lasted roughly 5 [Read More]

Discussion: Save money with new Advance products!

20 Feb, 2017 in Discussions by Advance

$995 for a 10G SR SFP+ module. $500 for the most basic multimode Gigabit SFP module. These are the genuine list prices from one of the biggest network equipment vendors going. They are big numbers, especially when you consider just how many of these units a network needs. Just a basic [Read More]

Discussion: Is vendor optic pricing justified?

25 Jan, 2017 in Discussions by Chris Kennett

No sooner than one standard is ratified another is proposed. In fact, as is often the case, standards are proposed one or two iterations before the current ratification. Gigabit, 10G, 40G, 100G and even some odd ones in between such as 802.3by (25Gbps) and 802.3cd (50Gbps). All there or thereabouts [Read More]

Discussion: Gbps – Is speed that important?

24 Jan, 2017 in Discussions by Chris Kennett