Advanced IT Consulting Service Expertise

Are you a small or medium size organization looking to migrate out of your existing 6500 serious or 3750 series switches into data center based switching environment? Not sure which switch will suit your needs, is it 5k, 6k or 7k? At Binary Fusion we make switch comparison hassle free. Invite us to your location in NY or CT or NJ area to analyze your existing network infrastructure environment to help you choose the best option you need at most affordable price.

Invite Network Consultant to your organization to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each switch, analyze your existing infrastructure and recommend the right type of solution for your environment. We are partner neutral, i.e if you are interested in our network consulting services, to put the project proposal together, summarizing important key concepts of your existing infrastructure and then rely on your local Cisco partner or any other alternative partners to put the quote together and compare multiple options to deliver you the most optimal solution for your environment then we are the company to contact and ask for our Nexus Core Design Network Consulting Services.

If you are truly under the gun and forced to upgrade your old Catalyst Cisco switches, and your old Cisco Equipment is about to expire and end of life and you simply not sure what Nexus core equipment to get to achieve smooth transition from your production or disaster recovery environment to new data center fabric nexus switches, or simply not sure how to do this and need proposals solutions using parallel approach deployment, minimizing your capital expenses and choosing the right platform for your environment then Binary Fusion Network Consultants are the ones that can help you achieve your goal.

In typical small to medium size business environments, there is not many choices on the market when it comes to switches, especially if you are pure Cisco shop. So which nexus core switch is right for your small or medium size organization? The answer is it depends on your existing capacity and bandwidth requirements. For practical purposes let’s take the avg size company XYZ of 100 to 200 users with a small server farm consisting of ESX servers running virtualized environment and couple of physical HP DL380 servers running some heavy SQL databases and entire floor of users leveraging various front end web-applications to connect to these SQL servers and ESX servers.

Currently XYZ company is running 3750 layer 3/Layer 2 stackable switches for their core with multiple 3560x switches for their access user switches.

Goal is to migrate from 3750 stackable switches to new nexus core switches either 5k, 6k or 7k Nexus switches in production datacenter.  So what is the best option to follow for such company XYZ?

Solution: Upgrade to two 6k Nexus switches as a core.

Since customer likes the idea of redundancy and stackable switching, it make sense to replace 3750 switch with a Nexus 6k switch to offer that same level of modular redundancy from the perspective of being able to peer multiple 3560 access switches into different modules on the nexus core switch using eVPC and leveraging other benefits that 6k Nexus switch can offer.
Interested in what benefits? Why not contact Binary Fusion today to get dedicated Nexus Network Consultant to arrive and discuss your requirements.

You will not be obligated to purchase any hardware or software from us, we are not here to quote you on the parts and make profit on it, although we can if parts is all you need. What we are here for is to offer our network consulting services to help you save money. Think about how many quotes you can be getting from multiple Cisco partners, do any of these partners know your full picture of your existing data center environment?

Or care about the full picture other than selling you the Cisco parts that you ask for without analyzing the options from your side of things? Not really. What we can offer is a pure Nexus Core upgrade solution analysis, of the best options for your environment to be presentable to your CEO or CIO or IT Director for decision making and then helping you get the equipment for most affordable price through thorough pricing review from multiple vendors.

Typical Questions that May Arise

What type of 6k Nexus switch should be used?

Dependent on XYZ company requirements either 6004 or 6001 Nexus switch. 6004 model is 4 Rack U model, allowing up to 8 modules and allows up to 96 40 Gbps ports, which can be split into multiple 10 Gbps ports resulting in 384 10 Gbps ports. Plus obviously it can support 1 Gbps connectivity using QSFP to SFP adapters for more flexibility. Ideally we recommend customers to go with the model that will not slow you down down the road, the model of nexus 6k switch that will be suitable for the current number of switches. Keep in mind 6k switches do have higher port capacity than 3750 or 6509 switches for that matter, but GBIC costs can get quite expensive, making it less ideal option for companies on the budget. Unless 6k Nexus switches are used in conjunction with Fabric Extenders.

For example if company XYZ had a lot of copper connections then it simply would make more sense to get copper Nexus 2k FEX and interconnect that to 6k Nexus switch allowing you to save money on GBICs.

What advantages will I get with 6k Nexus switch as oppose to existing 3750?

• More Layer 3 HSRP Vlan Interfaces as oppose to having only 32.

• More SPAN sessions up to 31 line rate SPAN session on 6k

• Functionality to interconnect FEXs to function as one logical switch (still preserving look and feel of the original 3750 stackable switch interface) while providing more enhanced Nexus OS to be able to use TCL and Python Scripting for more granular use.

• Ability to interconnect servers using dual nics and leveraging 802.3ad to multiple fabric extenders.

6k VS 7k Nexus Switch Comparision

Why 6k and why not 7k or 5k Nexus switch?

6k Nexus Switch offers higher throughput capacity than 5k, it’s layer 3 functionality is natively built in as oppose to 5k requiring separate module. 5k is nothing but a router on the stick just waiting to fail and your entire layer 3 functionality going down the drain. 6k is less expensive, has fairly similar features as 7k within exception of OTV and powerful enough to accommodate typical small or medium size company bandwidth requirements. Why build a rocket ship when you can get away with more affordable solution and more compact, much easier to fit in your rack then 7k switches, still accommodating majority of your requirements and best of all more affordable than 7k Nexus switches.