Is Cisco killing your network? End-of-life blues
Posted by: Shamus McGillicuddy
Catalyst, Cisco, end-of-life, Networking, Networkingchannel
No, Cisco isn’t killing your network, but quite a few of its products reached end-of-sale/end-of-life status this month, as Amy Kucharik noted on our sister blog, Changing the Channel. Some customers (and channel partners) are peeved that so many Cisco products are being retired this summer, especially in a tough economy where forklift rip-and-replace efforts carry too hefty a price tag for IT departments that have seen their budgets slashed.
As one anonymous Cisco partner told Barbara Darrow, senior news director for SearchITChannel.com, many Cisco customers will be dumping their old Cisco gear on eBay to recoup some of the cost of upgrading to new switches and routers:
Given the cost of a Cisco Catalyst switch, if I’m a gutted and hamstrung midsized business right now, thanks to the economy, and my choice is to spend $800 for an EOL’d switch in a manufacturer’s sealed box on eBay versus paying $2,200 for one from a reseller, guess what I’d do?
And there may end up being a lot of end-of-life Catalyst 6500 switches on the gray market soon. Just take a look at the Catalyst models that will be discontinued over the next few years.
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