If you can do a business case to support replacing routers every 3years you doing much better then most. IMO a router should last 5 yrs on the book, but I expect to get more life then then from it. You core today is tomorrow's edge. I've seen more then one network with 10 yo kit still being used. -jim On Sat, Oct 2, 2010 at 10:22 PM, Brandon Kim <brandon.kim@brandontek.com>wrote:
Well a lot of routers even 3 years ago support IPv6. You can dual-stack pretty much any router today if you have the right IOS. But I do understand your concern, if you want to future proof your purchase, I'd think any modern router today with a good support contract will take care of you for quite some time. Make sure it's not close to EOL.
What kind of router are you considering? Is this for a large network? What are the network needs?
Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2010 17:09:20 -0700 From: franck@genius.com To: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Re: router lifetime
I'm looking at various scenario, but basically it is looking at IPv6 in fact.
It seems to me, that using a router/network appliance today for IPv6 will need to be replaced in 3 years or less.
Looking at past, anything older than 3 years is not a viable solution for deploying IPv6.
So I feel that routing/network appliance equipment have a life cycle similar to a PC, despite the fact as someone pointed out, they will run fine for many many years.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Heath Jones" <hj1980@gmail.com> To: "Franck Martin" <franck@genius.com> Cc: nanog@nanog.org Sent: Saturday, 2 October, 2010 4:34:40 PM Subject: Re: router lifetime
How long do you keep a router in production? What is your cycle for replacement of equipment?
Hi Franck
It really depends on the type of network you are running, the rate at which new features & bandwidth are required, and the availability of software and hardware upgrades. Also, in a lot of cases it is vendor driven - devices that are still very much in production are forced to be replaced because of vendor product lifecycle and the phasing out of support, even when serving their requirements well.
Care to elaborate a little more on your planned scenario?
Cheers Heath