The biggest difference that I see is that you generally use different resources in a Datacenter. (Colo Datacenter). For example, I run out of HSRP groups on a 6500 long before I run out of ports or capacity. I don't need to worry about QoS much but a less complex rate limit command (As opposed to Policing) is very useful. Also, Front to back cooling is optimal in a Datacenter and often not available. James ----- Original Message ----- From: "Venkatesh Sriram" <vnktshsriram@gmail.com> To: nanog@nanog.org Sent: Friday, September 24, 2010 6:22:22 AM Subject: Routers in Data Centers Hi, Can somebody educate me on (or pass some pointers) what differentiates a router operating and optimized for data centers versus, say a router work in the metro ethernet space? What is it thats required for routers operating in data centers? High throughput, what else? Thanks, Venkatesh