On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:59:35 EDT, Jon Lewis said:
As we push closer to the ipv4 route table limits of cisco's 6500/7600 series (with anything less than Sup720-3bxl), I suspect lots of networks are going to be forced to start doing some sort of filtering of routes beyond just refusing >24-bit networks or cisco's going to sell a lot more Sup720-3bxl's, FAN2 trays, and power supplies in the next year or two.
The big question is, of course, whether to upgrade a 6500 and keep it on life support, or bite the bullet and go for a whole new box. How much time a -3bxl and careful filtering will buy you does depend heavily on where in the Internet you are - but I'm willing to bet that a good number of sites will go for the fork lift upgrade because there are *other* pressing things coming up that the 6500 won't do either. Remember - it only takes *one* truly mission-critical "must do" that a 6500 can't, and it's off to a less stressful corner of your network for that long slide into retirement (on the other hand, I'm sure in 2016, there will *still* be 6500's installed, just like I'm sure there's still 1996-vintage gear still out there now...) I'll concede that Jon is at least partially right - *somebody* is going to be selling gear... ;)