Cisco 1000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 1000) vs. Cisco 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers (ASR 9000)

This is effective for businesses who need a network solution that works more or less out of the box, without having to coordinate multiple additional devices in the configuration process. Correspondingly, users with needs for more advanced functionality or configurability, or modification may benefit from a different model or different product line.

Incentivized

It is very well suited to act as your aggregator / core switch for mid to large facilities. it is flexible enough to really be useable in small environments but costs may hinder that. It has redundancy of power and management blades that does add a lot of peace of mind and security. Really the only reason you would not use a 9000 series is frankly cost and/or real requirements for performance. They have several versions of this model, plus they have an entire set of lines that can accommodate nearly as much as the 9000. Less demand or less of a budget can weigh in the decision to select this particular model.

Incentivized

• Seem to be well made and quality hardware and software
• Setup is simple and has a great wizard for initial config
• Well priced for a product in its category

Incentivized

• [Cisco 9000] Series [Aggregation Services] Routers are exceptionally reliable when compared to other market options.
• One strength of Cisco routers, in general, is their compatibility with any standard market tools from other vendors.
• [It is] unmatched in terms of sheer performance.
• [It] comfortably supports very strong throughput requirements.

• Right now in the ASR nine twenties, we're having an issue with its shooting out power adapter errors when there really isn't any. And we're not really sure we're working with Cisco Tex to see if it's a bug and if there's a bug fix.

Incentivized

• [The] upgrade process [is] overly complicated compared to NX-OS or IOS. New images and the current configuration need to be compiled into "golden IOS's". If you don't include the configuration, you will have a clean device with no configuration.
• [There are] major bugs in every release. We have had to cycle through all of our routers 3 times in the last year for updates due to show-stopping bugs that did not come to light until after the changes were made in production.
• [It has] terrible documentation. You have to mine their site to get to any documentation for recent versions of IOS-XR. If you make the leap from 32-bit cXR to 64-bit eXR, then the documentation is more or less non-existent. Due to the internal architecture of hardware itself, technical specs can change from software version to software version, so don't expect any sort of firm scalability numbers. You'll have to rely on your sales engineer for that.

Incentivized

Based on the Cisco brand reliability and outstanding support

Incentivized

This depends on when Cisco EOL the product.

Incentivized

I would rate these routers useability as 9/10 - I've designed and deployed Cisco solutions for the last 20 or so years, so, therefore, know what I am buying and try to get an understanding of the capabilities before deploying. The Cisco 1000 series Integrated Service Router is a rock-solid investment with great throughput "out of the box".

Incentivized

[I am] always impressed with Cisco products, from the functionality to the customer support.

Incentivized

We found it always available with limited to no downtime

Incentivized

Excellent performance, no reported issue by the users

Incentivized

With any Cisco product, you are very well supported by the Technical Assistance Centre (TAC). This is one of the major plus points when selecting Cisco networking products - working in IT for the last 20years you soon appreciate that it is impossible to know everything and that there are people within Cisco you can lean-on when you need assistance.

Incentivized

In some ways, the platform is a big improvement over our previous IOS and NX-OS devices: They offer version-controlled configuration staging/commits. They have a robust portfolio of network protocols and features even beyond datacenter devices. Due to the use of NPUs instead of relying entirely on ASICs for forwarding, new versions of the software are able to improve hardware performance and capacity. Unfortunately, I have run into more bugs on IOS-XR than I ever did on IOS or even NX-OS (which has a shocking number of bugs of its own) and you have to be a licensing guru to get your order right the first time.

Incentivized

It was very helpful

Incentivized

The implementation basically works, you configure it and it's easy to use, the problem with implementation using this kind of products is the fact that complex things require very complex configurations and the troubleshooting is too complicated due to a missing web interface or missing integrations that simplify that part. troubleshooting consist only in debugging via CLI.

Incentivized

These devices are still supported unlike most ISR800's, faster and cheaper than ISR 4000's. They are a true all in one box solutions. The IR1800 and IR1100 are great for DC power solutions, but are costly if environmentally hardened devices are not required. Coupled with a low cost, what is not to love.

Incentivized

When we are integrating the ASR9000 router with other devices then there should be the same device that can cater to the throughput. We can use the Cisco 9600 Switch which can be easily integrated and can handle the speed in terms of uplinks 40G can be handled. Adding to this Cisco DNA Center can be integrated to do the automation and monitoring purposes.

Incentivized

Very Fair

Incentivized

We found it reliable and on par with what we expected

Incentivized

• Once they are installed they just work. Even when a device enters EOL/EOS they keep chugging along.
• Good lifetime - they don't retire models so often that you can't keep up.
• Good extended support, this allows us to keep them in place as long as possible (or practical) and increases our ROI.

Incentivized

• We didn't need to buy new devices when we were increasing backbone capacity from 1G to 10G.
• Due to the modular nature of the software, when there is an issue with any running services, we need not reboot the whole device which affects all clients and availability.

Incentivized