Cisco 5500 Series Network Convergence System (NCS 5500)
Cisco 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers (ASR 9000)
Considered Both Products
Cisco 5500 Series Network Convergence System (NCS 5500)
Verified User
Contributor
Chose Cisco 5500 Series Network Convergence System (NCS 5500)
The Cisco NCS 5500 series router continues the evolution of the network router. It can be used in similar parts of a network as the older Cisco 7500 and 12000 series routers, and it can either replace older or work in conjunction with ASR series routers. The smaller form ā¦
Chose Cisco 5500 Series Network Convergence System (NCS 5500)
Ultimately other Arista and Juniper choices were tested but design and testing did not give much detail as to why these are better overall or in comparison. We are already using Cisco in this level of the topology so that was most likely the strongest reason and fit the ā¦
Cisco 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers (ASR 9000)
Verified User
Contributor
Chose Cisco 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers (ASR 9000)
We have mainly used the ASR9000s to take the place of older models and devices such as the GSR and CRS model routers. The GSRs have long been End Of Life and are no longer supported by Cisco. The CRS is a capable device but does not offer the versatility of the ASR family of ā¦
Verified User
Engineer
Chose Cisco 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers (ASR 9000)
We have replaced our [Cisco] 9000 [Series Aggregation Services Routers] with NCS 5500. The [Cisco] 9000 [Series Aggregation Services Routers] was able to handle the features we needed better than the NCS. We had to move our layer 2 down to Nexus switches.
Cisco 5500 Series Network Convergence System (NCS 5500)
Cisco 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers (ASR 9000)
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
The Cisco 5500 Series NCS appears to be well suited as a fairly simple core network device that doesn't require a lot of one-off configuration setup. It may have some restrictions if used as a peering and/or edge device due to control-plane protection design and QoS/TCAM memory and Forwarding capacity. The 5501 is well suited as a switch due to mature code and hardware capability.
I can recommend this ASR 9000 Series model for the locations which are very Big like data centers, large offices, and service provider networks. Which will enhance the performance. We cannot use this router in small deployments. This is an advanced technology model which has many features like orchestrating services across a converged network and enabling on-demand service capabilities.
When upgrading components of the NCS 5500 it can take a particularly long time and many steps to confirm additional components. Have all updates on the need basis instead of a one-step process.
[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.
Cisco support is always informative and reliable. Depending on the level of support you subscribe to, the techs and Cisco TAC are well versed in hardware and operating system of the NCS series routers. You can receive 24x7 support and either Next Business Day or 4-hour part replacement from Cisco if required.
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.
We've always used Cisco, but from time to time we've interfaced with Juniper and Aerohive. Cisco has always performed better than Juniper, and seems on-par with Aerohive's most innovative features.
Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Juniper was more security/less routing and Cisco was more routing/less security. Redback was Ericsson which is easy when creating VRFs known as contexts. When doing [the] show command, it would give you all the information within that context. In Cisco, you need to perform 3 or more commands to get the same info.
Higher reliability has significantly reduced the need for manual intervention.
Lower downtime ensures better top-line figures.
Although it may be difficult to quantify, I am certain that the higher performance does have an impact (maybe indirectly) on other business functions. High-performance routers are like the oil that keeps an engine running smoothly.