Item: Cisco Optical Networking
Rating: 10
Author: Darren Thornton

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Optical Networking

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

My company sells embedded Cisco routers and switches. We build solutions for customers (primarily the DOD) to use at the edge. Building some of these solutions requires Cisco optics to operate on. The Cisco SFPs and SFP+s perform well in the temperature extremes our kits typically end up in.

Pros and Cons

Pros

They integrate into the Cisco line with no issues.
It is reliable.
provides assured information delivery.

Cons

Cost: Sometimes becomes an issue with Customers. They ask if they can use anything else that is compatible with the Cisco gear.

Return on Investment

Customers report easy to use and reliable.

Usability

It just works depending on what your requirement is. Cisco also provides a well formed cheat sheet on which gear to use for which scenario. Very convenient. It makes my job as a Sales Engineer easier when I have a short timeline to get a solution designed. It is also build well enough to be used in austere environments.

Key Insights

Do you think Cisco Optical Networking delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco Optical Networking's feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco Optical Networking live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco Optical Networking go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Optical Networking again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

For our solutions, the Cisco optical gear is most useful with remote Data Center builds that need high bandwidth and low latency. We recommend Cisco when the above is a requirement.

Most solutions we build that aren't using Cisco optics are primarily concerned with cost. Higher bandwidth doesn't typically become a requirement so they roll with copper cabling.

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