If you were deploying all new APs today, N or AC?
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While upgrading from my current 100 Mb switches to Gb switches will obviously provide some performance/speed improvements, the chances are that it would not lead (currently) to any additional efficiencies in the office that would relate to additional billing, etc.
I'm wondering if replacing the POE switches I have with something different (even though they are 8 years old, but have HP's lifetime warranty) will really gain me much and be beneficial to the companies bottom line?
Of course, in the locations where I currently only have non-POE switches, those will need to be replaced to support VOIP phones and APs, and assuming the price differences between POE Gb and POE 100 Mb is less than 30% (number i just pulled from the air), then I'll pay the difference... but if it's more like 50% difference - I just don't see the gain.
And this brings another point. If i go with Gb switches, I pretty much to go to with Gb VOIP phones, otherwise I find myself in another wasteful setup.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Check the cost, though. How much money do you lose going to AC now? How much money is "being ready" going to cost? Keep in mind that likely, in about two years, you can buy AC for probably half the price that they are today. And you can upgrade one at a time as appropriate. The flexibility, time value of money, unknown future principle and other things make investing in technology you can't use or justify yet generally pretty bad. Especially stuff like this that has a pretty predictable cost dropping curve.
I do see you point... but then comes the question of how do you justify using Wireless N now? Won't wireless G still work? At what point does the technology become "cheap enough" to upgrade? [I realize that answer is usually "it depends"]
I usually find that if I have the money to buy $device now, I will buy the latest and greatest thing I can afford. Yes, I know it will be obsolete the next $interval, but what I buy should last mey well beyond the time it took for me to purchase it. For instance, I was allowed to build my own office computer at my last employer. That was 10 years ago. With a refresh cycle of every 3 years for most faculty and staff at ~$800 per year (for a single computer), my $3,000 computer is still trucking along, and still being used by the new network admin, and it will likely be good for another 3 or 4 years.
So yeah, there's a big premium for buying the latest and greatest, but if you keep it long enough, then you can see some ROI on it. It doesn't make sense to do that with everything though... I think it is one of those things that when you can, you should.
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@Dashrender said:
And this brings another point. If i go with Gb switches, I pretty much to go to with Gb VOIP phones, otherwise I find myself in another wasteful setup.
Yes, so the biggest question would be why are you looking to replace working switches. Do they not do something that you need today?
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@dafyre said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Check the cost, though. How much money do you lose going to AC now? How much money is "being ready" going to cost? Keep in mind that likely, in about two years, you can buy AC for probably half the price that they are today. And you can upgrade one at a time as appropriate. The flexibility, time value of money, unknown future principle and other things make investing in technology you can't use or justify yet generally pretty bad. Especially stuff like this that has a pretty predictable cost dropping curve.
I do see you point... but then comes the question of how do you justify using Wireless N now? Won't wireless G still work? At what point does the technology become "cheap enough" to upgrade? [I realize that answer is usually "it depends"]
I usually find that if I have the money to buy $device now, I will buy the latest and greatest thing I can afford. Yes, I know it will be obsolete the next $interval, but what I buy should last mey well beyond the time it took for me to purchase it. For instance, I was allowed to build my own office computer at my last employer. That was 10 years ago. With a refresh cycle of every 3 years for most faculty and staff at ~$800 per year (for a single computer), my $3,000 computer is still trucking along, and still being used by the new network admin, and it will likely be good for another 3 or 4 years.
So yeah, there's a big premium for buying the latest and greatest, but if you keep it long enough, then you can see some ROI on it. It doesn't make sense to do that with everything though... I think it is one of those things that when you can, you should.
If I would have done that 8 years ago, and purchased N-Draft APs, my bill instead of being $25K would have been $40K+. Here I am 8 years later, and sure I could use N, but it wouldn't matter because the Wireless Switch and APs are EOLed from Cisco (primary reason to get rid of them) and I'm still running along mostly fine on G, and with my 100 Mb switches, N wouldn't really give me any real advantage. so I would have wasted $15K+.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
And this brings another point. If i go with Gb switches, I pretty much to go to with Gb VOIP phones, otherwise I find myself in another wasteful setup.
Yes, so the biggest question would be why are you looking to replace working switches. Do they not do something that you need today?
Because I want to deploy VOIP handsets and not install power injectors. Though I suppose I could install rack based power injectors, but considering the age of my switches, the fact that newer switches even at 100 Mb have doubled their packet switching speeds - that money seems wasteful.
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@dafyre said:
For instance, I was allowed to build my own office computer at my last employer. That was 10 years ago. With a refresh cycle of every 3 years for most faculty and staff at ~$800 per year (for a single computer), my $3,000 computer is still trucking along, and still being used by the new network admin, and it will likely be good for another 3 or 4 years.
So yeah, there's a big premium for buying the latest and greatest, but if you keep it long enough, then you can see some ROI on it.
Maybe, but you have to look at more than just these limited pieces. $3,000 is a huge investment. You spent the equivalent of more than a decade of the normal machines. Nine years would be $2,400. You spent somewhere between 11 and 12 years of budget on that one machine. How many cycles went by before the ones that were buying purchased cheaply were better (faster, more reliable better features) than the one that cost nearly a dozen years to buy?
Then comes the risk. What if that machine died at eight years, no warranty on the system or the parts. What about the time/value of money? Spending $800 up front and investing $2,200 would have potentially gained you quite a bit by the next buying cycle. And more still by the next. You might have gotten quite a lot of financial value out of that money elsewhere. You have to consider the cost of lost investment opportunity (investment in the market, investment in other business needs, whatever - $3,000 doesn't tell the whole picture, the total price in "then money" was likely more like $4,200!)
Then comes the unknowns. Do you still need that system in ten years? You need to keep using it to get value from it. You are potentially throwing good money after bad (sunk cost fallacy.) What if a job role was eliminated? In your scenario the money is already spent, there is no way to mitigate the send. If you buy cheaper as you go you could stop upgrading if the machine was no longer needed. And what if you went to VDI or hosted or to a different architecture? You are betting that you know what the future holds, a risky move.
While I don't have all of your specific details, the details that you've given suggest to me that the $3,000 machine was probably a bad investment (lost money) and a risky one that didn't turn out too badly, but didn't turn out well. You've lost money and carried unnecessary risk.
It's extremely difficult to make these kinds of investments pay off. I've spent a lot of my career showing the financial people in businesses how this doesn't pay off. Spend less, more often, costs less and gets you more (in nearly all cases.)
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@Dashrender said:
If I would have done that 8 years ago, and purchased N-Draft APs, my bill instead of being $25K would have been $40K+. Here I am 8 years later, and sure I could use N, but it wouldn't matter because the Wireless Switch and APs are EOLed from Cisco (primary reason to get rid of them) and I'm still running along mostly fine on G, and with my 100 Mb switches, N wouldn't really give me any real advantage. so I would have wasted $15K+.
IMO, EOL of hardware like this is no reason to replace.
If the hardware works and is not causing the business any other problems then there is no reason to change it just because it is EOL.
Do research, in order to be prepared to buy something in case of failure, but do not buy anything now.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
And this brings another point. If i go with Gb switches, I pretty much to go to with Gb VOIP phones, otherwise I find myself in another wasteful setup.
Yes, so the biggest question would be why are you looking to replace working switches. Do they not do something that you need today?
Because I want to deploy VOIP handsets and not install power injectors. Though I suppose I could install rack based power injectors, but considering the age of my switches, the fact that newer switches even at 100 Mb have doubled their packet switching speeds - that money seems wasteful.
Why does it need to be an all or none? you can upgrade in stages. Get the POE access switches you need now, with gigabit as there's no disadvantage to it (very minor possible cost savings aside). and get your desktop VoIP phones. Worry about Wireless later or when it becomes a need to upgrade. If the current switches have POE and are meeting the need just keep using them.
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@JaredBusch said:
@Dashrender said:
If I would have done that 8 years ago, and purchased N-Draft APs, my bill instead of being $25K would have been $40K+. Here I am 8 years later, and sure I could use N, but it wouldn't matter because the Wireless Switch and APs are EOLed from Cisco (primary reason to get rid of them) and I'm still running along mostly fine on G, and with my 100 Mb switches, N wouldn't really give me any real advantage. so I would have wasted $15K+.
IMO, EOL of hardware like this is no reason to replace.
If the hardware works and is not causing the business any other problems then there is no reason to change it just because it is EOL.
Do research, in order to be prepared to buy something in case of failure, but do not buy anything now.
I agree. It's time to prepare to spend, not time to spend.
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@Dashrender said:
Because I want to deploy VOIP handsets and not install power injectors. Though I suppose I could install rack based power injectors, but considering the age of my switches, the fact that newer switches even at 100 Mb have doubled their packet switching speeds - that money seems wasteful.
Ignore the AP stuff at this point then, unless you are going to upgrade it also for other reasons.
Buy PoE switches to suit your SIP phone needs not your maybe sometime later AP needs.
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@Dashrender said:
@dafyre said:
I do see you point... but then comes the question of how do you justify using Wireless N now? Won't wireless G still work? At what point does the technology become "cheap enough" to upgrade? [I realize that answer is usually "it depends"]
If I would have done that 8 years ago, and purchased N-Draft APs, my bill instead of being $25K would have been $40K+. Here I am 8 years later, and sure I could use N, but it wouldn't matter because the Wireless Switch and APs are EOLed from Cisco (primary reason to get rid of them) and I'm still running along mostly fine on G, and with my 100 Mb switches, N wouldn't really give me any real advantage. so I would have wasted $15K+.
Like I said -- it doesn't always make sense to do it that way.... That is when you go back to the drawing board and ask is it cheap enough to upgrade now?
You may decide, "No, the time is not right now" and just upgrade your switches to gigabit or get new wireless N access points... or both. There's no pressing reason to upgrade to N access points unless the wireless devices will be transferring files around the office.... Especially since you only have a 10 meg internet connection, right?
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@JaredBusch said:
@Dashrender said:
If I would have done that 8 years ago, and purchased N-Draft APs, my bill instead of being $25K would have been $40K+. Here I am 8 years later, and sure I could use N, but it wouldn't matter because the Wireless Switch and APs are EOLed from Cisco (primary reason to get rid of them) and I'm still running along mostly fine on G, and with my 100 Mb switches, N wouldn't really give me any real advantage. so I would have wasted $15K+.
IMO, EOL of hardware like this is no reason to replace.
If the hardware works and is not causing the business any other problems then there is no reason to change it just because it is EOL.
Do research, in order to be prepared to buy something in case of failure, but do not buy anything now.
If the controller dies, we're sunk. I can't get another, Cisco won't overnight me a replacement. I quite literally will be running to BB to buy some home routers to get us up and running that night, then ordering replacement equipment and installing it ASAP. 80% of our use is wireless, and we have a huge single point of failure (the wireless controller). While management (and I) were willing to deal with a day or less of downtime when a new one was being sent overnight, we no longer have that situation.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
Why does it need to be an all or none? you can upgrade in stages. Get the POE access switches you need now, with gigabit as there's no disadvantage to it (very minor possible cost savings aside). and get your desktop VoIP phones. Worry about Wireless later or when it becomes a need to upgrade. If the current switches have POE and are meeting the need just keep using them.
You're thinking is right, it doesn't need to be an all or nothing. Building 1 is already VOIP with POE switches and could probably continue along just fine for a few more (or many more) years.
But the other two building don't have POE, so they both need a new/replacement solution very soon.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@JaredBusch said:
@Dashrender said:
If I would have done that 8 years ago, and purchased N-Draft APs, my bill instead of being $25K would have been $40K+. Here I am 8 years later, and sure I could use N, but it wouldn't matter because the Wireless Switch and APs are EOLed from Cisco (primary reason to get rid of them) and I'm still running along mostly fine on G, and with my 100 Mb switches, N wouldn't really give me any real advantage. so I would have wasted $15K+.
IMO, EOL of hardware like this is no reason to replace.
If the hardware works and is not causing the business any other problems then there is no reason to change it just because it is EOL.
Do research, in order to be prepared to buy something in case of failure, but do not buy anything now.
I agree. It's time to prepare to spend, not time to spend.
So when do I actually spend? When crisis hits and I'm suddenly down?
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Ok this is just weird...
New postings are showing up in this thread above things I've posted that weren't there before.. clearly my browser is not freshing often enough.
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@Dashrender said:
So when do I actually spend? When crisis hits and I'm suddenly down?
When else do you spend when things are working just fine?
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@Dashrender said:
But the other two building don't have POE, so they both need a new/replacement solution very soon.
Why is PoE needed? Is it a business need or just a tech want? What's the financial driver there?
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@Dashrender said:
If the controller dies, we're sunk. I can't get another, Cisco won't overnight me a replacement.
One of many reasons not to use Cisco. Buying Cisco means a commitment to paying for their support. -
@Dashrender said:
@JaredBusch said:
@Dashrender said:
If I would have done that 8 years ago, and purchased N-Draft APs, my bill instead of being $25K would have been $40K+. Here I am 8 years later, and sure I could use N, but it wouldn't matter because the Wireless Switch and APs are EOLed from Cisco (primary reason to get rid of them) and I'm still running along mostly fine on G, and with my 100 Mb switches, N wouldn't really give me any real advantage. so I would have wasted $15K+.
IMO, EOL of hardware like this is no reason to replace.
If the hardware works and is not causing the business any other problems then there is no reason to change it just because it is EOL.
Do research, in order to be prepared to buy something in case of failure, but do not buy anything now.
If the controller dies, we're sunk. I can't get another, Cisco won't overnight me a replacement. I quite literally will be running to BB to buy some home routers to get us up and running that night, then ordering replacement equipment and installing it ASAP. 80% of our use is wireless, and we have a huge single point of failure (the wireless controller). While management (and I) were willing to deal with a day or less of downtime when a new one was being sent overnight, we no longer have that situation.
You can likely have Ubiquiti AP's overnighted from Amazon. higher end stuff you could get overnight from the company directly.
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@Dashrender said:
If the controller dies, we're sunk. I can't get another, Cisco won't overnight me a replacement. I quite literally will be running to BB to buy some home routers to get us up and running that night, then ordering replacement equipment and installing it ASAP. 80% of our use is wireless, and we have a huge single point of failure (the wireless controller). While management (and I) were willing to deal with a day or less of downtime when a new one was being sent overnight, we no longer have that situation.
That seems like a good reason to upgrade to me, lol... That would fall under preventative maintenance.
