Companies will need to plan outside the box and think Converged Infrastructure. When building your network, you always plan for the future and how to get more for less. Here's more about one arm of the Converged Infrastructure.

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Gartner's November 2010 Report: Debunking the myth of the single-vendor

For the report: Hundreds of client interactions and detailed interviews of nine organizations that have introduced a second vendor into their network environments.

Overview findings: Most organizations should consider a multivendor solution as a viable approach to building their network, as significant cost savings are achievable with no increase in network complexity, while improving the focus on meeting business requirements.

Key Findings of using or introducing a 2nd vendor:

• No long-term impact on operational costs for organizations following best practices.
• Will reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) for most organizations by at least 15% to 25% over a five-year time frame.
• Report a lasting decrease in network complexity
• Those using some form of multivendor management tools for fault alerting, configuration management or performance management are well-positioned to take advantage of the second-vendor opportunity.

--- Gartner, Inc., Nov 2010. Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00208758

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Tolly reports networking is switching! Look at one part of the network: SWITCHES!

Traditionally, network access layer switches achieved port-density, fault tolerance and scalability using either a chassis or a stack of fixed-port switches. Network managers have preferred the latter at the network edge primarily due to the typically higher cost of procuring the chassis. HP's E5400 and E8200 zl series chassis-based switches delivered close to 3 to 8 times higher aggregate throughput, and around 2 to 10 times lower latency over comparable stackable switches and chassis-based modular switches.

The power and cooling cost savings from HP switches ranged from 17.4% to 26% compared to other switches. The HP switches also delivered advanced IP services and other premium software features bundled at a significantly lower price and with simpler licensing terms.

--- Tolly Report, Nov 2010. #210152