Opinions on Alternatives to Cisco Routers?

An anonymous reader asks: "I'm currently working on a project that is 'partnered' with Cisco. Despite that they make good routers, the company's relatively large size does not appear to be willing to meeting unique, customized, requirements. So what are your opinions of the alternatives: 3com, Juniper, etc? Anyone had bad/good experience with these companies? Are all their routers really essentially the same? How about comparative performance with totally customized routing solutions via Linux+Zebra or some other open solution?"

Comments

Cisco partner, cisco equipment

[greywar]

Don't for a instant use some elses-cisco WILL take it as a slap in the face. If you need something custom-goto someone on their end in charge, and request either the equipment, or someone whom they approve that WILL do what you want. I've dealt with Cisco before.

Will your customers accept non-Cisco equipment ?

[MerlynEmrys67]

I know of several IT shops that will not allow non Cisco equipment into their infrastructure. Would make it hard (if not impossible) to qualify for those accounts.

That said - what kind of customization are you looking for... Cisco is the gold standard on most things IP infrastructure these days.

Re:My experience

[pyite]

Can I slap an OC-48 card in a PC? Unlikely. OC-192? How about 10GigE? Again, unlikely. For some of us, PCs can't compete with dedicated routing hardware. Even PCs that can handle large amounts of traffic can't switch at wirespeed. The key is programmable ASICs, pure and simple. If it's hitting the CPU too often (which all switching/routing on a PC must do) then we have a problem.