How to deal with discontinued gear

A vendor pulling the plug on key equipment affords you ample upgrade opportunities.

By Tim Greene, Network World
October 31, 2005 12:01 AM ET

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James Wiedel faces a predicament: Cisco has announced it will stop selling and supporting its ONS 15540 dense wavelength division multiplexing platform, and he has three of them in his network at the University of Southern California.

It's not a pressing problem, because the last day of sale for the gear is Jan. 31, 2006, and it will be supported until Jan. 31, 2011, but Wiedel has already started thinking about his options.

And that is just the right thing to do to carry out a smooth and effective transition from old gear to new, industry experts say.

When a vendor decides to pull the plug on a product, it can leave business customers scrambling for a replacement. But if customers are well prepared, the demise of the gear can be an opportunity to upgrade to less costly, more efficient products that sport more features.

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End-of-life checklist
When a vendor gives word that it’s discontinuing a product, it’s not the end of the world for customers. Here are some tips for turning the situation around.

•	Establish a database of equipment, configuration and versions of software now to make it easer to determine the impact of an end-of-life notice.
•	Determine whether the discontinued gear is fully depreciated and ready to be retired.
•	Find a new, less critical place in your network for the old gear before selling it off or tossing it on the junk heap.
•	Consider keeping the gear in the network, but stockpile spares for inevitable breakdowns.
•	Listen to the vendor terminating a particular product for a possible viable migration path.
•	Shop around with other vendors to increase your bargaining position if a swap-out seems inevitable.

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Wiedel, the director of networking at USC, has already looked at newer DWDM gear that costs tens of thousands of dollars as opposed to the ONS 15540s, which cost more than $700,000, he says. Ultimately, he plans to keep the equipment in the network until he finds it lacks the features that USC needs.

Being well prepared for product end-of-life is key, says Jean Ritala, secretary of the IT Service Management Forum USA. The group proposes that IT departments should adhere to strict processes when it comes to the life cycle of hardware and software, with most hardware scheduled to be replaced every three to five years. That way when notice comes that a piece of equipment is being dropped, chances are it will already be scheduled for replacement before the vendor suspends support for it, she says.

When an end-of-life situation does arise, IT executives and those who hold the purse strings are then in a better position to deal with it. "It's important so there's no surprises, especially devices that cost a lot of money. [Financial] executives don't want surprises," Ritala says. Preparation lets IT build upgrades into future budgets rather than trying to squeeze the funds out of current budgets by canceling other purchases, she says.

Part of the process is setting up a database of what gear is in the network and how it is configured, and possibly using software tools to automate the task, she says. If automation is used, it is also essential to regularly check a random sample of devices by hand to make sure the locations and configurations match what's in the database.