Open Souce Shakeup In The Routing Marketplace?

The enterprise world is increasingly familiar with the concept of open source, and its acceptance is quickly gaining steam. We have heard of open source operating systems, telephony platforms, productivity software... and the list continues. Now, IT budgets are tightened, forcing decision makers to look at more cost-effective alternatives. Even core network infrastructure systems are being shifted to open source solutions.

Proprietary hardware is a major cost of many core network infrastructures. Whether the hardware comes from industry giants such as Cisco, Juniper, or HP, many have looked to open source alternatives (routers, firewalls, etc.) that run on commodity hardware.

Vyatta, a company who "leverages open source technologies and the performance increases of x86-based processors", is looking to beat the high-cost of Cisco routing products. For example, according to a recent Tolly report, (Vyatta) Outperforms the Cisco 2821 router consistently in Layer 3 Ethernet bidirectional zero-loss throughput, achieving up to twice the performance at half the price. The entire Tolly report: Vyatta® 1.1.2 Competitive Gigabit Ethernet LAN Routing Throughput Evaluation versus Cisco 2821 Integrated Service Router, is available here.

With increased performance, the ability to virtualize Vyatta's routing software, and decreased cost, why isn't the world switching to open-source routing solutions? Two words: brand recognition. Perhaps "brand trust" should also be included in the answer to that question. Companies such as Cisco, Juniper, and HP hold the market share in enterprise routing and switching not necessarily because of their low-cost solutions. Instead, customers continue to purchase these products because of the years of development, customer support, and stability that they have enjoyed.

However, the marketplace is changing. Solutions such as Vyatta should absolutely be tested and implemented at the enterprise level. With the modern economic concerns, open-source solutions need to be closely considered with the traditional market strongholds. The open-source stability and support options are now available to begin to rival the Ciscos and Junipers. With increased performance, lower capital investment (proprietary hardware), and the ability to scale, look for an "open-source-style" shakeup of the routing market to begin.

• Cisco
• Data Center
• LANs / WANs
• Network Management
• Security
• SMB
• VoIP / Convergence
• Wireless / Mobile