Catalyst 6500 has another decade or more left, Cisco hints
By Cisco Subnet on Wed, 05/27/09 - 9:52pm.
The first question on people's lips when Cisco introduced the Nexus 7000 data center switch was, how long until the plug is pulled on the Catalyst 6500? Well, the plug might be pulled on it sooner in data centers than in campus backbones.
Cisco says most supervisor engines on modular Catalyst switches have a 10-12 year lifespan. That means the current 6500 with the Supervisor 720 engine, which debuted in 2003, still has four or five years left on it.
And the Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720, which came out 18 months ago, only drives 40Gbps per slot on the Cat 6K, while the system is capable of 80Gbps per slot, Cisco says.
So in the not too distant future, Cisco might be expected to roll out a new supervisor engine to take the Cat 6K to 80Gbps/slot or more, while extending the life of the platform another 10-12 years -- as a campus backbone platform. Cisco says the switch is not optimized for unified fabric or I/O data center applications like the Nexus is.
So don't expect to see FCoE or Data Center Ethernet on the 6500 during that extended lifespan. But don't expect the 600,000 6500s installed to be retired anytime soon either.
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Only 40 or 80GB/s per slot?
That was great in the 2000 era
A decade later that is anemic when I need more 1/10GE
I can get cheap 1RU products with the 1 terabit capacity
Need?
How many of your servers can handle terabit loads? What kind of cable plant are your running to require that?
My cat6ks in the DC run just perfectly with Sup720's and 10G ports. Would be interested in the new 80G/Slot line cards too as that can extend the life of my already purchased hardware. When we buy Cisco we now look at 6 year lifespan, which is upon us, but would be great if I can get another 3-4 years with a supervisor swap.
6500 is not about speed
I think the 6500's role will reduce with the introduction on Nexus range. The Nexus switches are about speed. Full on speed. Nothing else. The 6500 gives functionality with speed. It's the modules you can add in (firewall, load balancer, ids, etc) and the control you can apply that makes the 6500 special. Nexus isn't intended to do that, so 6500 is needed for a long time..
Modules
Watch for modules on the Nexus 7000 :)
The cat6k will be around for a long time, thus saving us customers CAPEX and engineering resources to rip them out and install new products.
I think Cisco is doing the right thing. Continue to enhance existing products, but also offer a new line of equipment for thus building new facilities or those flush with cash.
I'll be upgrading my sup 720's to sup 144's (1.4 Terabit) when they're released.
Nexus is about throughput
I think the 6500 is still faster than the Nexus 7K from a latency perspective which is really speed. Capacity (i.e. throughput) is an area where the Nexus 7K has an advantage.
6500 Long life yet!!
Just come from a road map on the 6500 and cisco have developments to take the 6500 to 2020 and beyond. But, I think with the new release of NX-OS with support for the nexus 2000 and maybe some new 10Gb cards for the 7000 will see the 6500 relegated to the distribution/access layer.
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