It’s a fact: choosing your own hardware means lower TCO
An essential part of open networking is the ability to choose your own hardware. This allows for customization of your network to suit business needs, and it can also dramatically reduce your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). On average, open networking with Cumulus helps customers reduce their capital expenditures (CapEx) by about 45% and operational expenditures (OpEx) in the range of approximately 50% to 75%.
Choosing the right hardware is a big part of these savings. If you compare bare-metal networking equipment with a similar product from a proprietary networking vendor, you’ll quickly find that bare-metal hardware is much less expensive. One reason for this is competition between hardware vendors in the open networking space.
Open networking is a multi-vendor ecosystem. More than 100 switches are certified to work with Cumulus Linux; they’re manufactured by vendors such as Dell, HPE, Mellanox, Supermicro, and others. Unlike with proprietary switches, there’s no vendor lock-in creating a monopoly situation. In the open networking space, vendors compete for sales, and this keeps costs down.
Another factor in lowering costs is the degree of customization available when you have many products to choose from. Choosing your own hardware means buying what you need—and only Continue reading



