Do the math
When considering the cost of refreshing your network, it’s crucial to look beyond the price points of switches and access points. Consider the typical five-to-seven-year lifespan of the network equipment and take a closer look at both the hard costs such as hardware, maintenance, licensing and support, and the soft costs such as network downtimes and operational efficiency
In addition to these obvious costs, there are many other factors affecting your network’s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) including interoperability with existing products and management systems, purchasing models and market instabilities.
Here’s an example of an organisation that did the math. California State University saved more than $100M USD by replacing Cisco equipment with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise equipment.
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Compare before you buy
Of course, all vendors are not created equal. To help you choose a vendor that can provide the most cost-effective solution for your next network equipment purchase or upgrade, here’s a vendor comparison checklist to consider:
- Does the vendor have a comprehensive portfolio that covers both your LAN and WLAN needs (including indoor and outdoor equipment)? Beware of vendors who have built their portfolio through acquisitions with no clear path for product evolution or integrated management.
- Does the vendor have a single, unified management system to manage both the LAN and WLAN equipment including unified policy management, Guest Access/BYOD and IoT management, analytics, and fabric provisioning? Multiple management systems can add considerable costs in provisioning and maintaining your network. Avoid vendors that do not offer a single pane of glass to manage the entire network or that require multiple servers to deliver all the functionalities mentioned above.
- Does the vendor offer cloud-based or on premises network management options with identical features? You shouldn’t have to compromise on features just because you want to manage your network in the cloud.
- Does the vendor offer flexible purchasing options to suit your purchasing preferences? You need to be able to purchase equipment and software in the manner suitable for you, whether you’re buying the equipment out-right or through a subscription model.
- Does the vendor have a good track record with their existing customers? Customer reviews are important. Check how the vendor stacks up against other competitors.
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise provides digital age networking, communications, and cloud solutions, with flexible business models. All our solutions have built-in security and limited environmental impact. We have a proven track record with years of global experience in networking. We stack up very well against competitors. In fact, customers have rated us higher than Cisco. Read this Gartner Peer Insights head-to-head comparison.
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise can help you
ALE can help you simplify your network and operations with our:
- Comprehensive standards-based portfolio that ensures interoperability with your existing wired and Wi-Fi network. This means you can refresh your edge network in phases without the worry or cost of changes to your core network.
- Single, unified network management system whose feature set that includes all the capabilities many vendors charge extra for such as support for guests, BYOD, Wi-Fi, Internet of Things (IoT), management and analytics. The Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista® also lowers costs through automated provisioning and the elimination of repetitive tasks and expensive on-site support visits. It is available on premises or in the cloud with no compromise to the feature set.
- Flexible purchasing options. You can purchase through a pure CAPEX model or the Network as a Service model.
We are confident we can provide you with an equal or better solution than your current vendor.
