Cisco or HP?

[cajuntank]

Ok... Probably a question that has been asked before, but I'm looking for a fresh and current perspective. Let me start out by saying that I'm a Cisco man at heart so I have mixed feelings even asking the question; however, I am know in charge of redoing a infrastructure for a K-12 school district and "money is object". HP's pricing, from the little I've investigated and lifetime warranty, just make an extremely appealing case towards them. Following Cisco's Core/Distribution/Access design, I figured on using their 3750 stackable 10/100 PoE switches as my access switches, and their 3750-E 10/100/1000 Non-PoE switches as my distribution and core linking my schools (Elementary, Middle, High) on the campus sites at 10Gb. I also have planned on evolving our current district-wide PBX's from Avaya (Merlins) to Cisco after the infrastructure was in place.

What are your thoughts about HP's switches vs Cisco's and had anyone implemented a Cisco Call Manager using HP switches?

 

[TOuellette]

My experience with HP switches has not been the best.

using mostly 2650's 2626's for smaller locations, and 4204/4208 chasis for larger locations. Oh and some 53xx at the Data Center.

My biggest complaint is that they are not consistant, especially with QoS or DSCP markings. Also if you plan to use the HP as a layer 3 switch do some routing you are limited to 16 static routes (at least on the 26xx series). This has hurt me in more than one situation (especially routing email servers through a firewall).

Never played with Cisco Call Manager, however i am running Avaya's version and it seems to play nice with HP.

Bottom line at this point is that I am begging the money holders for a Cisco budget in the near future.

Hope that helps.

 

[TOuellette]

Another thought..

You could use HP Procurves for your access switches, adding one Cisco "core" or "head" switch at each site to handle any QoS, or heavy routing you need (Cisco seems to play a lot nicer with ISP's than HP in my experience).

 

[cajuntank]

I'm looking at the 5400 series switches for my core and and a mixture of 5400 and 3500 for my edge for the most part. I will also add the premium licensing for routing to get OSPF... I kow when I am at the point of deciding on a phone system, I will have the manufacturer/vendor show me some of their current installs simular to my setup.
The only point of connectivity I'll be dealing with in regards to the ISP will be either a managed Cisco router for MPLS or directly into my switch via Metro Ethernet (still waiting to see if I can get that).