About one year ago we gave ourselves the task to get fairly common server hardware perform the tasks of traditional and (very) expensive commercial routers.
Our network has been using open source based border routers (BGP/OSPF) for over a year now and performance and availability of the network has improved considerably. Plain simply we can now build better and even more redundancy into our network with the available resources.
We chose an open source routing platform that uses a Cisco-like syntax and similar commands. That made the transition convenient and our routing specialists could work with the new system the same way as they were used to. This avoided human errors that are unfortunately often seen when systems are changed. So far, everyone working with the system has only provided positive feedback.
It is a huge advantage for us to use common server hardware instead of special equipment. Whenever something breaks and/or needs replacement we now almost always have the part in stock and do no longer need to wait days for delivery. Of course the core network is redundant and not critically affected if one router fails – but still it is nice to have failed units repaired as fast as possible.
We encourage other companies to look into the possibilities of open source software (not only for routing) and to support the community helping to improve the products. For routing software take a look at the Quagga Routing Suite – this is also great for students who wish to learn about routing.
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