Network Infrastructure

Realizing the True Cost of the Network

Determining the true cost of owning and operating your edge network infrastructure requires more than totaling hardware and software expenditures. A comprehensive cost analysis must also include the value and expenses associated with installation, configuration, and maintenance. These "hidden" costs greatly affect the total amount of money spent over the course of the service deployment, otherwise known as "total cost of ownership" (TCO).

TCO should also account for the indirect costs of a network - money spent on system design, installation, administration, and support - along with intangibles such as lost revenue resulting from the failure of critical network functions. In addition, one must factor in growth rates for subscribers, services, and traffic over at least a five-year period. One should also validate whether a platform scales easily to support service capacity for the digital explosion of video with required features such as inline video monitoring without separate appliances or specialty blades.

Although an edge router platform like the Cisco ASR 9000 Series may have a higher initial purchase price, a comprehensive analysis will reveal a significantly lower total cost of ownership over the longer term.