Minimising the Growth of the Networking Budget – University Business

Techbuyer's Tim Phillips on the cost savings to the networking budget realised by 3rd-party transceivers at Cambridge Uni Network Services. University Business is the leading B2B publication in the UK Higher Education sector, bringing the latest news via the monthly magazine, website and newsletter. Techbuyer featured across all these channels during the Summer of 2018.

Article Summary:

  • Network transceivers represent 10%–15% of a University’s IT budget according to IT research body Gartner, which has issued a report extolling the benefits of third-party transceivers. Cambridge University Networking Services have trialled the idea and found it successful in a three-year contract with Techbuyer on Ortial SFPs in their Cisco core system.
  • The University has seen a sharp growth in the number of units on the system, driven in part by social media. From 1%–2% of internet traffic flowing on devices five years ago, the figure is around 20%–25% today. In 2012, systems were using 6–7 PB per year. This increased almost tenfold by 2017 to 55–60 PB per year.
  • Explaining the choice of tender award, Head of Networking Services Jon Holgate said: “It isn’t just about the hardware. You also need to have confidence in the supplier that they will be able to deliver over a period of time. Techbuyer were the only third-party supplier to provide assurance that the component SPFs met all the Cisco specifications. The other major factor in the award was the agreement on turnaround of parts, financial terms and environmental disposal.”

Read the full article on the University Business website here.


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