Facebook reveals open network gear to drive WEDGE between itself and Cisco

Tech companies moving slow?

I dont think its fair to say that tech companies move slow. I think its rather much the opposite - these large social network companies are moving too quick, that is, much quicker than the rest of the industry when it comes to network growth.

Something that is important not to forget is that companies like Facebook and Google are building networks that are not "normal" in scale. They are trying to build networks that are bigger than any other company is trying to build, and they are trying to build them much faster.

So if anything, tech companies only appear to move slow only by comparison. Really, they are simply outpaced. And its not like its an industry wide problem, its a small number of companies with exceptional growth.

One of Junipers biggest routing platforms is the PTX5000. It will take 384 10GigE ports, or 32 100GigE interfaces, or some combination in between. Its pretty much a full rack in itself (and Ive personally installed a couple.) Juniper had plans for a bigger model, the PTX9000, which would basically have been two PTX5000's side by side in one unit (on wheels!) You cant buy it, and theres scant information about it, though if you search for it you'll find a hint or two here and there. But they never produced it, and probably because there are very few companies looking for a router that big. And the ones that do need it are so few and far between that they couldnt possibly make decent enough returns out of it. Maybe we'll see it come about in a few years time.