My company is leaning toward purchasing Cisco's 65XX product for its core switch in our home office. Before we make a final decision, we want to review third-party product comparisons. Do you know where we can find comparisons?
Try searching for "network equipment test results" from a search engine. If you have specific products in mind you can search for documents containing all the relevant vendor names to gather test results and product comparisons. Network World Fusion provides product information and at least one recent discussion forum dealing with the Cisco 65XX series products. The site www.tolly.com also is an excellent source for information.
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For experiential information from the field, become familiar with the resources and mailing lists available from http://puck.ether.net/lists, www.nanog.org/resources, www.myengineer.com, www.etestinglabs.com and the sites of the vendors you're considering. Almost every vendor site has a link that points to press items mentioning its products. These links can lead to white papers and reports that often include respectable third-party testing.
Also, encourage your network and systems administrators to participate in local professional organizations to stay current with the experiences of their peers. There are also comparison reviews available from industry research firms, often for a fee.
