Re: Arista unqualified SFP

[Nick Hilliard <nick () foobar org>]

Tim Jackson wrote:
> "As I'm sure you know, Arista is not the only manufacturer that has made
> this choice. Unlike our competition, we work to make our optics pricing
> competitive, but we'll never be as low as the "Taiwan specials" that you
> see floating around. I have another customer that was flashing white label
> optics that just made the decision to start using Arista labeled optics
> again because they were tired of bad quality."
>
> They basically said we'll sell you 10x priced optics instead of 100x and
> we're awesome because we do that. No unlock for you, buy our slightly
> cheaper OEM optics instead.

Nothing specific to Arista or anything, but this is a terribly
frustrating position to be in as a customer, when you want to e.g. use
some transceiver which isn't supported by the vendor or connect up
Vendor A's switch to Vendor B's switch using a DAC or something.
Ultimately one side needs to give in because vendor DACs are coded one
way or the other.

It is always better to clarify this sort of thing with the account
management team before purchasing, and preferably have it in email or
writing.  After that, the best approach is to ask support and/or account
management nicely rather than "bitching and moaning" as someone else
suggested - diplomacy is usually a better long term basis for having a
good relationship with your vendor.  Often it's useful to point out
discussions like this which indicate that it's been enabled for other
people.

Nick