We just met with a client today that has a really old network that needs upgraded along with a camera system upgrade. The campus has two buildings with a main server room (MDF) plus four switch rooms (IDF). Each IDF is connected to the MDF with a fiber run. We are looking into the capacity of the existing fiber, but for discussion purposes, we can assume it is able to handle 10Gbe.
This entire network was built out in the mid 90's and has had very few upgrades since then. The fiber runs are using 10/100 media converters into 10/100 copper switches. They do have one Cisco Gigabit switch in one of the IDFs, but still all copper. Their current "core" switch is a Linksys 10/100 consumer switch. Yes, it's a mess.
We need to recommend a new core switch, preferably 10Gbe layer 2. We won't need a layer 3. They already have a Cisco router in place for routing. They will need a minimum of 5 SFP+ ports in the core switch, one for the switch in the MDF, plus four IDF switches.
Then we also will need five new PoE switches for replacing the aging Dell and Linksys 10/100 switches. We may reuse the existing Cisco Gbe switch somewhere, but it's lack of SFP+ ports makes it less valuable.
So, I am looking for product suggestions. Hopefully units you have experience with, not just a google search. We need to know how viable this upgrade is by giving them some rough up front numbers and decide if it is worth spending the time with a formal design/proposal.