On Feb 22, 2011, at 10:52 AM, Hammer wrote: > I agree. But swapping providers is not the default answer in some > environments. I work in an enterprise with multiple GE circuits from multiple > providers to the Internet. The lead time on calling up a different carrier > and saying "I need a gigabit connection to the Internet" would probably be > 90-120 days. And then you get to go thru the contracts/negotiations and MSAs. > You don't just flip. In smaller operations I understand. But I was simply > saying that it's not always that easy. If I went to my boss and said one of > our carriers sucks and we should dump them he would just laugh and throw me > out. > That depends on where you are. If you have a router in one or more of the many "carrier hotels" around the world, you can usually order a new Gig-E cross-connect with service in less than a week. If you need to have a circuit engineered, then, 30-90 days is probably about right. If you need to have facilities installed to provide said circuit, it can be as much as 180 days.
However, I don't think the point was "disconnect them tomorrow". I think the point was "If the impact is that severe, the sooner you start the new provider process, the sooner you get relief." > 1. What are the SLAs with the carrier in question? Do you have them clearly > defined? Are they out of SLA? If so, what compensation is entitled based on > violation of said SLA? 99.99% of all SLAs are a pittance of money refunded IF you jump through extreme hoops to collect. They are rarely sufficient to resolve or even compensate for outages. > > 2. What trending are you doing to document the failures in SLA of the carrier > in question? Do we have a documented pattern of poor performence by using > that trending? > > 3. What are our contractual or legal options based on items 1 and 2? > > 4. Don't forget about the Layer8 (political) factor. If your telco manager is > buddies with the carrier then you have to double your documentation against > them. Some companies spend tens of millions a month on circuits. You better > be ready to justify yourself. Yeah, this is usually the biggest problem. Owen > > > -Hammer- > > "I was a normal American nerd." > -Jack Herer > > > > > > On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 12:38 PM, Owen DeLong <o...@delong.com> wrote: > Assuming that he has provider independent space (why run full BGP feeds if you > are not multihomed?), then, actually it's about on par and less disruptive in > general. Add new provider, wait a day or two, then disconnect old provider. > > If he's using provider assigned space, then, the big hurdle is switching to > provider > independent (requires a renumber), but, that's a good idea for a variety of > reasons. > > I would hardly call the type and frequency of outages described a "whim" when > using that as a reason to change providers. Sounds like he is suffering > severe impact to his business. > > Owen > > On Feb 22, 2011, at 10:15 AM, Hammer wrote: > > > I'm not argueing that at all. But it wasn't relevent to the question at > > hand. And depending on the scale of your business dumping providers is not > > something done on a whim. It's not like your fed up with DSL and want to > > convert to Cable. > > > > > > -Hammer- > > > > "I was a normal American nerd." > > -Jack Herer > > > > > > > > > > > > On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 12:11 PM, Bret Clark > > <bcl...@spectraaccess.com>wrote: > > > >> On 02/22/2011 12:23 PM, Hammer wrote: > >> > >>> As Max stated, you can set triggers based on thresholds that are monitered > >>> via multiple methods in Cisco IOS. That way you could force the route down > >>> dynamically. There's always a risk when letting the machines do the > >>> thinking > >>> but this would help in situations like this. Can't speak for other vendors > >>> but I'm sure the features are similar. > >>> > >>> Well as someone else stated, if an upstream provider can't provide BGP > >> reliably then it's time to give them the boot. Once in a year, okay, but > >> beyond that, then it's time to read riot act with that provider. > >> Bret > >> > >> > >
