Should You Buy 3rd Party SFP+?

What does a third-party optical module mean in reality? It is an optical module not supplied or branded by your network equipment vendor. However, the thing is that even if you decide to order “original” optical transceivers, you still will get third-party. Why so? – Simply, equipment vendors are subcontracting production of these modules to OEM manufacturers and selling these models at 10 times the markup. Are they any different from 3rd party optical modules? The answer is No. All optical modules are produced according strict standards of MSA (Multisource Agreement) and only difference is that the vendor ID in the EEPROM is reset to the system vendor’s own.

Why are Vendors Doing So?

Most common arguments from vendors would be that 3rd party is gray market counterfeit, then comes quality assurance, meaning that vendors are qualified OEMs, and in the end will come “Trust us”. This is what vendors will tell you, but real reasons most probably are that 3rd party optical transceivers threaten profits ( In 2006, 25% of Cisco’s operating income was from reselling optical modules – more in detail here) and that it’s easier to support, if there are limited different variations of optical modules you may use.

What is Legal Policy and Risks?

Here is the Link to Cisco’s Guideline: Third Party Components Support. What it says is that if a network fault is caused by third-party optics, then it is your problem, but if these products are not the cause of problems, then they still will provide warranty and support services. We have delivered tens of thousands of optical modules to our customers, and we have to admit that optical modules (we, of course, can’t guarantee this for other vendors) are a very stable piece of equipment. In all our experience, we have had just a few cases of modules stopping normal functioning during the network operating phase. All potential problems with optical modules we discover during the network installation phase, and the root cause is always either a programming error or a production fault.

So, Should You buy a third-party SFP+?

I think that you should decide for yourself, but the main arguments we suggest taking into account are:

• Price – Our / 3rd party optical equipment is much cheaper than so called “original” ones – sometimes even 10 times. It allows you to save huge capital expenses, buy better quality equipment, and make your network safer.
• Flexibility – In many cases, “original” optical modules offered from vendors have a very limited selection – just some basic ones. Often no BiDi / single fiber support, no CWDM or DWDM wavelength support, but actually you can use such modules with any equipment. You are perfectly fine.
• Contribution for Better Industry – Vendors try to lock in their customers simply because they can. This is nothing new since the beginning of the IT / Computer Industry. We have seen this with cables, connectors, floppy drives, hard drives, and many others. In all cases, vendors lost their battle in the long term just because more and more customers started to use generic items, not vendor OEM’s and vendors just started to ignore the trend or reconsidered their position and started to support it.

If any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact us!