Hi Joe,

I use Visio along with almost everyone else… it takes some time and effort but it’s well worth it when the fire starts.

I won’t be posting the configurations, sorry.

Cheers!

Hi Michael,
I really like you blog. Its very helpful. I wanted to know what tool did you use to draw the network diagrams and interconnect them. Can you please post the configurations without specifying the ip addresses.
Thanks,
Joe

Hi Will,

I guess my experiences have been completely opposite of yours. We allow our provider to manage the entire process, we only get involved in the initial walk-thrus and internal path discussions when examining geographically diverse entrances, etc. They rarely miss a deadline although most order lead times are between 60-90 days so you need to plan early. The monthly operating cost is definitely more than a T1 but less than the average T3. When you look at the cost savings against a OC-48 or OC-192 SONET ring the costs savings are significant.

Outside of the costs you now have the bandwidth (1Gbps/10Gbps) to provide almost any service your customer desires including the traditional voice, video and data. That bandwidth then allows enterprises to centrally locate the majority of their compute resources in their Data Centers since they have the bandwidth between the sites.

The key here is that you need to be a regional organization. If you have offices in multiple states you’re not going to run dark fiber to all of them! However, if your organization occupies offices in a regional area covering perhaps 30mi – 40mi then dark fiber might just be what the doctor ordered!

Cheers!