We took delivery on a very important piece of new equipment this week. A new Cisco Router/Switch. It is a 6509 series router.

Above: It arrived in a huge box, shrink wrapped to a wooden pallet. It took three of us to wrestle it out onto a cart so we could wheel it into the datacenter. It weighs close to 300lbs (136 kgs). Our new router.

Since our move to Bothell from Seattle in 1998, we have employed Cisco 7206 routers for our boundary. We have upgraded them along the way to 7206VXR's. Our core routing was originally done with a Cisco 3640 router, which was eventually replaced with an Extreme Summit 48 (and later 48i) switches. We are taking to opportunity afforded by this move to upgrade again, this time consolidating the boundary routing and core switching functions into the well-proven Cisco Catalyst 6500-series hardware. The router pictured is the first of two we have acquired, which will be deployed as a redundant pair.

The move to a high-end carrier-class facility really requires similar carrier-class equipment. A large portion of the Internet's traffic is carried through Cisco 6500-series hardware. Very soon digital.forest's traffic will too. These will also allow us to expand our internal network core as well. Take one last look before it becomes obscured by a lot of wire.

Above: Racked and ready to go.

This week (1/10-1/15) will likely be a slow week on the move blog here while we deal with the "people" side of the office move. If you have feedback or questions about the move, or anything covered in the blog to date, feel free to drop me an email. Thanks.