We need one Cisco 3850 48-port 1-gig PoE+ switch (WS-C3850-48P-S), and got a quote from a VAR for about $7400 for the base unit. My Accounting dept is understandably pushing back after finding some new C3850's for about $2900 on Amazon.
How can I -- and should I -- justify nearly triple the cost by going through a reseller?
Note that:
- I'm personally sold on using a VAR, understand and explained all the benefits, but need to justify extra cost.
- Amazon seller prices are all over the map, some as low as $2900, others over $8000. What's up with that?
- We're not a volume buyer and this is a highly recommended VAR, plus all the presales support, getting every last cable right, registering serial #s with Cisco -- so I'm confident this is a decent value. Not going to shop VARs to squeeze down the VAR price and no VAR can match $2900 anyway.
- Reports vary about if you can add SmartNet to equipment obtained off-channel / gray-market.
- The moral angle of doing the "right thing" to support businesses will carry little weight with Accounting.
- Our growth expectations don't support the scaling argument of buying tens of switches every quarter, it'll be a trickle at most for a few years, so some of the advantage of a VAR isn't there yet.
This Reddit thread addresses the same question but it's 2 years old and nothing conclusive came from it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/3pdy2r/experiences_buying_cisco_from_amazon/
I agree with the poster who says "I would be leery" -- but I need more than "leery" and "gray-market" to keep Accounting and the CFO from toasting our rear-ends when we ask for the extra G's.
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