Recent Articles

Published September 2026. Specifications are from Arista’s 7160 Series data sheet; lifecycle dates from Arista’s end-of-sale notice of September 28, 2020. The Arista 7160 Series is a three-model family of 1RU data center switches built around a programmable packet processor rather than the fixed-function Broadcom silicon used in the 7050X and 7060X lines. Arista ended […]

Published September 2026. Specifications are from Arista’s 7050X3 and 7060X data sheets; lifecycle dates from Arista’s end-of-sale notices of September 2025 and July 2026. Four Arista switches share the same basic shape, 32 x 100G QSFP ports plus two SFP+ ports in 1RU, and between them they are the most common 100G leaf and spine […]

Published September 2026. Port, buffer, and route-scale figures are taken from Arista’s 7280R3 Series data sheet; lifecycle dates from Arista’s end-of-sale notices. For the full three-generation history of the 7280R family, see our Arista 7280R in-depth guide. The Arista 7280R3 is the current generation of Arista’s deep-buffer switch router line, built on the Broadcom Jericho2 […]

Published September 2026. Specifications are taken from Juniper’s PTX hardware documentation and lifecycle status from Juniper’s published PTX Series hardware milestones; sources are named in each section. The Juniper PTX Series is Juniper’s packet transport router line: fixed and modular systems built on Juniper’s own Express silicon for core, peering, and infrastructure-edge roles where the […]

Updated for 2026: This fully rewritten guide provides a complete, engineering-grade comparison of the Arista 7050, 7060, and 7280 Series switch families. It includes silicon-level architecture explanations, per-generation hardware breakdowns, head-to-head comparison tables, EVPN-VXLAN fabric design patterns, AI/ML cluster considerations, and practical guidance for choosing the right platform for each layer of your network. This […]

What’s Changed Since 2019 Since this guide was first published in 2019, the secondary market for enterprise networking hardware has matured significantly. What was once viewed primarily as a stopgap or cost-driven alternative is now a deliberate part of many organizations’ infrastructure lifecycle planning. Enterprises, service providers, and data center operators increasingly rely on refurbished […]

Updated for 2026: This fully rewritten guide provides a complete, engineering-grade overview of the Arista 720XP Series campus PoE leaf switches. It covers every current SKU, detailed PoE power budgets, silicon architecture, MACsec options, CloudVision integration, competitive positioning against Cisco Catalyst 9300 and Juniper EX4400, campus deployment patterns, and practical guidance for sourcing refurbished units. […]

Understanding Juniper MX Line Cards: MPCs, MICs & Compatibility The Juniper MX Series is built around a flexible, modular architecture. Instead of replacing an entire chassis every time your network requirements change, you can scale performance and add new interfaces by using MPC (Modular Port Concentrator) and MIC (Modular Interface Card) line cards. This guide […]

Updated for 2026: This fully rewritten guide provides a complete, engineering-grade overview of the Arista 7060X Series. It covers silicon-level architecture across five Tomahawk generations, detailed hardware family breakdowns, EVPN-VXLAN fabric designs, AI/ML cluster networking, optics form factor selection, and practical guidance for choosing the right 7060 model for real-world deployments. This edition adds coverage […]

Author: Chris Hill, President at BrightStar Systems – LinkedIn A legacy vendor bets big on AI—and sends shockwaves through the industry. In one of the most consequential tech mergers of the decade, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has acquired Juniper Networks for $14 billion in cash—triggering ripple effects across the global networking and data center landscape. Designed to accelerate […]