Going from 100-Mbps Ethernet to gigabit in the closet roughly doubled the cost per port. However, when you consider that you're getting 10 times the bandwidth for only twice the price, it seems to be a good value. The big question, though, is how soon C2G will require speeds above 100 Mbps, given the applications it will be running and its next upgrade cycle.
Scoring the Responses
Our judgment is based on the vendors' responses to our questions in the RFI. If C2G weren't just a figment of our diabolical imagination, the RFI process would be followed up by further information gathering, including meetings with the vendors and an on-site evaluation of products. While the company with the strongest RFI showing would have the edge going into this process, all four vendors are capable of providing viable solutions and each would likely have made it to the next step. We particularly liked the quality of Enterasys' entry. In fact, if we were giving a prize to the vendor with the most thorough, professional response, Enterasys would have nailed it. Enterasys was also the only vendor besides Alcatel capable of doing NAT (Network Address Translation) in ASICs. Furthermore, Extreme presented a solution that combined the benefits of Sonet and Ethernet, and Alcatel was the only vendor with PoE built into its switches.
We gave our Editor's Choice nod to Foundry, which demonstrated the best ability to meet all our technical requirements while maintaining a commitment to standards--a primary consideration. As we said in "Shoot for the Moon," standards are the key to maintaining flexibility, and Foundry is secure enough in its designs to allow its customers this openness. Foundry also provided the widest set of options and the most redundancy. 
Foundry, which came in a close second in our recent review of 10 Gigabit switches, (see "Life in the Really Fast Lane," at ) was able to provide everything C2G required, including standards-based 10 Gigabit interfaces that have been shipping for months. Foundry also provided the most redundancy, offering dual-redundant, gigabit-fiber connections to two different core routers based on 802.3ad (link aggregation) and VRRP (Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol) standards. Although Foundry's scenario does have some proprietary elements, we were impressed by the fact that it pushes mostly standards-based solutions.
Although Foundry does not have support for PoE built into its switches, it has partnered with a leading external power vendor, PowerDsine, and provided us with a very long list of compatible VoIP phones and access points. PowerDsine is active in the 802.3af committee and also indicated support for the current revision of the standard. As we pointed out, there are disadvantages to providing PoE externally, so we're glad Foundry has partnered with a respected vendor.
