Total Cost of Ownership: Proprietary vs. Open-Source Based Networks

White Paper Abstract

As your business is actively developing and expanding, your network infrastructure requires new hardware and functionality it previously lacked, thus resulting in updates every 3-5 years.

What factors come into play when deciding on the next step for your network infrastructure development? There are two approaches to running network infrastructure: relying on a proprietary Network Operating System (NOS) or opting for an open-source alternative. With the benefits of transitioning to open source are widely discussed, the question of return on investment (ROI) from this switch remains. Let us identify the critical factors and develop an approach to calculate the potential expenses.

Benefits of an Open-Source Networking Software

Consecutively, let’s define the benefits your company will gain by moving from a proprietary NOS to an open-source solution in any or all of your deployments:

• Cost Efficiency: Open networking operating systems often have a lower total cost of ownership by reducing licensing fees and the need for specialized hardware.
• Flexibility and Customization: Open systems provide greater flexibility by allowing higher customization to meet specific network requirements or integration with existing infrastructure.
• Avoid Vendor Lock-in: Proprietary systems can lead to vendor lock-in, where a customer becomes dependent on a single vendor for products and services. This reduces your leverage and increases costs and complexity when trying to switch vendors.
• Innovation and Community Support: Open networking benefits from the collective input and innovation of a global community of developers. This often leads to the faster development of new features, quicker identification and resolution of bugs, and a broader range of capabilities than a single vendor’s proprietary system can offer. Download our white paper to learn more about SONiC’s capabilities and unlock its potential for your business.
• Scalability: Open networking systems are more scalable because they allow for the integration of hardware and software from numerous sources. This is particularly beneficial for growing networks where flexibility and efficient scalability are important.
• Control Over Updates and Custom Features: With an open networking system, owners have more control over updates and can implement them on their own schedule. They also can craft the version of the open-source NOS to meet their specific requirements.

While these benefits are compelling, the transition cost and ongoing management of an open-source NOS might still be a major obstacle to switching from a proprietary networking system. To simplify the decision- making process, we can establish and compare the TCO (total cost of ownership) of networking infrastructure in both proprietary and open-source cases.

Understanding Total Cost of Ownership for Network Operating Systems

The white paper outlines a TCO framework to facilitate cost comparisons between proprietary and open-source NOS options. We achieve this by highlighting the cost structure typically included in TCO for both categories. Here’s a breakdown of potential expenses associated with working with an NOS vendor: 

• TCO – total cost of ownership of your network
• HWc – cost of the hardware
• SWc – annual licence cost
• Sc – networking operation system support
• EngTс – annual engineering costs on your side
• FaUc – new feature development cost, if needed
• TTr – team training

Thus, your formula for the TCO of a proprietary NOS would look like this:

TCO = HWc + SWc + Sc + EngTс + FaUc

Learn more about the TCO factors for open-source NOS in your network infrastructure by downloading a comprehensive white paper.