Premium Price for Proprietary Products
For many, the default option is to purchase components directly from an established Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). While these components can be expensive, the brand recognition and influence that OEMs have on the market may convince operators that buying ‘from the source’ remains the best option when building and maintaining reliable infrastructure.
The vast majority of OEMs do not even produce their own optical modules. Instead, they buy them from suppliers who code and label the products on their behalf. Industry titans may emphasise that their solutions are the right fit, but if customers solely rely on a single OEM for components they risk being ‘locked in’ to an unsuitable product range for their operations. This makes switching to more suitable components a challenge, leading to operators having to wait for the right solutions to be developed by their chosen OEM. Due to the size of these manufacturers, it’s also unlikely they will create tailored solutions to overcome unique issues or test their products in the operator's own environment.
The Options Available
For some customers, purchasing original optic components directly from OEMs will continue to remain the option of choice. What they may not realise is that their products are often created in the very same factories as third-party suppliers (OEM alternative).
There is now a growing awareness of cost-effective, versatile alternatives readily available for operators to utilise. Consumers now have the option to explore third-party components, such as transceivers – that are provided by trusted suppliers such as AddOn Networks. These are also obtainable through partner resellers, such as KUBUS and Restyle Systems.
These components provide a worthy alternative to OEM products. The cost savings alone can be substantial, and operators are equipped with the tools they need to overcome proprietary issues and select the most suitable components from a range of manufacturers. This not only helps customers build optimal data centres but also simplifies the process of replacing and maintaining components.
Our Advantage Over the Market
With so many OEMs and third-party suppliers occupying the market, there is a lot of noise to cut through. What makes AddOn Networks special is our focus on four key pillars, designed to ensure our customers get the precise solutions required for their projects:
- Cost
AddOn Networks also have a keen focus on cost, offering solutions that compete head-to-head with the OEM counterparts at a fraction of the price. Our commitment to offering competitively priced solutions means customers can save up to 70% when compared to leading OEMs. The transceivers we develop give operators greater flexibility regarding their data centre infrastructure, without being tied to a specific OEM. While OEM optics are often coded to work exclusively with their own hardware, AddOn transceivers can be multi-coded to work in Cisco, Juniper, or other environments, offering all-in-one solutions at a price few can match.
- Quality
AddOn Networks continually strive for quality. All our transceivers undergo meticulous lab testing against OEM specifications, with our skilled internal programming team ensuring performance matches or even exceeds the industry standard. Unlike OEMs and other third-party vendors, we carry out full application tests within the customer environment, with a reliability rating of 99.98%. Ensuring our products work and perform at the required level results in low failure rates and helps assure customers that our components can be trusted.
- Warranty
Despite the common misconception that using third-party optical transceivers will void OEM service contracts and warranties, this is not the case. Any ‘warranty tie’ implied by an OEM manufacturer is illegal under Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty of Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), so operators shouldn’t fear any repercussions of switching to third-party components. For those already using a range of components within their infrastructure, CISCO will still support their warranty if a fault occurs and a third-party product isn’t found responsible.
AddOn Networks provides a non-transferable serviceable lifetime warranty to any purchaser of our products when these are sourced from our authorised resellers.
- Availability
AddOn Networks also understand that availability is a necessity for operators. We ensure our products can be shipped to our customers when they need them, making it a simple process for all involved. In-stock items can be sent out in a matter of days, with out-of-stock products typically fulfilled in under two weeks.
Technical Support
Finally, AddOn Networks provide technical support without additional contracts and support fees.
Our customers can rely on round-the-clock support, with teams of localised field engineers and consultants on hand to visit your sites and tackle any complex issues they encounter.
Our focus on quality, cost, availability, warranty and technical support reflects our commitment to providing competitively priced, high-performing, and compatible optical products. As operators increasingly recognize the benefits third-party suppliers bring to the market, the support and expertise we offer makes us the obvious choice when sourcing network materials.