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Is it typical for businesses to have different (HP, extreme, etc) network devices?

blatiniblatini Member Posts: 285
I am at a job where for <250 users we use Extreme, cisco, hp, and fortinet. It is more frustrating than I was expecting to get used to all the differences. Is this normal for most businesses to be set up in such a way? This is my first networking gig.

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    networker050184networker050184 Mod Posts: 11,962 Mod
    For the most part yes there will be different vendors involved in a network. There are some shops that are all Cisco, Juniper, etc., but that isn't the norm in my experience.
    An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made.
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    joelsfoodjoelsfood Member Posts: 1,027 ■■■■■■□□□□
    What networker said. It gets even worse if it's a company that does a lot of growth through acquisition, as each business you buy likely has differnet standard vendors for network, server, storage, etc
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    gespensterngespenstern Member Posts: 1,243 ■■■■■■■■□□
    It is called "Zoo", lol.

    All cisco shops, probably, the most frequent, as Cisco has offerings in pretty much every network segment, but still majority of businesses run a zoo of devices, like a few cisco routers, HP switches and a fortinet NG firewall.
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    blatiniblatini Member Posts: 285
    Damn I guess I have to get used to it. We're taking the existing network which had zero vlans, STP, unused switch ports were left alone, etc... and trying to implement all of this which is a lot normally. Including all the different vendor products we have I am completely overwhelmed with some of the things they are asking me to do. Are there any good reference pages to study that show the differences/equivalent commands between vendors?
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    networker050184networker050184 Mod Posts: 11,962 Mod
    Once you learn the protocol just google up the command guides.
    An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made.
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    scaredoftestsscaredoftests Mod Posts: 2,780 Mod
    Especially in government contracting. HP blade servers, intermixed with Dell servers. Things like that.
    Never let your fear decide your fate....
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    devils_haircutdevils_haircut Member Posts: 284 ■■■□□□□□□□
    I work for an MSP, so I touch HP, Dell, and Cisco switches daily, and Cisco, Dell, Fortinet, Peplink, and Watchguard firewalls as well. Usually these are at different sites since we tried to keep each client on one vendor, but newer clients might have a whole slew of brands in their environment. Keeps you on your toes, at least.

    It's not unusual for me to start typing Cisco commands into an HP swtich before the light in my head comes on and I realize what I'm doing.
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