DC Fabric TCO Calculator

Data center fabric business case analysis (BCA) tool

The Nokia Bell Labs Consulting business case analysis modelling tool is unique. It takes a comprehensive approach to quantifying the effort savings related to designing, deploying, and operating data center networks. The tool models a migration scenario from a present mode of operation (PMO) to a future mode of operation (FMO). The PMO is an existing leaf-spine data center architecture using older generation commercial silicon, and models 10GE/25GE access for servers and 40GE/100GE uplinks for spines. The FMO is a higher scale and capacity leaf-spine data center fabric using the latest generation commercial silicon, and models 10GE/25GE/100GE access for servers and 100GE/400GE uplinks for spines.

The tool models the tasks by job functions related to the lifecycle of a data center fabric across Day 0 design, Day 1 deployment, and Day 2+ operations. It calculates the operational effort savings by comparing the PMO against one of two FMO scenarios. FMO 1 is powered by Nokia SR Linux, a modern data center NOS, and Nokia high-performance data center switching platforms. FMO 2 augments this with the Nokia Fabric Services System, an advanced data center fabric management and operations toolkit.

Analysis inputs

Select data center size

Data center fabric configuration

Choose a standard default configuration for a small, medium or large data center fabric. Default configurations can be adjusted manually to match your situation by clicking below.

Adjust the default configuration manually

Manual data center fabric configuration

Scenario	PMO	FMO
Number of data centers
Number of pods per data center
Dual homing of server
Number of uplinks per server
Utilization of actual server ports (at year 1 end)
3-year traffic growth, CAGR

Server interfaces

10GE	PMO	FMO
Servers per rack
Number of racks per pod
Total number of servers
Distribution

25GE	PMO	FMO
Servers per rack
Racks per pod
Total number of servers
Distribution

100GE	PMO	FMO
Servers per rack	n/a
Racks per pod	n/a
Total number of servers	n/a
Distribution	n/a

Data center summary	PMO	FMO
Total number of servers per data center

Number of uplink ports per spine switch by interface design

Spine uplink interface: PMO	Spine uplink interface: FMO	PMO	FMO
40GE	n/a		n/a
100GE	100GE
n/a	400GE	n/a

FMO spine uplink speed

Number of uplink ports per leaf switch by interface design

Server interface	Leaf uplink interface: PMO	Leaf uplink interface: FMO	PMO
10GE	40GE	100GE
25GE	100GE	100GE
100GE	n/a	100GE	n/a

Task configuration

Day 0

Duration
FTE
Planning (in %)
Design (in %)
Installation (in %)
Total effort (must add up to 100%)

Day 1

Duration
FTE
Deployment (in %)
Configuration (in %)
Onboarding/Integration (in %)
Acceptance testing (in %)
Total effort (must add up to 100%)

Day 2+ Traffic growth

Growth rate
FTE (year 1)

Day 2+ Staff growth

FTE growth (year 2)
FTE growth (year 3)
FTE growth (year 4)

Day 2+ Operations tasks

Daily operations
Change management infra/service
Incident management
Security
Upgrade
On-going training
Updating integration
Total effort (must add up to 100%)

Ready

Tasks savings

Cumulative effort savings across all tasks

The BCA models a complete and comprehensive set of job functions and associated tasks to calculate savings for all tasks and for every phase of the data center fabric life cycle.

The total effort for the PMO scenario over 4 years is hours.
The total effort for FMO 2 with “SR Linux and Fabric Services System” is hours ( savings over PMO)
The total effort for FMO 1 with “SR Linux only” is hours ( savings over PMO)

Please request a detailed report with results related to efforts savings by year, by operations phase, by job functions/tasks and by job roles.

Effort by year

Effort savings with FMO 1 and FMO 2 for specific tasks

This section introduces the savings for specific tasks associated with phases of the data center fabric lifecycle. Day 0 represents the planning, designing, and testing phase, Day 1 represents the deployment phase, and Day 2+ represents the ongoing operational phase.

The tables below show the specific tasks with the largest percentage of effort savings for each operational phase in the lifecycle of the fabric.

FMO 1

FMO 2

Please request a detailed report with results for an extended list of job functions/tasks and associated effort savings along with the key SR Linux and Fabric Services System features that contribute to these savings.

Effort savings with FMO 1 for specific tasks

Day 0 - SR Linux features that contribute to higher effort savings for specific tasks

Day 1 - SR Linux features that contribute to higher effort savings for specific tasks

Day 2+ SR Linux features that contribute to higher effort savings for specific tasks

Effort savings with FMO 2 for specific tasks

Day 0 - Fabric Services System features that contribute to higher effort savings for specific tasks

Day 1 - Fabric Services System features that contribute to higher effort savings for specific tasks

Day 2+ Fabric Services System features that contribute to higher effort savings for specific tasks

Power and space savings

The future mode of operation can provide:

Power cost savings of up to %
Space cost savings of up to %
times capacity increase for Gigabit Ethernet ports

Cumulative effort savings for individual operations phases

Day 0 - Total effort savings

The FMO 1 and FMO 2 scenarios in the Day 0 phases incur upfront effort hours related to integration and initial training costs.

Day 1 - Total effort savings

Day 2+ Total effort savings

Effort savings for FMO scenarios

Total effort hours by job functions and associated tasks

Day 0 – Total effort hours by job functions and tasks

The FMO 1 and FMO 2 scenarios incur upfront effort hours related to integration and initial training costs
The design job function and associated tasks in the Day 0 phase require maximum effort compared to other job functions in the Day 0 phase. Design job functions include High Level Design (HLD) and Low level Design (LLD) related tasks.

Day 1 - Total effort hours by job functions and tasks

Day 2+ Total effort hours by job functions and tasks

Cumulative effort savings based on job roles

Ready to view more details on how much effort you could save?

Complete the form below to receive a comprehensive report with a more detailed analysis of the effort savings by job function and task for Day 0 design, Day 1 deployment, and Day 2+ operations. This report also provides more details of the features that contribute to higher effort savings for specific job functions and tasks during each phase of the fabric lifecycle.