On 2016-03-22 2:04 AM, James Salsman wrote:
Are the FreeBSD-based pfSense C2758 series in the
Foundation's throughput tier?
[...]
That looks like decent mid-range gear, but definitely not the the
hardware-supported levels needed to support operations.
What are the current Foundation throughput bandwidth
requirements?
Big. :-) I'm not the best one to ask for those details as I've had
very little involvement in the networking side of ops; Faidon or Mark
would be your best bet there.
But, to be honest, I think this is besides the point: I'm not arguing
that specific piece of gear X or Y needs or should not be replaced with
a possible FLOSS-only alternative; but that *attempting* to do so is a
difficult, expensive, and manpower-hungry endeavor whether you succeed
or not.
There are things where that investment is worthwhile - or even
necessary. There are other things where doing so is at best a waste of
donors' money (especially for one-offs or accessory parts of what the
Foundation does that impact how the work is done rather than the projects).
A good example might be our videoconferencing software. The Foundation
uses Google Hangouts a lot. Nowadays, for bigger meetings, Bluejeans
has been added to the list. At (very) regular interval, someone in
engineering does another round of testing of FLOSS videoconferencing
alternatives, because it irks many of us that we rely on proprietary
solutions - and every time to date the result is that none will work to
cover our use cases properly.
In the end, there are three only choices: (a) pick an inexpensive
proprietary solution that does the job, (b) make our own (or participate
in making it), or (c) do without. When doing without would prevent the
staff from doing the job, that doesn't leave very many options.
-- Coren / Marc