So I had another large scale rollover last week. Removed a juniper router that was ancient, and replaced it with a new ASA. Once again, I was stuck with a question in my mind that I never have found an answer for. The Iboss I put in at the same time, made me finally come here and ask it.
Why do cisco routers and firewalls and the occasional other network device have all the ports on the back, but the switches have the ports on the front? Then to add to that, why do some of these routers and firewalls not have the appropriate mounting holes to flip them and move the ports to the front? The Iboss has all its ports on the back like a server and has no way to move the ears to the other side so that they face front short of drilling and tapping the case.
I have to admit, this annoys me greatly from a cable management standpoint to have 2-3 cables that have to go around the sides, between equipment in the middle of the rack, or over the top of the rack.
Is there any reasoning as to why they do this? Junipers have the ports on the front heck even fortinet has them on the front. and most others that I have dealt with do the same.
X399 Designare EX, Threadripper 1950x, Overkill Water 560mm dual pass radiator. Heatkiller IV Block Dual 960 EVO 500gb Raid 0 bootable, Quad Channel 64gb DDR4 @ 2933/15-16-16-31, RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra, Corsair RM850x, Tower 900