Cost, size, and complexity.
Cost: The 5009 is roughly 3x the cost of a hEX S. I don’t expect something for nothing, but that’s a big delta to swing.
Size: I don’t often need 9-11 ports of that series of devices. The 5-6 of the hEX line will do for most of my use cases. I like that the 5009 runs cooler than the 4011, but cutting it in half would improve that even more.
Complexity: The 4x rackability feature is cute, but I’ll never use it. The 2.5G port also bugs me. I think by the time I find a use for that port, I’ll be on 10G everything. It’s a temporary stop-gap that will quickly find its way into the dustbin of history.
Mind you, I do like a lot of what they did with the 5009 relative to the 4011, but what I really want is a half-4011 with an option for external storage. That’s “half” across the board: half the cost, half the power consumption, and half the size. I realize there are fixed overheads and inelastic costs involved, so I’ll bend on the “half price” point; $149? I’ll tolerate a reduction to 2 cores to get it.
Another way to approach the solution would be to invert the CRS305 and add some CPU grunt. Instead of one 1G port and four 10G ports, gimme one SFP+ 10G port and four 1G RJ45s. Double the cores, and I’ll be reasonably happy, even at 800 MHz.
To bring us back on topic, look on this proposal as a badass Raspberry Pi replacement with strong networking, to replace all those headless Pi boards sitting around doing networky stuff despite the crappy networking subsystem they’re saddled with. (Thus Docker.)
If you wonder why I want that 10G port, it’s so each 1G port effectively gets a dedicated lane back to the 10G core switch. Although that means the device needs only enough CPU grunt to fill 4-5G with routing and queuing and such, not a full 10G, with Docker, there’s on-device traffic to account for as well. I’d expect the box to be able to fill a 10G pipe, at least under limited circumstances.
There should also be a low-cost option closer to the current hEX S in price, while still moving to ARM. Swapping the 10G SFP+ port for a 1G SFP and dropping the CPU power accordingly may swing the deal. I’d expect that to be even more popular than my dream box. People talk a lot about the Pi price of $35, but add a case, power supply, heat sinks, and all the other little doodads, and you’re nearing $69. A Docker-capable Improved hEX S (RB760iGSr2?) would be a wee killer of a machine.
