Build up a network project cost: hardware, licences, cabling, installation labour, contingency and cost per port.
Project cost is a sum of four independent buckets, and contingency is applied to the subtotal rather than to hardware alone because labour and cabling overruns are the more common surprise. Normalising by port count gives the figure that makes competing designs comparable. Cost per port is the number procurement and finance actually compare, and it is the only way to show that a cheaper switch with fewer ports is not cheaper at all.
Network Cost
total = (units × (hardware + licence)) + cabling + (labour hours × rate), plus a contingency percentage of that subtotal.
total = (units × (hardware + licence)) + cabling + (labour hours × rate), plus a contingency percentage of that subtotal. Project cost is a sum of four independent buckets, and contingency is applied to the subtotal rather than to hardware alone because labour and cabling overruns are the more common surprise. Normalising by port count gives the figure that makes competing designs comparable.
Cost per port is the number procurement and finance actually compare, and it is the only way to show that a cheaper switch with fewer ports is not cheaper at all.
This calculator takes 8 inputs: Switches or nodes, Hardware cost per unit, Ports per unit, Software licence per unit, Cabling and optics, Installation labour, Labour rate, Contingency. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.