Cisco 550X Series Stackable Managed Switches vs. Cisco Catalyst IE9300 Rugged Series Switches

It works very well as stack of core switches in small/medium company with 4x 10Gbit SFP+ interfaces. Native stacking is simple and in ring topology every switch has 2 redundant connections. They support maximum of 8 units per stack. You could use Cisco SG500X in hybrid stack with other series of switches, but make sure if other switch is compatible with hybrid mode stacking. Hybrid stack mode lower the number of units in stack. You should consider other model of switches if you need more then four SFP+ ports to connect more access switches using fiber cables.

Incentivized

As the Cisco Catalyst IE9300 Rugged Series Switches do not come with a fan, it is really good for the environment that requires quietness, as these switches are super quiet, not even with any air flow noise. Of course, if you are going to deploy it to a hot, humid environment, that's a no brainer. Plus, those switches have some built-in POE ports that make them quite handy for connecting PoE CCTV cameras and VoIP phones

Incentivized

• Easy to create stacking
• Easy to configure using web interface or command line
• Similar command line to Cisco IOS

Incentivized

• First of all, if I encounter something, it's really easy for me to find an answer from Google. That's because that's a very famous company, lots of people using that. And for example, what if we have a bot or something? Hard questions, hard problems. It's really easy to find out from the outside world because everybody use it.

Incentivized

• Missing command line options like show running-config "| include, exlude"
• Possibility to connect to switch using usb console cable or usb dongle
• Missing vtp protocol support, only gvrp available

Incentivized

• we identified an unpublished bug that the devices are all generating the same engine id for snmp v3, hence could not get the snmp v3 working on all of the devices.
• for improvement, maybe Cisco can introduce some edge computing or AI driven diagnostics to preemptively flag network anomalies.
• we bought the 24 port version of the switches 9320, it would be good to introduce some switches modules that can easily get the switch port density upgrade in case we need to have more, rather than buying a whole new switch.

Incentivized

its slightly frustrating that even the AC power supplies which are using normal power ranges, still require a licensed electrician to complete the first time connections, and that the power modules are hot swappable from the rear, so ensuring front and rear access is a must for long term servicing of the unit. Other than those draw backs the Cisco Catalyst IE9300 Rugged Series Switches is fantastic and integrates into our SDA fabric

Incentivized

Cisco 550X switches stack using 10Gbit SFP+ ports on the front, while Dell N Series has dedicated ports (with cables) on the back of the unit. On the other hand dell N switches has number on small digital display showing stack member number, which is easier to identify. The cisco switches has dot beside the number of the switch member. I think Cisco devices are more reliable and stable than dell switches.

Incentivized

Compared to the Cisco Industrial Ethernet switch IE2000, those Catalyst Industrial IE9300 switches provide high port density, 24 ports vs 8 ports on the Cisco Industrial Ethernet switch IE2000, PoE functions with high PoE budget without any external power injectors, more flexible with the uplink ports (4x1GSFPs), can be fibered up, and of course in that case, higher throughput

Incentivized

• Money savings as they are cheaper than competative Cisco IOS switches
• Cisco Business Switches has limited lifetime warranty
• Good switching capacity, and reliability

Incentivized

• it reduces downtime in our harsh environment, cutting down manual maintenance cost
• the built-in PoE eliminated the external power supplies, lowering deployment cost
• operational continuity makes us more stick to the SLAs contracted with our customers, which support revenue retention.

Incentivized