Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
Cisco offers the Catalyst 9300 series of stackable LAN switches.N/A
Cisco Catalyst Switches
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Cisco's Catalyst is one of that company's brand of network switches.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series SwitchesCisco Catalyst Switches
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series SwitchesCisco Catalyst Switches
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series SwitchesCisco Catalyst Switches
Considered Both Products
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches

No answer on this topic

Cisco Catalyst Switches
Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
Reliable, easy of management.
Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
I believe Cisco is a market leader with a strong reputation for delivering reliable networking solutions. The Catalyst series is widely adopted in enterprise settings. Cisco also provides a global network of certified partners and offers comprehensive support and services, …
Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
These family of devices work extremely well for our military operations. I am sure there are other devices that I am forgetting at the moment that we use along with these and all of them get the job done.
Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
The cisco switches has a better MTBF, more stable software and better support but are alot pricier
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series SwitchesCisco Catalyst Switches
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches
Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches
Score 9.1 out of 10
Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches
Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Catalyst Switches
Cisco Catalyst Switches
Score 9.0 out of 10
Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series SwitchesCisco Catalyst Switches
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(60 ratings)
9.1
(359 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.7
(7 ratings)
8.4
(17 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(3 ratings)
9.7
(29 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.2
(8 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.4
(7 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(9 ratings)
8.6
(21 ratings)
In-Person Training
7.3
(1 ratings)
7.1
(2 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.2
(1 ratings)
8.6
(7 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(2 ratings)
10.0
(5 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.2
(1 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.3
(1 ratings)
9.4
(8 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.9
(6 ratings)
9.0
(22 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.9
(6 ratings)
8.6
(23 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series SwitchesCisco Catalyst Switches
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches are well suited for your small to large enterprise campus networks where high performance, scalability, and reliability are critical. The modular design of Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches allows for easy expansion, and features like stacking enable simplified management. The PoE capabilities are ideal for scenarios where powering IP phones, CCTV cameras, and wireless access points.
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Cisco
So in every scenario where you have to take one port and create, make it so that you can have more devices connected. So there will be like in a normal office area where you have an internet connection and you have to have 40 or 20 clients connected. That's where definitely Catalyst Switches becomes a very important part of this. The whole thing, scenarios where it's not very usable, I can't really see a scenario where you wouldn't be needing a switch to. There would be a very unlikely scenario because mostly you would need to connect more than one device to a router or something like that. So you would need to have a switch scenario I would say. Then it would be in some sort of scenario where you only had a need to have a directly connection to a router or something else where you wouldn't need to have more ports. So like a peer to peer connection or something like that. But I can't really see any other scenario where wouldn't you wouldn't be needing a switch.
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Pros
Cisco
  • Great hardware. I've hardly had a device fail due to hardware.
  • Throughput. These devices handle quite a bit of processing power.
  • Extreme conditions. We have 9300s in NEMA cabinets that reach well into the 110 range and beyond.
  • Very diverse. These devices can be placed in an office IDF, outside in a NEMA cabinet, or in an MDF.
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Cisco
  • I think the switch is a fast switch. What we also admire about it is the enhanced power over ethernet functionality. It has higher power levels to be used for wireless, for other products that use the power over ethernet, the quick uplinks, 10 gig uplinks, the possibility to run other applications on it, like a thousand eyes clients, and so on.
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Cons
Cisco
  • One of the things that I would like to see is in the Meraki space, Meraki is a little behind compared to Catalyst because Meraki provides weeks of traffic segregation. That's one of the pain points that we are facing right now. But overall we say that Meraki is comparatively cheaper than the Catalyst. So that could be one of the advantages of that.
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Cisco
  • Smaller devices are always preferred due to high mobility needs.
  • Would benefit from having console cables provided with networking devices instead of separate purchase.
  • Transit case options for larger devices would benefit and keep us from having to source outside vendors for support.
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
Catalyst isn't even the family, it's bigger than that. The current "family" is the catalyst 9000 series. And Cisco keeps pushing the edge of the envelope with each new family.
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Cisco
They are consistently reliable and this switch in particular is a very affordable solution. We can place the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series Switches gear in areas that we normally would not place a switch because it is affordable enough to make it justifiable. And because it is a reliable solution, we are confident it will continue to provide service over the long haul.
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Usability
Cisco
I love them
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Cisco
The usability will feel natural to frequent Cisco users and a bit harder to navigate if you're new to the system. If you're limited to a small rack, maybe even in a not climate controlled environment the fan-less models with less energy consumption are a pro. With PoE you can deploy your network hardware anywhere you have a network socket: Thin Clients, APs, Sensors, you name it. The integrated power monitoring tells you how much power each client consumes and how much you have left.
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Reliability and Availability
Cisco
If you install the C9300 as a switch stack, the availability is amazing. This can even be a power stack setup, where the chassis power supplies can provide power redundancy for the other member switch chassis.
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Cisco
We have had very few unplanned outages with all of our Cisco Catalyst products. The biggest issue I have seen is when a device has been powered on for a very long time and it gets powered off and reused later. Sometimes, the switch will not come back up. In most cases, these are switches that are way past end of life. I can't say we have really seen any other issues with the availability of the Catalyst family of switches
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Performance
Cisco
The C9300 is surfficiently spec'ed to support all the features it provides. We haven't yet experienced any hardware limitations, unless there's a loop in the network, which spanning-tree should take care of anyway
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Cisco
No, the packets flow. Sometimes you will see collisions and broadcast storms can happen which will slow performance but that can be fixed and the packets will flow.
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Support Rating
Cisco
Honestly it really depends on who is going to take your case. You may need to contact your Cisco account manager if you don't get good support from the TAC.
Lately the 3850 and 9300 switches are affected by several bugs and sometimes it is frustrating when it's faster if you research the problem by yourself instead of rely on Cisco support. On the other hand I found also some really talented people in the cisco support team.
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Cisco
So far we haven't had very many support issues with our Catalyst switches. When we have had issues TAC is always a pleasure to work with. They're prompt, knowledgeable, and take ownership of the case from open to close. Also, this isn't attributed to Cisco support directly. But because they are so widely known and have such a great market share you can find a solution to almost any issue with a quick internet search.
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In-Person Training
Cisco
Cisco Networking Academy partners with many local Colleges and High Schools to provide great hands-on training. You do need to drive to learn the topic. The in-class session only go so far. You really need to apply this to the real world. Cisco makes it easy for business to connect via CLC or Cisco Learning Credits.
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Cisco
I prefer in person training. For me I understand things and the ability to ask someone helps. This particular training was a large class and it was a bit busy. However, I do prefer in person training to online. I have taken many online courses, and while they do offer a lot more info at an affordable price, there is sometimes a place for the personal touch.
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Online Training
Cisco
Our training for Cisco switches came from a third party instructor, e.g. CBT Nuggets. This was general training on switches and not in particular only the C9300 series. Nevertheless any hands-on experience from any other Cisco switching platform, will make you feel very acquainted with the C9300. The new switch platform just enables more perfomance and features.
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Cisco
It's essential to spend a few weeks on a Proof of Concept/Value test, to ensure that the equipment is ready for production. It's extremely hard to revert back to older hardware later. This testing period will also be a great opportunity for hardware burn-in, which will reveal any potential hardware failure due to production defects, etc
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Cisco
We upgraded from an older catalyst model to a newer one. The implementation was pretty much seamless as the newer switches supported all the features as the old ones. These features included OSPF, HSRP, MPLS, LDP, MP-BGP, etc. One issue we say with the newer switches was that the buffers needed to be tuned. The default settings were dropping packets to a slower link. Once we change the 'qos softmax' command settings, we were able to resolve that issue.
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Alternatives Considered
Cisco
We do have other vendors. For example, Juniper, Fortinet, and there are quite a few others. And Cisco is pretty good because we know the workflow, we know how the operating system works. We are much more familiar with Cisco products and we know the support system behind it. So in terms of comparing with others, I think it stands out. It's one of our top products to go to
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Cisco
If I were to compare the Catalyst to the Meraki, I do feel more secure about the Catalyst, as Meraki was not originally a cisco product and was acquired. So, from the point of security and dependability, the Catalyst is a winner.
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Scalability
Cisco
It seems like a very robust platform, which Cisco is constantly evolving with new features and possibilities. The standard network module gives the opportunity to customize the uplink interfaces, in both bandwidth and SFP type
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Cisco
The product line is very complete and flexible. Supporting anything from small to larger modular solutions. Need PoE? Need 25Gb or faster fiber? Catalyst has you covered in all areas we can think of. Compact form factor? Industrial use? Cisco Catalyst has something that fits any scenario. And we can expect the same features, configuration and integrations to work no matter what.
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Return on Investment
Cisco
  • Stability, uptime, and the way Catalyst implements VLANs are straightforward, which I appreciate.
  • Depending on the cabling requirements of the devices, different modules can connect them. Modules for the Catalyst 9300 series switches offer impressive flexibility.
  • This is priceless because it makes setup and operation so simple. It works with the DNA center for automation and dependability.
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Cisco
  • energy costs dropped by around 11 per cent on the access layer
  • management has become easier with DNA Center
  • ISSU software upgrades and fabric deployments have significantly reduced "planned" down times
  • network speed has increased, latency is at an all-time best within our own LAN
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ScreenShots

Cisco Catalyst Switches Screenshots

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