Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR Series Switches vs Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches

• I haven't worked on many other brands of routers/switches, but I can say with certainty that Cisco's IOS network operating system is very well written. Using the question mark helps you find a command or complete its options very easily.
• Cisco's Catalyst documentation is superb and if you can't find what you're looking for there, you can find a ton of great blogs by certified Cisco engineers.
• Cisco may be notorious for creating their own proprietary protocols, but for every proprietary protocol they also support the industry standard protocols.
• Cisco Catalyst switches are genuine workhorses; we still have some switches on our network that are older than 10 years and still performing great!
• I like the way Catalyst implements vlans; very easy and straightforward
• I like the stacking capability of Catalyst. it's very easy to configure and you are now managing a single switch, composed of multiple switches

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• [Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches] provide[s] a stable, reliable switching platform. Typically I end up deploying these and once the configuration is dialed into what the need is I rarely ever have to bother with them again!
• Multi-speed interfaces are handy if you are using newer Cisco APs.
• StackPower cables give interesting power sharing options for 9300s living in the same space.

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• Cost. Always the downside with Cisco. The competition is cheaper.
• Tech support used to be incredible. It is above average now but not like it was 10+ years ago.
• Better support for third-party cables and SFP/SFP+ would be nice. I hate being warned in the logs that I'm not using a Cisco OEM accessory.
• I wish they could upgrade the stack without taking the whole stack offline. This is a real issue.

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• Ability to do routing network packets.
• Servers, printer and PCs have been able to connect to the each other via the Cisco Switch.
• The price a little bit high.
• Strong security, advanced QoS, comprehensive IPv6 support, Layer 3 static routing, and true stacking.

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• The organization was able to create a standardization of a single access switch model in our regional office and helped with equipment management.
• We've increased network security.
• We were able to connect WiFi access points without the need for an external source because they are power over ethernet.

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• The list price of the switch is almost equivalent to the cost for the previous Catalyst Switch models, which is good for the business financial plan.
• The dedicated management switch port is much easier for out-of-band management purposes.
• Catalyst 9300 is not compatible with the old switch model, which is a bit challenging for migration in some situations.

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