Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches vs. Cisco Catalyst Switches

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Cisco offers the Catalyst 9500 series of campus 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 9500 Series SwitchesCisco Catalyst Switches
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Catalyst 9500 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 9500 Series SwitchesCisco Catalyst Switches
Considered Both Products
Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches

No answer on this topic

Cisco Catalyst Switches
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
9500s are feature rich than the 9400 and more suited for WAN
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Cisco Catalyst 9500 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 9500 Series SwitchesCisco Catalyst Switches
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(20 ratings)
9.1
(359 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.0
(3 ratings)
8.4
(17 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.7
(29 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.2
(8 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(7 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.6
(21 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.1
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(7 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(5 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(8 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(22 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.6
(23 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series SwitchesCisco Catalyst Switches
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
The [Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches] is very well suited for datacenter core and distribution models, they work very well as a replacement for the 3850 switches that many smaller organizations use for core switching. The Catalyst 9500 series switches also works very well as a top of rack aggregation switch for SFP and QSFP connectivity.
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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
  • Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches are capable of 10g/40g with a great selection of ports for these speeds.
  • The Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switch is a very capable piece of kit, supporting a lot of Cisco's new feature sets.
  • Cisco IOS is the gold standard for switch operating systems.
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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
  • Well the ACI, so the AP, the controller give us good chances to run everything, to configure everything. But the monitoring itself, it's not that easy. You need other products like Nexus dashboard or something else to do the monitoring. This is a little bit of a con. It's another technology so everyone has to think a little bit of others to adapt this knowledge and it takes two years I think for a technician to understand what ACI is really doing and what we can do with it.
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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
Based on the site load and requirements, the switches meets our processing and fiber ports requirements. Also they have great potential for future programmability options we are looking into.
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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
It has great potential. It can support 10, 40, 100 Gig ports. The chipset are high processing capabilities
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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
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
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
Cisco TAC engineers are very responsive and supportive.
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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
No answers on this topic
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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Implementation Rating
Cisco
No answers on this topic
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
The Catalyst 9400 was not out when we were looking at new core switches. We thought about using a Nexus 9k but neither were as good of a fit as the 9500. Between price and performance it was a no-brainer for us to look at the 9500. We have not nor in the future would we consider other brands for core switching.
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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
No answers on this topic
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
  • These switches did require a purchase of the DNA license on top of standard switch licensing, even if the functions are no needed in the environment.
  • The increased SFP & QSFP connectivity enabled for faster processing within our compute environment. While the system is too new to quantify the value added in this, it undeniably will help with its ROI.
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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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