What users are saying about
21 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 9.5 out of 100
Based on 21 reviews and ratings
17 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 9.6 out of 100
Based on 17 reviews and ratings
Attribute Ratings
- Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches is rated higher in 1 area: Likelihood to Recommend
Likelihood to Recommend
9.4
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
94%
16 Ratings
9.5
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
95%
11 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
91%
3 Ratings
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
N/A
0 Ratings
Usability
8.6
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
86%
2 Ratings
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
N/A
0 Ratings
Support Rating
9.1
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
91%
4 Ratings
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
N/A
0 Ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
Cisco Catalyst [6800 Series] Switches provide good selection of models with various port densities and capabilities. We use Catalyst switches in most location in various functional setups. Chassis switches in Data Centers, stacks of multiple switches at many locations within campus, 24-48 port models at larger branches for routing and switching.
IT Infrastructure Planner/Architect
FortisBC Energy Inc.Utilities, 1001-5000 employees
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches are enterprise-class network core switches. They are not meant for small to medium size companies or satellite offices. These switches are useful to provide a highly available network backbone where all of your firewalls, edge routers, top-of-rack switches, and fabric interconnects can terminate on a scalable and secure network.
Senior Network Administrator
University HealthSystem ConsortiumHospital & Health Care, 1001-5000 employees
Pros
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
- In general Cisco Catalyst Switches are a nice piece of kit both in hardware and software.
- You can keep these guys running for years without nary a reboot necessary.
- Even if you have to reboot you have multiple fail overs and redundancies.

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employeesCisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
- Dual supervisors and up to 6 power supplies keep them running continuously.
- Multigig ports and a high throughput backplane keeps the data flowing as fast as users need.
Network Engineer II
Regional HealthHospital & Health Care, 1001-5000 employees
Cons
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
- There are some known bugs that cause interface errors and are listed as "cosmetic" and they do not plan to address them. This makes troubleshooting very difficult to determine what are real errors and what are cosmetic.
- We have had a few batches that get stuck in random reboots.
- Cisco foolishly has discontinued R&D for this line of Catalyst when they were finally showing some innovation that set them apart from other vendors.
Sr. System Engineer
Kent Intermediate School DistrictEducation Management, 501-1000 employees
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
- Software needs improvement, where features are added (Stack wise) or removed (GLBP) without solicitation from a wider audience or depreciation, respectively
- Software bugs recently in basic features like AAA
- Ability to turn off all unused services or features to reduce the attack surface
- Cisco CoPP functionality is not like it was on the Cat 6k platform - users cannot create custom policies for use at the control-plane interface

Verified User
Supervisor in Information Technology
Utilities Company, 10,001+ employeesPricing Details
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Likelihood to Renew
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches 9.1
Based on 3 answers
Because they work well at what they do. They are highly innovative with their hub and spoke firmware deployment. Once again Cisco was extremely stupid to stop R and D on them.
Sr. System Engineer
Kent Intermediate School DistrictEducation Management, 501-1000 employees
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches 8.6
Based on 2 answers
Cisco Catalyst switches are the standard for usability. The Cisco command line is 1 of 2 formats for a command line interface in the computer networking industry. They literally define the standard for the industry, so naturally the usability is going to be high -- simply because that's what everyone uses. I rated them as 9 because they have some consistency issues within the IOS for different versions/platforms.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Government Administration Company, 1001-5000 employeesCisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches 9.1
Based on 4 answers
They are easy to get a hold of and are very effective.

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Banking Company, 5001-10,000 employeesCisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
The Juniper lineup offers better pricing versus the Cisco line up but you do definitely lose some hardware prowess, and stability that you can count on with Cisco devices. Also the support is not as robust from Juniper as it can take longer and be more frustrating getting a support ticket going with them.

Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employeesCisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
We ran a proof of concept for HPE and Cisco switches. Cisco won out due to the following:
- Cisco's positive track record of previous Catalyst switch platforms we've had experience with (2900, 4500, 6500).
- Large TCAM space to support large ACLs used to lock down endpoint access.
- Cisco's community is large so it's typically easy to find answers online to questions we have about design, installation, or troubleshooting.
- Catalyst 9000 is a newer platform than Aruba's switches that were perceived as re-branded HP Procurve switches, which have been around longer. While we can't say for sure this will amount to better ROI, we certainly felt like we'd get more life out of the Cisco 9000s.
- ROI for Aruba Mobility Access Switches was low due to an unexpected EoS/EoL announcement, affecting our campus access switch deployment. This forced us to replace Aruba MAS switches sooner than expected, leaving a bad taste in our mouth.

Verified User
Technician in Information Technology
Insurance Company, 1001-5000 employeesReturn on Investment
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
- It's all about making the right choice in the right time. Let's face it - CISCO Catalyst switches are not cheap. But if you take the time to research and design your network the ROI rate will be faster than you imagine. Having a stable and scalable network is the most important aspect of Catayst - upgrading the core and backbone infrastructure allows you to push the older devices to the outer edges of the network or to new, under/undeveloped regions.
CIO (Chief Information Officer)
UltraNET LtdInformation Technology and Services, 51-200 employees
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
- Don't need to buy services - lifetime warranty
- Stability - even 10 year old devices are still running and doing the job
- Sometimes lines of products are on the market for a very short time (eg. 6800 instant access) - it is hard to buy equipment to make the network bigger.

Verified User
Team Lead in Information Technology
Oil & Energy Company, 10,001+ employees