Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches vs. Cisco FabricPath

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 FabricPath
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Cisco's FabricPath is a brand of LAN switch.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series SwitchesCisco FabricPath
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series SwitchesCisco FabricPath
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 FabricPath
Top Pros

No answers on this topic

Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Best Alternatives
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series SwitchesCisco FabricPath
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 Catalyst Switches
Cisco Catalyst Switches
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series SwitchesCisco FabricPath
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(60 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.7
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.9
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.9
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series SwitchesCisco FabricPath
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
Cisco FabricPath seems to be well suited for larger datacenters where you need the scalability and flexibility that's provided. We've been able to provide our customers with much more bandwidth than they previously had throughout our datacenter and with applications generating much more east/west traffic now rather than large volumes of north/south traffic FabricPath and the nexus switches have given us the ability to provide our customers with the bandwidth that's needed to serve today's applications.
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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
  • It scales fairly well.
  • It's been fairly easy for people to learn and work with.
  • It has simplified network administration by utilizing Fabric Extenders which are all configured from the same switch and treated as an extension of the switch rather than as a separate entity.
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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
  • We've had a few bugs that have caused random reloads of switches when modifying VLANS.
  • We've had a bug that reloaded an entire fabric at once.
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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
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cisco
I love them
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
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 answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
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
In comparison to Cisco ACI, Cisco Catalyst, and Juniper EX Switches the Nexus switches have stood their ground and we've been fairly happy with them. I like that similar to Cisco's ACI and the Juniper EX switches that I've worked with I can manage multiple chassis from one place. ACI can do this on a much larger scale though. I think Juniper limited the number of devices in a single virtual chassis to 10 or less depending on the device type. ACI can do a few hundred leafs plus their fabric extenders so if you're looking for one place to manage all your devices it can scale well beyond either the Cisco FP or Juniper EX series switches, but it also has a much steeper learning curve and completely different interface. The loop prevention built into FP has been a great improvement vs our old Catalyst switches.
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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
No answers on this topic
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
  • FabricPath is easy enough to learn that the adoption on the team has been fairly quick. This allows us to quickly troubleshoot and allows us to meet and beat SLAs that demand we maintain 99.99%+ uptime for our paying customers.
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