One of the best switch series available today from Cisco is the Catalyst 9300 Series [Switches]. They work as well as other Cisco enterprise products and are just as dependable. It's difficult to just turn these things on and forget about them with the new licensing model. After inserting the smart-licensing token into the switch, one of two options must be granted: internet access or no internet access. We will have to purchase three years of auto-renewing DNA licensing and licensing is a costly venture. Nonetheless, I have yet to encounter anything that I do not enjoy. Since the deployments, we've had a period of trouble-free operation.
[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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
We used HP ProCurves at our old office. They offered cheap switching, lots of ports, and lifetime warranties, but you realistically got what you paid for. They were often times confounding, and much more difficult to integrate together and with our firewalls. QoS was pretty much a lost cause on them. We also had many issues with dead ports. While they were covered under warranty, having to take an entire 48 port module offline to get the defective port replaced was quite cumbersome and caused some outages. The inability to push multiple VLAN's across a single port was also a huge impediment, necessitating two ports per cube, whereas we can accomplish the same thing with one port per desk with the Catalyst 9300's
The switching holds up well against HP, Extreme, Juniper, et. al at the edge. Cost is also a huge factor, and played a part in the purchase. Not just for the switches themselves, but also optics can be purchased at a discount. Service delivery has been fantastic, and in 3 years I've not had to replace any of the brocade switches I've purchased.
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
