Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches vs. Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Switches

Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches are well suited for data closets in today’s ever expanding network system requirements. Today’s businesses rely on stable, fast, and highly available data connectivity. Businesses perform at such a quick pace now and the need to consume data resources is an integral part of most every business function. There can no longer be outages. Slow data connectivity and sluggish system response is directly related to business success. The Cisco Catalyst platform has provided our company with a network foundation that is fast and reliable so that the business can concentrate on what they do best.

Incentivized

Even with the higher price point compared to other vendors, we highly recommend [Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Switches] to all of our clients. These switches are built to last. [They] make network management very easy and will benefit any business in the long run. Cisco stands behind its product. It is very easy to add additional switches as a network grows.

Incentivized

• The Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches provide reliable connectivity for multiple client device types whether computers, phones, wireless access points, etc.
• The Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches has deployment flexibility from traditional IOS-XE deployments to Cisco Catalyst SD-Access and now Meraki monitored solutions.
• Multiple switch models allow us to customize each data closet deployment to exactly fit the port density and power-over-Ethernet requirements.

Incentivized

• Cisco Catalyst Switches are very easy to use and manage.
• Cisco support it top notch.
• Very easy to scale up as [the] network infrastructure grows.

Incentivized

• 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

Incentivized

• Programming is different from other providers; this has caused some issues with staffing
• The training opportunities do not provide the basics of programming or migration from other vendors' products.
• Unless you are willing to purchase renewed switches, cost can be out of line with other vendors

Incentivized

The Catalyst switches definitely have a more robust feature set than the Meraki switches but the Meraki switches are intended for a different use case than the Catalyst switches. We used Catalyst switches in our wiring closets because they fit in better with the topology and feature sets that we wanted to deploy.

Incentivized

Cisco is top of the class when it comes to comparing them to other vendors in the network hardware environment. They may have a higher price-point, but they justify it with great support and a very long lifecycle.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• [There is a] high price point, but [Cisco Catalyst Series Switches] will save [you] in the long run because these switches are reliable and last a very long time.
• Cisco offers very good support so you can depend on them to keep everything running smoothly.
• Once techs are trained on Cisco devices, they will be able to save time making changes to networks.

Incentivized