Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches vs. Extreme Networks Wired Access - 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

If you have a big environment with a lot of edge switch needs and department groups, then Extreme's fabric connect can save a lot of management time. If your environment is small then you may want to stick with the traditional model since fabric connect costs more. Also if you make lots of configuration changes all the time then fabric connect will be helpful. Otherwise, making an occasional change you don't need fabric connect.

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

• Cloud management
• SFP+ uplinks
• Stacking capability
• Robust CLI

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

• Improved Extreme Management Console UI.
• More robust CLI auditing/logging.
• Easier log harvesting for adverse events.

Incentivized

There hasn't been a single problem with the code or hardware that hasn't been resolved in a timely fashion. You get technicians who know the product and who will work with you to get things fixed. That being said, I never ran into a problem with Cisco tech support either. I love that both groups were willing to teach me as they fixed things.

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

Foundry, HP, Cisco, Brocade. Extreme performance is equivalent or better without the price tag added just for their name

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

• Extreme [Ethernet Switches] have a long-life. You can easily get 7 years in main production life depending on when you buy in the product life-cycle.
• Extreme [Ethernet Switches] are expensive, no doubt, but we also don't have "weird" network problems or other issues with the network randomly going down.
• If you use fabric connect switches then the ease of managing many switches is of no concern.

Incentivized