Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches vs. NETGEAR ProSafe Managed Switches

The [Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches] is very well suited for datacenter core and distribution models, they work very well as a replacement for the 3850 switches that many smaller organizations use for core switching. The Catalyst 9500 series switches also works very well as a top of rack aggregation switch for SFP and QSFP connectivity.

Incentivized

Well suited for a small business with minimal IT capital.

Incentivized

• Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches are capable of 10g/40g with a great selection of ports for these speeds.
• The Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switch is a very capable piece of kit, supporting a lot of Cisco's new feature sets.
• Cisco IOS is the gold standard for switch operating systems.

Incentivized

• The switches met the data transfer needs of a small business with about 30 users and 4 servers.
• The web interface was adequate for a business that didn't have the need to dive into a device with a CLI.
• These were wall mounted. Not the best network design, but small businesses cut corners. The mounting holes helped with this "solution".

Incentivized

• Well the ACI, so the AP, the controller give us good chances to run everything, to configure everything. But the monitoring itself, it's not that easy. You need other products like Nexus dashboard or something else to do the monitoring. This is a little bit of a con. It's another technology so everyone has to think a little bit of others to adapt this knowledge and it takes two years I think for a technician to understand what ACI is really doing and what we can do with it.

Incentivized

• Both switches were the same model number, same firmware. One switch needed to be rebooted about every 5 weeks. This problem was never resolved.

Incentivized

Based on the site load and requirements, the switches meets our processing and fiber ports requirements. Also they have great potential for future programmability options we are looking into.

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It has great potential. It can support 10, 40, 100 Gig ports. The chipset are high processing capabilities

Incentivized

Cisco TAC engineers are very responsive and supportive.

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The Catalyst 9400 was not out when we were looking at new core switches. We thought about using a Nexus 9k but neither were as good of a fit as the 9500. Between price and performance it was a no-brainer for us to look at the 9500. We have not nor in the future would we consider other brands for core switching.

The NetGear switches are definitely entry-level switches. They don't have the functionality (or cost) of Dell, HP, nor Cisco. But for the money, a business that is just starting out can't complain.

Incentivized

• These switches did require a purchase of the DNA license on top of standard switch licensing, even if the functions are no needed in the environment.
• The increased SFP & QSFP connectivity enabled for faster processing within our compute environment. While the system is too new to quantify the value added in this, it undeniably will help with its ROI.

Incentivized

• The NetGear switches made a positive impact as entry level switches for a startup company.

Incentivized