Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches

Likelihood to Recommend

There are so many scenarios where Cisco Catalyst Switches are well suited like if the switch needs to move multiple frames in the same port, switch the frames directly to the memory, sending them one at a time, thus avoiding collisions. Selecting specific endpoints prevents Ethernet collisions from happening. The switch is very secure, as it makes any hole directly in contact with any other port. The cost of the number of ports is relatively high.

Read full review

Chetan Swaroop

Executive Assistant

MultitechserversInformation Technology & Services, 11-50 employees

View all 64 answers on this topic

Cisco Catalyst [6800 Series] Switches provide good selection of models with various port densities and capabilities. We use Catalyst switches in most location in various functional setups. Chassis switches in Data Centers, stacks of multiple switches at many locations within campus, 24-48 port models at larger branches for routing and switching.

Read full review

Jurek Plona

IT Infrastructure Planner/Architect

FortisBC Energy Inc.Utilities, 1001-5000 employees

View all 16 answers on this topic

Pros

Stability and Reliability - We have not had many failures over the past years using Cisco Catalyst switches.
Flexibility - Cisco Catalyst switches offers a wide portfolio of switching equipment which can address a variety of needs. This includes switches with stacking and non-stacking capability, fixed rackmount and chassis options which can be mounted in data centre racks and and also compact switching which may be more feasible for small SOHO offices.
Scalable Performance - Cisco Catalyst switches offers various port speeds from 1Gbps 10Gbps, 100Gbps etc. This is available in both copper (RJ45) and fibre (SFP). Many models also offer a variety of uplink speed options which future proofs the invest in Cisco technologies allowing us to upgrade depending on our changing business requirements and available budgets.

Read full review

Zakarieya Abderoef

Solutions Architect

Baraka Technology GroupInformation Technology and Services, 51-200 employees

View all 64 answers on this topic

In general Cisco Catalyst Switches are a nice piece of kit both in hardware and software.
You can keep these guys running for years without nary a reboot necessary.
Even if you have to reboot you have multiple fail overs and redundancies.

Read full review

Verified User

Manager in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employees

View all 16 answers on this topic

Cons

Would like to see a second power supply so it can get power from two different sources.
Hard to find a USB flash drive that will work when loading images for upgrade.
IOS upgrades are a pain to perform. Upgrades should be an easy process. Would like to perform the upgrade through a web browser.

Read full review

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Transportation/Trucking/Railroad Company, 10,001+ employees

View all 64 answers on this topic

There are some known bugs that cause interface errors and are listed as "cosmetic" and they do not plan to address them. This makes troubleshooting very difficult to determine what are real errors and what are cosmetic.
We have had a few batches that get stuck in random reboots.
Cisco foolishly has discontinued R&D for this line of Catalyst when they were finally showing some innovation that set them apart from other vendors.

Read full review

Tim Lillis

Sr. System Engineer

Kent Intermediate School DistrictEducation Management, 501-1000 employees

View all 16 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

—

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

—

Likelihood to Renew

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches 9.1

Based on 3 answers

Because they work well at what they do. They are highly innovative with their hub and spoke firmware deployment. Once again Cisco was extremely stupid to stop R and D on them.

Read full review

Tim Lillis

Sr. System Engineer

Kent Intermediate School DistrictEducation Management, 501-1000 employees

View all 3 answers on this topic

Usability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches 8.6

Based on 2 answers

Cisco Catalyst switches are the standard for usability. The Cisco command line is 1 of 2 formats for a command line interface in the computer networking industry. They literally define the standard for the industry, so naturally the usability is going to be high -- simply because that's what everyone uses. I rated them as 9 because they have some consistency issues within the IOS for different versions/platforms.

Read full review

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 1001-5000 employees

View all 2 answers on this topic

Support Rating

Cisco Catalyst Switches 9.0

Based on 1 answer

We rarely have issues with the product. I have only had to contact support one time since we put it in and that was to see if another vendor was giving me accurate information on an issue I was having.

Read full review

Ryhlen Schoeberl

Systems Administrator II

Vast BroadbandTelecommunications, 201-500 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches 9.1

Based on 4 answers

They are easy to get a hold of and are very effective.

Read full review

Verified User

Manager in Information Technology

Banking Company, 5001-10,000 employees

View all 4 answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

D-Link switches are nice switches with many features. They are also less expensive as compared with other options in the market. However, they are not built to handle large amounts of traffic in large enterprise networks or ISPs networks. Cisco Catalyst switches on the other hand are enterprise-grade switches which perform really well under heavy loads.

Read full review

Umair Ali Khan

Network Administrator

Pak Suzuki Motor CompanyAutomotive, 1001-5000 employees

View all 64 answers on this topic

The Juniper lineup offers better pricing versus the Cisco line up but you do definitely lose some hardware prowess, and stability that you can count on with Cisco devices. Also the support is not as robust from Juniper as it can take longer and be more frustrating getting a support ticket going with them.

Read full review

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employees

View all 16 answers on this topic

Return on Investment

Cisco catalyst switches have allowed our networks to run smoothly with no interruptions.
These switches are scalable so we were able to add more switches as needed, without interrupting the network activity.
Automation techniques allowed us to deploy configuration with minimum effort.

Read full review

Andrew Yudin, MBA/CCNP

Principal Network and Security Engineer

Cheetah DigitalMarketing & Advertising, 1001-5000 employees

View all 64 answers on this topic

It's all about making the right choice in the right time. Let's face it - CISCO Catalyst switches are not cheap. But if you take the time to research and design your network the ROI rate will be faster than you imagine. Having a stable and scalable network is the most important aspect of Catayst - upgrading the core and backbone infrastructure allows you to push the older devices to the outer edges of the network or to new, under/undeveloped regions.

Read full review

Ivan Tushev

CIO (Chief Information Officer)

UltraNET LtdInformation Technology and Services, 51-200 employees

View all 16 answers on this topic

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches