Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Switches

Likelihood to Recommend

I can't think of any situation where you would not want to use this type of switch. Once installed, it did not take long to see a company-wide improvement in throughput. By comparison, our old system seemed to have a choke, it was slow. The upfront cost for the hardware and management will pay for itself through increased productivity. We should have realized this years ago and made the update to our equipment.

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mike nugent

Quality Manager

BC SystemsMilitary, 51-200 employees

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Still highly recommend this switch over others. Scalability makes these a great choice. Setup and ease of use make the switches something you can implement very quickly with little downtime. Despite the licensing portion, still highly recommend it.

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Lochan Kalicharan

Desktop Support Specialist

Mount Sinai Health SystemMedical Practice, 10,001+ employees

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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.

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Zakarieya Abderoef

Solutions Architect

Baraka Technology GroupInformation Technology and Services, 51-200 employees

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Support of VLAN architecture that in our environment is somewhat complicated
Interface well with Fiber backbone provided by third party
Secure configuration and operation of network infrastructure
Uptime has been outstanding with no outages noted

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Verified User

Executive in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 201-500 employees

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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.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

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

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The annual support can be a killer for some organizations; buying a hot spare can be more feasible
BOM for units should be clearer for the procurement teams
Firmware upgrades could be simplified for mid-level techs

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Verified User

Professional in Information Technology

Oil & Energy Company, 201-500 employees

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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.

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Ryhlen Schoeberl

Systems Administrator II

Vast BroadbandTelecommunications, 201-500 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

* Arista Switches** Arista switches are great, don't get me wrong, but the lack of PoE support, the lack of stacking, has really hindered their entry way into the campus market, 99% of my use cases are campus switching for end users, not data center, in this market, cisco wins hands down every time.

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Dustin Reeves

Network Engineer

Wilks Brothers LLCOil & Energy, 1001-5000 employees

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They have more robust protocols; also you don't need to pay subscription. Pretty much those switches are configured once.

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David Orellana

IT Network Specialist

Wood's HomesNon-profit Organization Management, 201-500 employees

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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.

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Andrew Yudin, MBA/CCNP

Principal Network and Security Engineer

Cheetah DigitalMarketing & Advertising, 1001-5000 employees

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The switch is very reliable and for that reason, the operation of a business is very stable and without interruptions.
Because it is relatively easy to use, the organization doesn't need very highly qualified engineers.
Because of is high price, it is not so good ROI.

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Daniel García Arias

CCIE/CISSP, ISO/IEC 27001 Administrador de Seguridad y Riesgo & Gerente de SOC

TI-AmericaTelecommunications, 51-200 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Entry-level set up fee?

No

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Switches