Likelihood to Recommend So in every scenario where you have to take one port and create, make it so that you can have more devices connected. So there will be like in a normal office area where you have an internet connection and you have to have 40 or 20 clients connected. That's where definitely Catalyst Switches becomes a very important part of this. The whole thing, scenarios where it's not very usable, I can't really see a scenario where you wouldn't be needing a switch to. There would be a very unlikely scenario because mostly you would need to connect more than one device to a router or something like that. So you would need to have a switch scenario I would say. Then it would be in some sort of scenario where you only had a need to have a directly connection to a router or something else where you wouldn't need to have more ports. So like a peer to peer connection or something like that. But I can't really see any other scenario where wouldn't you wouldn't be needing a switch.
Read full review It has worked great for our emergency vehicles and mobile remote dispatch stations. We did have them at other bases as secondary internet access in the event of failure of our fiber, but I have found that is not as useful as we thought it may have been. I have temporarily disabled cellular on those devices and just did not have the need for it.
Read full review Pros I think the switch is a fast switch. What we also admire about it is the enhanced power over ethernet functionality. It has higher power levels to be used for wireless, for other products that use the power over ethernet, the quick uplinks, 10 gig uplinks, the possibility to run other applications on it, like a thousand eyes clients, and so on. Read full review Ease of setup. After the SIM card is installed, you can have the device up in a matter of minutes. Central management using NetCloud. You get the bang for your buck. Read full review Cons Smaller devices are always preferred due to high mobility needs. Would benefit from having console cables provided with networking devices instead of separate purchase. Transit case options for larger devices would benefit and keep us from having to source outside vendors for support. Read full review Throughput was not great compared to similar solutions with same sim cards. Paid management portal. Overly complicated setup mainly due to the paid management portal. Read full review Likelihood to Renew They are consistently reliable and this switch in particular is a very affordable solution. We can place the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series Switches gear in areas that we normally would not place a switch because it is affordable enough to make it justifiable. And because it is a reliable solution, we are confident it will continue to provide service over the long haul.
Read full review I have been using some type of device like this for a very long time. We have and will maintain the need for this and have no immediate plan to make any change from Cradlepoint Routers. They have been very solid. These devices are a bit pricey, however worth the money as they always work and are reliable and save IT staff time.
Read full review Usability The usability will feel natural to frequent Cisco users and a bit harder to navigate if you're new to the system. If you're limited to a small rack, maybe even in a not climate controlled environment the fan-less models with less energy consumption are a pro. With PoE you can deploy your network hardware anywhere you have a network socket: Thin Clients, APs, Sensors, you name it. The integrated power monitoring tells you how much power each client consumes and how much you have left.
Read full review Reliability and Availability We have had very few unplanned outages with all of our Cisco Catalyst products. The biggest issue I have seen is when a device has been powered on for a very long time and it gets powered off and reused later. Sometimes, the switch will not come back up. In most cases, these are switches that are way past end of life. I can't say we have really seen any other issues with the availability of the Catalyst family of switches
Read full review Performance No, the packets flow. Sometimes you will see collisions and broadcast storms can happen which will slow performance but that can be fixed and the packets will flow.
Read full review Support Rating So far we haven't had very many support issues with our Catalyst switches. When we have had issues TAC is always a pleasure to work with. They're prompt, knowledgeable, and take ownership of the case from open to close. Also, this isn't attributed to Cisco support directly. But because they are so widely known and have such a great market share you can find a solution to almost any issue with a quick internet search.
Read full review It has always been a pleasure working with that team. They always go above and beyond with getting the device working as you need it to work and are always willing to explain and answer any questions.
Read full review In-Person Training I prefer in person training. For me I understand things and the ability to ask someone helps. This particular training was a large class and it was a bit busy. However, I do prefer in person training to online. I have taken many online courses, and while they do offer a lot more info at an affordable price, there is sometimes a place for the personal touch.
Read full review Implementation Rating We upgraded from an older catalyst model to a newer one. The implementation was pretty much seamless as the newer switches supported all the features as the old ones. These features included OSPF, HSRP, MPLS, LDP, MP-BGP, etc. One issue we say with the newer switches was that the buffers needed to be tuned. The default settings were dropping packets to a slower link. Once we change the 'qos softmax' command settings, we were able to resolve that issue.
Read full review Alternatives Considered If I were to compare the Catalyst to the Meraki, I do feel more secure about the Catalyst, as Meraki was not originally a cisco product and was acquired. So, from the point of security and dependability, the Catalyst is a winner.
Read full review I have not used a cellular router before this, so I can't compare.
I am however familiar with Cradlepoint as designing components for Emergency Responders to keep them connected and online while dispatched. That was a deciding factor for us. We wanted something heavy duty and reliable.
Jeff Allen Director of Information Technology ★ Strengthening IT Operations through Processes and Programs
Read full review Scalability The product line is very complete and flexible. Supporting anything from small to larger modular solutions. Need PoE? Need 25Gb or faster fiber? Catalyst has you covered in all areas we can think of. Compact form factor? Industrial use? Cisco Catalyst has something that fits any scenario. And we can expect the same features, configuration and integrations to work no matter what.
Read full review Return on Investment energy costs dropped by around 11 per cent on the access layer management has become easier with DNA Center ISSU software upgrades and fabric deployments have significantly reduced "planned" down times network speed has increased, latency is at an all-time best within our own LAN Read full review For the price I don't think it effectively "wow'd" the client. Throughput caused our network service to not be fully utilized. Read full review ScreenShots Cisco Catalyst Switches Screenshots