Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR Series Switches Reviews

The scenario basically consists of more than 30 [Cisco] Catalyst 2960[-X/XR Series] Switches with PoE and are spread over several racks. There is segmentation by vlan by specific departments to avoid broadcast. The switches have a lot of performance, speed and very interesting security features that prevent, for example: arp spoofing, dhscp snopping, acls and others.

[Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR Series Switches] are exceptionally great user level switches and work fantastic at this. Some of the higher end catalyst switches are better for the datacenter but for me I have had better luck using the nexus switches for top of rack switches in my core data center due to the better features and advanced routing capabilities.

I would say that any medium to large organization could see the benefit to the deployment of the Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR Series Switches if they can meet one of two criteria. Either

1. Have a staff member that is familiar with the CCS environment and programming
2. Or have the ability to allow a staff member to devote the time to develop this skill set.

In our case a staff member was able to translate knowledge and experience of using another manufacturer's switch environment, and within a three-month period be self sufficient in deploying and supporting the Cisco Catalyst Switch environment. All things considered, I see this as a win for both the staff member and the organization. The staff member who had an opportunity to grow and the organization is being served by more robust equipment/environment.

Great option for a stand alone switch or when you dont need to make changes often, if you do need to make changes often you might want to check other options with an intuitive web interface.
Even when we use it as core switch, it is not recommended for this tasks since it lacks power supply redundancy.

A Cisco Catalyst Switch is well suited on networks were you require a large number of VLANs or subnets, networks that are serving a large number of customers and that require daily or weekly changes e.g. a business center. The CLI access will allow administrators familiar with it to implement the needed changes fast.

Any situation where you need reliable stackable switching devices that support 10gbe uplinks. Catalysts are kind of my go-to.

Cheaper options available that do the same thing by other vendors, so I guess they may not be appropriate for companies on a budget. Also the Cisco stuff seems to be a bit less user friendly and require more of a learning curve, so I suppose the operating IT Staff's skill level is a factor too.

Great if you want basic connectivity and a few vlans in your environment. They make a great general purpose switch for most basic needs. If you need higher than 1gb speeds or advanced features you might want to look at different models. The provide POE and pretty flawless routing so nothing to complain about with these devices.

Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR Series Switches are great for small enterprises that do not have a large fiber network, as these switches have limited fiber ports. This can also make expansion of the business difficult if you require more fiber connects, and then you may have to daisy chain switches, which is never great. If you are in need of a time-proven switch that has excellent management and is extremely stable, then I would highly recommend the Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR Series Switches.

This one is easy.

• Cisco is the industry standard (widely available skill sets to support).
• Their reliability is well known.
• Their tech support is good.
• The only serious con is the cost is higher than most of their competition.
• I would use them in the access layer with confidence.
• Depending on needs, an isolated switch fabric DMZ (throughput not exceeding specs) would also be fine in my book.
• I am a fan of the stacking module EXCEPT in the above scenario. I'd rather manage two switches and not have an outage for software upgrades vs taking the whole stack down.

Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR Series Switches are well suited if the business requires high availability in your network environment. Also, if you need to support a lot of traffic between your servers, storage, and devices, it's the right option to attend to these requirements.
If you are working with a small company, you need to think of other options available on the market to attend to your network requirements because these catalyst switches are more expensive.

If high availability and long-term uptime is critical, then the Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR Series Switches are well worth the additional dollars as compared to some of their competitors. Cisco is ideal for high mobility where MACs are very frequent. Remotely changing port configurations is quick and relatively painless as compared to other vendors.

If you need a stable, trustworthy and reliable switch in access layer this an option for you. If there is no need for advanced routing features 2K series Cisco switches are a perfect choice. Our manufacturing business does not require a high-density network, but it needs to be stable to maintain production traffic. In those cases, there are the best and suit our needs.

Cisco switches are suitable for user stack. Port Channel connections can only be created when the maximum per port is a GB. A scenario in which it is not very good is when it is used as distribution equipment and therefore the route and its capacity are not adequate for these scenarios.

Data Center y centrales telefonicas // Appropriate for data centers and central telephone systems

Obviously, it is great for end user access, but I would not recommend it for data center use or to supplement a core switch. In an emergency, using it for the latter isn't crazy, however.

The best scenario to use Cisco Catalyst 2960X Switches is when you depend on it in access layer switches for connecting users to it, also when using it with stack for a lot of users located in one area. It gives the best performance with using multiple switches and controlling them from one switch console.

Well suited for mid-size offices. Less appropriate for high traffic or high density sites.

The Catalyst switches are good for any small or medium business application. The basic feature set should accomplish most business requirements from a network perspective.

Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR Series Switches are well suited at LAN campuses, as well as locations where high throughput and stability is of utmost importance. Stacking and future fitting for PoE+ is also one of its strengths. It's less suited for situations where budget is key and enterprise type services are not a priority. They're also not well suited for a situation where an SMB type solution is able to provide the same services.

The platform is feature rich and sets us in a position where we are able to future proof our environment. The platform is stable and well supported.

Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR Series Switches are very good for both distribution and access layers since they produce ten-gigabyte uplink bandwidth, as well as one-gigabyte bandwidth per port for each connected end device. Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR switches are exceptionally great at powering Cisco wireless access points and telephones that require PoE for power.

They are well suited if the requirement is to have 24 or 48 copper ports and 4 fiber ports. They are also well suited if the throughput requirement is low. They are not well suited in the large or critical sites. They don't have enough fiber uplink to support the loads.

[They] Are excellent for branch offices for an access layer switch.

Very good access layer switch Product line; suitable for a small environment as well as for larger switch fabric environments (building for ex. daisy chain setups). Solid L2 Port security features; PoE support also included. SW Update also relatively robust and easy to roll out; the switches run without any Problems (SW or HW crash) for many years.

Catalyst Switches are perfect for access layer deployment where 1GB throughput per interface is adequate. Would not use outside of this scenario as there are other product lines with redundant power supplies and a larger backplane. Excellent when used in an environment that may need to scale quickly, as chassis aggregation is quick and painless in most cases as long as the IOS image versions are compatible. Would be nice to see the status of version mismatches though, such as when a switch tries to join a stack that is not compatible with the other members. There should be some feedback regarding auto image deployment from the master to the newly added member.

Good response time and knowledgeable staff

very easy to navigate the CLI

Switch stacking feature is flawless