Leaving a video review helps other professionals like you evaluate products. Be the first one in your network to record a review of Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches, and make your voice heard!
Ruckus acquired the ICX series of campus switches, and in turn Ruckus was acquired by ARRIS in December 2017.
Features Scorecard
No scorecards have been submitted for this product yet.Start a Scorecard.
Product Details
What is Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches?
The Catalyst 9400 Series is presented by Cisco as the next generation of the industry's most widely deployed enterprise switching platform, recognized as CRN's 2017 and 2018 Network Product of the Year. These modular access switches are built for security, IoT, and cloud. The vendor states they deliver state-of-the-art high availability, support up to 9 Tbps, provide the latest in 90-watt UPOE+, and form one of the building blocks for SD-Access, Cisco's enterprise architecture solution.
When you have a different data center and you need to interconnect them is well suited. Also is your business request high throughput 9400 Cisco Series it will be your solution? Also, if you are planning to implement solutions like DNA it will well suited too.
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches are enterprise-class network core switches. They are not meant for small to medium size companies or satellite offices. These switches are useful to provide a highly available network backbone where all of your firewalls, edge routers, top-of-rack switches, and fabric interconnects can terminate on a scalable and secure network.
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches are less appropriate for industrial assets connectivity. But we appreciate the Catalyst C2960X, C6500, and other old Catalyst Series because of stability and robustness.
Cisco Catalyst Switches are well suited for those that enjoy software headaches and double-dipping support contracts (SmartNet and DNA Advantage). Cisco introduced the platform without clear documentation on licensing (our involvement was the onus for Cisco to create clear documentation at the cost of our time and frustration), configurations (dropping GLBP yet allowing it to be configured), features (selling us Stack Wise as replacement for GLBP) or intentions (we purchased the 9407 to replace a currently supported 6509 and literally a week or two after purchase, Cisco dropped the 9600 series as the replacement for the 6500-E series). The pains in Cisco licensing, software quality and lack of transparency in regards to hardware and features is disheartening.
I only work on Cisco products so I have a little bit of a bias. With that being said, I have had to work on Brocade and Juniper a few times, as well as other Firewall products, and I have found them confusing and not user-friendly. I think that the configuration of the Catalyst IOS is very straightforward and easy to teach others. For me, they are great for the access, distribution, and even core of the campus architecture, depending on the amount of traffic necessary, such as a collapsed core.
They aren't cheap, and I mean that to describe both their price tag and construction quality. These aren't for small businesses, but when your enterprise needs speed and reliability Cat9k switches are for you.
If you are looking for a simple and secure solution for an IT infrastructure, you will be able to make great use of the product Cisco Catalyst Switches. The high performance and stability guarantee a good foundation for your business.
I simply don't use any other switches in professional usage. I prefer a homogeneous environment - especially when using other Cisco features like ISE. Deployment of 802.1X with Catalyst switches is rather simple. With a mixed environment with other vendors, it is painful. The scenario in which Catalyst Switches are not suitable is a very simple network with one or two switches - the functionalities simply are not used then.