Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches Reviews

We are using the Catalyst 9500 as core switches. We have them in a virtual stack and they have been working very well since migrating to them almost 3 years ago. We use them to connect our edges, data center, IOT networks as well as all of the other remote switches.

Doing on-the-go upgrades from the web GUI has been able to save me time and the ability to reboot each switch one at time is really another time-saver. I have also been gaining some insights with what is going on the network by adding it to Cisco DNA Center.

We use them as our new edge-core devices where we can do routing and it gives us the flexibility to have high speed interconnects to our edge closets. This solves the problems of not worrying to have a big chassis to implement and configure, and it has the opportunity to have a virtual chassis.

We have started to utilized the automation properties of Cisco DNA, and these switches can be deployed through DNA in the fabric. The first pair we used, we set up manually, and look to implement our future switches this way to make it easier for the future. We are still waiting for the benefits to appear.

They represent the core of our network, all the communication of our critical services crosses this equipment. The problem that it represents today is that administration becomes complex as we integrate more remote sites with the same technology. Administration via command line becomes an extensive and complex job.

We have been working with Cisco switches for a while now. Our experience with the 9500 series has always been good. They are very stable and powerful switches. All of our critical services are based on a 9500 and we’ve [only] had two breakdowns, this is a good product and fits perfectly for our standards.

We use Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches for backbone and aggregate floor switches, stacked with StackWise Virtual, and we used 10G-40G ports.

I'm hoping to learn about automation.

We use Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches in a MAN MPLS loop for our customer MAN.

We didn't use automation.

We are using Cisco devices all over our network, and use the Cisco Catalyst 9500 series as our core switch. We use 2 devices with virtual stack to provide high availability and dual connection to each access switch to provide fully redundant connectivity. Also, we use these switches as a DHCP server, NTP server, VTP server to all network switches and users.

We Haven't used the automation feature in the Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series yet, but hopefully, we will use it in the future and benefit from it.

At my organization Cisco Catalyst is used as an interconnecting devices for our complex security solutions. The 9500 Series has excellent performance stability benefits.
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Cisco Catalyst se encuentra interconectando una solución de seguridad compleja con excelentes prestaciones de estabilidad desempeño

Mi organizacion no ha sacado provecho de estas ventajas // My organization has not utilized any of these advantages.

We are currently using CAT 9500-40X and 9500-32C at our campus and branches. The switches are used at either distribution or core layer.

We haven't used any virtualization and programmability features of the CAT 9500 yet. However, we are planning to use programming/API to configure and manage the switches. Right now we are using DNA Center for automating the switches deployment.

I implemented a dual 9500 HA redundancy setup to replace the old 6500's that were being used as the core switches. Upon initial inspection, the Nexus 3k looked to be a better fit for our purpose, however, it came at a very steep price point. Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches was a great alternative as it had all the software-defined network integration that was needed to start the Cisco DNA journey.

This was definitely the case after we had implemented DNA along with ISE in the environment. The integration and automation from a deployment and security aspect have truly been a time-saving benefit. The level of insight that it gives is an amazing feature that not only saves time on a day to day operational perspective but also a compliance point.

We decided to implement them to manage our throughput and security needs. The Cat9K family allows us to better enforce our policies with software-defined segmentation approach. We were also interested in getting more information about encrypted traffic without adding inline appliances that reduce the scalability and increase costs. We're planning to integrate it with our Stealthwatch installation that already leverages the netflow traffic generated by the latest switching and routing Cisco family.

The automation of the catalysts has allowed us to standardize the procedures and scripts developed over the years by our staff. In this way we have sped up the procedures from hours to minutes, allowing to concentrate the OpEx on other more innovative activities. Standardization has also made it possible to spread these practices to new recruits, untying unofficial scripts from senior staff.