Cisco Catalyst Switches

Score9.1 out of 10

1,232 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Cisco Catalyst Switches?

Cisco's Catalyst is one of that company's brand of network switches.

Categories & Use Cases

LAN Switches

Media

Screenshot of Catalyst 9400 Series Additional View

Screenshot of Catalyst 9600 Series Additional View

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Most Frequent Users

Top 3 industries using Cisco Catalyst Switches.

Based on HG Insights installation data

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#1 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

20.1%

1,013 installations of 5,047

“Cisco Catalyst Switches 9350's are being used for older devices on the network that need a 10mb connection”
— Account Manager, Netsync

#2 most frequent

Manufacturing

13.7%

689 installations of 5,047

“Uptime is super important for us, with Cisco we have been able to achieve that so far”
— senior network engineer, cepheid

#3 most frequent

Information

11.5%

578 installations of 5,047

“As Core, Aggregation and Access Switches”
— Network and Security Consultant, WDR

Pros

Intuitive command-line interface and straightforward setup
Consistent network uptime and robust performance
Versatile Layer 2 switching and Layer 3 routing for diverse architectures

Cons

Higher initial cost compared to alternatives
Complex and expensive licensing structure
Occasional software bugs and stability issues with IOS-XE

Justin Gamble

Senior IT Support Specialist in Information Technology at Lufthansa Technik (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it to connect all of our networks together and to make sure our users get access to what they need. It’s used to give access to our users to the network and to the broader connections to all of our different companies.

Pros

Connectivity

Cons

I can’t think of any at this moment.

Return on Investment

As long as we save the configuration of the switch, it’s fairly easy to get back up once power is restored to it.

Josh Calhoun

IT Systems Engineer 2 in Information Technology at Pierce County (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Install, configure, manage, provision. I set them up for new deployments and replacing older Cisco 2960s. This provides great connectivity to our users in our wired network.

Pros

The switch IOS upgrade process is a lot faster.
It reboots a lot faster than the 2960s, which saves us a bunch of time and headaches.

Cons

One feature that I would want in the 9200Ls is an in-switch packet capture.

Dave Earl

Network Engineer in Information Technology at Intermountain Health (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It's a distribution switch. Case connectivity throughout the campus.

Pros

Easy-to-use management interfaces. The CLI commands go across the whole Cisco Catalyst Switches 9000 series, so it makes it easy, the code being the same on the 9000 series. Just being able to do port channels, trunks, and connecting up edge switches to it with the Cisco Catalyst Switches 9000 Series.

Cons

Fan trays. I’ve lost three different fan trays at three different locations. And then buggy code.

Return on Investment

It’s really helped with uptime.

Other Software Used

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), Cisco Catalyst Center

Mark Green

Network Engineer in Information Technology at Educational Media Foundation (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Cisco Catalyst Switches are used as access, core, WAN edge and Internet edge switches in both L2 and L3 modes. Cisco Catalyst Switches provides high reliability which is critical for 24/7 operations. They are broadly supported by third-party tools, simplifying integration with multiple observability platforms. The variety of form factors solves for a wide range of installation needs.

Pros

Easy to configure QoS
Simple code upgrades
Highly stable platform

Cons

Expensive platform
Long boot time

Return on Investment

We have not tracked ROI as it relates to these switches

Alternatives Considered

HPE Aruba Networking Switches, UniFi Switching and Cisco Meraki MS

Other Software Used

HPE Aruba Networking Switches, Cisco Meraki MS, UniFi Switching

Temi Ogunwola View profile

Network Engineer in Information Technology at Watkins Wellness (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Cisco Catalyst Switches, which are for the environment that we've used for high DFs and MDFs. And for where users connect to, for access points and all give to the network, that's how I use the product. It's a switching infrastructure basically.

Pros

I think one of the things I enjoy about this product is the ease of use, and also you can connect it to Meraki or the other Cisco products and have a visual view of all of your connections. So it's good for troubleshooting and stuff like that.

Cons

For them, nothing. I think it's well in line. I have a maximum user satisfaction using the product and I look forward to the next version of it.

Return on Investment

Well, I think it's been good because recently we upgraded from a lower version of Cisco Catalyst Switches, 3800 series, to 9300 series. And I'd say it's what we all enjoy, no issues. So far so good at various sites that I manage across the globe. This is what I use, what we use, and it is reliable, stable, and easy to upgrade, and all the good things.

Alternatives Considered

Cisco Catalyst Center

Other Software Used

Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers

Usability

HPE Aruba Networking Switches

Juniper EX Series Switches

Huawei Ethernet Switches

Cisco Catalyst Switches

What is Cisco Catalyst Switches?

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Who Buys & Uses Cisco Catalyst Switches

Most Frequent Users

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Manufacturing

Information

Most Frequent Users

Small Businesses

Mid-sized Companies

Enterprises

Most Frequent Users

United States of America

India

Canada

Most Frequent Users

IT

Engineering

Other