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Best switch for your small to medium sized office or tiny data-centers.
December 08, 2020

Best switch for your small to medium sized office or tiny data-centers.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Catalyst Switches

These switches were introduced as they offer PoE capabilities to power our various wireless access points in the office. With VLAN and port segregation it allows us to build logical separation of our departments. Features like blink ports or chassis allows for easy identification in the rack. With the integration into our management-console we don't need to fiddle on the ios-console anymore. However, that is still an option of course.
  • Supports latest PoE standards with lots of power reserve.
  • Easy management thanks to integration in management-interfaces.
  • Offers everything you'd expect from a SOHO switch.
  • If you're not used to how Cisco names stuff you might search a while to find the right option.
  • Sometimes active- and backup configuration can be a bit confusing.
  • The price tag is rather high. You might be able to save with cheaper brands if you don't need all the features it offers.
  • Positive: super fast deployment. Integrates very well into a Cisco landscape.
  • Positive: easy PoE setup, lets you configure a bunch of device classes.
  • Negative: Higher price tag than other brands.
The decision for Cisco was mostly because the remainder of our infrastructure is already from Cisco. This allowed an easy integration and didn't require any training. Also, Cisco offers premium support--also in cases of a hardware fault for example.
Well suited for small to medium office spaces. This is not a switch you'd put in your data center, as it misses a redundant power supply or complex failover mechanisms. It does come with port-trunking, VLAN, etc. which makes it still very versatile. If you're comfortable on the console or use configuration management tools you'll get your network set up in no time.

Using Cisco Catalyst Switches

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.