1. Home
  2. LAN Switches
  3. Cisco Catalyst Switches Reviews
  4. User Review of Cisco Catalyst Switches
Very satisfied customer with many 2960-X stacks deployed for several years
December 14, 2020

Very satisfied customer with many 2960-X stacks deployed for several years

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Cisco Catalyst 2960 X/XR Series

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Catalyst Switches

  • Catalyst 2960 X/XR Series
We use Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR Series Switches in our access layer (IDFs) for clients, printers, VoIP phones, WAPs, etc.
  • Cisco has always been incredibly reliable. Uptime has been 100% aside from planned software upgrades since deploying.
  • Cisco IOS is like a Swiss army knife. It can do many things if you know how to configure it. That flexibility is very powerful.
  • Since we are predominately a Cisco shop, managing Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR Series Switches is pretty simple (we rely on SolarWinds using SNMP and their NCM product for config changes, vulnerability reporting, etc.)
  • Cost. Always the downside with Cisco. The competition is cheaper.
  • Tech support used to be incredible. It is above average now but not like it was 10+ years ago.
  • Better support for third-party cables and SFP/SFP+ would be nice. I hate being warned in the logs that I'm not using a Cisco OEM accessory.
  • I wish they could upgrade the stack without taking the whole stack offline. This is a real issue.
  • I think the ROI has been good. I measure that by uptime and lack of issues.
  • The upfront costs are higher, but you know what you are getting--very reliable, extremely configurable, and solid support.
Yes we have. Customization can be basic, like setting up RADIUS authentication, to more sophisticated configurations (typically I've done this more with Cisco routers than switches, however)--things like making a layer-two bridge between sites or complex VPN configurations with source and destination NATs. The one feature on the switch we'll be pursuing this year will be 802.1x for wired connections for some of our retail locations.
We looked primarily at Juniper devices. After careful consideration we elected to stay Cisco because of the in-house experience (50 years between two of us) and the track record. This justified the higher cost easily.

Do you think Cisco Catalyst Switches delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco Catalyst Switches's feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco Catalyst Switches live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco Catalyst Switches go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Catalyst Switches again?

Yes

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (npm), SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM), SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
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.