Cisco Catalyst 3850 - Worth Every Penny
June 25, 2019
Cisco Catalyst 3850 - Worth Every Penny
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- Cisco Catalyst 3850 Series
Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Catalyst Switches
- Catalyst 3560-CX Series
- Catalyst 9300 Series
- Other
We are using Catalyst 3850 switches as edge devices in our metro network and datacenter. We make use of their layer 2 and layer 3 functionality. They were chosen for their feature set and their rock solid reliability. I would certainly recommend these to anyone looking for a reliable and capable edge switch. These are high-end edge switches that come with a justifiable price tag to match.
- Reliability - These switches are incredibly stable.
- Layer 2 and Layer 3 features including support for various routing protocols.
- Easy stacking.
- Price is the only real downside, but if you have a need for these switches it is easy enough to justify the cost.
- Their reliability alone can justify the cost as there should be little need for equipment replacement.
- We spend less time "fixing things".
- We've achieved greater uptime since we've deployed them (this is partially attributable to new network design).
We are able to configure all our 3850 switches to a baseline that we have determined is well suited to our needs and we are able to do so very quickly which makes using them easily scalable. We use these for some basic analytics but have plans to make use of some of their more advanced analytics which will give us more insight into our network behavior.
The 3850 is customizable enough that it fits right at home in our network, we never feel that we are limited by any switch limitations. Since they are Cisco it is easy to find people that are familiar with their configuration, even if they have not used a 3850 before.
All the products that we evaluated we felt were all good products that have plenty to offer but for our edge switches, we felt the 3850 had the most to offer. We were looking for not only a very reliable switch but one with many features that would not get used in a lot of other types of deployments. Juniper came close to providing what we wanted but we didn't feel it offered anything more than the 3850 did, and with our existing relationship with Cisco it simply made sense to stick with the 3850.