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If you want one less thing to worry about in 10 different areas, go with 9500s
December 04, 2020

If you want one less thing to worry about in 10 different areas, go with 9500s

Bill Holmberg | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches

  • Catalyst 9500 Series
The speed and versatility is really great--SFP ports for either copper or fiber, 1GB, 10GB, or 25GB. They are rock solid switches that run our core and run 24/7/365 for years without issue. The new user interface is great, and you can also use the old SSH CIOS commands too.
  • Fast switching
  • Constant uptime
  • Variable port configurations
  • Easy changes
  • High availability and failover
  • Incorporate more of the Meraki reporting
  • Continue to improve the UI
  • Cost is still high
  • It's likely a wash, but the cost of always being up has a price that we are willing to pay
  • Increased speed meant faster backups and fewer interruptions to business
Since we are entirely a VMware shop, the ability to handle all of the traffic from all the virtual servers has been fantastic, and the ability to upgrade the port connectors to match the variety of interconnects from switches, servers, blade hosts, and storage has made the use of the Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches a dream.

Being able to set port groups, link aggregation assignments, speed settings, and such over such a wide variety of speeds has been a real game-changer for us.
The Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches have run with zero issues, and you never a need to reboot them, which has been vital to us during complex server management projects and migrations. Other vendors' products generally lack in one of these areas.

Do you think Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches's feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series Switches again?

Yes

Great for core switching between hosts and SAN--not really appropriate for end-user cubicles direct. The cost per port and the cost of SFP+ modules is best left to the server room, as opposed to the aggregation switches.