1. Home
  2. Ethernet Switches
  3. Cisco Catalyst IE3300 Rugged Series Switches Reviews
  4. User Review of Cisco Catalyst IE3300 Rugged Series Switches
Why Cisco Catalyst IE3300 Rugged Series Switches?
November 22, 2023

Why Cisco Catalyst IE3300 Rugged Series Switches?

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

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Catalyst IE3300 Rugged Series Switches

Cisco Catalyst IE3300 Rugged Series Switches have been used in small and outdoor cabinets, along with some external APs. These switches are built like tanks and you can rest assured that they will do the job for any industrial means, I'm sure. Whilst our use case for them isn't that extreme, they sure do provide us with confidence, and with us being a Cisco-first organisation it was our first choice. Whilst there are other products, and sometimes specialist companies that dedicate themselves to industrial ruggedised switches, with Cisco you get to make use of their awesome CLI and all of the other cool tools that you can use to troubleshoot issues. The scope of the case is outdoor traffic (RTC) cabinets as the majority.
  • Outdoor and industrial but with all of the traditional amazing Cisco features and functionality
  • Built like a tank
  • Easy to handle
  • Compact
  • Whilst these switches for once weren't actually the most expensive, they are still not the cheapest.
  • The IE-3XXX series in particular has great flexibility in that it offers custom options for bespoke needs.
  • I would say Cisco focus on their software rather than hardware from experience and design, but it is by no means bad!
  • Ease to manage
  • Alignment with business and technology portfolio
  • Support (not as good as other TAC support but not bad)
  • Alignment with current technology stack means cost savings on retraining and upskilling staff
  • Ease of use to manage and integration with our existing product - less administrative overhead
Our use of DNAC extends to mainly SWIM tasks only at the moment, however we are in the process of using templates and ZTP to manage our devices, along with network automation in the future and perhaps SDA.
No segmentation in place due to the simplicity of the infrastructure and use case.
Cisco Catalyst IE3300 Rugged Series Switches, or more accurately, the IE3xxx line of products specialise in their modularity and flexibility. The amount of modules (IEMs) that you can choose from are almost limitless. The scalability of the product is good, and also good for industrial use cases where ease of modification is appreciated.
Overall, a few vendors like Siemens, Moxa, Versitron. We were only after a simple solution, so Moxa could have seemed a good option but overall being a Cisco house is a no brainer for the organisation and teams. Comparisons weren't really in the decision. But these Cisco Catalyst IE3300 Rugged Series Switches are working great.

Do you think Cisco Catalyst IE3300 Rugged Series Switches delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Cisco Catalyst IE3300 Rugged Series Switches's feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco Catalyst IE3300 Rugged Series Switches live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Cisco Catalyst IE3300 Rugged Series Switches go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Catalyst IE3300 Rugged Series Switches again?

Yes

Cisco Catalyst IE3300 Rugged Series Switches are what I would say a primary option if you are already a Cisco house that has software such as DNA Centre (they are compatible with it) or the future Catalyst Centre. This is great as it can be integrated into your existing infrastructure without compromising manageability or having to retrain staff to work on new equipment. Managing the switches is effectively the exact same. In my opinion, it is also more suited to small industrial needs in certain climate zones that are not extremes, as there are bespoke vendors that may be better hardware-wise than Cisco, but of course software wise Cisco does take some beating.