1. Home
  2. Ethernet Switches
  3. Cisco Catalyst IE3400 Rugged Series Switches Reviews
  4. User Review of Cisco Catalyst IE3400 Rugged Series Switches
IE3400, worth the bucks for you or not?
February 17, 2023

IE3400, worth the bucks for you or not?

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

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Catalyst IE3400 Rugged Series Switches

Used as an access-switch (with POE) for connecting all the systems needed for Road and car-tunnels. Common protocols used in the tunnels are Profinet and Modbus/TCP, Radar data-streams and Multicast for video. The IE3400 switches are connected in a double star Singlemode fiber architecture to distributions switches (also Cisco).

  • Excellent installation (DIN)
  • Good software (normal IOS configuration)
  • Good temperatur range
  • The portdensity is poor (when compared to competition) which means that the IE-switches takes more space then competition.
  • The price is not competitive, only possible to ship/sell to customers that are set on the Brand. To say that Cisco has more features (to motivate that these units cost more then the double) is not correct, the competition solves the same stuff differently.
  • That it is a Cisco-product (brand)
  • Engineering team are comfortable with how to configure the switches
  • HSR (ring protocol support) for industrial environment
  • Easy to install so save money on installations (like all DIN mount switches)
  • Standard Cisco IOS (Software), so no need for new/extra training of engineers.
  • Too expensive for many installations (since competing brands switches cost less then half.
Do not use DNA Center
Segmenting in the network where the IE3400 are implemented is done by classical VLAN with port-security. Due to limitations in many industrial network protocols (not routeable), micro-segmentation is not possible, would wish for it.
Haven't used Cybervision (yet), but are looking into it now and customer is very interested in it, so will most likely be implemented in the future.
Siemens Scalance switches are an excellent alternative. The final price is way lower and functionalitywise they work the same. The major negative thing with the Siemens Scalance is that they are configurationwise is not as good as Cisco. Expect many "write-erase" and reloads and redo configuration from scratch until you have a good working setup.

Do you think Cisco Catalyst IE3400 Rugged Series Switches delivers good value for the price?

No

Are you happy with Cisco Catalyst IE3400 Rugged Series Switches's feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco Catalyst IE3400 Rugged Series Switches live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco Catalyst IE3400 Rugged Series Switches go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Catalyst IE3400 Rugged Series Switches again?

Yes

Cisco 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers (ASR 1000), Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000), Cisco 550X Series Stackable Managed Switches
In industrial environment where you are using Profinet and/or Modbus/TCP and have a need for extended temperature/humidity the switches are a good choice. Architecture-wise they match ring-topology design and should be used for that kind of network-design.
Do be aware that there is a fierce competition, many rugged switches from competiting brands can do the same thing for less then half the price. So if budget is tight, this is not the best choice.

Evaluating Cisco Catalyst IE3400 Rugged Series Switches and Competitors

Yes - Cisco 2960 and 3560C switches went end-of-life, so there was a choice to switch to industrial switches range from Cisco. The customer is locked on using Cisco as brand in the network, so even with higher price these products where picked.
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
The most important reason for picking these switches was that they are made by Cisco and that the configuration user interface is IOS, which the engineers are comfortable with.
I personally can not motivate the pricing on these units, I do like Cisco, but they have lost their touch with the market when making this series of equipment.