Cisco switches are solid performers
Updated January 08, 2019
Cisco switches are solid performers
Score 10 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 them as our end-user access layer switches.
- Great at connecting end-user devices
- Very good at securing the edge of the network
- Easy to troubleshoot any issues that you might encounter
- Cost per port could always be less
- Ports could be labeled better
- Management ports should be on the back
- Price point works for office switches
- Life Time return to manufacture warranty is a welcome feature
By standardizing on these switches we've reduced our deployment time and reduced costs as well.
We block any non authorized DHCP server saving end user down time and our troubleshooting time.
Used others in the past and I don't ever want to go back.
Cisco Catalyst Addtional Questions
- Product Design and Features. Cisco doesn't hold back on the feature sets for their products. Need layer two only, no problem. Need a multi layer switch they have that as well. Need advanced switching feature like rapid spanning-tree, or support for LLPD. The breath of their product offerings is very large, solutions for everyone, from a small shop to global enterprises and all company sizes in between. Generally you'll find that if you need it, it's available. It can be a little daunting at time to find the right product with so many options available.
- Vendor support of the products they sell. You find a lot of tech companies that love to sell you stuff. What they don't seem to like to do is make sure it works and help you when you have problems with it. Given this, once you've experienced Cisco technical support and then compare them to what other vendors describe as technical support you will quickly find that very, very few other vendors come even close to the service levels that Cisco provides. Everything from assistance with something your unsure about how to deploy to a critical "my network is down" where they stay on the phone until it's back up and running around the clock if need be.
- Product reliability. I've been using Cisco gear for over 20 years. With rare exception everything is built to last. The latest ASA appliances have some of the best four post rack mount hardware I've ever seen. Easy to install, easy to attached to the rack and easy to get the gear in and out of the mounting hardware. Switches and routers built to run hard, run long and just work day after day. Basically things are design with "no failures" allowed mentality. When one of there suppliers shipped a faulty component, Cisco stepped forward and proactively replaced the faulty devices long before they would have failed in customer installations. That to me speaks volumes about how they care about their customers.
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Vendor Reputation
Vendor reputation can hardly be understated. No one wants to purchase from a vendor that plays games with pricing, has shoddy support or just seems to be generally mismanaged. With Cisco you know you have a global leader on your side. That what you buy will do the job is needs to do and will have a lower cost of ownership in the long run. Everyone has problems that need to be solved. Do you really want to create more problems for yourself by purchasing from a much smaller company.
I would recommend that you think about the types of devices that you are likely to be connecting to your switch ports. For example we knew that the majority of our ports would be phone with computers, then printers, postage machines, UPS management cards and trunk uplinks. For each of these roles we created a standard configuration for those types. These port standards are combined with global commands like "spanning-tree portfast edge bpduguard default", logging, aaa authentication and others to create a very maintainable switch configuration. Try to standardize as much of the configuration as you can and the benefits to you are quicker troubleshooting when problems occur and the configuration will be easier to maintain.
We did not engage Cisco services for either the planning or for deploying our Catalyst switch upgrade. Based on all my other experiences with them as a company I would not hesitate to engage them for something like this. They have always stepped up to the plate and made me feel like they had my back.