Reliable, Feature-Rich and Performant
January 22, 2019
Reliable, Feature-Rich and Performant
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- Cisco Catalyst 3650 Series
Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Catalyst Switches
- Catalyst 3650 Series
We use the 3650 mostly for TOR in the data center to provide connectivity to our servers. We value its reliability and the fact that it's a workhorse we can always rely on.
- Stable and reliable stacking solution that allows us to connect our servers with bonded NICs and maintain 100% networking uptime.
- Layer-3 services like inter-VLAN routing allow us to provide vast and efficient connectivity between different services while keeping perimeter security intact.
- Netflow support. Very lightweight and complete flow generation that provides invaluable information about the data center traffic.
- Price tag. Even though we'll always choose Cisco as long as it keeps its top-notch reliability, competitors are pushing hard with cheaper alternatives.
- The end of life and support period is relatively short.
- Very high ROI, because uptime is critical to our business, and we have very high penalties with downtime. We're yet to experience a network outage with Cisco switches.
Netflow data is invaluable to us, as it provides amazing intel on our data center traffic. This allows our NOC and SOC teams to easily investigate any incident, and our infrastructure teams to forecast growing needs accurately.
IOS-XE is so amazing to work with we hardly ever use the graphical UI.
Competitors like Huawei and Aruba are getting close, but trust is something that has to be earned, it can't be bought.