Item: Cisco Catalyst Switches
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Catalyst Switches

Cisco Catalyst Product Series

Catalyst 9400 Series

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using Cisco Catalyst Switches as the backbone of our CCTV network, which consists of over 200 cameras. Many of these cameras monitor sensitive and mission-critical areas, utilize high resolution/bitrate codecs, and make up part of a complex network of VLANs. As a result, high availability, reliable transmission and extensive customization are of top priority.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Excellent programmability and customization with Cisco IOS.
Provides robust, reliable back-end infrastructure.
Provides best in class enterprise support.
High popularity amongst network engineers.

Cons

Pricing of products can be improved.
Pricing of enterprise support can be improved.
Interconnectivity with non-Cisco products can be improved.

Return on Investment

Improvements to actual uptime ratings (approx. 3-5%).
Improvements in quality of CCTV monitoring activities (higher reporting rate; fewer slow-downs when viewing and reviewing footage).
Improvements to efficiency of maintenance (fewer break-downs, lower downtime windows).

Cisco Catalyst Benefits

Cisco Catalyst Switches has allowed us to scale our bandwidth intensive CCTV network immensely without issue. IOS allows for extensive customization and optimization to our distributed video feed network. Its powerful analytics have also been insightful in identifying and mitigating bottlenecks as they arise, and gives us an idea of our current capacity and ability to scale upward.

Cisco Catalyst Customization and Manageability

In our opinion, Cisco IOS is (and has always been) the gold standard for network operating systems for its switches and routers. Apart from providing a generous amount of customization, its popularity ensures that you will not have an issue in securing talent to administer, support and maintain your network.

Alternatives Considered

Ubiquiti Networks UniFi

Cisco Catalyst Switches have offered better reliability, support and customization when compared to Ubiquiti networks. While Ubiquiti is cheaper, it required proprietary knowledge and training that was difficult to locate within the region. Engineers ended up having to get certified in the product. Due to the popularity of the popularity of Cisco/CCNA, it is not difficult to find engineers that can support the product.

Likelihood to Recommend

Cisco Catalyst products are best suited for high bandwidth, mission critical, highly available networks such as CCTV or large scale production environments, provided that company budgets are able to support it. Due to the popularity of the product and Cisco based network certifications, it will also be well suited for scenarios that require dedicated in-house support, as it will be easy to locate talent that can be onboarded to support this infrastructure.

For low budget, non-critical, development, low bandwidth or otherwise small scale scenarios, Cisco switches may not be the most cost effective choice. Lower cost options are available.

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Best in class reliability and enterprise support for mission-critical systems