Cisco Catalyst Switches Reviews

Typically, the solution is used for a client's official network and several times as a replacement. A client may use it to replace the total network LAN switch. 

Mostly the LAN switching is the most valuable aspect of the solution.

Clients often do not emphasize specifications of Catalyst features. They just need a switch for an office LAN and other segments. 

There are several versions of Catalyst, and yet, they are quite similar. If, in the simplest one, they could create a Catalyst segment where all the possibilities like QSFP, SFP, 10G, that would be ideal. MikroTik, a Latvian company, has that as an option. They include 1G and 10G and QSFP all in one switch. Cisco, however, divides it into several switches across these features. Cisco is likely doing it to make money. However, clients sometimes don't want to pay more for the switches and they ignore Cisco and grab other brands like MikroTik. As distributors, it makes it hard to sell Cisco when features come at such a high price. 

Another issue is the restrictions on the product. Cisco applies restrictions in relation to renewals on a yearly basis. Many other brands don't have restrictions. If Cisco lifted them, they wouldn't lose so many clients to competitors.

We've been using the solution for a long time. It's been about seven to nine years.

The product is quite stable. It doesn't crash or freeze and there aren't any bugs or glitches. It's quite reliable.

You can scale the solution and you can choose different versions that fit the sizes of a variety of organizations.

Our clients range in size. Some are smaller organizations. Others are enterprise-level companies.

We talk with the support that is based in Bangladesh. They have an office in our country and provide support as necessary. We have contracts for one to three years and they provide technical and phone support to us. The support is fine, but it takes time sometimes to get the assistance we require. 

As resellers, we work with other solutions, including Huawei, Juniper, MicroTik, and some other brands in China (as well as Cisco).

Recently, Huawei has been doing good in switching segments. They're bringing some new features that are better than or compete with Cisco, and they are very aggressive in pricing. 

The problem is they're doing only Enterprise segments. They are not doing SMB.

The initial setup isn't too complex. However, we have very well trained technicians that really understand the process. For them, it's easy.

If our clients request it of us, we can maintain the switches for them after implementation.

We can assist our clients with implementation if they request the service.

The pricing of Cisco products is quite expensive. Huawei, for example, costs much less.

There aren't extra costs for additional features. All features are standard.

We are resellers and distributors. We're partners with Cisco.

We use a variety of different versions of the solution, including 3003, 29603, and 9003. Those are three of the most popular. Which we use depends on the client and their particular needs. Sometimes we only resell the product to our clients and sometimes we also provide the solution and install and configure the Catalyst for the clients. It depends on the client's query.

Overall, I would rate the solution eight out of ten. Overall, our clients have been quite happy with the results they get from Cisco products.

Our primary use case is system integration on the client end. We propose this solution to our customers based on their individual capacities and requirements. We have also been using the basic functionalities of the tool internally, very basic not to any high-end degree. 

I personally have never faced any kind of issues. The system is running very well and does what I need it to do. If there are any failures or problems we can resolve them quickly. We are able to get things up and running again and accomplish tasks after a failure within a few hour's time. We are very happy with what we are getting from our Cisco Catalyst Switches solution.

The new series has lots of great features; it's really lovely. From a management perspective, a policy creation perspective, and a utility perspective; the functionality we are seeing in the Catalyst 9000 series is great.

The current catalyst is probably outdated so we will most likely move to the newer version of the solution soon. 

Some additional features that should be included in the next release could include the ability to create real integration, standard policy pushing, and optimizations.

The product is very stable in all environments. We haven't experienced any problems.

The scalability is great. I have to say that the Cisco Catalyst solution provides the scalability directly in line with our needs.

Our technical support experience has been very good. We have mainly relied on our internal team for technical support and maintenance.

In the past, we used a different solution but it was a long time ago and I really can't remember what it was.

Since we are all certified engineers we found the initial setup to be straightforward. 

The implementation was done in-house.

I believe that our return on investment is excellent mainly due to the fact that we haven't experienced any downtime, no issues at all. This is one of the reasons I believe the production is a good solution; it's a sound investment. We are not losing any time.

The pricing and licensing are fine. To be honest we have found that this tool is able to meet all of our expectations at this time. This solution is agile and meets our expectations.

Overall, I can say that the Cisco Catalyst Solution is a very stable product. Technical support is good from our experience. Everybody seems to know and work well with the tool, including management cross-functionally it's a tool that we enjoy using.

I would rate it an eight out of ten. The only reason I'm not giving this solution a slightly high rating is due to the fact that we are seeing improvements in the new series of this solution. What we are seeing and what we are expecting are great improvements; the management team likes the new type of architecture we are seeing in the new series of the tool. 

We use this solution for the campus network.

It supports our entire line infrastructure. It runs from the line under the entire campus and is the backbone of the network. The entire business runs from this product.

The ease of use is the most valuable feature. 

They should make it more affordable, improve the cost, manageability, and central management. 

I would like to see a cloud-managed feature.

The catalyst switches are stable.

They are scalable. We have are around 2,000 users. We use it quite extensively and we require at least two to three people for maintenance.

Their technical support is good, one of the best in the industry.

The initial setup was straightforward. The deployment depends on the scale of the network, because all of these devices, they don't work in silo, they work in tandem with each other. So it depends on the scale and size of the network.

We used an integrator for the deployment. We had a good experience with them.

We have absolutely seen ROI. You will see ROI if you use this solution for a longer duration. 

The price is on the higher side. Licensing is also complicated. Simply, there are multiple licenses required.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. To make it a ten they should simplify the licensing, add the cloud-managed feature, and it should be more cost-effective.

Switching environments, as part of a LAN management solution, where the customer needs to build, operate, and maintain Layer 2 and Layer 3 networks for internal use.

It uses many protocols to ease operations, such as CDP and the interoperability of other Cisco products.

Perpetual POE is a valuable feature, because when the switch reboots, access points do not. This helps minimize infrastructure downtime and impacts internals.

• Services should be improved.
• The delivery of the product lead time should be improved as well.

The price should go down instead of up. 

I am using this solution as a network switch for my clients.

I have been using the solution for many years.

I have found this solution to be extremely stable.

The solution is scalable and there are approximately 700 people using the solution in one client's organization. I have plans to keep using the solution in some cases.

The technical support of Cisco is very good.

I have previously used HP, Jupiter, and Fortinet solutions.

The installation should be done by someone that knows Cisco solutions very well. I am certified in the solution so it was not difficult for me.

I have done the implementation myself but in some circumstances, I need assistance from Cisco.

The price of this solution could be reduced, it is expensive and I am using an annual license.

I would recommend this solution to others, it is very good.

I rate Cisco Catalyst Switches a nine out of ten.

We use Cisco Catalyst Switches for the LAN connection.

The most valuable feature of this solution is communication.

When you compare it with HPE and Aruba, it should be fancier.

We have been using Cisco Catalyst Switches for three years.

We are using version 2950.

The stability is great! We have not had any issues with stability.

It's a scalable product. It's very good.

We have approximately 200 users in our company.

Technical support is very good. I would rate them a nine to ten out of ten.

We did not have any issues with technical support.

The initial setup is straightforward. It's easy.

It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to deploy.

Plan well before implementing this solution.

I would rate Cisco Catalyst Switches a ten out of ten.

We usually use it for connecting campus switches and to provide access switching to the customer, through which they connect their end-user or end devices like WiFi, CCTV, or IP phone.

The features I mentioned definitely enhance the customer experience.

The most valuable features are the Stacking and the capacity of the switches because they have more throughput. Layer 2 is also part of its rich feature set.

For the access switch for distribution, I would like to see them support 100GB, 40GB.

It is very, very stable. We have not faced any problems with our clients. There have been no complaints. These switches run for many years. They have not complained about the stability of the network because of the failure of a switch. It works fine.

As I mentioned, one of the great features is Stacking. One of our customers bought two switches. After about three to four months they bought another one. They only stack the switches. They do not need to add more switches at the core or distribution, connected at the base. They can stack up to eight switches, and they will work fine with no issues.

Honestly, we have not really faced any problems with the Catalyst switches because the configuration is intuitive. Also, our engineers are expert in this area. Very rarely they may have to open a case with Cisco TAC.

For me, in presales, I can reach the system engineers easily. They support me a lot. Also the documentation is important. There are a lot of forums, discussions. If you have any problem they guide you and they solve the problem easily.

If you compare Cisco with another vendor, they are far and away better, in terms of performance and the rich features.

For me, in presales, the most important criteria when selecting a vendor are that I'm able to easily access the Cisco website and, if I need any kind of support, I immediately get it from the Cisco team, whether virtually or physically, here in Saudi Arabia. 

I'm not directly involved in the setup but from what I understand it is straightforward.

HPE comes into the picture because they have a wireless product. It's a good product. We definitely propose their switches.

If you need any support you can find it easily on their website, including documentation. You can reach out to Cisco's virtual team. Cisco gives any type of support needed to their partners.

I give Cisco Catalyst a 10 out of 10. It's scalable, resilient, and has rich features in terms of Layer 2, Layer 3, QoS. They have real vision.

The solution can be used to connect the internet and servers, such as databases.

The solution could improve security.

I have been using this solution for approximately 10 years.

The solution is very stable.

Cisco Catalyst Switches is scalable.

We are satisfied with the technical support from Cisco.

The installation is easy and takes approximately 10 minutes.

I did the implementation myself.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Cisco Catalyst Switches a ten out of ten.