Cisco Catalyst Switches Reviews

We use them in multiple projects in the organization.

So we provide access to approximately 600 users. They use access points, and some of them are designated for core features.

The benefits are that it is pretty easy to configure, deploy, and troubleshoot. There are no issues because we have a lot of knowledge-based access from Cisco itself. So troubleshooting is smooth, and it's good for both plugging and troubleshooting.

Power over Ethernet (PoE) is one of the most valuable features. It eliminates the need for power supplies every time. 

Then, the stacking capability allows me to stack nine or ten switches. With that, I don't need to log into every switch individually; I can access all of them through one. That's the second thing. 

Third, they can be used with automation pretty easily. Our organization is not currently using automation, but we're planning to. I've used it on virtual platforms, like emulation software, and they work well with automation. That's a good thing. 

Another point is that I've worked with various Cisco switches, including the 3900 series, 800 series, 2900, and 2600 switches. In the past, the environment used to be dusty and tested, but these devices, even the older ones, worked remarkably well. I was amazed because any other device might have failed in those conditions, but these switches performed admirably.

It has everything covered, from automation to a non-automated environment.

Customization is okay, but it's not fully fledged because if it's not modular switches, you can not change it. 

Cost-wise, they are expensive, but the service they provide is very good. However, the solution should aim for a little bit more cost-effectiveness.

There is room for enhancement in customization and pricing models. 

I have been using this solution for more than five years. I am still currently working with the Cisco Catalyst switches, specifically the Catalyst 3900 series in my current organization.

I haven't seen any issues with stability or durability. Even the older ones work well in the worst-case scenarios.

The product is scalable. However, some features or technologies owned by Cisco can be a bit troublesome while deploying. They cannot be embedded with other vendors.

The customer service and support need a bit more improvement and a faster response. So, there is an area of improvement.

Positive

I have also worked with ASR 9000 and XR series routers. I have worked with enterprise routers for a longer duration, around five years.

The deployment is good. The knowledge base and articles are available for normal users, so they can configure it well. If needed, we can raise a complaint ticket, and we get good tech support for that too.

If everything is ready and set up, including detailed information and physical products, it takes around two to three hours, max.

It's not difficult, but it requires maintenance. They have engineers for that, and they come for regular maintenance, check, and update or replace parts if needed. They also have AMCs for regular maintenance.

It is worth the money. The product is expensive, but the service they provide is very good, which makes it worth it.

It is a good product. It's a low-maintenance product, a little bit costly, but worth it. Good technical support also. It is vendor-specific, and you need to have these things for the configuration part and deployment. Everything is good, so there are no issues while deploying with other vendors.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten because I expect a little bit faster support from the technical support team.

We have different use cases for different verticals. Our network is built mainly on Cisco equipment, including switches, firewalls, and routers. Most of the devices are Cisco products.

The product is stable, and it performs well. We get support and patches from Cisco. It is going well. We have different companies and different verticals. Cisco is our backbone.

The support team’s response and resolution time must be faster.

I have been using this solution for eight to ten years. We are using the industry-standard version.

When we have more than 1000 Cisco Catalyst Switches, we have a failure rate, too. We would hardly notice failure if we had a smaller company with one to ten switches. A couple of times, it has happened that the switches have failed while upgrading.

We design the network according to the environment's requirements. We also keep the network ready for the business requirements. When a request comes in, we help customers get their devices into a specific network zone. We have a huge number of users. My company caters to its internal customers, including JioMart, Jio Payments Bank, and JioChat.

The support is good so far.

We configure and deploy the solution according to our needs. If a product or feature is not available, we discuss and open a ticket with Cisco. Cisco then helps with some patches or other features that we require.

The procurement process for Cisco Catalyst Switches is different. Once we receive the switches in bulk, we divide them among the different verticals. Depending on the needs, we allocate 100 or 1000 switches to each vertical and then start deploying.

I help the team to deploy the solution. We have a different deployment process. When a user requests a deployment, we first discuss their network and how they want it distributed. We then discuss the feasibility of the request and suggest the best possible option available to meet their requirements.

We have an on-premises team who helps us if there is an issue with the device. If the team cannot resolve the issue, we either get a replacement device or ask an expert for help with deployment. If there is a requirement to use multicast streaming, we need to check if our current network supports it. We also need to consider the bandwidth, network resources, and uplink and downlink ports.

The pricing should be improved. We have purchased a one-time license. When we place an order for Cisco Catalyst Switches, the quantity is huge.

I am an implementer. I would recommend the solution to others. People must use the solution based on their requirements. Overall, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten.

The product is used in the hotels for the network.

Cisco Catalyst Switches are the most stable. The network is secure. I have a lot of options. If a port is not used for a long time, it will be disabled by default. If anyone tries to use it, I will have to enable it for them. The tool helps me secure my network. The product is easy to use. We do not face any challenges.

Cisco is the most expensive product. All hardware tools have become very expensive nowadays.

Cisco is the most stable solution. I rate the stability a nine out of ten.

All our reports are based on Cisco Catalyst Switches.

The setup is straightforward. The deployment takes 10 to 15 minutes.

We can deploy the tool in-house.

I prefer one-time payments.

I have worked with all the brands in the market. I will recommend Cisco to others. It is stable. It has good quality. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We use this solution for LAN connectivity. We also use it for routing capabilities. It can become an L3 switch.

Cisco has a well-maintained library of maps and features that we use to monitor. 

One of the most valuable features is the IP SLA feature that allows you to connect the routes or to switch the routes when there is static. Also, the flow exporter tells you which host is using a lot of traffic or where they all are transferring data.

It gives you transparency into your network.

It supports multicast routing. We use Ganglia to monitor the Condor Grid. Ganglia transmits statistics that are multicast. Because it has multicast forwarding routing capabilities, it is also usable.

IP SLA or NetFlow are things that are presented in Catalyst and are extremely easy to use.

It also supports QoS. Basically, it can configure layer 2 or layer 3 QoS to prioritize the traffic that we want.

They have a robust monitoring system.

Most of the time, I struggle with the bugs. I don't find it very challenging to configure these because I have been using them for the last eight years, so I am pretty comfortable with the CLI. With these bugs, I don't know the configuration for a one time task, you configure it, you deploy it, and you forget about it.

The biggest issue we are having is with bugs and memory loss, which occurs when developing the IOS.

We also had an issue with Nexus 3548. The CPU started stalling and the switch became unresponsive. We had to call support and have someone remove that cable immediately, as we are not able to travel due to the COVID situation. Once the cable was removed, the switch came back to life.

I searched through the log and learned what happened. The CPU was stalled for 11 seconds. I searched Google and on the Cisco bug tracker, and I found that it was a bug. There is no workaround for that. It was a huge loss for us and we lost money as a result.

There was nothing that I could have done to prevent this from happening. This is a management interface that is supposed to be used to manage the device. I connected the cable not knowing that the bug existed.

I have been working with Cisco Catalyst Switches for eight years.

We are going to be upgrading to the latest version because there are a few bugs in the release that we are currently using. We are facing issues with it causing the memory to be depleted. The bug is in the operating system itself.

Despite the bug issues we are facing, it is a stable solution. It is partly our fault as we have not upgraded to the newer version.

This solution is scalable. I don't think that it is stackable, but with a recent Catalyst that we have purchased, it provided four 10G uplinks.

Catalyst is installed in a central location. Everyone who connects to the company network goes through a Catalyst switch, one way or another. The switch is placed strategically so that we have the data of every incoming and outgoing connection. There can be 100 to 200 users.

We raised a case with the memory leak issue that we were facing and they said that we will need to update our device. In general, they are very good at what they do.

The initial setup was extremely simple. We are engineers and know the plan beforehand how it will be used, how many ports will be used, what kind of configuration it will have, where the ports will be connected, and where the device will be mounted.

It's easy for us to configure and deploy. It takes two to three hours.

The device goes into the co-location center, where our cabinets are. The switch is mounted and we configure a management IP on that interface. 

The deployment doesn't always involve us, as we are not always able to travel to the locations. Instead, we ask them to contact the vendor to install and connect the device.

The implementation is done through a vendor and our team.

They install licenses for 24 ports and then an additional 24 ports. The client is able to use the 48 ports or just 24 port if they want.

The cost of a license before COVID and before the lockdown was approximately three lakh 70,000 in Indian Rupees. After this COVID situation, the cost has gone down to two lakh 46,000 rupees.

The additional cost depends on where the device is being installed. If it's shared then we have to pay the rent for that cabinet where the device is being installed.

The device has only the chassis cost and the licensing cost.

In two or three years, we renew the support contract and that is an additional charge.

Our environment includes a heterogeneous network. It's not all in the same place geographically, where some of the servers are in India, some are in Delhi, some are in Mumbai, London, Chicago, and Brazil.

The monitoring of the device is in the day-to-day operations.

We don't have a lot of traffic, we run simulations. We need high-capacity servers. In terms of network devices, we don't need much. When we need better switches or better devices, we have Nexus. They are used so that there is the lowest latency possible and maximum throughput.

We have point-to-point lead lines to connect to those sites, as well as architect tunnels.

Overall, it's a very robust switch and it's very nice.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

This solution is capable of high-quality L2 & L3 switching at several different layers of our enterprise with a high rate of availability and reliability.

It has excellent dynamic routing capabilities. We manage a large WAN environment that requires the use of OSPF.

Cisco Catalyst Switches perform these two functions very well.

The most valuable feature of this solution is managed switching.

We rely on heavy segmentation to secure and isolate several business units.

The dynamic routing capabilities are excellent.

Licensing is somewhat expensive and should be improved. Cisco should provide customers with a more advantageous licensing model included with the purchase of the equipment.

They have done some good by providing low-cost multiyear DNA center licenses with the purchases and have increased the number of benefits provided with the HW warranty, but must still work on lowering smart-net cost.

This solution is extremely stable.

The technical support for this solution is excellent. They are very knowledgeable, courteous, and adamant to meet their SLA.

I have used non-Cisco equipment, especially in the IoT environment of this municipality. In my experience, the competition falls short when it comes to features and reliability.

In the enterprise environment, there are several others that compare to Cisco and it is up to you to pick the right solution for your environment. For me, it is all related to budgeting, previous environment, expertise, and training needs.

The initial setup of this solution was simple. I included professional services and cross-training for my team.

We have experience in both cases.

 More complex and mission-critical deployments are handled by consultants. Less complicated deployments are handled by our staff.

ROI for this solution is excellent.

My HW lifecycle schedule is seven years. Some of these switches stay in production and performing ultimately for ten years.

Try to buy everything you need in bulk purchases and ask Cisco for volume discounts.

Prior to choosing this solution, I evaluated the IoT environment Antaira, Cradlepoint, and Sierra Wireless. Cisco's solution was superior.

In an enterprise environment, I have evaluated Juniper, Extreme, and HP. Cisco's solution fit my operational, budgeting, and logistic needs better.

This is a solid solution.

When choosing them vs others, it all depends on your budgeting, previous environment, expertise, and training needs.

Our primary use case for Cisco Catalyst Switches for campus-wide local area networks. We have configured it to power and support LAN nodes and facilitate separate VPNs, terminating routers for secure remote communication.

The platform significantly improved our organization by addressing latency issues in our network. Previously, banking operations were impacted by switch-related disruptions.

The platform is reliable and easy to use.

The product’s pricing needs improvement.

We have been using Cisco Catalyst Switches since 2007.

The platform is stable. We never encounter any issues and receive regular updates. I rate the stability a ten out of ten.

We have over 400 Cisco Catalyst Switches users in our organization.

When we needed access to resources or encountered issues with the software solution, we utilized the help desk provided by Cisco.

Positive

We have worked with HP before. Later, we switched to Cisco to create a wide network area.

The initial setup was straightforward as there was ample availability of resources within our country trained in Cisco equipment.

Our deployment model primarily involved an on-premises setup for the Cisco Catalyst Switches. At the headquarters, we deployed the core and distribution switches to create a robust network infrastructure. The core switches served as the backbone, while smaller switches, likely the Cisco Catalyst 900 series, were deployed in branches for more streamlined connectivity. The network was interconnected through routers, facilitating efficient communication across the organization. Additionally, we implemented an MPS deployment to enhance network performance and management.

The product is worth the investment considering consistency in efficient operations without compromise. We experienced minimal downtime, attributed not to Cisco equipment but external factors like power issues in the grid. It is a robust solution.

We had to pay for the product’s licenses.

It is easy to access the console and troubleshoot the issues. It has effective protocols implemented within Cisco devices.

We mainly use it for user access in corporate offices, but we have been working on certain projects that require using XE access to support APIs and network connectivity. 

I highly appreciate the durability and the availability. It is also proven to be a very reliable solution that ensures stable and consistent network performance. 

Facilitating and adapting the security updates would be a good improvement because it usually requires use to reboot the router to get them. The whole process is slightly complex and it could be easier. 

I have been using Cisco Catalyst Switches for ten years. 

It offers excellent stability. There are some switches with twenty years of uptime which is quite an impressive number. 

Catalyst Switches provide scalability and accommodate different network demands. 

The quality of the customer support that is provided depends on the line of the product and the model that is used. Sometimes, the first level of support is basic, but mostly it is good. Their customer service is available at all times. I rate it seven out of ten. 

Neutral

The initial setup might be significantly challenging for clients who are not familiar with its intricacies. Their advanced features and configuration options require knowledgeable IT professionals to implement them. 

Once the solution is set up, the process of deployment and configuration is almost seamless. It takes around one hour to be fully completed.

I find the price to be just right, it is not cheap, but it is not expensive. The solution provides a good balance between the features and the cost structure. They offer many options regarding the licensing so it is easy to choose one option that adapts to the needs of the customer. 

I strongly recommend this solution because it delivers high-performance switching, enabling fast data transfer rates with minor to no bugs. I rate it nine and a half out of ten. 

We use a lot of security features available with Cisco Catalyst Switches. Cisco Catalyst Switches' output is not bad, and it has a lot of ports.

Cisco Catalyst Switches is an expensive solution and its price could be improved. The lifetime of the equipment is not enough because our customers face problems when they need to change the equipment. As applications and software demand more output, vendors focus on increasing the throughput of newer equipment. However, this often leads to the discontinuation of support and warranty for older equipment.

I have been working with Cisco Catalyst Switches for more than 15 years.

I rate Cisco Catalyst Switches a seven out of ten for stability because sometimes we have problems with the software.

I rate Cisco Catalyst Switches an eight out of ten for scalability. Cisco Catalyst Switches support the clustering of several switches. Our clients are mostly small enterprises with nearly five thousand employees.

With each passing year, the knowledge of support engineers for Cisco Catalyst Switches is getting worse. Cisco TAC was in Europe and North America but moved to Mexico, China, India, and the Middle East last year. Although work is cheaper in these locations, they don't have knowledgeable customer support staff.

Neutral

We have previously worked with HP, Juniper, and Dell.

I rate Cisco Catalyst Switches a nine out of ten for its initial setup. The solution has no IP address, and you need a special cable to connect to them. This special cable is not free, and without the cable, you cannot configure the solution. The deployment of Cisco Catalyst Switches takes around 60 minutes.

Cisco Catalyst Switches' deployment is very easy. You can use it from the box if you don't need any specific configuration. If we have any deployment-related questions, we open a ticket in Cisco TAC, and their engineers resolve our problems.

Cisco Catalyst Switches is an expensive solution. I rate Cisco Catalyst Switches a four out of ten for pricing.

Cisco Catalyst Switches have a lot of features that we don't use, but we pay for them. Most Cisco equipment comes with a subscription, which is not free. However, our customers do not use this subscription. If you have enough money, better use Cisco because the technical support of other vendors is worse than Cisco.

Overall, I rate Cisco Catalyst Switches a seven out of ten.