Cisco Catalyst Switches Reviews

The most valuable features include the redundancy one and the spanning tree. We also use the power over the ethernet. Moreover, we like the RRP, virtual redundant routing and GLBP, which are primarily on the Cisco Switches.

In the future it would be nice to see a dynamic VLAN database that's not managed by another, say, Cisco product.

I would like for Cisco to come up with an affordable dynamic VLAN solution. This would mainly serve the purpose of network access control. My thinking is along the lines of that of my colleagues, that there are non-Cisco infrastructures available which are more affordable. This would give us the option of using Cisco Catalyst or of moving on to the competition. 

Cisco ACI is a feature I would also like to see. When it comes to automation, it would be good to be able to use Ansible or Puppet to run one's network and enforce compliance. Roadmap is the way to go, especially when it comes to network engineers. I would be very pleased if Cisco were to enable its product to work with these automation tools. This is where the challenge lies in deployment for most network engineers. Automation is key. 

I have been working with Cisco Catalyst Switches for around 13 or 14 years.

The solution is very stable, durable and resilient. We had many issues in regards to other people and products and upgraded these solution so that they would be on par with Cisco.

I have not had to make use of direct technical support. Mainly I have taken advantage of the one which is online and this works very well for me. There are no issues to report. It has provided me with much assistance, especially the forum, and I would rate it as pretty good. 

We have worked with switches from other vendors, specifically SP and Ubiquiti. Then we worked with Cisco, as well. However, multiple infrastructure mainly applies to Cisco and this is in accordance with our enterprise standards. This means that we deploy Cisco for all sites that we take over.

When it comes to the access points side, we found Cisco to be a bit pricey and have utilized a different product that we combined with the Cisco switches. 

The pricing is on the high end. Recently, at the beginning of this year, we actually did a  comparison of Cisco and HP products. As far as I see it, given the same specifications and features, Cisco is comparatively expensive.

Cisco delivers when it comes to business value. So, I would advise others to go for it. But, they should be aware of budgetary considerations vis-a-vis the pricing. This is key. 

The product is one which delivers, especially as concerns large enterprise networks that put an emphasis on visibility and the time it takes for deployment and reaction to situations. Keeping this in mind, I would say that Cisco Analyst is the best for me. 

I rate Cisco Catalyst Switches as an 8.5 out of ten. 

We are using 29 series. We have three switches that we use for common switches and routing. We also have a number of access switches that we interconnect to the devices in the network, such as telephone, CCTV. We have defined a number of VLANs that are running traffic between the switches, and we have done interconnections within the switches, cable, and fiber. 

It is very reliable.

Its price should be improved. It is very pricey. 

Its installation can be simplified. Its installation is a bit complex.

I have been using this solution for four or five years.

It is very stable.

It is very scalable. You can almost do any new thing that is coming. 

Our users will always be around 80 to 90 because the interconnections occur within the switches.

I've just been working on Cisco switches.

Cisco solutions are a bit complex to install. They are not easy, and they require training and knowledge. When we changed our switch, it took 30 minutes to one hour.

I installed it on my own, but most people prefer to hire a consultant.

It is very pricey. You have to pay for support.

I would recommend this solution. It is good. 

I would rate Cisco Catalyst Switches a nine out of 10.

We use this solution as a network switch in banking and financial environments.

The most valuable features are performance, speed, and durability.

In an upcoming release, adding SD-WAN capabilities would be a big advantage for our company.

I have been using this solution for approximately 10 years.

We have found the stability very good in this solution.

The scalability is good.

We have licenses to have 24/7 technical support from Cisco directly. We have been satisfied with the support we have been receiving.

The price of this solution is reasonable.

In the future, we are going to implement the 2960-X next-generation version instead of this legacy solution we are using now which will have some added benefits.

I rate Cisco Catalyst Switches an eight out of ten.

I use this solution for AV, Audio-Video applications, over IP solutions. It's to forward Audio-Video IP packets based on the ITMP protocol. I also needed a POE port to power the transmitters and receivers.

One of the most valuable features is the MatchBox Switch.

I used to use the CLI, the command line, but some users may want to use the Web GUI.

They need to simplify the Cisco 2960 Web GUI control, but not the entire version or the functionality for the Web GUI control.

IT people will most often use the CLI to configure the Cisco Switch.

They need to simplify the Web GUI and make it easier to use, and more intuitive for the users.

I have more than ten years of experience working with Cisco Switches.

It's stable. The Catalyst Switches are reliable.

The scalability is good.

I have not contacted Cisco technical support.

There are several training videos available on YouTube. 

If you Google, you can very easily gather material or training videos on how to configure the Cisco switch. 

The Cisco website itself is too complicated for the user and there are too many things on it. If the users are not familiar with Cisco, it's very difficult to find useful information on the Cisco website. 

In general, I don't use the Cisco website. I just Google the Cisco user manual or training video on YouTube to learn how to configure some features. 

If you are familiar with the Cisco Switch, it is pretty straightforward to configure it using the CLI.

If you are not familiar, in general, you will use the Web GUI.

There are several YouTube videos available to help configure the Cisco switches. It is very easy to configure them.

I would rate Cisco Catalyst Switches and eight out of ten. It's a pretty good switch.

We use Cisco Catalyst Switches for the local area network.

I like everything about Cisco Catalyst Switches. It's both stable and scalable.

The price could be better. For Cisco, there is no need for improvement except for the price. It's expensive.

We have been using Cisco Catalyst Switches for about ten years.

It's a stable solution.

Cisco Catalyst Switches are scalable. We have about 1,300 users.

Technical support was okay.

The initial setup and installation were straightforward. For configuration, it took around ten minutes. For the maintenance, we have two network administrators—just two personnel.

It's expensive.

I would recommend this solution to new users.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Cisco Catalyst Switches a ten.

The solution is primarily used for getting network switching and routing for the telephone exchange here.

The solution is rather inexpensive.

The product has very good routing capabilities.

The installation process is very straightforward.

We would like the solution to be more stable.

I've been using the solution for about five years or so. It's been a while. 

The solution's stability is questionable. It's something they could work on. It would be ideal if it had better performance and reliability.

I've bever dealt directly with technical support as everything so far has been fine. We haven't had any issues or required any assistance so far.

We previously used Huawei switches, however, we do not use them anymore. We have completely moved away from them.

We have found that the installation process isn't overly complex or difficult. It was pretty straightforward and simple for us. We didn't face any complexity issues. 

For every switch, it took a few hours to be adjusted and managed.

We only needed one technical person for deployment and maintenance.

We had a manager that was able to handle the initial setup. We didn't hire any consultants or integrators.

We found the product to be reasonably priced. It's not too expensive.

We do not pay a licensing fee to use the product.

We use various versions of the solutions, including versions 12 and 15X.

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten. We're mostly happy with the product.

I'd recommend the solution to other users and companies. 

We generally work with small, medium and sometimes government organizations. We do layer 3 switches, as well as 9200 as layer 2 switches. I'm an integrator and we are customers of Cisco. 

We don't use any specific protocols. For us, the hardware and the security are the product's valuable features and performance of this solution is good. 

The cost of this product is very high and not all companies can afford it. Government entities can but corporations these days are hesitant to get Cisco. They're looking for other options that can cut their costs by 30% or 40% from the cost of Cisco Catalyst Switches. I think the command line in the platform could be improved because it's divided and can complicate things, maybe they can go direct to GUI. Using all the commands is a bit difficult. 

Cisco is stable. There are no issues with outages or integration. Once it's up and running, configuration is okay, and once it's on the live network, it's fine, no issues. 

Scalability is not an issue. Cisco is their own market and it works.  

If I have Smart Net, I get good technical support. Whenever I have an issue I contact them. They're very good. 

Initial setup can be a bit complex depending on the organization. Deployment time depends on the configuration. I did an installation with around 44 switches of Cisco 3850, which took me around one week to do the installation, configuration, and handover. It depends on the number of switches and configuration required. 

When we propose Cisco to a company, the only issue they are concerned with is price and the yearly subscription. You have to buy Smart Net to get a warranty and that is also expensive. 

Cisco is similar to other solutions such as D-Link. They have the same features. 

I rate this product an eight out of 10. 

We're using it as basic switches - mainly VLANs and SPB, The main focus is actually for just VLANs and VLAN switching, and that's it.

There are a lot of features on the device. We're not using all the features that we can use, however.

It's all fine. It works quite well. What we have now is good. We don't have many requirements for these switches except just forwarding traffic.

The solution has been very stable.

We find the product to be scalable.

Technical support is very responsive and helpful.

The solution is very reliable.

Pricing mainly is the only issue. For our company, IT is not a major investment, so it would be harder to convince management to invest in Cisco switches. For quality, they are the best, however, in terms of pricing, especially due to the COVID crisis and everything, investment into a network is now a lower priority. Before, when the money flow was better, it was easier to sell. However, now, for this current situation, a major point of pain in the company is price. 

Even though my priority is reliability, in order to avoid downtime, management is harder to convince and they just see the price tag. 

We've been using the solution since about 2018. It's been around four years or so now.

The solution is very stable. Since 2018, since we started with them, we haven't faced any issues with these switches, except for one instance where we switched to a new switch and needed to restart to enable the functionality.

Other than that, the switches are working great. There were only two times we restarted them due to an incident with the power equipment. The switches restarted because of a power issue, and not due to the switch itself having a problem.

The solution is scalable. We're actually using it using iStack. It is stackable and very scalable to add more switches. It's quite easy to expand everything.

We're using these for our core network. It's across all our core network that is going through our IT department. For that reason, many people are on them. It's likely about 50 people 50, plus the user traffic. We're an ISP. We have some servers and portals that use these servers, switches to reach the network. Therefore, many, many users use that. We have a lot of user traffic going through the switches.

The technical support is fine. We've had, several moments in these last four years where we've requested Cisco technical support and they were very quick to respond and provide assistance. It's taken, at a maximum, two days to go from request to support. they are very responsive. We are very satisfied with their level of service.

As I understand, Cisco's prices are very high and other vendors might have a lower price. Therefore, we're considering Aruba or Huawei or maybe other vendors as well for both access switches and managed wireless solutions (as in lightweight access points with controllers and these kinds of networks). 

Due to the wireless network upgrade, I'm considering other measures as well as Cisco. We're considering Aruba and we're considering Huawei. I'm considering switching to other vendors mainly because of the price.

We are a customer and an end-user.

We deal with a lot of Cisco products. We use maybe 20 or so Cisco switches.

We have an old 2960-X and a 2960 Plus. We also have three 9300 switches, which are the newer model.

I would advise other users to plan for a larger network than you currently need. For example, if you need 20 ports on a switch and you're ordering this equipment. order a 48 port one, as you'll find that you quickly consume the 20 ports and you need upgrades of two, three, four, five, six. You'll need upgrades quickly and you'll find yourself ordering another switch to replace this one. The most sensible recommendation is to order one bigger switch, which is better than replacing the switch you have within one year. 

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. The switches are excellent.