Cisco Catalyst Switches Reviews

This is the Enterprise Class Switch platform. Technically it supports most deployment scenarios and things that you never know that it supports. 

The hardware is the most reliable, I saw some Catalyst in hot and dusty racks, working hard and with no issues from a lot of years. 

Great switching solution from Cisco!

It's resolved most of our customer communication needs.

It can be a little more cheaper.

We've had no issues with deployment.

We've had no issues with stability.

We've had no issues with scalability.

It's quite pricey.

Catalyst switches are our dedicated solution for connecting everything into one big domain.

We have configurations for port channels between two facilities, and we cannot communicate between these two buildings. An SFP configuration uses one wire to send and receive the signal. It's opt-in. We cannot use it after the upgrade. What can we do in this situation? We already bought it. 

We have a lease between these buildings, so it's important for us. There are some other SFPs, but we cannot order them at the moment. It's a very slow project. We will order those and receive them after two or three months.

Cisco devices should support Cisco SFPs. Right now, I'm testing it on Cisco and some small devices, like Planets, and it worked. It has changed, but it's working. But it doesn't work using the original Cisco because inside of a Cisco Data Sheet it says they do not support this product on the device.

I thought Catalyst switches were stable, but now I'm not so sure. 

Deploying Catalyst switches is complex. We had to add a second one for high availability. 

Cisco Catalysts Switches can be useful for the future.

Catalyst Switches could be more secure.

I've been using Catalyst Switches for about four or five years.

Cisco Catalyst Switches are stable.

We have room to expand.

We haven't used Cisco support for this. For the technical aspect of Cisco products, we have some in-house support in this aspect.

Catalyst Switches are easy to install. 

My company gets the quote from the provider.

I rate Cisco Catalyst Switches seven out of 10. I would recommend the solution to others. 

We use this solution to provide stability between sites. Also for our customers who have multiple branches, Cisco routers and switches are perfect for them. 

As far as technology is concerned, Cisco improves the client-to-client business.

Cisco should support all of the features that are included with the suite.

I have been using Cisco products for more than six years.

I am using the latest version of Cisco Catalyst Switches.

They are very stable.

Cisco Catalyst switches are definitely scalable.

There are a number of models and scalability depends on the requirements. You have to consider how far you want to scale your organization with the different branches.

I work with many different organizations and many different users. Some have 6,000 users whereas others have 3,000.

Technical support is good. Cisco offers the best possible support.

As for the new products that Cisco has acquired it's okay, but not as good.

Previously, I have used Linksys and Meraki Switches.

It's easy to install. 

If you have clear knowledge and design, it's pretty easy to implement.

The time it takes to deploy depends on how large the site is and a number of things. If everything is available it can be configured in minutes.

The size of the technical team depends on the installation and what the customer requires. For the deployment, if you have different sites you will need more people, a larger team. It also depends on the timelines and how soon you have to hand over the project to the customer.

Essentially, it depends on the circumstances.

Price is an area that can be improved. Cisco is pioneering technology and they are definitely charging for their technology.

It would be great for the user if Cisco lowered the prices for their routers and switches.

The price is not really in the market. When the new product line arrives, it's still very expensive. The product has new features, new capabilities, and definitely costs more than the previous one.

The price could be cheaper. Many other vendors provide the main features with lower pricing and better performance than Cisco.

Overall, Cisco prices are high.

We have plans to continue using this product and would recommend them to others.

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

I'm the group head of IT and we are customers of Cisco. 

In general, this is a good product with a long lifespan and easily managed. There is good local support available as well as principal support.

I'd like to see better reporting and also integration possibilities with other platforms. It's quite an expensive product and it would be helpful if they reduced the cost. 

We've been using this product for five years. 

This product is stable.

It's a scalable product. 

Support can be improved, it's usually a matter of your location. That aside, if you can reach them, the support is fine. 

The initial setup is quite straightforward although deployment takes some time because you need to carry out the configuration and attach some additional equipment. It can take a few hours. Our implementation partner helps with the base configuration, and then they draw on our internet team to work with them. Once completed, it's handed over to our team management. We've deployed the product on five sites and we usually have one or two people dealing with any issues that arise. 

There is an annual license fee. 

I was a Support Engineer with Cisco, I used to support customers who were using Cisco Catalyst features.

A good feature of Cisco Catalyst is that it records crash log files which can be used to literally identify the cause of a crash because they have a lot of information. And Cisco Catalyst supports the use of external flash disks for storing of images and file systems.

Currently, Catalyst is completely proprietary with Cisco. They should have programmability options, through open-source controllers.

Also, some features, are very complex to configure.

Catalyst is known for its stability, so there are not many challenges there. Of course, they do have a platform that comes with its own set of bugs, and then the bugs get fixed and then there is a new set of bugs. But it's okay. Compared to other products it is very stable.

Catalyst is a highly scalable product.

Tech support was good in the past but now it is becoming diluted. Cisco used to have a lot of experienced folks, but now their whole process of hiring and training is diluted, so we don't see as much expertise with the TAC engineers as we once did.

Generally, Cisco Catalyst would be relatively expensive compared to the competition, it would be on the expensive side. But I am not involved in the commercial part.

There are a lot of options when it comes to switching products. Brocade offers good switches, HPE offers a very affordable set of switches. But the purchase decision depends on a lot of factors. Primarily, Cisco provides an end-to-end solution, all aspects of networking, from UIP to security to wireless to servers. That factor plays into it.

I would give this solution an eight out of 10. To get to a 10, it should become more open-source friendly, more customizable, easy to configure, and less complex in terms of the licensing.

• Corporate network
• IP phones
• Video conference
• Security
• Connecting branches with corporate network

Network has increased stability, security, and usability. Cisco Catalyst has the ability to create new services for users, such as IP phones and video conference. We decreased budgets on the support corporate network and increased user satisfaction.

• Flexible deployment: We can add new network segments without hard work.
• Stability: If we lose some network connections, the system automatically creates new connections between equipment. 

• Cloud services
• Machine learning futures
• Virtual reality futures
• More IoT equipment
• Mobile software

The most valuable features, to me, are CDP, VTP, ACLs, and routing.

These products help me dissect my network based on the users within a particular location. They've also provided me the capability to separate network traffic as necessary.

As a user, I would like to see the Layer 2 Switches to have NBAR capabilities as well. It would be nice if the new ISRs have firewall capabilities as well.

I've been using these products since 2008. I have a Cisco ISR 2821 and 2911, Cisco Catalyst 4500, 2960 and 3750 Series Switches.

No stability issues were experienced.

It would be nice to see these products have built-in wireless access points like MikroTik.

I am sorry, but I always go to the forums and not to technical support. I like understanding the system myself. That way it is easier for me to fix issues in the future.

I previously used D-Link Switches (which was a pain) due to the budget constraints. I switched because Cisco was the best option at the time compared to D-Link.

The setup was not complex. I already knew what I wanted and what I needed to do.

Get the best that your money can buy.

Don't ever sacrifice performance, it will stab you in the back if you do.

Cisco was the best and only option that I considered.

Real-world scenarios will always surprise you.