Cisco Catalyst Switches Reviews

We are mainly deploying the tool for client requirements.

The product is convenient to deploy.

The stability must be improved.

I have been using the solution for 20 years.

Sometimes, when we do upgrades, the tool goes down. We purchased a new one, but it didn’t go well.

The tool is highly scalable. Our clients are mostly enterprises.

The initial setup is easy. We deploy the tool mostly in the cloud. Someone in our team will be physically connected to the console and give us access to the network. Then, we deploy it remotely. The deployment can be done in half an hour. We connect the key ports, get the network management configurations, and deploy the product.

We’re a service provider. If people find the price to be competitive, they choose Catalyst. Otherwise, they go with other vendors. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We work on level 2 and level 3 switches to connect many branches.

These switches are stable. They work well and are easy to use.

Cisco switches are expensive.

I have been selling this solution for about 10 years.

They are stable.

I have not contacted their support. Another engineer has contacted them. We have our own two people for support.

We also deal with the HP ProCurve switch, but it is not as good in Libya.

It is not complex now because we have CCNA and CCNP engineers. We have two engineers who are certified with Cisco. Overall, we have three people who work with this solution.

We implemented and finished a big project for a company. The company is still working with the same components that we installed. For deployment, I have two people with me, but in our company, we have a big team of 20 people.

They are expensive.

I would recommend these switches to others. Cisco is a good company.

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

Our network infrastructure uses Cisco devices, including Cisco Catalyst Switches. 

The primary use case is routing traffic between the various sites that we are connected to. We have leased lines connected all over the country for use cases in revenue, immigration, and other government services.

You can easily set up and configure VLANs.

It is easy to set up connections between devices.

Cisco has to lower the price of its products to make them more cost-effective.

The Cisco Catalyst is very stable and it can last for many years. Some of our switches ran up until end-of-life and we are still using them now. We know that it's end-of-life but they still do the job.

We use a lot of products from Cisco.

The Cisco technical support is fine and we are satisfied with it. However, at this time, we are getting our support from another company and there are some issues with our subscription. As such, we are not getting all of our services.

We use Ubiquiti devices for our wireless LAN, and in addition to Cisco, we have routers from MikroTik. Within the last month, we used some Ruckus devices. These were connected to our MikroTik and Cisco devices.

We also bought a Cisco Nexus, but it is not yet configured.

The deployment was done before I joined the company.

I am responsible for network maintenance. It includes updating the routers and adding new devices. I will deploy the Nexus switch that we bought recently.

The prices of Cisco devices are too high.

We currently have the Catalyst 2960 and it is going end-of-life, so I am considering a replacement. They suggested replacing it with the 9200 but I'm currently comparing Cisco and Meraki devices.

In the market, some people are moving away from Cisco and using MikroTik devices because the price of Cisco products is too high. MikroTik products are cheaper and the gap in prices is too big. This is something that Cisco needs to consider.

I am looking forward to learning more about the Nexus that we bought because we are using old technology. There are a lot of new features.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

We are supporting many clients. Some of them have Cisco switches, and some of them have HPE. We are supporting their network and solving any requests. We are doing troubleshooting for them. For most of the clients, we do full support of the network, but it also depends on the service that they took from our company. Some of them don't give us access to their core switches, which is very rare. Most of the clients give us full access. If they need, for example, a new route, we edit the VLAN port configuration, port channels, etc.

We are also managing the wireless controller for all clients. We are supporting them by creating the wireless connection and changing the password periodically.

I recently discovered the DHCP feature. There is a feature with which you can make the core act as a DHCP server, and it will distribute the IPs for every device. I discovered this feature recently, and it is very nice.

Its price can be improved. Some devices can be very expensive.

I have been working with this solution for around two years.

It is stable.

If you follow the recommendation of Cisco, it is scalable. Sometimes, when there is anything wrong with it, we open a ticket with Cisco, and they recommend upgrading the IOS. 

We have many clients here. Most of them have Cisco. We have three clients with HPE. 

They are very nice and very quick.

Most of them are easy, especially if you have a stack solution. If it is arranged as a stack, it would be very easy to do an installation, and it also takes a shorter time than the standalone. One of the clients I worked with had a stack solution, and it was very easy. We just had to erase everything, put the new switch in there, and connect the stack cables and power cables. That was it. Sometimes, it can take the configuration from the flash.

The number of people required depends on the topology. If it is a big topology, you need two or three people. If it is a small topology, you need less number of people.

It is overpriced. Some devices can be very expensive.

Most of the clients have a contract with Cisco for two or three years.

There are different categories of switches. There are Layer 2 and Layer 3 switches. In Layer 2 switches, 2650 is nice. It is a good switch. In Layer 3, most of the switches are good.

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10.

I'm using almost six Cisco switches.

We use the solution for the LAN, Local Area Network, for the organization, or for business. 

The solution is very stable.

The scalability is good.

They are managed switches, and we can control and manage almost all of these switches - even individually, one by one, or through a central control center.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

The device age becomes an issue. For example, with the 2960 version, they're not supporting that one anymore. I find that the device or the model age is a little bit short. It is five or eight years. When we have a big organization, we have 100 or 200 switches, and suddenly it's out of support, end of support, or end of life, or whatever, it's difficult as we cannot change switches every five years. At a minimum, they should last ten years. That's better. To upgrade, it's a huge budget. Therefore, the age of the product itself is a little bit short. They really should make it longer.

The technical response could be faster in the future. 

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

The solution is perfectly stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

The scalability is pretty good. If a company needs to expand it, it can do so. It's not a problem.

We have up to 600 or 700 users. It's not measured per user. Rather, it is per device. We have many devices on top of users.

We do plan to increase usage in the future. 

I have contacted technical support in the past. They are fine, however, they are a little bit slow.

We did not previously use a different solution. We've always used Cisco products.

The solution is easy to install for administrators and network engineers. People who are qualified in networking shouldn't face any issues. It's fine, it's easy.

The amount of time it takes to deploy a switch depends. If it is at layer switch, it will not take more than one hour, maximum, for each switch. However, if it is a core switch, it might take one day.

The size of the team you need for maintenance also depends. If we are going for an upgrade, we need a big team. However, if it is just for troubleshooting, only two engineers are required.

We can handle the implementation ourselves. We do not need any integrators or consultants. 

We can use the switches without licenses. However, with licenses, yearly licenses, it is better, as we will have more troubleshooting options and control options, through a control center device.

We use various versions of the solution. For the access layer switch, we have different models, including 2950 and 2960. Now, we are using the 9K series, 9200. The latest one. This is for the access layer. For core and distribution switches, we have 6500 and 4500 versions.

I'd recommend the solution to others.

I would rate them at a nine out of ten.

We have the Cisco Catalyst 2940 Series switches. We usually use these switches for connections inside our office. We have a three-story building, so we have quite a number of switches to connect specific departments. These switches are mainly used to share a connection among computers in a specific department. 

They are stable. We haven't had any particular problem with them. 

Their price should be improved. They are a little bit expensive.

We have been using these switches for around five years.

They are stable. We haven't had any problems. There was a time when due to power failures or outages, we lost some switches and had to replace them. Power is very unstable here, and we are experiencing outages due to heat.

In one of the devices that I am using, I notice lights blinking from time to time. I don't know whether it is related to the equipment, but it seems that the connection is not going through. It only occurs from time to time. I am yet to understand the reason behind this. It is not a big problem, and we are able to use it.

Our network doesn't grow so much, and it has more or less the same things. We are a public university, and we have three sites. I am at one of the sites. At this site, we have about 60 to 70 people. We also have our campuses where some of these switches are used. All in all, we have about 1,000 people.

We are setting up a national research and education network for which we have acquired some Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series switches, which are new to me. When we start using these, I would have more to say about what they can achieve in terms of scalability.

We don't have external technical support. Unfortunately, this is not something that works very well in a country like ours. We have to rely on our own technicians. 

We have had the opportunity, although not so extensively, to use MikroTik. In my experience, they are easy to use, and they are cheaper. Our financial department opted for Cisco, but we are satisfied with Cisco. 

It is easy. We haven't had much trouble.

I can do it by myself.

They are a little bit expensive. We are a public institution, so we go through other traders, and sometimes, they put in their own surplus price because it is a government contract. Cisco products are expensive, especially when you compare them to Huawei.

I would surely recommend this solution. We plan to keep using these switches. 

I would rate Cisco Catalyst Switches an eight out of ten.

LAN switch for both core and access layers. It has performed very well in this area.

The ease of deployment and the support are associated with a reduction in end-user downtime as well as in the operations and maintenance efforts required.

Among the most valuable features are the support and the ecosystem. There is a lot of documentation and information, and many support resources are available.

It would be helpful to have the ability to load new IOS software without performing a reboot, or to be able to perform the reboot without disrupting end-users.

This is a very stable and mature platform with a proven record of reliability.

Catalyst is very a very scalable solution thanks to its Stack mechanism, as well as the modular functionalities of some models.

Cisco TAC support is very reliable and responsive. It has always been considered an industry benchmark among all IT support organizations.

Business requirements were the driver for our switch to Catalyst. We needed an increase in port density and an increase in port speed, among other things.

The most important criterion when selecting a vendor is the quality of the support team for technical issues.

The setup of Catalyst, in general, is straightforward and easily done by following the documentation.

Extreme Networks, Juniper Networks, Dell.

Consider your business requirements and only select the needed functions/features, to avoid over-complex solutions.

I rate Catalyst a nine out of 10 because the product is extremely mature and reliable.

The main use case usually depends on the client itself. We are operating as system integrators with numerous customers and different software vendors. 

When deciding on the system, most of the clients check for switching capacity and Cisco Catalyst Switches is a very good solution for that purpose. It enables fast data transfer rates while offering stable and consistent network performance. 

With most of the Cisco devices and models, we faced a slight decrease in speed during the initial setup and while restarting the system. The performance of the solution itself is really good. 

I have been employing this solution for a year and a half. 

I would rate the stability ten out of ten. 

The scalability depends on the device that is used and the client's requests, but overall, it is a scalable solution that can accommodate growing network demands. 

Cisco provides comprehensive support and advanced management capabilities, including remote configuration and monitoring options. We had a small issue with the data center so we had to engage with the tech team, and their service was exceptional. I rate it ten out of ten. 

Positive

The initial setup was not complex at all. The only issue with the setup is that it takes a lot of time for the system to be deployed. 

The deployment of the solution is based on specific networking needs so the timing and the whole process depends on the complexity of the project.

I would say that the pricing of the solution falls within the moderate to higher range. It is still quite reasonable for the provided service. I rate it seven out of ten.

I highly recommend Cisco Catalyst Switches as they facilitate the creation of network segments and VLAN configurations for smooth traffic management and security. I rate it ten out of ten.