Cisco Catalyst Switches Reviews

I design, implement, and troubleshoot networks that use Cisco switches. I am involved in every part of the design, including wireless.

The biggest advantage of having this solution is that it is easy to find engineers, and they are cheaper than hiring HP engineers. HP engineers are difficult to find and you have to train them, which brings up the price of an HP solution.

Cisco switches are really expensive compared to other solutions, which is something that should be improved. They are almost double in price.

As of late, Cisco has been moving from one technology to the next and they don't support each other. If you want new features then you have to buy a new product and forget about the old one. This is from a licensing perspective. For example, the Cisco DNA license versus then Cisco One license are things that I don't know about.

I would like to see better compatibility between Cisco and other vendors. There are a lot of features that are for Cisco devices only, and when you bring in a second or third vendor there are a lot of problems. Fixing this incompatibility would be an improvement. I have not tried a lot of other brands, but I have connected both Huawei and Aruba Wireless with Cisco. Connecting Huawei with Aruba Wireless works well with no hangs. However, connecting Cisco and Huawei is terrible. Sometimes you have to restart one, whereas other times you have to restart the other. I do not recommend mixing equipment between these two companies.

I have been working with Cisco Catalyst switches for close to 11 years.

If the switch is set up properly in the first place then you don't need to come back to do anything with it. This is especially true with the Catalyst 3750. It is the most stable thing in the world. I have found that some of the newer switches will hang or lose their configuration, but this never happened with the 3750.

For example, I have faced a lot of problems with the 3850, especially if there are Aruba access points. Sometimes, it will just reject the access point, although when I bring a new one, it will allow it. Sometimes the VLAN, itself, hangs. Then you can put in another VLAN and it will work. There are a lot of mysterious things that I could not find an explanation for.

I have not faced any problem with scalability.

In my opinion, the Catalyst switches are for enterprise-level organizations with 5,000 or more employees. If there are 1,000 or fewer employees then any switch will manage.

Some of the places I have worked in had networks with 20,000 to 70,000 users. 

I have not contacted technical support from Cisco. I have friends and colleagues who have received support but I just keep reading, then trial and error until I get it. I wouldn't want to pay for support if I don't use it. The only time I would require support is a hardware failure.

I have worked on two projects in the past where support licenses were purchased for a year. What I found was that I could purchase four additional switches and in total, they would cost less than the support. Those switches then go into storage and if one of the others fails then a replacement is available. Ultimately, it is much, much cheaper.

I have always used Cisco networking solutions, although we are opening a new branch and I think that this time, we will use HP. They do not want to pay one to two million dollars for IT infrastructure. With HP, if they have to pay half a million then they will approve it.

I have experience with a hybrid environment where it was a Cisco LAN and an HP Aruba wireless LAN, and I didn't like it. I was losing some great options. Based on that experience, I think that all of the hardware should be from a single vendor. Either Cisco all the way, or HP Aruba all the way.

It is very easy and very straightforward to set up and deploy. It takes maybe 15 to 30 minutes to get it working.

The price of Cisco equipment is very expensive and you have to pay extra for support.

My advice for anybody who is implementing this solution is to design the system well before deploying it. You have to consider all of the aspects and all of the options. Always beware. If there is a 1% chance of failure then consider it to be a 90% failure rate because when it fails, you will have options. Always have a plan A, B, C, and D. In my experience, sometimes all of the plans will fail, and sometimes the first one succeeds.

I can't give them a perfect market but they undeniably are of good quality.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

The product is reliable. The performance is good.

The product could be more user-friendly. The tool is not easy to manage or integrate.

I have been using the solution for five years.

The tool is stable. I rate the stability a nine out of ten. We need to dive into it and know what we're doing. It's not straightforward. We can’t just go to the web GUI and check.

I rate the tool’s scalability an eight out of ten. We need to know the command lines to expand them. It is not GUI-based. The number of users varies from 100 to 5000. The usage depends on the requirements.

We have to go through a long process. It is not quite straightforward.

Neutral

We used other solutions before. We chose Cisco because of its reliability. The choice also depends on the cost versus the performance of the solution.

The initial setup was complex. The deployment takes an hour.

The price could be improved. We must have a relevant partnership with Cisco.

Overall, I rate the product an eight or nine out of ten.

We are using this solution on-premises and in the data center; it enables us to access switches. We have several hundred users.

We have been using Cisco Catalyst Switches for more than five years.

It works well.

Cisco Catalyst Switches is a scalable solution.

Cicso Catalyst Switch's technical support is one of the best. They are very fast and knowledgeable.

The setup is straightforward for people that know about Cisco Catalyst Switches. For a normal switch, it takes one hour to deploy.

We were able to implement the solution on our own. We have three Network Engineers on our technical team that handles the deployment and maintenance.

Cisco Catalyst Switches is smart networking; we have a yearly licensing subscription. It is one of the most expensive solutions, however, it is one of the best.

I would rate this solution a 10 out of 10.

We primarily use the solution for the virtualization infrastructure and for bare metal platforms.

We are satisfied with the solution's performance so far.

The stability has been perfect.

The solution can scale.

It is a very easy solution to use.

We have found the installation process to be very simple. 

The pricing is quite good.

The delivery dates need to be more expedient. This could be improved. Right now, when we need to buy a new Cisco Switch, we may have to wait a few months. It could be as much as six months sometimes. It's far too long of a wait.

I've been using the solution for a few years at this point. 

So far, the solution has been very stable. The performance is excellent. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.

The scalability of the solution is quite good. If a company needs to expand, it can do so.

We have hundreds of users that are leveraging this product.

At the moment, we do not have plans to increase usage.

We've never contacted technical support in the past. I can't speak to how helpful or responsive they are. 

A very, very long time ago we used HP Brocade Switches. W removed over to Cisco mostly due to the fact that there is a very rich knowledge base over the internet. Also, the implementation is pretty straightforward and the commands are pretty easy to follow. 

When it comes to the initial setup, the solution is very simple and straightforward. It's not overly complex or difficult.

How much time it takes depends on the configuration, specifically the complexity of the configuration for the Cisco Switch. Most of the time, a few days are enough for any configuration.

Two engineers are enough in terms of handling the initial setup.

We were able to set up the solution ourselves, in-house. It's not a complex process, and therefore, we did not need outside help from integrators or consultants.

There is a license that is paid with the Switch when you are buying the Switch.

It's reasonably priced.

I'm not sure if we are using the latest version of the solution, although we are often handling product updates.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

The main use of Cisco Catalyst Switches is for enterprise networking.

Cisco Catalyst Switches should have better performance and be easier to use. Additionally, they should add artificial intelligence features.

I have used Cisco Catalyst Switches within the last 12 months.

My clients are not happy with the stability of the solution.

The solution is scalable but the configuration to have it scale can be complex.

I have not opened up a ticket for Cisco Catalyst Switches. However, I have used the support from Cisco and they are very good and responsive.

I have used other solutions, such as Juniper, HP, Aruba, and Fortinet switches, and they are better than Cisco Catalyst Switches.

The configuration of the solution is difficult. If you are not using the Cisco Prime or Cisco DNA for management then the solution will be complex.

Three or five engineers are needed for the implementation of large projects.

Cisco Catalyst Switches are very expensive.

We have found that we need to purchase a DNA license to be able to use the Cisco Catalyst Switches but we never used it. There is an annual fee to use the solution. There are additional services that can be added at an extra cost.

They need to remove the DNA license.

I have evaluated other solutions, such as Juniper, HP, Aruba, and Fortinet switches

I would not recommend Cisco for anyone, many of my customers have had bad experiences with them.

For the rest of the business for Catalyst customers, we replacing all of them for our customers. I saw the many cases the customers were replacing Cisco with another vendor. It is more expensive and it didn't meet their expectations. However, we are using another technology from Cisco but the security from Cisco is not good anymore.

I rate Cisco Catalyst Switches a four out of ten.

These switches make up part of our network infrastructure.

The configuration and command set are user-friendly.

Cisco switches are feature-rich compared to other vendors.

Technical support is good, as they resolve any issues that we have.

The initial setup can be easier in cases where the policy and ruleset are complex.

We have been using Cisco Catalyst Switches for between five and six years.

This product is stable and our switches have been working fine. These switches are used extensively.

This is a scalable solution. We have 5,000 or more users.

We have several Catalyst switches in our environment. Most of them are running version 15.x of the operating system, although some of them are version 12.x and older. These may be upgraded in the future.

We may increase our usage although I don't know at present.

We are not the team that is responsible for contacting support. However, the support from Cisco is good. They easily resolve any issues that we have.

I have only worked with Cisco solutions.

The initial setup can be complex, depending on the policy and the rules.

Only a small staff is required for deployment and maintenance.

Cisco is regularly updating this product.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

I am a CMP and know the Cisco Catalyst Switches very well. We use them for connectivity.

The product is good, very stable.

Prices could always be lower.

I have been using Cisco Catalyst Switches for 12 years.

This solution is stable.

Cisco Catalyst Switches is very scalable.

The customer service and support is good, they answer on time and resolve any issues that I have

Being a CMP, the initial setup is easy for me.

Cisco is very reliable and I would recommend their products. I would rate the Catalyst Switches a 10 out of 10.

We are using Cisco Catalyst Switches for corporate and production, such as offices. We have two networks running and the second one is an Everts network and it is more specialized in TV video broadcasting.

Cisco Catalyst Switches has been very useful in my organization because we do a lot of videos. My company is a TV station. 

The solution could improve by having a video IP feature.

I have been using Cisco Catalyst Switches for approximately 30 years.

Cisco Catalyst Switches are highly reliable and stable.

We have approximately 500 Cisco Catalyst Switches installed.

The support of Cisco Catalyst Switches is very good.

We are a large company and the price is reasonable because we have received a discount. However, the full price is expensive.

I rate Cisco Catalyst Switches an eight out of ten.