Cisco Catalyst Switches Reviews

We use the solution for the data center infrastructure. It is a hybrid solution that requires high-performance computing capabilities to send traffic from on-premise data centers to the Azure data centers. We used the scalability of the solution for redundancy purposes.

The product’s scalability and performance are valuable.

The product must provide a better central tool for management. The existing management tool is primitive. It requires a lot of improvements. It's something that we see with competitors like Meraki. Meraki has a very good central management system.

I have been using the solution for a couple of years.

I rate the tool’s stability a nine out of ten.

The tool is scalable and flexible. We can expand it quickly. I rate the tool’s scalability an eight out of ten. The product is quite sensitive to the changes within the network. If scaling is done by someone with experience with the software and the Cisco ecosystem, it will go smoothly. If it is done by someone new to the product and does not follow the procedure properly, they could take down a large part of the network. Cisco must provide more building controls to avoid such mistakes. We had 2500 users in my previous company.

The level one support is not very good. We always get the newcomers who have to verify their checklist. When we reach the second line of support, we get very decent people who know and can solve the issues. Generally, the support is very good once we get past level one. Level one is time-consuming.

The initial setup was straightforward. We started from scratch. We had about 40 Switches in total. It took us about three days to complete the setup, from the physical installation to the configuration of software management. The deployment process includes the hardware unboxing and verifying whether everything is compatible.

Initially, we did a life cycle certification to check if the firmware was up to date. It depends on whether the firmware is deployed and managed by Cisco. Then, we did the physical installation as well as the uplinks. Finally, we did the configuration between the switches. As far as I remember, there is no central cloud-based solution yet. Everything is still CLI-based.

If we have decent knowledge, everything can be done in-house.

We paid an annual subscription fee. The product is quite expensive. Cisco, in general, is quite expensive because it is still one of the prime market leaders. It can be more cheap. The prices are too high for what we receive. In the last five years, I have seen a growing landscape of other competitors like Juniper, HPE, and Dell coming close. They are slowly and slightly adjusting the prices to a more objective measure.

The product is easy to manage as long as we have hands-on experience with them. We need to have decent network personnel. It needs a certain level of knowledge and experience. The management and configuration are easy for people with knowledge and experience. However, it has a very steep learning curve.

We had an IT team of 15 people, including three networking personnel. People who want to use the product must not take it lightly. It is a very good solution, but don't expect it to self-configure out of the box. We must have a very good understanding of what we want to achieve before we start with it.

The integration into our existing network infrastructure did not impact our operational efficiency. We didn't experience any change. It worked as well as it had before. Once the devices had been integrated within the ecosystem, we didn't experience any issues. The operational support remained the same as before, so it didn't have a real impact.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

We use the solution for live support systems.

The stability and performance are extremely good.

The solution could be cheaper.

I have been using Cisco Catalyst Switches for 20 years.

The product is stable.

I rate the solution’s stability a ten out of ten.

The solution’s scalability is good. 200 licenses of support systems are used.

I rate the solution’s scalability a ten out of ten.

The initial setup is straightforward and takes half an hour to complete.

ROI is of 10-15 years. It's very good for long-term investment.

It provides stability to our life monitoring system. The ease of management and configuration is good.

It is attributing the switches and has accessible IT. There's always a web configuration. I manage the solution.

Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Cisco offers good switches. In Pakistan, there are a lot of customers who are Cisco lovers, and they also use Cisco's firewall products.

The features of Cisco that I find to be the most valuable or effective are its network security and speed.

My company cannot import Cisco products in Pakistan due to some L/C issues. Cisco can consider the aforementioned details related to imports for improvement.

The product's high price is an area of concern where improvements are required.

I have been using Cisco Catalyst Switches for more than three years. I sell the product to my company's clients in Pakistan and don't use it personally.

It is a stable solution.

It is a scalable solution. The product is also flexible.

My company deals with around 50 customers who use the product.

The quality of support services provided by the product is good. You can open a ticket with the support team and also use Cisco's RMA option, which is quite a speedy process.

The product's support team is good, and it is easy to open a ticket. The product's technical team responds to a user's queries in a few hours or minutes.

The product's initial setup phase was easy.

There is a manual from Cisco that can be followed to deploy the product, and our company's clients mostly use it since it helps them take care of the deployment process by themselves. Our company's clients don't seek help from my organization for deployment. Our company's clients will only approach us if they get stuck somewhere with the deployment process.

For the deployment process, there is a portal maintained by Cisco where you can log in and take care of the configuration part. Cisco provides guidance with the steps involved in the deployment, and one can easily follow them. The user dashboard in Cisco's hotel can be helpful for those who are involved in deploying the product.

The new products from Cisco in the market are expensive. My company cannot import Cisco products, so they are mostly unavailable.

My company's clients pay yearly for the licensing costs attached to the solution.

The product was helpful in improving the network performance for our company's clients, considering that I have dealt with a few companies who are quite satisfied with Cisco's technical features because, on a monthly basis, they acquire five to six Cisco tools from my organization. Our company's clients can't afford the new equipment provided by Cisco and mostly prefer to purchase refurbished equipment. Our company's customers are satisfied with refurbished equipment.

The product is reliable from a security perspective since it offers a secure VPN.

The product's ease of management has improved our company's operational efficiency since Cisco supports configuration or troubleshooting issues.

I recommend the product to those who plan to use it.

Integrating the product with other network tools impacts our company's IT infrastructure since it is an easy process to integrate, deploy, and configure the tool.

The product's users experience many benefits, considering that it is a scalable and reliable tool. Cisco places a strong emphasis on security. Cisco offers a range of features to protect its users' networks. The product secures its users' networks from cyber threats. It is easy to deploy and configure, and its support is good. I sell a lot of Cisco refurbished or used equipment in Pakistan. People love to use Cisco in Pakistan. There are a lot of Cisco lovers in the market who won't switch from it to some other brand. Some of our customers have been using Cisco for many years. I have suggested other brands to my company's customers, but they are stuck with Cisco due to its great features.

I rate the overall product an eight and a half out of ten.

We propose the solution to our customers. It is used in airports, smart cities, and city surveillance networks. We are using the 9300, 9400, and 9500 series.

The product improves network efficiency. We have highly efficient network visibility, security, and automation.

Network segmentation and security groups are valuable features. We use features like network analytics, network flow, and other network solutions across our large network. The solution is highly reliable. It has a self-healing infrastructure. We do not have even a single point of failure in the core and distribution architecture. Inside the hardware, we have route processors, power supplies, line cords, and multiple lines.

It is a highly available network between core and distribution. We can design the network with a 25 GB platform. It supports wireless infrastructure like Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E. The tool provides mobility. It helps us achieve a connected experience across multiple devices. We get the same performance, reliability, and portability, whether it is wired or wireless.

The product provides enterprise-grade switches. The vendor must provide mid-level switches. If we need automation, we can only choose higher-end switches to achieve the functionality. We cannot enable the fabric with entry-level switches. It will be good if the solution provides an additional level of switches.

I have been using the solution for 15 years.

I rate the tool’s stability a seven to eight out of ten. There are some improvements needed in certain models and versions. The stability must be worked on.

I rate the tool’s scalability an eight out of ten. We work with enterprise businesses.

The technical support is good.

Positive

I rate the ease of setup a seven out of ten. We need certified resources to set up the fabric. Once the fabric is implemented, adding the switches and network is easy. We need highly skilled people for the initial setup. For a large infrastructure, the initial deployment takes about a month. After that, everything is done by Zero-Touch Provisioning. It is a plug-and-play process. The deployment takes a few days for a small infrastructure.

The price must be reduced. I rate the pricing a five out of ten. The price depends on the network size. If we need a huge volume, we will get more discount.

We are Advanced Enterprise Network partners. In DNA Center, we started with 5000 endpoints. Now, we have 50,000 endpoints. We have seamless scalability and upgraded functionalities. I rate the ease of management and configuration a seven out of ten. I will recommend the solution to others. It has an end-to-end product portfolio. It provides centralized management, visibility, scalability, manageability, and integration with multiple security solutions. Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.

I never had downtime with Cisco Catalyst Switches in the last eight years, and I'm pretty impressed with its reliability.

The only drawback I saw with Cisco Catalyst Switches is that it's not cloud-managed. We have to manage them on-premises.

We have been using Cisco Catalyst Switches in one of our hospitals for the last eight years.

Cisco Catalyst Switches is a highly stable solution.

Cisco Catalyst Switches is a pretty scalable solution. Around 2,000 people in the hospital use the solution on a daily basis.

I rate the solution an eight to nine out of ten for scalability.

I rate the solution's technical support around six to seven out of ten because they are not very responsive. You have to log a TAC ticket, and then you have to wait for them to come back.

Neutral

On a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the solution's initial setup and configuration a six to seven out of ten.

We have around 108 Cisco switches, and it took a couple of hours to deploy each switch. The whole installation took around a couple of weeks. We had to connect to the console of each switch and configure it before configuring the next switch. It took some time to deploy the switches because they were on-premises. We could have configured the switches remotely if they were on the cloud.

We implemented the solution through a reseller. We placed the order with Cisco, and they had their partner do it for us.

Cisco Catalyst Switches is an affordable solution.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a six to seven out of ten.

We use access, edge, and core switches from Cisco. Since it's not cloud-controlled, we need a specialist or network engineer to configure the solution. As far as reliability and stability are concerned, I would recommend Cisco Catalyst Switches to other users.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

In the market, if you are deploying any kind of network in an environment, there is a need for switches to distribute the network. You can use a switch to distribute the entire connection to other users in the company if you have a small company.

I can't think of an area where improvements are required in the product since Cisco seems to be regularly involved in patching the software part. Cisco Catalyst Switches releases regular software updates, so there shouldn't be any issue with the solution.

It is not easy for everyone to configure the product's initial setup part, making it an area where improvements are required.

I have been using Cisco Catalyst Switches for three years. I am a customer of Cisco.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten.

The product is not easy for everyone to configure the initial setup. Sometimes, it becomes a pain point when people are not able to understand everything related to the product, and they run into certain issues, making it a reason why I would say that the tool is not that stable.

Cisco's support team is good and can provide you with solutions quickly since Cisco has not given its support area to vendors. All of Cisco's support teams are handled by Cisco's employees. Cisco has support centers all around the globe, including countries like India, Singapore, Australia, and Europe. As a customer of the switches and routers from Cisco, my company gets twenty-four hours and seven days a week of access throughout the year to contact the support team and its engineers, who are well-trained before they get deployed on the queue to pick up the customer cases.

I rate the technical support a nine and a half out of ten.

Positive

I have experience with switches from NETGEAR and Sophos, but both products can provide detailed functionalities or features like Cisco Catalyst Switches. The functionality and features you get with Cisco Catalyst Switches are incomparable to other tools.

The product's initial setup phase was a bit difficult. A subject matter expert might be required to help with the initial setup phase.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model. The product works fine if you have experience with Cisco Catalyst Switches.

The solution can be deployed in a few hours. For the basic deployment, it takes a couple of hours.

The solutions are costly, considering that Cisco provides top-notch support and devices.

Cisco Catalyst Switches have impacted our company's network flexibility since it is a very flexible product. The solution is robust in terms of the equipment provided. As per my knowledge, no other switch provides the same functionalities that Cisco Catalyst Switches provide in the current market.

In terms of network security in our company, I would speak about the number of VLANs that users can probably have on Cisco Catalyst Switches and how we can manage the traffic going from one VLAN to another VLAN, which is a very smooth process with no issues. When you look at network security, the way Cisco implements SCP is tremendous since it has many features that one can use that are not available in other legacy products.

The performance and reliability of Cisco to support our company's critical applications are areas of the tool that can be described as top-notch.

In terms of the tool's management and configuration, if a person is into the networking field and works as a network engineer who has probably dealt with CCNA or CCNP certifications with experience for a couple of years, it will be very easy to use. Cisco Catalyst Switches might be a little difficult for a newbie to learn. Once a person learns about the product in a month or so, everything related to the solution becomes easy.

I recommend the product to those who plan to use it, especially the ones who don't have budget constraints and have people or teams who are well-versed in handling devices from Cisco.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

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.

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.