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System administrator and network manager at MEO
Real User
Top 10
The stability and performance are extremely good
Pros and Cons
  • "The stability and performance are extremely good."
  • "The solution could be cheaper."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for live support systems.

What is most valuable?

The stability and performance are extremely good.

What needs improvement?

The solution could be cheaper.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco Catalyst Switches for 20 years.

Buyer's Guide
Cisco Catalyst Switches
May 2025
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Catalyst Switches. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable.

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

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

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

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

How was the initial setup?

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

What was our ROI?

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

What other advice do I have?

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.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Abubakar Bello - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Administrator at NDIC
Real User
Top 5
A durable and user-friendly solution that is very stable and provides very good technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is durable."
  • "The product must improve its security."

What is our primary use case?

I use the product to connect computers to the local area network.

What is most valuable?

The solution is durable. We have a lot of power fluctuations, yet the product works well. It is user-friendly.

What needs improvement?

The product must improve its security. It should be more intelligent. The optimization features must be faster. It must follow in tandem with technology.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for around ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The tool is very stable. I rate the stability a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the tool’s scalability a seven out of ten. We plan to replace all our switches. We will choose Cisco.

How are customer service and support?

Cisco has a lot of layers of support. We won’t have a problem with support. The support is very good.

How was the initial setup?

I rate the ease of setup an eight out of ten. It is plug-and-play. The setup is straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product is quite expensive.

What other advice do I have?

The solution is good. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Catalyst Switches
May 2025
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Catalyst Switches. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer935628 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr.Manager at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Highly scalable and easy to manage
Pros and Cons
  • "We can have multiple Cisco switches, like seven or eight, on a stack for 300 users. So it is highly scalable and easy to manage."
  • "I think one switch should go beyond the 10 gig connectivity to 40 gigs."

What is our primary use case?

We are using all the three hierarchal models of Cisco Catalyst: 2960, 4500, and 6800. It is perfect for an enterprise setup where you have multiple buildings and you want to aggregate in a single building. 

What needs improvement?

I think one switch should go beyond the 10 gig connectivity to 40 gigs.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with Cisco Catalyst switches for more than 10 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco Catalyst switches are resilient.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We can have multiple Cisco switches, like seven or eight, on a stack for 300 users. So it is highly scalable and easy to manage. There are 15,000 users on our campus total.

How was the initial setup?

Installing Catalyst Switches is straightforward, just like with any other Cisco device. For the Alto switch, it hardly takes 20 or 30 minutes. I believe we used a configurator. All in, it takes seven to eight people to deploy because we have a large number of switches. And on the operations team, we have seven to eight people managing them.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Cisco Catalyst switches nine out of 10. I would definitely recommend them to others.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Ahmed Hawana - PeerSpot reviewer
Network and Security Engineer at IDSC
Real User
Stable, easy to use, and familiar to local engineers
Pros and Cons
  • "Catalyst switches are highly stable and easy to use. It's a technology well known by most engineers."
  • "It is kind of expensive."

What is our primary use case?

We are using the Catalyst 9200 series as a network switch and the 9500 as a core switch. We sometimes use a 9300 for the distribution switch.

What is most valuable?

Catalyst switches are highly stable and easy to use. It's a technology well known by most engineers.

For how long have I used the solution?

We are an enterprise end-user. We also consult for other government entities and recommend using certain technologies to them. I've been working at this business and using Catalyst Switches for a year now. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Catalyst switches are highly scalable.

How are customer service and support?

I'm satisfied with support from Cisco and the vendor as well as their partners here in Egypt.

How was the initial setup?

It is a straightforward installation. You don't need anyone to install Catalyst Switches for you. You just add it to your network and then do the installation and configuration as well as the pre-setup preparations. It doesn't take a lot of time. You take the switch from the box and put it in the network, then configure it directly. The switch will only take about 30 minutes to configure.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Cisco licenses are yearly. A single 9000 series Catalyst switch is about 75,000 Egyptian pounds. It is kind of expensive. But compared to other switches, it will save you in the long run. You need to hire specialized engineers who know how to operate those devices, and some of them are rarer in Egypt, like FortiSwitch or HPE Switch. Most engineers know how to use Cisco Catalyst. You would need to hire a specialist engineer and train them, and that will cost money. There are other cheaper technologies, but for Cisco, the price is expected. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Cisco Catalyst Switches 10 out of 10. I would recommend it. This is a leading technology, and the price is reasonable, especially the Catalyst switches I mentioned. Other types of Catalyst switches are more expensive, but the ones we use are more affordable. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Abdulmajeed Alangry - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder at Ofoq
Real User
Simple to use with good functionality and a straightforward installation
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is already at the cutting edge in terms of innovation."
  • "Any improvements that they make should be in the wireless area of the product."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution as access switches they get connected to the end-users and access points and IB fronts. 

What is most valuable?

The solution is fairly simple to use.

We're able to use L2 switches with this product. We are using normal VLANS plus spanning trees.

The installation is very straightforward.

The overall functionality is very good.

The solution is already at the cutting edge in terms of innovation.

What needs improvement?

There aren't any features that are missing. It's quite a good solution.

There are two different families, the older family is not programmable. The newer family is programmable and everything is there, so for now, most of the improvement is in the capacity and the speed and other items.

They could use more layer trees or VXLAN. Any modern setup which uses the SD axis and other features would benefit from this. It would definitely be more stable as we could remove all spanning trees. It's already technically there in Catalyst 9K.

Any improvements that they make should be in the wireless area of the product.

We could see more 100 GB interfaces and higher speeds in the future.

The access levels could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for six or seven years now. It's been a while.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is good in terms of stability. Everything you need is right there. It's reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very scalable. If a company needs to expand the product, they will be able to do so.

Our whole organization is currently using the solution. If I calculated all employees, it would be over 70,000 users. All of them definitely go through access switches, unless they are on remote access, in which case they don't access the switch.

We do plan to continue to use the solution going forward.

How are customer service and technical support?

As a Cisco vendor and a company that deploys the solution to our customers, we tend to handle the technical support ourselves. We assist our clients if anything happens with the solution.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I cannot recall using any other switches. We've always used Cisco.

How was the initial setup?

The solution is not complex in terms of setup. It's rather simple and pretty straightforward.

I cannot recall how long the deployment took. It actually doesn't take that much time. It takes a couple of days for the setup and to connect everything.

The number of people you need for deployment depends on the size. For simple use cases, if you just want to plug in a new switch, you do not need many people. However, in our case, we had a campus and that takes a bit more staff.  

What about the implementation team?

I handled the implementation myself.

What other advice do I have?

I'm not sure of the exact version of the solution we are using. It might be version 15.

I'm technically a Cisco vendor.

I would recommend this solution to others.

On a scale from one to ten, I'd rate this solution at a nine.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: implementer
PeerSpot user
Rabiul-Islam - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Security Engineer at KNZ SOLUTIONS INC
Real User
Top 10
A highly scalable and easy-to-deploy solution that can be deployed remotely
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is convenient to deploy."
  • "The stability must be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We are mainly deploying the tool for client requirements.

What is most valuable?

The product is convenient to deploy.

What needs improvement?

The stability must be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for 20 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

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

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

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

How was the initial setup?

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.

What other advice do I have?

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.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: MSP
PeerSpot user
reviewer1251825 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at a marketing services firm with 51-200 employees
Real User
Good VLAN capabilities and technical support, but the pricing is too high
Pros and Cons
  • "The Cisco Catalyst is very stable and it can last for many years."
  • "Cisco has to lower the price of its products to make them more cost-effective."

What is our primary use case?

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.

What is most valuable?

You can easily set up and configure VLANs.

It is easy to set up connections between devices.

What needs improvement?

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

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

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.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We use a lot of products from Cisco.

How are customer service and support?

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.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

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.

How was the initial setup?

The deployment was done before I joined the company.

What about the implementation team?

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.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The prices of Cisco devices are too high.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

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.

What other advice do I have?

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.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
JaromirLikavec - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer, IT Manager at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
Real User
Feature-rich, secure, and supports virtual stacking
Pros and Cons
  • "This is a feature-rich product and the newer models have improved features that allow for many new possibilities."
  • "My company would prefer that the price was more cost-effective."

What is most valuable?

The security is very nice.

This is a feature-rich product and the newer models have improved features that allow for many new possibilities.

The virtual stacking feature is helpful.

What needs improvement?

My company would prefer that the price was more cost-effective.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Cisco Switches for approximately 25 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

With respect to stability, Cisco is a vendor that we can rely on.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I work with a variety of Cisco network products, including Cisco Wireless.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing from Cisco is expensive but we pay for the reliability.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I am in the process of changing my core networking infrastructure, and I am moving into the new portfolio that is offered by Cisco. My boss regularly asks whether we can change from Cisco to another vendor to get better pricing, but I always reject this. We rely on Cisco.

When you have a homogenous network, as I do with only Cisco networking products, with no other components, then all of the features from the old platforms are available. I can use the same access procedures, regardless of whether the device is wireless, wired, or remotely accessed.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I am satisfied with Cisco Catalyst switches. The only complaint that my company has is about the pricing.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco Catalyst Switches Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco Catalyst Switches Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.