Cisco Ethernet Switches Reviews

My former employer used the solution to build a campus network that included one distribution switch for each of its 200 buildings. 

Every building had its own Catalyst 3750 Series switch that provided access layers connecting back to 7600 Series distribution switches and routers. We used the MPLS network to build OSPF and PGP and provide multiple services with their own VRFs such as data NPT television and building management systems. 

The solution provided a high-end throughput that was easy to handle, implement, and route. 

The solution can handle a huge network with tons of traffic.

The solution should offer a method for user-based load balancing. Load sharing exists but the only balancing available is for the server load and not the Internet. 

Most engineers now prefer a GUI that is not part of this solution. In my experience, GUI is not required because the solution's commands are very familiar, easy to understand, and available via Google or the solution's portal. 

I have been using the solution for eleven years. 

The solution is very stable because of its good performance and long life. 

The solution is scalable and depends on the desired model. You can create multiple contexts and extend your network by adding Nexus 5000 or 2000 for connections. 

I am currently working on a big project with thousands of routers and 70% of them are Cisco switches. Scalability is not dependent on the number of users but is instead about providing access to the network. 

I contacted technical support many times in the past and received helpful, straightforward, and responsive assistance. 

Recently, I worked with them on an encryption issue and didn't receive a solution for three weeks. This experience was disappointing but others have been resolved satisfactorily. 

The setup was straightforward. 

It takes about four hours to build both chases and install the supervisor engine, line cards, and fiber connectivity before uploading and confirming configurations. 

The pricing for individual use is expensive but partners receive discounts of 70-80 percent for high-end use. 

I used to face many physical hardware issues with FortiGate that I don't experience with the solution because it is straightforward to install, upgrade, and configure. 

The solution's logistical perspective is easy to understand and troubleshoot when configuring protocols and manipulating routes.

When choosing a router, it is important to match solutions to requirements. This is a high-end router so important things to consider are use, budget, and desired performance. 

I am not familiar with all of the solution's features. Based on my use cases, I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

I primarily work with network solutions like Cisco Ethernet switches, especially when it comes to secure networking through VLANs.

The deployment of Cisco Ethernet switches has improved organizational operations by being effective and reliable in our environment.

The most valuable features of Cisco Ethernet switches include plug-and-play capabilities, ease of deployment, and high reliability.

There is a need for improvement on the ordering and delivery side for Cisco Ethernet switches.

I have been working with Cisco switches for about ten to 15 years.

Cisco Ethernet switches are reliable, and I have not encountered any issues with their stability.

Cisco products are compatible with various industries and support scalability efficiently.

I am 100% satisfied with the technical support provided by Cisco.

Positive

I have mostly used Cisco switches, however, if a customer has budget constraints, I might suggest using Sophos switches.

The initial setup of Cisco Ethernet switches was straightforward and efficient, taking minimal time.

Initially, implementing AI-driven technologies on Cisco switches required some effort, but the results are commendable.

The solution is described as midrange in terms of pricing.

I have recommended Sophos switches to customers who have budget issues.

Cisco Ethernet switches are compatible with many industries and reliable for various network implementations.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

We use Cisco Ethernet Switches to interconnect the 20 to 25 servers and workstations in our control room.

We use Cisco Ethernet Switches to configure VLANs in the VPN network. We need to put some subsystems in the VLAN so that other terminals will not access these equipment. We do all these configurations on the solution. The solution is easy to configure.

The solution's reliability should be improved. We see that some ports must be reset when in the hang mode. Only after a reset can we make use of those ports. There could be some internal or external reasons for the hang. We are looking for an improved reliability aspect.

I have worked with Cisco Ethernet Switches for over 20 years as an end user.

There are no issues with the solution’s stability.

Our department is quite big. About 50 engineers are accessing different nodes.

The solution’s customer support service is quite good.

The solution is easy to install. They're all plugin modules.

One engineer can complete the solution’s deployment within one to one and a half hours. We are a government department. Our engineers buy the equipment, follow the installation instructions, and do the installation.

The solution’s pricing is reasonable. The solution has a lifetime license because we are not renewing the license every year. It is a one-time purchase.

So far, the failure rate with the solution is very low, and we want to find a spare for the existing unit.

Users must be familiar with the operation and configuration of Cisco Ethernet Switches to use them. They have to familiarize themselves with the solution and know the different configurations and features it supports. Users need to understand the solution properly before using it.

Cisco Ethernet Switches is a good solution.

Overall, I rate Cisco Ethernet Switches ten out of ten.

There are no additional features in the switch from Cisco. They are conventional switches that only provide basic Layer Two switching capabilities and do not have the advanced security features that newer switches, such as Fortinet offer. They simply forward data and do not have any other capabilities.

The most valuable feature of Cisco Ethernet Switches is its hardware.

The current state of Cisco Ethernet Switches leaves room for improvement, particularly in regard to central management and security. While they possess the capability to function as owners of Layer Two, they fall short in regard to security awareness. While there are some supplementary products available that can provide additional security measures, such as the deployment of virtual machines, these solutions are external and not integrated within the switch itself. For this reason, Cisco Ethernet switches could benefit from incorporating the same centralized management and security features as other companies, such as Fortinet, offer in their FortiSwitches. By being aware of potential threats such as MAC spoofing and ARP poisoning, the switch can provide a more comprehensive level of security.

I have been using Cisco Ethernet Switches for a very long time.

I've communicated with the technical support team of Cisco previously in regard to their switches. I have always been pleased with the support I have received from them. No matter what challenges I have encountered with their products, I have always been satisfied with their assistance. The support team has consistently demonstrated their readiness to assist and I have never encountered any issues with their support services. Thus, I can confirm that I have indeed had previous interactions with the Cisco support team.

The initial setup of Cisco Ethernet Switches is never easy.

The solution is highly expensive compared to other solutions. The prices get tripled when they arrived in my country of Angola.

I would recommend others use Arista, Fortinet, or Juniper switches.

The adoption of Cisco Ethernet switches in Angola was a result of various factors, including the popularity and widespread usage of the brand. Additionally, the impact of the research and advisory firm, Gartner, has played a significant role in the purchasing decisions of decision-makers. Despite the speaker's advice to not solely rely on Gartner's recommendations, the company's influence is perceived as prominent as they often feature the most expensive solutions at the top of their rankings.

I rate Cisco Ethernet Switches a seven out of ten.

We use Cisco Ethernet switches for building on-site LAN projects and topologies. It depends on the switches I use. Usually, it's supposed to be a PoE, especially if we're supporting VoIP and wireless technologies. We deploy everything on-premises because I work with government entities in Singapore. 

Cisco Ethernet switches help build an office-based LAN. We seldom use Cisco Ethernet switches in data centers. We typically use Nexus switches for data centers. Compared to other vendors, Cisco switches are more like rugged switches. We seldom need to reboot those switches unless there's a bug or it was deployed on a different environment—like the racks aren't adequately ventilated.

Cisco switches have several valuable features like VLAN mapping. We seldom use that, but we find the security configurations helpful, like high availability with trading port channels and MAC filtering. 

Their firmware could be better secured against vulnerabilities or other exploits. Also, only selected catalyst switches are allowed to onboard to Cisco SD Access technology. 

I have used Cisco switches for 10 years.

I rate the hardware stability 10 out of 10. 

I rate Cisco Ethernet switches seven out of 10 for scalability. Unless the switch is submodular, you can remove those modules and plug in better ones. Scalability is harder if it's fixed hardware, but it's easier to scale a virtualized network appliance.

I rate Cisco support 10 out of 10. We usually purchase their highest level of support. 

Positive

Our setups are simple, but it depends on the complexity of the client's infrastructure and requirements. I'm more on the operations side, so everything is already deployed, but when we build a new network, I am involved in configuring the new switches. When we do an RMA for a faulty device, I configure it. It's usually a copy-paste of the configuration, but I can build the design from scratch.

The number of people required for deployment and maintenance depends on the size of the environment. A data center usually needs about five or six people to maintain it. You have two people on 12-hour shifts; the rest are senior staff. 

I'm not usually involved on the financial side, but the ROI is excellent based on the performance of Cisco products overall.

I rate Cisco Ethernet switches three out of 10 for affordability. They are expensive, but they're worth it. I believe in quality over quantity.

I rate Cisco Ethernet switches nine out of 10. I highly recommend Cisco switches, but the bottom line is that it depends on your budget.

We are routing with the Cisco switches, so there are a lot of features, but no single one stands out. 

There's are other products that are better for network programmability. Cisco isn't as programmable as some others vendors. For example, on devices running iOS XE, you  dont have candidate configuration datastore when you use netconf like you would have on arista, juniper or others. Changes are directly applied on running configuration so there is no room for error once you commit changes to devices.

So it will be good for them to implement other config datastores because when it go to programming, review it's important so we need to be abe to have at least a candidate configuration datastore.

I've been using Cisco Ethernet Switches for 15 years.

Cisco Ethernet Switches are stable.

Cisco Ethernet Switches are scalable.

Cisco support is good once you reach a technician, but the website is a mess. I don't like the website.

I didn't use previous solution and then swith, but evaluate others vendors sometimes because their was in use in a company we bought, sometimes because their were shipped as a bundle with some hardware vendors solution for private cloud or storage solutions etc. Thought ome of them have some good features, Cisco got a better average rate when you take the whole thing.

The initial setup is really easy.

The price of Cisco switches could be lower. The cost is growing compared to other products, and it's more segmented. A Cisco switch is more expensive than before. For example, stackable models used to be provided with stacking ports and stacking cable. Now it's split you have to buy stacking kit separately. I don't know if they are the only ones like this or if this is standard now.

Yes other options have been evaluated but Cisco appeared to be the more easy to operate through the years regarding the stability of the product series, the CLI, support and documentation.

I rate Cisco Ethernet Switches eight out of 10. 

I am using the Cisco Ethernet Switches in the food industry.

Cisco Ethernet Switches could improve if they removed the command line interface and replaced it with a better GUI. It is too difficult at the moment, we always need to figure out the commands.

I have been using Cisco Ethernet Switches for approximately six months.

The stability of Cisco Ethernet Switches is very stable.

Cisco Ethernet Switches are scalable.

We have approximately 250 people using the Cisco Ethernet Switches.

I did not have any experience with the technical support of Cisco Ethernet Switches.

We were previously using Aruba switches and we migrated to Cisco because of the groups' direction, it was not a fault of Aruba switches. Aruba switches are great. We were working with Aruba for 10 years without any problem, and they gave us a lifetime warranty for the switches. If we had a faulty switch they would give us new ones.

The service from Aruba was very good, but I think that Cisco solutions are more professional for something VLANs. I didn't try Aruba with VLANs, however, we make all of our VLANs with Cisco.

I prefer Aruba solutions because they are easier to use.

The initial setup was for Cisco Ethernet Switches was straightforward.

I rate the implementation of Cisco Ethernet Switches a four out of ten.

The implementation of Cisco Ethernet Switches was done with a partner and our experience was very good.

We are in a manufacturing environment running 24 hours a day. We have a dedicated team of three that works on the switches and network.

We have a one-year license to have the Smart Net Total Care service. The license to use the Cisco Ethernet Switches comes with the initial purchase of the solution.

I rate the price of Cisco Ethernet Switches a two out of five.

The cost of Cisco Ethernet Switches is expensive.

I have evaluated other switches, such as Aruba.

My advice to others looking to purchase a Cisco Ethernet Switch is the best use case depends on many factors. For example, the number of users, details of the company, type of network, and how large the network is. If the company is small to medium-sized I would recommend Aruba. For larger companies, I would recommend Cisco Ethernet Switches.

I rate Cisco Ethernet Switches an eight out of ten.

Our main use case of ethernet switches is for security networks for digital video, digital access control, and digital inter-communications. Most of our work is for public institutions, including hospitals and universities when they need upgrades to POE switches. We're consultants in the security industry and I'm the senior project manager/systems engineer.

One of the prime features of this product is Multicast which is critical for video systems, ensuring you don't take down the network during an event where everybody needs video access. It generally requires layer 3 switches so that we cut up VLANs and separate different aspects of the systems. 

Network setup and Multicast are critical components for us and when you're also programming for video streams it can become quite complicated. It's more of an issue when you're dealing with public institutions and there might be a lack of tech-savvy people. When it comes to the video streams, if you're sending real-time video in a security system, and you drop packets, the information is lost and you can't get it back. That's a critical aspect for us. One of the issues we have is that the guy doing the video system knows how that works, and the network people know how the network works, but they don't know how to communicate with each other. The industry is trying to adapt to sort out that problem.  

I've been using this solution for over 30 years. 

This solution is stable. 

This solution covers it all. I've done everything from simple 12-port switches for a small facility to a wide area network with core switches and multiple redundant communication lines and there haven't been any scalability issues. There's no one-size-fits-all in terms of maintenance required, it depends on the size of the organization. 

On one of our recent large projects where we used core switches, I worked in-depth with technical support to help determine how to configure the switches, which hardware was required, and how to get the redundant communication paths. We don't use support much but when we do they're very helpful. 

The initial setup is complex. We've found that a lot of people don't know how to configure Multicast properly on a network, particularly in government agencies. It's one of the key components, especially when you're in the security industry, and it's a big issue for us. There's a steep learning curve in terms of properly setting up the network to manage the Multicast traffic, and then programming, especially on the IP video systems. Because they're managing video streams both systems have to be set up properly, and there seems to be a lack of knowledge around that. 

Our clients purchase the license so we're not involved in that aspect. Cisco doesn't like to give out information unless you're a dealer. For smaller projects, the cost is an issue and organizations will often look for less expensive options. Cisco is the major player in the network environment, but there are numerous alternative products that may be less feature-rich but fit the bill from a cost perspective. In addition to licensing, there is likely to be an annual fee to enable access to support. 

We previously looked at Extreme Networks, Fortinet, Aruba and NETGEAR. When we're dealing with harsh environments, we tend to look at companies like ComNet, EtherWAN, GarrettCom, who make hardened switches for harsh or difficult environments. A lot of the main players only make switches that go in data centers and IDF rooms.

When configured properly, the solution works. I rate this solution nine out of 10.