Cisco Ethernet Switches Reviews

We built all our ground network on Cisco Switches.

The features that I have found most valuable are that it is easy to use and it has good technical support.

We cooperate with local Cisco teams here in the Ukraine. They help us to develop our system and support it.

It would be good for Cisco to provide certification to our engineers for our IT infrastructure. Basically to train and certify our engineers.

In the next release I would like to see more training and documentations for our engineers.

We have been using Cisco Ethernet Switches for about five years.

Cisco Switches is a stable product.

Cisco Switches are scalable.

We have 300 users using it and 5 guys from the IT department that support our network.

They are basically all engineers and some programmers.

Cisco's technical support is perfect. There is no need to improve anything there.

If we have problems with the setup, we ask the local Cisco team and they help us. We have good cooperation with the local team.

Cisco Switches are very good. They are interoperable with Microsoft solutions, by the way.

On a scale from one to 10, I would rate Cisco Switches about a nine.

I would surely recommend Cisco Switches for other users who want to start using it.

We are using Cisco Switches in a data center for access at the core level and the access level as well.

What I like the most is the performance and the latency that Cisco provides.

Once you have the Cisco box, you can put it in its place, switch it on and you can forget that it is there.

The GUI is not that easy. They need to work on the CLI, and to do that you have to have technical resources in-house if you want to do it yourself.

I have been using Cisco Ethernet Switches for approximately two years with this company. I have been using Cisco for two years, but in my entire career, I have been using Cisco for 15 years.

It's a stable solution. There are no issues with stability.

There are no limitations to scalability. It depends on what you choose. Once you choose the product you want then collaborate with getting that box which is important.

You need to know what your plan is two years in advance, and how you want to upgrade it. You will need to select the box as it is.

If you make your own selection, there may be an issue. Cisco provides many scalable options.

It has never been a case of getting support from Cisco directly. I have purchased Cisco from my vendor and receive 100% support. I have no issues with support in my city. From whatever vendor I purchase from, I get full support.

The initial setup is not too complex, but you will need to have technical resources if you want to configure it properly.

They are plug and play. You can just plug and start working with it, but in order to use the full features or basic features, you need some kind of technical expertise.

In Cisco, the GUI interface is not that easy. 

If you are not a technical person, you can install it, but you can't use it to its full potential. You will be working with a simple switch and for what you are paying, you won't be getting anything out of it, as it won't be configured properly.

The price could be reduced. Cisco is costly.

Price is a major concern with Cisco. Companies tend to move away from Cisco because the price is on the higher side. In addition to the fees being high, you pay for support which is also on the higher side.

Many companies tend to go with other options because of pricing.

We did a comparison between Cisco and Ruckus because we were looking at changing our wireless system.

We use Cisco, but have not used Ruckus before and wanted to evaluate which was better.

The PoC that was completed showed that Ruckus was more successful and useful than Cisco. Also, the cost of Cisco is much higher than Ruckus is.

When comparing cost, the ROI, and the cost of support, Cisco is way above Ruckus. We have decided that we will be changing to Ruckus.

I would 100% recommend Cisco Switches to others who are interested in using them.

Being an IT head, and running a data center, my top priority is to have zero down-time.

Once you have Cisco, your mind is at ease, there will be no issues.

If my rating is based on technical and functionality then I would rate this solution a ten out of ten. If you include the cost and the support then I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

The primary use case is for LAN networking.

This solution is also used for internet routing in small businesses.

The deployment model we used was on-premises.

Lower the pricing to compete with Aruba and HPE.

If they could provide a management solution for all systems then it would be an improvement. They have a product, but it's a license, and I have to pay for it. 

It is difficult to manage one hundred switches in many areas, without having a managing board.

I would like a management product to manage both the small business and the Catalyst.

In my business, I have all of these products and I have to configure them one by one, so the troubleshooting and the monitoring of each can be challenging.

Also with a managing board, it would improve the scalability as it would be easier to handle the traffic and monitoring several users.

This may be something that they are already working on, but it would be an improvement if they could add a layer of security to layer two and layer three to protect the server and to protect the data.

This solution is stable.

This solution is scalable. If I want to add switches to the existing one, I can easily do it. 

The technical support is good and they respond quickly. I haven't had any problems.

The initial setup is not difficult, it's easy.

The pricing is reasonable, and for small business it is acceptable.

Aruba and HPE are competitors that have a lower price than Cisco.

I would rate this solution a nine out ten.

We are a hospital. We use the solution in our endpoints. We have more than 2000 endpoints.

The tool is stable.

The solution is expensive. It is not cheap.

I have been using the solution for 12 to 13 years.

We have around 3000 users. The tool is used daily.

We get technical support from TAC.

Positive

We have three in-house engineers who deploy the product. We need three people for maintenance.

We are absolutely fine with Cisco products. The product is good, but it is expensive. It will be helpful if it is cheaper. Whenever we order anything, it takes a lot of time to reach us. Overall, I rate the tool a ten out of ten.

Product counterfeiting is a big problem in the Kenyan market. Many people trust Cisco because you won't find a fake Cisco product, at least not in this use case.

You have to be Cisco-certified to work on Cisco products, so we can't get into Cisco to do even basic configurations. I may be speaking from ignorance, but in my experience, Cisco products lack a GUI. You can barely get around the basic system, so the interface is something I would improve. The overview and configuration are good for security purposes, but it's bad if you want your products to be the product of choice of the average user. Cisco should do work on making its switches less cryptic.

We've been using Cisco Ethernet Switches since 2000. We recommend Linksys for customers who can't afford Cisco, but Cisco has always been our dominant product. 

The greatest advantage of Cisco switches is their reliability. For example, we bought some 500 series switches back in 2002 or 2003, and they ran 24/7. I never had an issue for seven years. 

I think Cisco Ethernet Switches are quite scalable, with lots of options. It's not an issue at all for anyone to expand. 

You can get professional support in this market. We have quite a lot of guys working with Cisco in Kenya, so it's not too hard to get a Cisco specialist to configure your network for you. It's not hard to get a Cisco-certified professional in the market. They might not be cheap, but they're there. 

Setting up a Cisco switch isn't hard. You take it out of the box, switch it on, mount it, and connect it. Then it's up and running. It's more complicated to do port configurations, customization, or anything fancy. 

Cisco is quite expensive. In our market, a lot of customers are forced to go with something else because they cannot afford a brand-new Cisco even though they know a Cisco switch will be more reliable. They'll for a Linksys switches because that is what they can afford. It's mainly an issue for medium-sized businesses. Pricing is negotiable and if you are a large enterprise, you're less worried about the price.

I rate Cisco Ethernet switches eight out of 10. I would give them a higher rating, but they need to be more sensible on their pricing. They may want to maintain that high price because their products are higher quality. At the same time, other vendors are coming in and filling this space at the bottom of the pyramid. They might end up being a niche market product for people who know or prefer Cisco. I don't think this was their original strategy. I'm sure their original plan was to corner the market on switches for anyone who needs one. The advice I would give to potential Cisco customers is to make sure you know exactly what you want, so you get value for the money. Think about the scalability of your business and your requirements. 

Cisco Ethernet Switches are the product line I have the most experience with and have been my go-to solution for many years with mid to large organizations over the years. They are still top contenders for environments that need layer 3 functionality in a switch. They have a product line that covers the entire spectrum of switching technology from the high-end Nexus products through the traditional enterprise catalyst models and all the way down to the small business solutions. They seem to have the market covered with a solution to meet any IT shop's needs.

Cisco switches provide layer 3 functionality on the network taking that load off the security appliance and not requiring a router on the network. This prevents single points of failure for internal data routing and keeps internal routes off the security appliance workload. The CLI is the industry standard and most network professionals learn it and can use it.

The reliability of Cisco Ethernet Switches is amazingly impressive. Maybe I’m lucky but I have not experienced a Cisco Ethernet Switch fail unless caused by a power event such as lightning. I highly recommend connecting switches via fiber-optic connections due to the lack of electrical conductivity. I learned this the hard way when a building with the electrical systems not properly grounded caused a cascade of switch failures during a lightning storm.

The CLI is very valuable as it allows network professionals to work fast and customize the configuration however they need.

Cisco Ethernet Switches have great enterprise features like Cisco DNA Assurance. Cisco DNA Assurance features advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning. Cisco AI Network Analytics, a capability within Cisco DNA Assurance, allows easy management of all devices and services, prioritizes and resolves network issues, and ensures a better user experience across the network.

Also, appreciate the industrial line of switches for SCADA or other environments where switches are placed in unconditioned space and the temperatures fluctuate a lot during the seasons.                        

The typical areas of concern for Cisco Ethernet Switches are not technical but cost including support costs. I’ve never liked the fact that end users cannot download security patches without a support contract. I’ve had trouble getting approval to renew Cisco support contracts due to the cost.

The additional charges for the DNA capabilities of the switches further prices the switches are out of contention for a lot of IT shops. I understand the development of this technology is expensive but costs are sometimes borderline ridiculous.

I have 28 years of experience with Cisco switches.

Cisco Ethernet Switches are some of the most rock-solid hardware I’ve had the pleasure of using.

Cisco Ethernet Switches are extremely scalable and have the broadest line of solutions in the market.

Cisco's technical support has deteriorated over the years. They have call centers all over the world and sometimes the techs experience levels seem to vary. This seems to be the industry standard though in my experience.

I have been using Cisco Ethernet Switches my entire career. I really like them but they are not always cost-effective.

If you know the CLI interface the setup is straightforward. If not you are in for a bumpy ride.

We deploy with in-house talent.

ROI is longer than other solutions in the enterprise space but comparable in the small business area of Cisco’s product lines.

Find a Cisco partner that has a lot of volume and pressure them for a better price. There is a lot of markup on the higher end devices. Plan for support contract expenses for the life of the device. Also check the EOL details prior to purchase so you don’t purchase an older device that will not get the years of software updates and security patches you need. EOL dates are starting to decrease in length.

We compared it to Meraki if cloud management would be helpful. Cisco has more recently started to offer Meraki dashboard management for traditional Cisco switches.

You will not be disappointed with a Cisco solution from a technical perspective. Learn the OS via CLI and you will always have job security too.

We are a financial institution and we use Cisco Ethernet Switches as part of our network infrastructure.

The Cisco product range is quite good and they have a lot of features available.

For each of the features that I want to use on a Cisco device, we have to purchase a license. For example, if we want the security features then we have to purchase that in another bundle. The price becomes more expensive than products from Juniper.

The local support resources for Cisco in Bangledesh are very poor and should be increased.

We have been using Cisco Ethernet Switches for approximately three years.

Cisco products are stable.

Cisco Ethernet switches are scalable. We have approximately 1,500 people using them in the company. We have a plan to increase our usage of Cisco by implementing an SD-WAN.

Cisco technical support on the backend, from the OEM, is very good. They are very experienced. However, the local partner and technical support in Bangledesh need to be improved.

Currently, I am also using a Juniper product. The split between Cisco and Juniper devices is approximately 50/50.

We are switching to Juniper because they are more cost-effective.

One of the reasons that we still have Cisco devices is that they have offerings that are not available from Juniper. Juniper is good, but they only have routing and switching products, whereas Cisco has products such as Cisco ASA that we use. In that regard, Cisco can provide more value-added.

The initial setup is really straightforward.

Our deployment took quite a long time. It was between three and six months.

We have six people in our network team and they are in charge of maintenance.

Our local Cisco partner assisted us with the implementation and deployment.

The technical person from the local partner was not as skilled as we expected, which is something that should be improved.

This is quite an expensive product.

We do not pay on a monthly basis. The fees are included when you purchase the device.

When we want an extra feature then we need to purchase another license bundle.

We are looking to gain some experience in using Mikrotik routers and switches.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

I have found the ease of configuration and troubleshooting, compared to those with other solutions, to be the most valuable.

The number of bugs that come up on Cisco Ethernet Switches can be reduced, and the stability can be improved, in particular with the recent iOS.

The scalability can be improved as well. Up to a certain network size, it is easy to scale, but after that, it becomes difficult.

I've been using Cisco Ethernet Switches for almost 12 years.

The stability of the recent iOS is not good, and every now and then, there are bugs.

The scalability is medium, that is, it's neither hard nor easy to scale.

Specifically, it is easy to scale up to a certain network size, but it becomes difficult beyond that.

The technical support is very good.

The initial setup is easy, and the whole switching fabric takes a lot less time to configure and be made ready for deployment.

The price of this solution is fair.

Cisco Ethernet Switches can be easily used at data centers and also at the enterprise level. However, if you're looking for a solution for a large scale deployment or for a large scale data center, then you should probably consider a different solution.

I would rate Cisco Ethernet Switches at eight on a scale from one to ten.