Benefits of Upgrading to Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches Feature comparison

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Updated:December 21, 2022

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Table of Contents

 

 

Why upgrade to the Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switches? Because they are simple, secure, and ultrapractical

Digital disruption is changing how we think about our networks. Whether for customers or employees, the “experience” has become a strategic imperative. The Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series fixed access switches are designed to help you change your network from a platform of connectivity to a platform of services.

The Catalyst 9300 Series offers a broad range of port and management options, providing operational choice of physical or virtual appliances with Cisco DNA Center, or by using Meraki cloud managed dashboard. These switches deliver stellar performance and functionality and extend Cisco’s networking leadership with significant innovations in security, mobility, the Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud.

Give your users top-notch network and service experience with next generation observability from switch to SaaS and everything in between. Catalyst 9300 switches include hosted Cisco Spaces and ThousandEyes Enterprise Agents, giving you visibility inside and beyond your campus perimeter so you solve issues faster.

Table 1.        Benefits of the Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series compared to other Cisco Catalyst access switches

Trend

Feature

Installed-base access switches

Benefits

Cisco Catalyst 3560-X, 3750-X Series

Cisco Catalyst 3750G Series

Cisco Catalyst 3850 Series

Cisco Catalyst 9300 and 9300X models

Scale and performance

Bandwidth per stack

No stacking/64 Gbps

32 Gbps

480 Gbps copper and fiber

up to 1Tbps copper and fiber

Greater throughput

Uplinks

2x10G1

4x1G

4x1G, 2x10G, 4x10G (all models)

2x, 4x dual-rate 100G/40G; 2x 40G; 2x, 8x multirate 25G/10G/1G; 4x, 8x 10G mGig; 4x 1G

Greater uplink scale with Catalyst 9300X

Multigigabit technology

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Related image, diagram or screenshot

(including uplinks)

Supports speeds above 1G in traditional cabling environments

Advanced security

Native Flexible NetFlow

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Orchestrate role-based access to Corporate resources AES-256, MACsec-256, WAN MACsec

Cisco TrustSec and SGT2 for wired and wireless

Wired

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Trustworthy Solutions

-

-

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Related image, diagram or screenshot

Native MACsec-256 encryption

-

-

Multigigabit, 10G models only

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Most secure link authentication and encryption

Encrypted Traffic Analytics

-

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Detect malware hiding in encrypted traffic without decrypting it

Cisco Umbrella

-

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Cloud security service that provides a first line of defense against threats, wherever users access the internet — on or off the corporate network.

Simplicity and automation

x86 CPU

-

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Faster CPU performance

Cisco IOS XE OS

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Single common network OS across switching, routing, wireless, and IoT

KVM3 and container-based hosting environments

-

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

App hosting in the network including Docker containers

Guest shell

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Related image, diagram or screenshot

On-box Python scripting

Model-driven programmability

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Standards-based programmable interfaces

Streaming telemetry

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Rich contextual insights

Fabric-in-a-box

-

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Enable SD-Access without needing separate devices for each fabric role

SD-Access4 programmability

-

-

Optional subscription

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Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise Agents

-

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Visibility from network to cloud for rapid problem isolation

Cisco Spaces

-

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Visibility of wired and wireless network devices for Smart Building

Cloud monitoring for Catalyst

-

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Visibility on Meraki Dashboard

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and mobility

Wi-Fi 6 and Wave 2 APs

-

-

24

48

 

Max number of APs supported

-

-

100

200

Highest density of next-gen access points in a single RU box

UADP5 ASIC for wired and wireless convergence

-

-

UADP 1.0

UADP 2.0

UADP 2.5sec

Enable converged wired and wireless access for operational simplicity and scale

Application visibility across wired and wireless

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Related image, diagram or screenshot

 

End-to-end quality of experience6

-

-

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

 

1 G: Gigabit Ethernet
2SGT: Security Group Tag
3 Kernel-based virtual machine
4SD-Access: Software-Defined Access
5 UADP ASIC: Unified Access Data Plane ASIC
6 Cisco Assurance

Table 2.        Benefits of the Cisco Catalyst 9300 C9300L models compared to other Cisco Catalyst access switches

Trend

Feature

Installed-base access switches

Benefits

Cisco Catalyst 3650 Series

Cisco Catalyst 9300L/LM Models

Scale and performance

Bandwidth per stack

160 Gbps

320 Gbps

Support multigigabit access growth for wired and wireless, 802.11ac

Uplinks

4x1G,

2x10G,

4x10G

8x10G

2x40G

Fixed

4x1G, 4x10G Fixed

 

Patching

-

Hot patching

Add patches without waiting for next maintenance release

Advanced security

Native Flexible NetFlow

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Related image, diagram or screenshot

 

Cisco TrustSec and SGT for wired and wireless

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Orchestrate role-based access to corporate resources AES-256, MACsec-256

Trustworthy solutions

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Related image, diagram or screenshot

 

Native MACsec-256 encryption

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Provides most secure link authentication and encryption

Encrypted Traffic Analytics

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Detect malware hiding in encrypted traffic without decrypting it

Simplicity and automation

x86 CPU

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Accelerate innovation

Cisco IOS XE OS

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Single common network OS across switching, routing, wireless, and IoT

KVM and container-based hosting environments

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

App hosting in the network

Guest shell

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

On-box Python scripting

Model-driven programmability

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Standards-based programmable interfaces

Streaming telemetry

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Rich contextual insights

SD-Access programmability

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Fabric-in-a-box deployment

 

Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise Agents

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Visibility from network to cloud for rapid problem isolation

Cisco Spaces

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Visibility of wired and wireless network devices for Smart Building

Cloud monitoring for Catalyst

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Visibility on Meraki Dashboard

Wi-Fi 6 and Wave 2 APs

12

12

Enable converged wired and wireless access for operational simplicity and scale

Max number of APs supported

25

50

UADP ASIC for wired and wireless convergence

UADP 1.0

UADP 2.0

Application visibility across wired and wireless

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Related image, diagram or screenshot

End-to-end quality of experience

-

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Improve your results with our services

With Cisco Services, you can achieve infrastructure excellence faster with less risk. Our services for Cisco Catalyst 9000 provide expert guidance to help you successfully plan, deploy, manage and support your new switches. With unmatched networking expertise, best practices and innovative tools, Cisco Services can help you reduce overall upgrade, refresh, and migration costs as you introduce new hardware, software and protocols into the network. With a comprehensive lifecycle of services, Cisco experts will help you minimize disruption and improve operational efficiency to extract maximum value from your Cisco DNA-ready infrastructure. Learn more about all Services for Switches.

More reasons to upgrade

      Reduce cost and complexity with Cisco SD-Access by automating policy, enabling fast service creation, and providing complete visibility into the wired and wireless access networks

      Get greater visibility and management in Meraki cloud environments with cloud monitoring for Catalyst

      Create better customer and employee experiences through higher performance, improved network visiblity, and service assurance with embedded Cisco Spaces and ThousandEyes network testing

      Gain advanced end-to-end security to handle threats before, during, and after attacks

Finance your switching migration with Cisco Capital

Let financing from Cisco Capital make migrating your switches and accelerating your digital transformation even easier. Cisco Capital Easy Pay makes this transition as easy as possible, with no upfront costs and predictable monthly payments. You pay 90 percent of the total over a three-year period that is completely interest free. At the end of the term, you have the option to return and refresh the equipment, extend your lease, or purchase the solution at 10 percent of the original cost. Take advantage of this market-leading interest rate and use your budget for other investments.

Take advantage of Cisco Capital Easy Pay

 

 

 

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