Benefits of Upgrading to Cisco Catalyst 9000 Switches Feature Comparison

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Updated:February 14, 2023

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Updated:February 14, 2023
 

 

Cisco Catalyst 9000 Switches

Why upgrade to the Cisco Catalyst 9000 switching family?

Reimagine, Reinforce, Redefine

The Cisco Catalyst 9000 family of switches are Cisco’s lead fixed, modular and compact enterprise access, aggregation and core switching platform. They are built to transform your network to handle a hybrid world where the workplace is anywhere, endpoints could be anything, and applications are hosted all over the place.

The Catalyst 9000 family, including the new Catalyst 9000X models, continue to shape the future with ongoing innovation that helps you reimagine connections, reinforce security, and redefine the experience for your hybrid workforce big and small.

Why upgrade to the Catalyst 9200 Series?

Related image, diagram or screenshot

Figure 1.            

Catalyst 9200 Series

The Catalyst 9200 Series switches extend the power of intent-based networking and Catalyst 9000 hardware and software innovation to a broader set of deployments. The Catalyst 9200 Series focuses on offering right-sized switching for simple branch deployments. With its family pedigree, the Catalyst 9200 Series offers simplicity without compromise. It is secure and always on and provides a new level of IT simplicity.

Secure, simple, solid. That’s how we build them.

Table 1.        Benefits of the Catalyst 9200 Series switches compared to other Catalyst access switches in their class

Trend

Feature

Legacy fixed access switches

 

Benefits

Catalyst 2960-X Series

Catalyst 2960-XR Series

Catalyst 9200 Series

Scale and performance

Bandwidth per stack

80 Gbps

80 Gbps

Up to 160 Gbps

Twice the density at nearly the same price

Uplinks

4x 1G SFP

2x 10G SFP+

2x 10/100/1000BASE-T

4x 1G SFP

2x 10G SFP+

4x 1G SFP

4x 10G SFP+

Advanced security

Full Flexible NetFlow

Orchestrate role-based access to corporate resources

AES-128, MACsec-128

Cisco TrustSec and SGT1 for wired and wireless

Trustworthy solutions

MACsec link encryption

Simplicity and automation

Cisco IOS XE OS

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

Model-driven programmability

Standards-based programmable interfaces

Streaming telemetry

Rich contextual insights

SD-Access programmability

Automation and Assurance

Cloud monitoring for Catalyst

-

-

Visibility on Meraki Dashboard

1SFP: Small Form-Factor Pluggable, SGT: Security Group Tag, SD-Access: Software-Defined Access

Table 2.        Benefits of the Cisco Catalyst 9200CX models compared to other Cisco Catalyst compact access switches in the same class

Trend

Feature

Installed-base access switches

Benefits

Cisco Catalyst 2960-CX Series

Cisco Catalyst 3560-CX Series

Cisco Catalyst 9200CX models

Scale and performance

Ports

8, 12x 1Gbps
PoE+, data options

8, 12x 1Gbps
PoE+, data options

8, 12x 1Gbps PoE+, 2x 10G mGig UPOE, data options

Twice the density at nearly the same price

Uplinks

2x 1G SFP + 2x 1G copper

2x 1G SFP, 2x 1G copper, 2x 10G SFP+

4x 10G SFP+ + 2x 1G copper

Advanced security

Full Flexible NetFlow

X-NetFlow Lite

X-NetFlow Lite

 

Cisco TrustSec and SGT for wired and wireless

Orchestrate role-based access to corporate resources

Trustworthy solutions

-

-

MACsec link encryption

-

-

AES-256, MACsec-256

Simplicity and automation

Cisco IOS XE

-

-

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

Model-driven programmability

-

-

Standards-based programmable interfaces

Streaming telemetry

-

-

Rich contextual insights

SD-Access programmability

Extended node only

Extended node only

Automation and assurance

AC and HVDC power supplies

-

-

Ideal for smart buildings

1G: Gigabit Ethernet, SFP: Small Form-Factor Pluggable, SGT: Security Group Tag, SD-Access: Software-Defined Access

Why upgrade to the Catalyst 9300 Series?

Catalyst 9300 Series

Figure 2.            

Catalyst 9300 Series

The Catalyst 9300 Series switches give your users a superior network and service experience with next-generation observability from switch to Software as a Service (SaaS) and everything in between. These switches offer 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. The Catalyst 9300 Series includes advanced application hosting for solutions such as Cisco Spaces, giving you control and visibility inside the network, and Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise Agents, giving you visibility beyond your campus perimeter to help you solve issues faster. Offering up to 1 Tbps of mixed fiber and copper stacking capacity, multigigabit, and 90W UPOE+, the Catalyst 9300 Series offers options from large to small.

Table 3.        Benefits of the Catalyst 9300 Series compared to other Catalyst access switches in their class

Trend

Feature

Legacy fixed access switches

Catalyst 9300 and 9300X models

Benefits

Catalyst 3560-X, 3750-X Series

Catalyst 3750G Series

Catalyst 3850 Series

Scale and performance

Bandwidth per stack

No stacking/64 Gbps

32 Gbps

480 Gbps copper and fiber

Up to 1 Tbps copper and fiber

Greater throughput

Uplinks

2x 10G1

4x 1G

4x 1G, 2x 10G, 4x 10G (all models)

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

Greater uplink scale to 100G

Cisco Multigigabit (mGig) technology

(including uplinks)

Supports speeds above 1G in traditional cabling environments

Advanced security

Native Flexible NetFlow

Orchestrate role-based access to corporate resources

AES-256, MACsec-256

WAN-MACsec

Most secure link authentication and encryption

Cisco TrustSec and SGT2 for wired and wireless

Wired

Trustworthy solutions

Native MACsec-256 encryption

Multigigabit, 10G models only

Encrypted Traffic Analytics

Detect malware hiding in encrypted traffic without decrypting it

Cisco Umbrella

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

Faster CPU performance

Cisco IOS XE OS

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

KVM4 and container-based hosting environments

Application hosting in the network, including Docker containers

Guest Shell

On-box Python scripting

Model-driven programmability

Standards-based programmable interfaces

Streaming telemetry

Rich contextual insights

Fabric-in-a-box

Enable SD-Access without needing a separate device for each fabric role

SD-Access programmability

Optional subscription

 

Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise Agents

Visibility from network to cloud for rapid problem isolation

Cisco Spaces

Visibility of wired and wireless network devices for smart buildings

Meraki cloud management and monitoring

-

-

-

Management and visibility on Meraki Dashboard

Bring your own device (BYOD) and mobility

Wi-Fi 6E/6 and Wave 2 APs

24

48

Highest density of next-generation access points in a 1RU6 box

Maximum number of APs supported

100

200

UADP ASIC7 for wired and wireless convergence

UADP 1.0

UADP 2.0

UADP 2.5 sec

Enable converged wired and wireless access for operational simplicity and scale

Application visibility across wired and wireless

End-to-end quality of experience8

1G: Gigabit Ethernet
2SGT: Security Group Tag
3Kernel-based virtual machine
41RU: 1 rack unit
5UADP ASIC: Unified Access Data Plane application-specific integrated circuit
6Cisco DNA Assurance

Table 4.        Benefits of the Catalyst 9300L models compared to Catalyst 3650 Series access switches

Trend

Feature

Catalyst 3650 Series

Catalyst 9300L models

Benefits

Scale and performance

Bandwidth per stack

160 Gbps

320 Gbps

 

Uplinks

4x 1G

2x 10G

4x 10G

8x 10G

2x 40G

Fixed

4x 1G

4x 10G

2x 40G

Fixed

Patching

Hot patching

Add patches without waiting for the next maintenance release

Advanced security

Native Flexible NetFlow

Orchestrate role-based access to corporate resources

AES-256, MACsec-256

Most secure link authentication and encryption

Cisco TrustSec and SGT for wired and wireless

Trustworthy solutions

Native MACsec-256 encryption

Encrypted Traffic Analytics

Detect malware hiding in encrypted traffic without decrypting it

Simplicity and automation

x86 CPU

Accelerate innovation

Cisco IOS XE OS

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

KVM and container-based hosting environments

Application hosting in the network

Guest Shell

On-box Python scripting

Model-driven programmability

Standards-based programmable interfaces

Streaming telemetry

Rich contextual insights

SD-Access programmability

Fabric-in-a-box deployment

Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise Agents

Visibility from network to cloud for rapid problem isolation

Wi-Fi 6E/6 and Wave 2 APs

12

12

Maximum number of APs supported

25

50

UADP ASIC for wired and wireless convergence

UADP 1.0

UADP 2.0

Enable converged wired and wireless access for operational simplicity and scale

Application visibility across wired and wireless

End-to-end quality of experience

-

Cloud monitoring for Catalyst

-

Visibility on Meraki Dashboard

Why upgrade to the Catalyst 9400 Series?

Catalyst 9400 Series

Figure 3.            

Catalyst 9400 Series

The Catalyst 9400 Series modular access and distribution switches are designed to help you flexibly bridge your network to your business and your business to your customers. The first purpose-built platforms designed for full fabric control with Cisco DNA and SD-Access support a large selection of copper, multigigabit, 90W Cisco UPOE+ and 60W Cisco UPOE, and fiber line cards for flexible and scalable access and backbone deployments. With higher-performance supervisor engines, resilient power supplies, and enhanced scale, the Catalyst 9400 Series extends Cisco’s networking leadership with significant innovations in security, mobility, IoT, and cloud.

Table 5.        Benefits of the Catalyst 9400 Series compared to other Catalyst modular access switches in their class

Trends

Features

Legacy modular access switches

Catalyst 9400 Series

Benefits

Catalyst 4500 Series

Catalyst 6500 Series

Scale and performance versatility

Chassis bandwidth

960 Gbps

2 Tbps

9.6 Tbps

Better mix and variety of higher speeds with longevity of future upgrades without replacing switch

Throughput

250 Mpps

450 Mpps

900 Mpps

mGig and Cisco UPOE

Either mGig or Cisco UPOE

mGig and Cisco UPOE+

 

Up to 90W PoE with 48HX, 48HN, 48H models

100G/40G uplinks

-

-

With SUP-2/2XL

10G/5G/2.5G/1G

-

-

 

Functionality

SD-Access programmability

Limited

Next-generation overlay support for segmentation and policy-based management with integrated threat detection and mitigation. Advanced Layer 2 + Layer 3 functionality for aggregation and border nodes with open programmable interfaces. Gain visibility outside of your campus perimeter with native hosted ThousandEyes Enterprise Agents

Cisco Spaces IoT Gateway1

ThousandEyes Enterprise Agents

MPLS-VPN

Programmability

Limited

Application hosting/containers

High availability

Cisco StackWise Virtual

VSS

VSS

Higher reliability by way of link, component, and switch redundancy. Better manageability via hitless software upgrades

ISSU4

eFSU

GIR and NSF5

Hot patching

Security

MACsec 256-bit encryption

Orchestrate role-based access to corporate resources

AES-256, MACsec-256

Most secure link authentication and encryption

Cisco TrustSec endpoint security

Trustworthy solutions

Encrypted Traffic Analytics

Cisco Umbrella

1Cisco Spaces IoT Gateway is part of the Cisco DNA Advantage licenses and includes Cisco Spaces Extend functionality.
2Hardware ready
3ISSU: In-Service Software Upgrade
4GIR: Graceful Insertion and Removal; NSF: Nonstop Forwarding

Why upgrade to the Catalyst 9500 Series?

Catalyst 9500 Series

Figure 4.            

Catalyst 9500 Series

Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series switches are Cisco’s lead fixed enterprise core and aggregation switching platform and, as part of the Catalyst 9000 family, are built to transform your network to handle a hybrid world where the workplace is anywhere, endpoints could be anything, and applications are hosted all over the place.

The new Catalyst 9500X model is based on Cisco Silicon One Q200 Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), which is purpose built for the next generation core with a programmable pipeline (P4). It is the first network silicon to offer switching capacity up to 25.6 Tbps (12.8 Tbps full-duplex) in the enterprise. The Q200 ASIC offers high-performance along with full routing and switching capabilities without external memories. This is enabled by a multiple slice (discreet processing pipeline) internal architecture that includes an on-chip 2.5D High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). The Catalyst 9500 Series leverages a high-performance multiple core x86 CPU, and is Cisco’s leading purpose-built fixed core and WAN edge services enterprise switching platform, built for security, IoT, and cloud.

Table 6.        Benefits of the Catalyst 9500 Series compared to other Catalyst fixed core switches in their class

Trends

Features

Legacy fixed core switches

Catalyst 9500 Series

Benefits

Catalyst 4500-X Series (32x10)

Catalyst 3850 Fiber Series

Scale and performance

Chassis bandwidth

800 Gbps

480 Gbps

Up to 25.6 Tbps

Supports 400G, 100G, 50G, 40G, 25G, and 10G

400G

-

-

10G, 25G, 40G, 50G, and 100G

10G, 25G, 40G only

10G, 25G, 40G only

Max 10G density

40 ports

48 ports

60 ports

Max 25G / 50G density

-

-

60 ports

Max 100G density

32 ports

Advanced security

Native Flexible NetFlow

Orchestrate role-based access to corporate resources

AES-256, MACsec-256

Most secure link authentication and encryption

Cisco TrustSec and SGT for wired and wireless

Wired only

Trustworthy solutions

Native MACsec-256 encryption

mGig and 10G models

Encrypted Traffic Analytics

Uncompromised user experience: Assess, monitor, and troubleshoot network proactively

BYOD and mobility

Fabric-enabled wireless

Enable converged wired and wireless access for operational simplicity and scale

Common wired and wireless features

UADP ASIC for wired and wireless convergence

Application visibility across wired and wireless

Hierarchical wireless QoS1

Simplicity and automation

Common features for wired and wireless

Simplicity and business agility

GIR and patching

Cisco DNA Center and SD-Access programmability

Optional subscription

Cloud monitoring for Catalyst

-

-

Visibility on Meraki Dashboard

1 QoS: Quality of service

Why upgrade to the Catalyst 9600 Series?

Catalyst 9600 Series

Figure 5.            

Catalyst 9600 Series

The Catalyst 9600 Series further expands the end-to-end Catalyst 9000 family, aligning our comprehensive solution with our customers’ varying business and network strategies. When you need the most secure, most resilient, and most intelligent network, you need Catalyst 9600 Series switches, the industry’s first purpose-built modular-configuration multi-rate 400G/200G*/100G dual-rate 100G/40G, multirate 50G*/25G/10G/1G and high-density 10G multigigabit line of switches for enterprise-class core and aggregation layers.

The new Catalyst 9600 SUP-2 supervisor is based on Cisco Silicon One Q200 Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), which is purpose built for the next generation core with a programmable pipeline (P4). It is the first network silicon to offer switching capacity up to 25.6 Tbps (12.8 Tbps full-duplex) in the enterprise. The Q200 ASIC offers high-performance along with full routing and switching capabilities without external memories. This is enabled by a multiple slice (discreet processing pipeline) internal architecture that includes an on-chip 2.5D High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). The Catalyst 9600 Series leverages a high-performance multiple core x86 CPU, and is Cisco’s leading purpose-built modular core and WAN edge services enterprise switching platform, built for security, IoT, and cloud.

*Hardware capable

Table 7.        Benefits of the Catalyst 9600 Series compared to other Catalyst modular core switches in their class

Trends

Features

Legacy modular core switches

Catalyst 9600 Series

Benefits

Catalyst 6500 Series Sup 720 3C

Catalyst 6500/6800 Series

Sup 2T

Sup 6T

Scale and performance versatility

Chassis bandwidth

720 Gbps

Up to 2 Tbps

Up to 6 Tbps

Up to 25.6 Tbps

Better mix and variety of higher speeds with longevity of future upgrades without replacing switch

Throughput

450 Mpps

720 Mpps

780 Mpps

8 Bpps

400G (QSFP-DD)
200G (QSFP56)

-

-

-

Line-rate 25G, 40G, 50G, 100G, 200G* and 400G

100G (QSFP28)
40G (QSFP+)

40G only

40G only

50G (SFP56)
25G (SFP28)

Functionality

SD-Access

Limited

Limited

Next-generation overlay support for segmentation and policy-based management with integrated threat detection and mitigation. Advanced Layer 2 + Layer 3 functionality for aggregation and border nodes with open programmable interfaces

MPLS-VPN

Programmability

Limited

Limited

Application hosting/containers

High availability

Cisco StackWise Virtual

ISSU

Limited

Limited

GIR and NSF

Hot patching

Security

Macro and micro segmentation

Enable converged wired and wireless access for operational simplicity and scale

MACsec-256 bit encryption

128 bit

128 bit

128 bit

Cisco TrustSec endpoint security

Trustworthy solutions

Cisco Services

With Cisco Services, you can achieve infrastructure excellence faster with less risk. Our services for the Cisco Catalyst 9000 switching family 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.

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% of the total over a 3-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% 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.

Improve your results with our services

No matter where you are in your journey, Cisco and our partners offer services expertise to help you accelerate your digital network transformation—from upgrade and optimization services to award-winning support. We help you speed your upgrade deployments, reduce risk and complexity, and provide business continuity as you refresh your network. To simplify and support your upgrade, Cisco offers services to streamline the process and help you get the most out of your investment. The upgrade service helps control costs, improve operational excellence, and mitigate risk during your refresh.

Learn more about all services for switches.

More reasons to upgrade

      Reduce cost, complexity, and downtime with Cisco SD-Access. Automate policy, enable fast service creation, and get 360-degree contextual insights across users, devices, and applications. Assure network performance with real-time and historical data analytics, to learn, adapt, and even detect problems before they happen.

      Create better customer and employee experiences through higher performance, improved support for mobility, and service assurance with embedded ThousandEyes network testing.

      Deploy advanced end-to-end security designed to work together to detect and stop threats, simplify security complexity, keep your business more secure, and make your IT more productive.

The Catalyst 9000 family is also the first in the line to offer the Cisco IOS XE and Cisco DNA subscription-based software licenses, allowing customers to purchase the features and capabilities they need. See the benefits you could be receiving now by comparing the Cisco Catalyst 9000 switches to older switches
(see Tables 1 through 6).

How to Buy

 

 

 

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