Choosing the correct network equipment in a cisco world?

[rubasrosh47]

What is the best approach when looking for a specific Cisco router/switch for an enterprise/campus environment? in terms of horsepower to handle an environment?

Do you use certain tools, software (free or paid) to measure your current performance on a chassis or if you're doing a new install you know which equipment to pick with confidence? in reality, you need a piece of equipment that can handle current and future demands, but when you look at the chassis specs throughput ranging from lowest end 300gb to highest 2 TB + you can read for ages the features, specs, technologies that just throw you off.

Example, there are three different models under the 6800 series switch/router, I'm like well 150-250 users with 2-3 servers, VoIP, internet, wireless and camera system should work with a 6832 switch as the core and maybe 4500/9400 as the access switch, anything above to me sounds like an overkill.

Will greatly appreciate if there free tools, capacity planning or something that I don't know in the Cisco site that can make it easy to select the right equipment.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

When it comes to "horsepower" for hardware supported switches, most, if not all, Cisco's current and recent Enterprise class switches are wire-speed for all ports.  (NB: even with older equipment that wasn't, it was an unusual Enterprise environment that exceeded the capacity of switches.)

When it comes to "horsepower" for software based switches, those you need to size carefully for your expected workload, which, BTW, is really based on bandwidth utilization and traffic types often much more than number of users or hosts.

Sizing small Enterprise routers used to be much more "black magic" before the ISR 4Ks and ASR.  The reason they are typically easier to size, now a days, is because they, more or less, can support specified bandwidth transfer rates regardless of features being used (NB: IPSec encryption can be an exception when terminated on the router) and traffic mix.

Generally, also BTW, you'll often find those selling you the equipment will recommend capacity beyond what you really need, and for those needing to justify the cost, the latter will often want to use equipment with less capacity then you need.

My two recommendations, if you're pretty unfamiliar with "right sizing" equipment, would be to either have a try be you you buy agreement (great for not under sizing, not so great for not over sizing) or work with an experienced consultant who has no stake in your hardware purchase.