Cisco Catalyst 3850

[RoniHutapea]

My company has the plan to use the switch cisco catalyst 3850 into a core switch, whether it can ?, if we just use 5 server in server farm.

Thank you

[Mark Malone]

Hi 3850s are quite powerful , i have seen them set as cores on small sites before but usually stacked with minimum of 2 , reason being to prevent single point of failure on your core and to give them more power and redundancy , you would want to check what the current server(s) throughput is though and make sure the 3850s can handle it if your going that way

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-3850-series-switches/data_sheet_c78-720918.html

[RoniHutapea]

Hi Mark Malone

Thank you for u respon, because we have a limited budget, is there a switch at a cheaper price than c3850 :)

Thank you

[Mark Malone]

Ye 3850s are pricey

other options

3750x the previous version , very good switch but obviously the 3850 is the newer release

Then bit lower prob bit cheaper but still good switches and new 3650 or lower again the 2960x but putting them as core might be risky depending on throughput, they are only access switches.

If budget is an issue you can buy refurbished Cisco X series switches , they come with the same lifetime warranty so cover is there , there basically switches that were RMAd but Cisco have fixed them put them back through testing and sell them at neraly 3rd of the normal price , not many people are aware there available but we got them for customers

[Nadav]

It entirely depends on the amount of traffic you plan on switching at the core, as well as the interfaces needed. The 3850 handles up to 52 gigabit ethernet interfaces or 48 GB + 2 TB interfaces, same as 3750x. There are minor differences as far as functionality is concerned, but considering you haven't stated what functionality you need past switching I can only assume you don't need the latest and greatest.

It might be a better investment to go for a couple of 6500 series core switches with supervisors which match your needs, again it really depends on the port density and capacity you're looking for.