Catalyst 3850 vs Catalyst 6880 or 6840

[abbasali5]

I have a customer with remote sites over 100.  About 80 sites are connected via  fiber ring provided by the ISP.  They are in the process of upgrading the aggregation switches to support 10Gb Fiber in the date center where these fiber connections are terminated from remote locations.  The remote locations are comprised of Large and very large sites with some of them over 250+ users between multiple floors.

For the aggregation switches, I am debating between the cluster of 3850 10Gb fiber switches may be 8 or 9 or a pair of either 6880 or 6840 series switches.  The aggregation switches will need to provide connectivity to Cisco ACI Data Center switches.

Any feedback will be appreciated.

Thanks,

[Reza Sharifi · Accepted solution]

I would use a pair of 6880 series switches. They are designed to be used as aggregation/core switches and have the capacity to handle the traffic. You can configure them as VSS and you only manage one switch.

HTH