Cisco vs Cisco small business switches

[it.trainee]

Hi all,

I need your expertise regarding switches  :

I'm looking for switches to create a redundant architecture in my company. I'm looking at every possibilities, and I am wondering if cisco small businness is a good choice. There is a huge price difference between the two brands : cisco and cisco small business, and I try to understand why ?

Can someone share his experience (good or bad) on cisco small business switches ? any advise (models ...) are welcome ? (are they difference in the CLI between both brands ? )

Thank you

[Leo Laohoo]

Depends on what you are trying to do.  I cannot speak in behalf of Cisco SMB BU but I am a Cisco Catalyst user and I can guarantee you that there are just some things the SMB stuff won't do, hence the price differences. 

What you choose will depend entirely on how competent are you with CLI.  If you are fully confident, then Catalyst is the way to go. 

For obvious reasons, the SMB switches will never come to par with the Catalyst range. 

I'm not sure if SMB switches can do Layer 3 routing or MPLS/VRF.  Again, this will depend entirely on what you are trying to do and achieve. 

But "redundancy" is a best left to the Catalyst range.

[it.trainee]

Thank you Leo for your answer,

my budget is kind of "small" so I have two options :

- first I select cisco small business switches (so it allows me to create a redundant architecture with

  L3 core switches (300 series) and 200 series for access switches.

-second option : Limit my budget this year by choosing juste few switches catalyst for l3 and I wait next year to renew my access switches.

The budget for the second option it's just 4 times the budget for the first option. It's really hard to defend.

For my point of view I am more confortable with the CLI of cisco.

If someone can share his experience, it would be very helpful.

Thank you

[shillings]

What about 2nd user 2960s with 'LAN Base' IOS?

The 2960 series has a cheaper 'LAN Lite' option, but you can't upgrade the feature set to 'LAN Base', so quite limited in terms of features and growth potential.

Note that if you buy 2nd hand 2960 series switches then you lose the Limited Lifetime Warranty - i.e. they only apply to the original purchaser.

[Leo Laohoo]

If your budget is "small" then consider Cisco Refurbished Equipment.

[Tom Watts]

You may also want to consider the SX500X series, they do support VRRP and 10 gig links which are also stackable. The switch also supports RIP.

Depending on the size of the network will really make a distinction for your choices. The SB switches are designed for 100 ip addresses and less. If the switch is operating in layer 3, it is definitely recommended the LAN is not greater than 100 ip, especially if a SB switch is the core. If it is a layer 2 edge switch, it will work in larger networks.

The second major distinction for SB switches, they support ONLY IEEE standards, the only exception being CDP.

-Tom
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[whistleblower14]

I´m about to make a big decision regarding the new connections of some customer servers (preferably with 10G); I'm looking  preferably for a switch of which predominat 10G ports supplies and there is now the question whether I should go on the Cisco SMB (SX550X-24) or Cisco Catalyst 9500 (C9500-16X)? as far as I could see, the hardware performance is not that drastic differnt and the SMB switch scores in my opinion with the 10 BaseT RJ45 ports and of course the price is an issue, so I wonder - why choose Catalyst 9000 series? ? DNA or anything about that is´nt needed in that case...

can anyone help with suggestions/recommendations?