Managed switch selection for multiple small retail sites

[mitchen]

We are looking at something of a network refresh and would like to put managed switches into our retail stores (hundreds of small stores) - a handful of PCs, couple of wireless APs and a handful of VoIP phones.

The problem is, when we start to multiply the cost of a small switch by hundreds of sites the total cost soon looks a bit eye-watering! So can it be justified?

I think all we'd really need to be doing is create some VLANs, monitor ports etc (eg check a device is physically connected, running a cable test would be neat but not essential, DHCP snooping also good), SNMP monitoring, etc. Nothing particularly fancy.

Although we'd be running VoIP dont think we'd really need QoS features on the LAN switches as the bottleneck would be the WAN (we'd apply QoS on the router)

We also need to be able to easily manage the switches across the estate.

I like the look of the Meraki cloud based switches, particularly from the management perspective. But finding it hard to justify the cost - their salesmen boast of the QoS features etc but, as I say, I don't think that's something we'd necessarily need/use.

I've used the Cisco SMB switches before and think they are "alright" but worry they would be hard to manage if hundreds were deployed across the estate (and not sure if we'd perhaps get better value from another vendor even at that price range)

Does anyone have any recommendations of decent (cheap, eh, I mean cost-effective!) managed switches for this sort of environment? Any particular "must haves" or things to look out for?

Thanks.

[Sarbjit-2014]

Hi Mitchen,

Try the two models below, probably ideal for small retail shops.

WS-C3560-12PC-S

WS-C3560-8PC-S

[Sarbjit-2014]

I've just been on Cisco website these switch are end of sale and life. Sorry.

[Sarbjit-2014]

Try this link I think these are the next generation from the switch's I listed earlier:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-2960-c-series-switches/data_sheet_c78-639705.html

[devils_advocate]

Realistically you have a few options I would say:

Cisco Small Business Range SG300/SG500
Cisco Catalyst 2960 Range
Cisco Catalyst 3560C Range 

There are upsides and downsides to each but you need to do a bit of research.

Why would the SMB ones be harder to manage than the Catalyst, ones out of interest?
They still have a CLI and although its not the native IOS, its relatively close.

The 3560C range is affordable but the 12 port version is not Gigabit so you would be down to 8 ports, minus the uplink so would 7 be enough?

The 2960's are a decent range but as with most things, they tend to be more expensive.

The compromise between cost and needing more ports seems to be filled with the SMB switches so I would be looking at those.

It's not as easy as it sounds.

Personally, I would list the exact requirements in terms of:

Port Requirements - Now and in the future
Features - No QoS now but what about in the future?
Power Requirements - Some SMB switches have limited PoE total amounts
Physical Size and Cooling - The SG300-10MP has no fans and has a decent amount of PoE
Budget - This could be the overall deciding factor...

Hope that helps. 

[devils_advocate]

Double Post

[mitchen]

Hi,

thanks for the suggestions.

The SMB ones wouldn’t necessarily be harder to manage than the Catalyst ones – I wasn’t differentiating between them (in fact, I would almost group them together).  But where I’d differentiate those sort of switches is from cloud-managed switches like Meraki.   The main headache for me with SMB (and Catalyst switches) would be configuring, deploying and managing hundreds of those sort of switches would likely prove painful.  That is where I see the benefits of the Cisco Meraki switches – cloud based management, zero touch deployment, etc:

https://meraki.cisco.com/products/switches

Can I turn the question round slightly – since the SMB switches are the most cost-effective, is there a means to easily configure, deploy and manage hundreds of them?