which datacentre switch?

[carl_townshend]

Hi All

We are looking at refreshing some TOR switches whilst replacing our ERP system.

We are a Cisco catalyst house and have no Nexus at all.

The TOR switches connect to a 9600 core.

We normally have 2 TOR switches stacked and then dual connected to our core running VSS/Stackwise virtual.

What switches should we go for? Cat 9k's OR look at some Nexus 5 OR 3K switches?

Would the Nexus give us much benefit over the 9Ks bearing in mind that we have Nexus no where else?

Cheers

[balaji.bandi]

I prefere to have Nexus model switches as DC Switches. or you can Consider FEX , since you only extending Layer 2?

FEX and Nexus 9K also most same costing as i heard, i have replaced some FEX with nexus 9K, they are more efficient in terms of DC Switching. it got a capabilites of vPC add you more advantage.

are you looking unified fabric same switch like FC / CE ?

[carl_townshend]

Hi

We cannot use FEX as we do not have any Nexus core switches, FEX is also not supported going forward from Nexus

So it would be a case of using Nexus on the edge with a Catalyst core, or have Catalyst everywhere

[Reza Sharifi]

Hi Carl,

For Servers, storage, VM, etc.. you want to use the Nexus series as they are designed for data center use. Depending on your budget and need, you may want to look at the 9300 or 9200 series. Have a look at this link:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/switches/nexus-9000-series-switches/datasheet-listing.html

HTH

[balaji.bandi]

If you looking fully catalyst Family then - i look forward to Look for Cat 9300 UXM / UN  Model as good candidate - they have Multigig capabilites.

[Ruben Cocheno]

@carl_townshend 

My question is always about the roadmap, understand where you heading to so you can make the right decisions now and keep the cost down in a long-term strategy. Because a network refresh you do it every 5 to 7 years luckly, and planning if a WAN redesign, Public Cloud connectivity, Application Centric Infrastructure, Security is something that the business is looking to achieve on their Transformation Programme.