Name: Cisco Switches
Rating: 4.9 (504 reviews)

Overview

Product Information on Cisco Switches

Updated 13th October 2025

What is Cisco Switches?

Cisco Switches is a network software that facilitates the management, configuration, and monitoring of network switches within enterprise and data center environments. The software supports features such as traffic segmentation, access control, and network automation, enabling organizations to optimize network performance and maintain security policies. Cisco Switches integrates with a range of network devices, providing capabilities for scalability, redundancy, and high availability. It supports multiple protocols and standards, allowing interoperability across diverse network infrastructures. The software is designed to address business requirements for reliable data transmission, secure connectivity, and efficient resource allocation across wired and wireless networks.

Overall experience with Cisco Switches

MGR,IT NETWORK ARCHITECTURE & TELECOM

10B - 30B USD, Retail

FAVORABLE

“Cisco's broad portfolio simplifies operations and support”

5.0

Dec 4, 2025

Overall, our experience with Cisco networking has been very positive. They've given us a stable, high-performance network foundation that largely just works once properly designed and implemented. Day to day operations are predictable and we've continued to see strong reliability with minimal downtime. On the positive side, the breadth of the Cisco portfolio lets us standardize knowledge and products across our data center, campus, and branch offices which simplifies support and training. The integration with Cisco's broad ecosystem has also helped us improve service delivery and adapt to changing business needs.

Manager, IT Security and Risk Management

500M - 1B USD, Telecommunication

CRITICAL

“Small Businesses Achieve Success with Low Maintenance Switches”

3.0

May 10, 2024

The switches work great for a small business! But consider the use case.

About Company

Company Description

Cisco is a company that specializes in networking technologies, particularly Internet Protocol (IP)-based solutions. It was established in 1984 by a group of computer scientists from Stanford University. As of today, Cisco has a global workforce, continuing to innovate in various fields, notably in routing and switching. Adding to its core business, the company also delves into emerging technologies including home networking, IP telephony, optical networking, security features, storage area networking, and wireless technology. Moreover, Cisco extends its expertise to offer a sweeping range of services such as technical support and advanced services. The company sells its products and services on an enterprise level, to commercial businesses, service providers, and end-users.

Company Details

Company type

Public

Year Founded

1984

Head office location

San Jose, United States

Number of employees

10001+

Annual Revenue

30B+ USD

Website

http://www.cisco.com

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User Sentiment About Cisco Switches

Reviewer Insights for: Cisco Switches

Deciding Factors: Cisco Switches Vs. Market Average

Performance of Cisco Switches Across Market Features

Cisco Switches Likes & Dislikes

Cisco networking has proven to be very reliable in production. Once configured, they run for long periods without issues or constant maintenance. They handle traffic loads well and when there are failures the redundancy works reliably. We appreciate the wide range of features available, and the consistent programmability across device types. This allows us to quickly adopt new features when needed for the business while also supporting a strong baseline security posture for the organization. The integration with Cisco's broad product portfolio, and depth of documentation, TAC support, and user/partner community has proven to be a major benefit compared to other products. When we do run into challenges or new requirements, we can generally find guidance quickly, either from Cisco or from the community. Using Cisco across our data center, campus, and branch offices gives us a consistent CLI experience, behavior, and processes. This makes training our support teams easier, reduces confusion between teams, and reduces configuration errors we found common in multi vendor environments in the past.

Price , no maintenance required to keep updated. Easy to monitor!

We like that the documentation for Cisco Switches has been very comprehensive, relative to other products. We have used in the past Cisco validated design guides (some have been outdated since we first started using them) in our network re-designs across not just our university but a few others throughout Minnesota State and they have been very helpful. These guides provide best practices for designing for routing and switching infrastructures. Typically we try to purchase hardware at the beginning of its lifetime and we have been able to maintain the Cisco Switches throughout their entire life cycle - we can typically count on at least a decade of viability.

Licensing complexity is generally the largest challenge we see with Cisco products. Although Cisco's newer licenses attempt to make this easier, they still remain far more complex than other products and as a result require more planning up front to ensure you have the right capabilities long term. Lifecycle can be confusing at times as well with inconsistent replacement products as current products age out. Generally, this again just requires more planning earlier in the lifecycle to ensure the right replacement product is selected since the recommended replacement product does not generally align with the capabilities of the previous generation. Those are really the only challenges we face and both are addressed with solid planning.

Lack of features we are use to in other switches. We dont use them everywhere due to the limited feature set.

The new licensing model needs to be more flexible - we are looking at some of the new hardware and they have a new model that we are working through the costing for now. Prior to that, we'd buy the switch with the base or advanced and would have that through the duration of the device. The current licensing model has limits based on timeframe (i.e. we can have advanced for x amount of time). Since Covid, higher ed overall has seen quite a few financial setbacks and we need a licensing model that would be more accommodating. Cisco has offered financial consideration for other applications but we need to have that model extended to other technologies and product offerings.

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Peer Discussions

Cisco Switches Reviews and Ratings

Recommended Gartner Insights

10B+ USD

Retail

Review Source

Cisco's broad portfolio simplifies operations and support

IT Manager

Gov't/PS/Ed

Education

Long-Term Experience Highlights Cisco Switches Reliability and Documentation Strengths

Dec 2, 2025

I have worked with Cisco for roughly 28 years and it has been a good experience overall. I've seen a lot of vendors come and go on the Switches side, some that no longer exist, and Cisco has supported us throughout this journey. We have a very good experience with our account team, good rapport and collaboration with them and our supporting vendors as well. We have worked with TAC throughout the years not just on Switches but across the portfolio and it has been a good experience overall.

1B-10B USD

Banking

Core Networking Reliability Noted Amid Persistent Issues In Firewall Design And Operation

Dec 12, 2025

Overall in general it has been generally exceptional with some issues around network firewalls. We have been using Cisco for a minimum of 25 years, one of my colleagues' first jobs when he started was to implement Cisco. The Account Team is very responsive, they know our needs and understand how our org works, which is always helpful because we are an insurance company and it is nice that they are knowledgeable about what we do and how they can best support our needs. If we need to work with TAC support, it is pretty simple, we submit the ticket, if there is an escalation due to impact on services we will reach out to the Account Team to make sure it gets resolved in a timely manner.

Government

Durability and Security Praised in Cisco Switches Despite Documentation Improvement Needs

Dec 8, 2025

We have been working with Cisco for probably about 27 years and it has been a great experience overall. Our Account Team is fantastic, they are with us from start to finish so when we put together a BOM they give us the scenario, give us recommendations about which specific models (product SKU) we need and how we can save a few bucks here and there. They provide helpful consultation around how to best deploy individual applications once purchased so they work the right way in our environment. When we have had to work with TAC (not very often) the experience is often really good - they are very sharp, first call resolution service and we are very satisfied with them.

Vp, It

Long-Term Experience Highlights Reliability and Challenges With Cisco Licensing Model

4.0

Dec 22, 2025

We have been working with Cisco for about 28 years at this point and it's been a great experience overall. Outside of Networking, we use Cisco DataCenter, Wireless and some Security. We have had a good experience working with our Cisco account team to provide support for each of these components. When we do need support (depending on the level of support we need), it is directed to Cisco for that level of maintenance - we have teams that front all of our level 1 and level 2 problems which has worked out very well for us. When we need to work on new projects, it is a very collaborative process - we have a staff internally that can build out the design, the components involved, then we'll work with Cisco Account teams to validate, then we will implement the solution internally.