Cisco Switches

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 We have used in the past Cisco validated design guides (some have been outdated since we first started using them) in our network re-designs across not just our university but a few others throughout Minnesota State and they have been very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.