Cisco Catalyst Switches vs. Cisco Nexus Dashboard

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Catalyst Switches
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
Cisco's Catalyst is one of that company's brand of network switches.N/A
Cisco Nexus Dashboard
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Cisco Nexus Dashboard simplifies data-center networks with automation and analytics. The data-center network helps organizations to meet business demands, and provision reliable data-center networking services as fast as possible, when and where organizations need it. As network infrastructure management is becoming more complex, diverse, and distributed, with multiple configuration points, monitoring tools, and vast amounts of data being generated every second. Cisco Nexus Dashboard is…N/A
Pricing
Cisco Catalyst SwitchesCisco Nexus Dashboard
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Catalyst SwitchesCisco Nexus Dashboard
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Catalyst SwitchesCisco Nexus Dashboard
Best Alternatives
Cisco Catalyst SwitchesCisco Nexus Dashboard
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches
Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches
Score 9.0 out of 10
Dell PowerConnect Switches (discontinued)
Dell PowerConnect Switches (discontinued)
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Score 9.1 out of 10
Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Catalyst SwitchesCisco Nexus Dashboard
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(0 ratings)
7.7
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.5
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
7.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Catalyst SwitchesCisco Nexus Dashboard
Likelihood to Recommend
I think the most suited ones will be of course, for example, a supermarket where you have more than 50 plus devices because there are like 48 ports in a switch. We can just use a lot of devices and connect them to it. A less use case will be, I think it depends at the end of the day how your topology looks like. If you have a very few devices, you shouldn't be going for these catalyst switches because they are of course much bigger, more processing power and all those things. If you have, again, it comes to topology. If you have the number of users who are using these switches is less than 15, it's less than 15, then you can just go for any other option and not use them.
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Nexus Dashboard is a vital tool for Cisco data center Nexus deployments, in my opinion. By utilizing multiple applications in the suite, a business can utilize orchestration, monitor services and traffic, test deployment scenarios, verify upgrade processes and readiness, etc. The capabilities of the system can allow for SAN MDS controls, traditional Nexus NXOS integration, and/or essential ACI tools
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Pros
  • One of the things that it does well, it's not something major, but there's a light tracking feature that the 9300 comes with that you can turn on the light and that has become critical in a data center environment where you want to help someone to make sure that you're talking about the same switch, you can turn the light on and off something that is not available in other versions of Cisco switches before the 9300. So it's not as major, but it's quite critical when you're dealing with multiple systems and multiple switches.
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  • It provides monitoring for our overall ACI Fabric which includes the Controller, Spine, and Leaf Switches.
  • It gives you a single pane of visibility of all of your ACI fabric using Nexus Dashboard, no need to login to each of the multiple ACI fabric controllers.
  • Provides an assurance analysis to to your ACI fabric before implementing any change in configuration, they have the Pre-change analysis prior to the firmware upgrade.
  • Gives you the overall health of your Fabric and provides anomaly severity.
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Cons
  • Functionality. Well, one of the functions that we are missing is a faster route based on OSPF. Other than that, it could provide an upgrade without a hitless upgrade. Well, now it is a very fast upgrade, which is also okay. We had a case when the platform crashed, but that was a specific case. We were happy with this product.
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  • Flow Telemetry - Need to overcome the restrictions of 20000 flow/sec. No DataCenter is small enough to pump only 20K flows per second. And we want to use this product for proactive monitoring so we cannot decide on a small segment to monitor flow for beforehand.
  • Creating tags and label for clubbing certain entities so that we can create customized dashboards to monitor and provide access to Operations team
  • Scheduled Reports and Reporting capability is lacking
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Likelihood to Renew
We are extremely happy with the Cisco Catalyst series and don't have any reason to switch. As long as we continue to get great use and service out of the products we'll continue to use them for the foreseeable future.
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No answers on this topic
Usability
Based on my previous experience with other vendors, Cisco is worlds apart. I can manage every feature I need with great flexibility. Other vendors that only provide web UI, limited functionality exists. The other benefit is that since Cisco has been a strong player for so long, their training is being done in some high schools now expanding the knowledge to more of the workforce.
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For the end user, it is relatively easy to use. However, some training and practice is a must because the NSO is not as straightforward as the traditional router CLI. For the administrator, Cisco Network Service Orchestrator (NSO) is just like another program running on the Linux system--there is no big difference.
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Reliability and Availability
We have very few is any outages due to a Cisco hardware failure. Some of our gear is exposed to some pretty harsh environments, and they keep on ticking!
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No answers on this topic
Performance
No, the packets flow. Sometimes you will see collisions and broadcast storms can happen which will slow performance but that can be fixed and the packets will flow.
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Great and effective automation functionalities and the tools on network security management are the best and easy data reports building. Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller feature for the network monitoring and easy management of various services and even offers the best analytics and also powerful integration tools for easy data migration.
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Support Rating
We rarely have issues with the product. I have only had to contact support one time since we put it in and that was to see if another vendor was giving me accurate information on an issue I was having.
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No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
Cisco Networking Academy partners with many local Colleges and High Schools to provide great hands-on training. You do need to drive to learn the topic. The in-class session only go so far. You really need to apply this to the real world. Cisco makes it easy for business to connect via CLC or Cisco Learning Credits.
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
My own personal research to get the information I want is very handy and helped me many times
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
The implementation of the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series Switches is fairly seamless, especially if you are familiar with Cisco products. We have had Brocade switch gear in place too, and the differences between the manufacturers [are] not a major issue.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
We do have other vendors. For example, Juniper, Fortinet, and there are quite a few others. And Cisco is pretty good because we know the workflow, we know how the operating system works. We are much more familiar with Cisco products and we know the support system behind it. So in terms of comparing with others, I think it stands out. It's one of our top products to go to
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The Cisco Nexus Series switches perform admirably in our blended distributed system. We have been dealing with any of these sorts of switches for over 5 years and have been exceptionally happy with their functionality. Several of our other computer networks in our data rooms have proved effective with Cisco equipment. Because of the simplicity of maintenance and the high quality of technical support provided by Cisco representatives, there is a high level of trust in these switches.
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Scalability
We are exclusive Cisco at our organization. In truth part of the reason is, with one type of switch and one manufacturer, it is easier to support. It is also easier to give consistent training to our staff in our tech department
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The platform is very well done, and to date, I have had no complaints about the implementation of the platform and no security issues or vulnerabilities. Cisco in all its product releases new versions to resolve security issues or bugs that appear on the platform, this is a big plus.
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Return on Investment
  • energy costs dropped by around 11 per cent on the access layer
  • management has become easier with DNA Center
  • ISSU software upgrades and fabric deployments have significantly reduced "planned" down times
  • network speed has increased, latency is at an all-time best within our own LAN
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  • Because it guarantees us expandable network services and without any interruption, providing a better service to each of our clients has been possible.
  • It has allowed us to keep the services innovated, doing this process in a reduced time, since it does not require a long programming, so implementing new services is done at a rapid pace.
  • Its automation has allowed us to reduce the burden of manual configurations, so having errors has also decreased.
  • Because it is based on an automation and orchestration model, providing faster and larger-scale services is possible.
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ScreenShots

Cisco Catalyst Switches Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Catalyst 9200 SeriesScreenshot of Catalyst 9300 SeriesScreenshot of Catalyst 9400 SeriesScreenshot of Catalyst 9400 Series Additional ViewScreenshot of Catalyst 9500 Series

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Screenshots

Screenshot of 9324C-SE1U N9300 Smart SwitchScreenshot of 9324C-SE1U N9300 Smart SwitchScreenshot of N9348Y2C6D-SE1U N9300 Smart SwitchScreenshot of N9348Y2C6D-SE1U N9300 Smart SwitchScreenshot of N9348Y2C6D-SE1U N9300 Smart SwitchScreenshot of 9324C-SE1U N9300 Smart Switch