Cisco Network Consulting and Support

The Catalyst family of modular and fixed-configuration switches offers speed and control at the access, aggregation, and backbone levels of converged voice, video, and high bandwidth data networks for organizations that range in size from small businesses and branch offices to global enterprises and SPs. Progent's Cisco-certified consultants offer remote and on-premises support for Catalyst family switches to help your organization to plan a cost-effective network architecture that meets your specific business needs, configure pilot testing systems, install Catalyst switches, establish and validate a sensible security strategy, automate system management and performance tracking, provide troubleshooting and support services, maximize switch performance, and configure Catalyst's fault-tolerant technology for near-zero downtime.

Progent can assist you to manage and troubleshoot your legacy Catalyst switches or migrate smoothly to up-to-date versions of Catalyst switches adhering to leading practices to ensure that you receive the maximum return from your investment in your IT infrastructure.

The need for smart, high-performance switching is the result 0f a confluence of relatively new computing trends whose net impact is a cyber avalanche of data:

• Cloud and Internet of Things computing and a consequent demand for intensive virtualization
• The pervasiveness of BYOD computing
• Data guzzling rich media apps
• Social business technologies
• The popularity of Big Data in enterprise data analytics
• Ever more sophisticated cyberattacks such as ransomware

Cisco's current portfolio of Catalyst switches are best suited for the distribution/core levels of enterprise campus environments where mobile and stationary employees must be supported with dependable high throughput, secure user access management, careful segregation, application intelligence, and wired and wireless convergence. Catalyst series switches are designed to meet the demand for speed and control with features that include high-density 10G/40G/100G services, switching performance over 25 Tbps per chassis, an extensive suite of tools such as Easy Virtual Network to simplify the creation of virtual networks, Virtual Switching System (VSS) technology for stateful interchassis failover with instant backup switch recovery and 99.999% availability, IPv6 capability, AVC to maximize network utilization, and sophisticated QoS tools for business-critical data prioritization.

Catalyst switches allow businesses of any size to build intelligent switching and routing services into their network infrastructure, creating an environment that can deal with current requirements, expand to support future growth, protect vital information, and differentiate and control processes to enhance network operations.

Catalyst 1000 Series Fixed Ethernet Switches
Cisco's Catalyst 1000 Series Layer 2 network access switches are compact, fixed-configuration switches targeted for small businesses and branches with up to 250 workers and with minimal in-house IT expertise. Cisco's Catalyst 1000 family includes fanless models for quiet operation within an office venue. Mounting kits include desktop, wall mount, rack mount, and DIN rail mount. Designed as a simple replacement for Cisco Catalyst 2960-L or 2960-Plus Series deployments, Cisco's Catalyst 1000 Series includes models with 8 to 48 Gigabit Ethernet ports or 24 to 48 Fast Ethernet 10/100M ports.

Catalyst 1000 set up and administration are easy using a web interface or command-line interface, security is enterprise-class, and PoE+ capability with a dynamically allocated power budget of 740W allows a broad variety of Internet of Things deployments. As many as eight Catalyst 1000 Gigabit Ethernet model switches can be managed at once with single IP. Catalyst Series 1000 units are nonblocking line-rate devices, and all are powered by Cisco's familiar IOS Software. Quality-of-Service capabilities include egress queues on every port plus priority packet queuing to provide optimized throughput for all classes of traffic. Catalyst Series 1000 switches also feature Shaped Round Robin service scheduling and Weighted Tail Drop congestion management.

Cisco Catalyst 9000 Fixed and Modular Managed Switches
The Cisco Catalyst 9000 series of managed switches offers modular and fixed switches and supports all deployment scenarios including access, aggregation, and core switching. The Catalyst 9000 line includes switches with the appropriate price/performance to connect workers and things in scenarios ranging from small businesses and branches to major enterprises. Catalyst 9000 Series switches can be configured to implement any mix of local facilities, private/public clouds, and hybrid networks. Unified management platforms and cutting-edge cybersecurity features reduce expenses by cutting operational overhead and safeguarding critical network assets. Cisco's 9000X line of switches provide converged switching and routing, introducing the first combination of 400G QSFP-DD ports plus full multigigabit and Power-over-Ethernet ports.

With double the backplane stacking bandwidth at around half the price of the legacy Cisco Catalyst 2960-X and 2960-XR switches they are designed to replace, Cisco's Catalyst 9200 Series switches are a natural network upgrade for small branches and midsize campuses. The 9200 product line includes models that offer 24 or 48 ports with full PoE+; 80-160 Gbps backplane stacking performance; streaming telemetry; and Layer 3 features such as OSPF, EIGP distance routing protocol, IS-IS, and routed access. Catalyst 9200 Series switches run Cisco IOS XE.

The Catalyst 9200 delivers 160-Gbps backplane stacking throughput, supports onsite-replaceable redundant power supplies and fans, and accepts add-in interface modules with 4x1G, 4x1/10G, 2x25G, or 2x40G uplink. Cisco's Catalyst 9200 Enhanced VN model allows up to 32 Virtual Networks and offers 160-Gbps stacking performance. The Catalyst 9200L offers 80-Gbps backplane stacking throughput. Both the Catalyst 9200L multigigabit and the Catalyst 9200 multigigabit offer wireless bandwidth tuning with 8 or 12 multigigabit Ethernet ports up to 10Gbps.

Cisco's Catalyst 9300 Series switches are fixed, stackable units for ultra-high-density access switching. Key features provided with models in the Catalyst 9300 family include 1T stacking capacity, stackable SFP fiber, up to 448 mGig Ethernet ports and 288 ports of 90W UPOE+ with an 8-device stack, end-to-end IPsec tunnel with AES-256 Encryption and speeds as high as 100G, HA fans and power supplies, plus data stack cables common across the entire Catalyst 9300 family.

Powered by the Cisco IOS XE operating system, devices in the Catalyst 9300 product line offer automated device provisioning, API-driven configuration, granular visibility for close to realtime monitoring, and transparent software updates and patching. Security capabilities include Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA) as well as AES-256 MACsec and IPSec encryption, plus Cisco Trust Anchor Technologies with Image signing and Secure Boot. Cloud cybersecurity is enhanced because Catalyst 9300 switches have the ability to host the Cisco Umbrella agent directly. This makes it possible for organizations to design their DNS filtering policies at user or group level to block BYOD or IoT clients from visiting malicious websites.

The entry-level Cisco Catalyst 9300L switch provides up to 320G backplane stacking capacity and supports 12 100M/1G/2.5G/5G/10G ports and 36 10M/100M/1G ports. The 9300L uses fixed instead of modular uplink components for 4 1G, 4 10G, or 2 40G uplink ports. The Cisco Catalyst 9300 switch offers 480G of backplane stacking throughput and can provide 48 100M/1G/2.5G/5Gbps ports, 24 100M/1G/2.5G/5G/10Gbps ports, or 48 1G SFP ports. Modular uplink speeds supported are 1G, 10G, 25G, or 40G. The top-of-the-line Cisco Catalyst 9300X appliance delivers 1T stacking bandwidth and supports 48 10G ports. The 9300X accepts modular uplinks with dual-rate 100G/40G, multirate 25G/10G/1G, or multigigabit. Cisco 90W Universal Power Over Ethernet+ (UPOE+) supports IoT-intensive applications. Cisco offers hardware to support 100G IPsec.

Cisco's Catalyst 9400 Series devices are modular switches powered by Cisco IOS XE and intended for midsize and enterprise campus access deployments. Delivering twice the performance and over quadruple the chassis bandwidth as the legacy Catalyst 6500 it is designed to replace, Cisco's Catalyst 9400 family brings switch capability into the current era of connectivity driven by cybersecurity, mobility, Internet of Things, and cloud.

Catalyst 9400 switches are offered with 4-slot, 7-slot, and 10-slot chassis. Two of the slots on the chassis are reserved for high-availability supervisor cards, leaving 2, 5, or 8 slots open for line cards. Max capacity for each line-card slot is 480 Gbps. Switching performance can achieve 1.44 Terabits per second and forwarding performance on Supervisor Module can reach 9 Tbps for the 10-slot chassis. All Catalyst 9400 chassis offer 90W UPOE+ on every port, secure segmentation with Software-Defined Access and N+N/N+1 power redundancy for high resilience. Cisco's Catalyst 9400 4-slot switch supports 96 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, 5G/10G mGig ports, or 10G SFP+ ports. The Catalyst 9400 7-slot supports 240 ports, and the Catalyst 9400 10-slot supports 384 ports. All Catalyst 9400 appliances can provide 2 non-blocking 40G QSFP uplinks and 8 non-blocking 10 Gigabit SFP+ uplinks.

The Catalyst 9500 product line consists of fixed core and edge services appliances designed for the enterprise campus. Catalyst 9500 switches are powered by Cisco IOS XE and the series incorporates the first network technology to provide switching speeds higher than 25 Terabits per second.

Catalyst 9500 appliances deliver up to 6.4 Tbps switching performance with forwarding speed up to 2 Bpps. Catalyst 9500 switches can support up to 32 nonblocking 100 GB QSFP28 ports, 32 nonblocking 40G QSFP+ ports, 48 nonblocking 25G SFP28 ports, or 48 nonblocking 10 Gigabit SFP+ ports. You can configure Multichassis EtherChannel (MEC) across StackWise-Virtual members to achieve high availability.

Catalyst 9500X products support up to 25.6 Tbps switching performance with 2 Billion Packet per Second forwarding capacity. Catalyst 9500X devices deliver up to 28 nonblocking 40/100 GB QSFP28 ports or 8 nonblocking 40/100/200/400 G QSFP-DD ports. The 9500X product line also includes chip-level capability for line-rate 256-bit 802.1AE Media Access Control Security (MACsec) and WAN-MACsec1 data encryption.

Catalyst 9600 Series switches are modular core and distribution switches for the enterprise campus. The 6-slot 9600 Series chassis loaded with a Catalyst 9600X Series Supervisor has switching performance up to 25.6 Terabits per second and can contain as many as 256 nonblocking 10/25/50 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 96 nonblocking 40/100G Gigabit ports, or 8 nonblocking 200/400 G QSFP-Double Density ports. The Catalyst 9600 switch also supports dual-rate 40G/100G and 10G/25G optics. Two chassis slots are dedicated for high-availability supervisors. You can combine a variety of line cards for core and aggregation environments. The Catalyst 9600 chassis has a passive backplane, making it possible to replace fan tray, power supplies, and line cards without disruption.

Legacy Catalyst Models Still Supported by Progent's Consultants
Progent's Cisco CCIE-certified network consultants have broad backgrounds delivering remote and onsite support services for legacy Catalyst Series switches which have reached End of Life or End of Support. These legacy switches often are more expensive to operate and support than current switches, provide lower capacity and functionality, and for many situations can subject organizations to regulatory compliance and even liability issues. Progent are available to assist you to maintain and troubleshoot these legacy Cisco products and can also help you to design and implement seamless migrations to current products from the Catalyst family or to devices from the Cisco Nexus portfolio of network switches which build upon Catalyst technology.

Cisco Catalyst Express 500 and 520 Line of Switches
The Catalyst Express 500 family of Layer 2 switches are intended for organizations with up to 250 workers and provide the dependability, protection, expandability, and features small and mid-sized businesses need at an economical cost. PoE support makes it simple to add network appliances such as wireless access points and IP cameras.

Versions of the Catalyst Express 500 and 520 switches support up to 24 10/100/1000BASE-T ports plus the option of redundant power with auto fail-over for extra dependability. Integration with Cisco access points allows businesses to set up a wireless LAN environment quickly and easily. The Catalyst Express 500 family offers strong protection against viruses thanks to the Cisco Self-Defending Network technology and Clean Access agents. Catalyst 2940 Switch
Catalyst 2900 fixed-configuration, managed Ethernet switches provide basic small-group connectivity for small to midsize businesses. These wire-speed desktop switches deliver Cisco IOS Software features for simple data, video, and voice control at the edge of the network. The Cisco 2940 line of fixed-configuration switches are compact, stackable devices featuring eight Ethernet ports and a single integrated Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet uplink. The enclosures can be deployed outside the wiring closet in space-constrained office spaces such as on a worker's desk or in a conference room.

Catalyst 2960-S Series Switch
The Cisco Catalyst 2960-S Series are fixed-configuration switches designed for small companies and branch offices. Available versions have 24 or 48 1Gb Ethernet ports, four 1-Gigabit or two 10-Gigabit uplink ports, and provide throughput as high as 176 Gbps. Cisco's FlexStack technology allows as many as four 2960-S switches to be grouped in a FlexStack stack to act as one switching unit that provides 40 Gbps of stacking bandwidth and that cuts administrative costs with single-switch configuration. Cisco's IPv6 FHS technology guards networks against address theft and malicious threats.

Catalyst 3560 Series Switches
The Catalyst 3560 family is a selection of fixed-configuration switches that includes IEEE 802.3af and Cisco Power over Ethernet functionality in Fast Ethernet and 10/100/1000 implementations. The Catalyst 3560 Series switch is a proven Layer 2 switch for small enterprise network connectivity or branch-offices, offering both Gigabit and Power over Ethernet (PoE) configurations for high productivity while streamlining the deployment of vital technology such a IP telephony, Wi-Fi, video monitoring, and building management systems. Customers can deploy network-wide smart features including QoS, rate limiting, access control lists (ACLs), multicast management, and fast IP routing while maintaining the ease of conventional network switching.

The Catalyst 3560 Series switch offers a powerful array of capabilities that allow for network scalability and higher resilience through IP routing plus a full complement of Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) enhancements aimed to maximize throughput in an access Layer LAN. Enhancements to the conventional STP Protocol, including Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus (PVST+), and Uplink Fast, combined with innovations such as Flex Links, improve network uptime. PVST+ allows for Layer 2 load sharing on redundant links to efficiently use the extra capacity associated with a redundant architecture.

Efficient technologies including OPSF, Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), static routing, and Policy Based Routing improve network capacity; Protocol Independent Multicast improves utilization of network resources; and VRFLite secures data.

Catalyst 3750 Family Switches
For mid-size organizations and enterprise branch offices, Cisco's Catalyst 3750 Series eases deployment of converged applications and adapts to evolving business needs by offering configuration flexibility, support for converged network traffic, and automatic configuration of intelligent network functions. In addition, Cisco's Catalyst 3750 switch is designed for high-volume 1000 Ethernet environments and includes a wide selection of switches that address the connectivity, aggregation, and backbone-interface requirements of small or mid-size deployments.

Cisco's Catalyst 3750 switch includes the IP Base image or the IP Services image. The IP Base image capabilities include industry-leading quality of service, rate-management, access control lists (ACLs), and basic static and RIP routing capability. The IP Services image provides a richer selection of enterprise-grade functions, such as sophisticated built-in IP unicast/multicast routing.

Cisco StackWise technology is a stacking architecture designed for Gigabit interfaces. Cisco StackWise is intended to react to installs, deletions, and relocations while maintaining dependable operation. Cisco StackWise technology combines up to 9 individual switches into one functional unit, using special stack-interface cables and stacking utilities. Each of the switches can be any combination of the Catalyst 3750 Series and the 3750-E switches. The stack behaves as a single switching device that is managed by a master switch, chosen from one of the stack of switches. The master switch automatically builds and updates all the switching and optional routing databases. A running stack can accommodate new members or delete old devices without service discontinuity.

Cisco Catalyst 2960 Series Switches and Catalyst 3560-CX Switches
Cisco's Catalyst 2960-CX is a fixed-configuration managed switch that is low-profile, fanless, power efficient, and allows a variety of mounting alternatives. The Catalyst 2960-CX has eight 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports and two 1-GE uplink ports and has an option for Power over Ethernet. Cisco's Catalyst 3560-CX appliance is a fixed-port switch packaged in a sleek, quiet and energy-efficient unit that can be mounted virtually anywhere convenient. Versions are available with 8 or 12 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports or with six 1-GE ports and two multigigabit Ethernet ports. Up to four uplink ports are offered, and Power over Ethernet (PoE) is also an option.

Cisco's Catalyst 2960-L line consists of value-priced fixed-configuration switches intended for small offices, retail areas, and other environments where space is at a premium. Catalyst 2900-L compact switches include 8 to 48 GE ports and 2 or 4 SFP uplink ports. Power over Ethernet support reduces clutter and fan-free design for 16- and 24-port models does away with noise. RJ-45 connectors handle 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T and 1000BASE-T SFP-ports.

Catalyst 2960-X and 2960-XR switches improve on the 2690-S family of switches by delivering switching capacity as high as 216 Gbps and supporting Cisco's FlexStack-Plus Stacking by means of a hot-swappable module that can combine 8 switches in a FlexStack Plus stack with 80 Gbps of stacking throughput. Catalyst 2900 family switches also work with NetFlow-Lite for flow-based traffic monitoring. The Catalyst 2960-XR Series switch is capable of Layer 3 dynamic routing, providing the convenience of having one device for Layer 2 and Layer 3 routing.

Cisco Catalyst 3650 and 3850 Switches
Cisco Catalyst 3650 and Catalyst 3850 switches are fixed, stackable network access devices powered by Cisco's IOS XE OS and featuring comprehensive wireless network controller functionality that lets you converge wired and wireless infrastructure on a one platform powered by one operating system. Cisco has models with either 24 or 48 built-in 10/100/1000 Ethernet connections with PoE plus, four 1-Gigabit or four 10GE uplink ports, and capacity for as many as nine Catalyst switches per FlexStack stack. All versions provide expandable QoS, stateful switchover for maximum uptime, software support for IPv4/IPv6 routing, multicast routing, and enhanced security.

Because wireless traffic is present at the Catalyst 3000 family switch, network managers can spot and prioritize wireless traffic using Cisco's Flexible NetFlow (FNF) solution along with sophisticated Quality of Service capabilities for an improved wireless user environment and faster problem mediation. Multigigabit Ethernet switching can handle the high-bandwidth defined by the latest 802.11ac Wave 2 wireless standard using currently in-place cabling solutions. (To find out about Progent's support for Cisco's 802.11ac Wi-Fi access points and wireless controllers, and Meraki cloud-managed access points, refer to Configuration and Troubleshooting Support for Cisco Wireless Access Points and Controllers.)

The Catalyst 3650 offers stacking throughput of up to 160 Gbps and can control as many as 25 Wi-Fi access points and 1000 wireless clients per switch or stack. The Catalyst 3850 Series switch delivers stacking performance of 480 Gbps and can control up to 50 wireless access points and 2000 Wi-Fi clients on each switch or stack. Catalyst 3850 SFP Fiber Switches have 12 or 24 1G fiber connections at line rate on every port, offering far reaching connectivity, enhanced security, and an identical wired/wireless experience.

Catalyst 4500-E Series and Catalyst 4500-X Series Switches
Cisco's Catalyst 4500-E Series and and Catalyst 4500-X Series switches are designed for access and distribution deployments where space for networking equipment is at a premium. Running Cisco's IOS XE operating system, both the 4500-E and Catalyst 4500-X families facilitate virtualization by supporting Cisco's EVN and Virtual Switching System solutions. Virtualization allows you to divide a physical network into multiple virtual networks (VNs) whose data planes and control planes are logically distinct. This makes possible the economy, security and compliance, resilience, and manageability needed for Cloud environments or other scenarios where a common infrastructure must be used by software and services that must operate in total isolation from one another. EVN speeds up the task of creating VNs and scales to 32 VNs per switch. Easy Virtual Network incorporates features of Multi-virtual routing and forwarding and provides additional features including VNET Trunks and an easy technique for duplicating replicating routes connecting virtual networks. VSS makes it possible to set up Catalyst 4500-E and 4500-X Series switches to create non-stop VNs with advanced load balancing.

Cisco Catalyst 4500-E Switches
The Supervisor Engine for for the Catalyst 4500-E modular switch has a built-in wireless network controller that works with Cisco's Unified Access solution for wired and wireless convergence. this is the first Cisco Catalyst supervisor to enable wired plus wireless services on one platform based on Cisco's IOS XE software. Technologies included are Cisco's Flexible NetFlow solution for capacity planning across both wired and Wi-Fi networks, TrustSec/SGT2 wired and wireless data security, consistent QoS for wired and wireless networks, plus the expansion of Nonstop Forwarding with Stateful Switchover to include Wi-Fi traffic for enterprise-quality availability.

Available in chassis with from three to 10 slots, Catalyst 4500-E Series switches with Supervisor 8-E can support as many as 384 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, up to 192 Gigabit Ethernet fiber fiber connections, 96 10GE fiber ports, and eight 10GE uplink ports. Cisco's Supervisor Engine 8-E delivers as much as 928 Gbps of wired access per system and 20 Gbps of wireless termination capacity. 50 wireless access points and 2000 wireless users can be supported per chassis, and 250 wireless access points and 4000 wireless clients are managed in a dual-switch deployment without requiring a standalone wireless controller.

Catalyst 4500-X Switches
Cisco's Catalyst 4500-X Series switches are fixed 10GE aggregation platforms that can deliver as much as 800 Gbps of backplane switching performance per device. The Catalyst 4500-X switch can have up to 32 10-Gigabit Ethernet connections on the unit's baseboard and eight more 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports on the optional expansion module for a total of up to 40 10-Gigabit Ethernet connections. Eight 10GE uplinks are also available with another module. In addition to providing zero-downtime performance and easy management, Cisco's virtual switching system technology on Catalyst 4500-X Series switches provides increased system throughput of up to 1.6 Tbps by activating all possible bandwidth between redundant Catalyst 4500-X switches. Additional features include FNF solution for capacity planning, TrustSec security, and fast, hardware-based IPv6 forwarding.

Catalyst 6500 Series and Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
Catalyst 6500 Series and Catalyst 6800 switches are enterprise campus backbone switches that incorporate the field-proven DNA of the Cisco Catalyst 6500 family of switches, which first appeared more than a decade ago and have been steadily enhanced since then. Catalyst 6500 and Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series switches offer the same features and operation, and the modular Catalyst 6807-XL switch accepts the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 2T and its extensive family of compatible line cards and service modules. This cross compatibility and program of ongoing improvement preserves your IT expenditures and enables you to upgrade your network with minimal service interruption or management staff re-education.

Shared attributes of Cisco Catalyst 6500 and Catalyst 6800 Series modular switches equipped with Cisco's Supervisor Engine 2T include Cisco's ISE technology for simple, centralized control to ensure consistent policy throughout a distributed environment, Virtual Switching System technology for 99.999% uptime through multi-level redundancy, and Cisco's LISP protocol to facilitate roaming and device mobility and to streamline virtualization and transition to IPv6. Other virtualization features to segment distinct user groups and serve the unique security and QoS policy requirements of every group include L2/L3 VPN, complete MPLS, Easy Virtual Network, VRF-aware technology for Network Address Translation NetFlow, IPv6 over IPv4 GRE Tunnel Protection, and Layer 2 geographic extensions with VPLS. For unified wired/wireless networking, the WiSM2 controller Catalyst 6500 and Catalyst 6800 Series modular switches includes support for 1000 wireless APs and 15,000 wireless users.

Cisco Catalyst 6500-E Switches
The Catalyst 6500-E line of modular switches are designed for aggregation and campus core networks that need world-class availability and high densities of 10/100/1000 Ethernet, 1 GE fiber, and/or 10 and 40 GE access ports. Models come with three to 13 expansion slots and accept a wide selection of interfaces. Integrated service modules enable wireless, network monitoring, and data protection. Only E-Series versions of Cisco's extensive line of 6500 switches work with the Supervisor Engine 2T.

The Cisco Catalyst 6503-E has a 4RU form factor, includes 3 slots, and delivers 180 Gbps of switching throughput per slot. The Catalyst 6503-E switch supports 97 10/100/1000 Ethernet access ports, up to 99 Gigabit Ethernet fiber connections, up to 34 10GE ports, and up to 8 40-Gigabit Ethernet ports.

The top-of-the-line Catalyst 6513-E switch has a 19RU, 13-slot chassis and offers up to 180 Gbps of performance on each slot, providing a total system bandwidth of up to 4 Tbps. A Virtual Switching System configured system can support up to 8 Tbps of capacity. The Catalyst 6513-E switch offers a maximum of 529 10/100/1000 Ethernet access ports, up to 534 Gigabit Ethernet fiber connections, up to 180 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports, and up to 44 40GE access ports.

Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
Cisco's Catalyst 6800 switches are campus core switches designed to provide best-of-breed 10/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet support. The Catalyst 6880-X switch is a fixed, compact platform for high-density Ethernet intended for small or midsize enterprise campus cores. The Catalyst 6880-X delivers as much as 2 Tbps throughput and has four slots for plug-in port cards. The maximum port concentration per chassis is 80 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports or 10GE access ports or as many as 20 40-Gigabit Ethernet access ports. With Cisco's Virtual Switching System, a two-chassis system can deliver 4 Tbps throughput and support up to 158 1 Gigabit Ethernet access ports or 10GE access ports or up to 20 40-Gigabit Ethernet connections.

The modular Cisco Catalyst 6807-XL switch has a 10 RU chassis that has 7 expansion slots and supports standard Supervisor Engine 2T cards and service modules. (Two slots are for the Supervisor Engine and five are for modules.) The Cisco Catalyst 6807-XL can deliver as much as 880 Gbps of switching bandwidth on each slot and 11.4 Tbps of full-duplex switching throughput while providing up to 240 1 Gigabit Ethernet connections or 1GE fiber connections, up to 80 10GE ports or up to 20 40-Gigabit Ethernet ports. A two-chassis 6807-XL system configured with Cisco's Virtual Switching System is capable of supporting 22.8 Tbps of switching capacity, 480 1 Gigabit Ethernet access ports or Gigabit Ethernet fiber connections, up to 160 10-Gigabit Ethernet connections or 40 40-Gigabit Ethernet ports.

Ways That Progent Can Assist You with Catalyst Switches
Progent offers the online or onsite expertise of CCIE-certified consultants who have broad experience providing Catalyst switch technology solutions for small and midsize organizations, branch offices, campuses, data centers, Cloud networks, and service providers. Progent's areas of expertise include Cisco's Catalyst and Nexus families of smart switches and Cisco's IOS and NX-OS operating systems. Services offered by Progent for Cisco Catalyst Series switches include proof-of-concept testing and validation, network analysis, network architecture design, upgrades and project management, network virtualization, wired/wireless unification, network management, capacity planning, problem mitigation, disaster recovery and business continuity planning, and information security and compliance assessment and remediation.

Progent's Cisco-certified consultants have broad expertise with industry standards and with proprietary Cisco technologies related to switching and routing such as BGP, MPLS traffic engineering, Protocol Independent Multicast, VPNs, ISIS, virtual LANs, Cisco FabricPath, Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), HSRP, Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol, OSPF, VSS, and Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP). Progent's network specialists also offer familiarity with important technologies including TCP/IP, IPv4, IPv6, Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol, Routing Information Protocol, and Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP). Progent's CISSP-ISSAP certified network security consultants can assist you to develop a comprehensive security plan and deploy Cisco Catalyst switches so they provide optimal enforcement to your security posture.

In case you need the highest available Ethernet density or extremely low latency Cisco switches for an enterprise-class data center, Progent can assist you to analyze, plan, and carry out a transition to Nexus family of switches. To learn about Progent's consulting and support capabilities for Cisco's Nexus Series switches, refer to Cisco Nexus Switch consulting and support services. Progent can also help you to connect Catalyst core switches with Meraki aggregation switches. (See Cisco Meraki switch integration consultants.)

To see additional details about Progent's consulting support for Cisco solutions, select a topic:

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