Businesses that are expanding need a robust network infrastructure to keep up. To support their demand for bandwidth and connectivity, the Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series is an excellent choice. In this article, we’ll explore how the Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series stands apart from other networking solutions, and how it can ensure that businesses remain competitive in the digital age.
Why should you use a networking switch?
Using a Cisco Catalyst Series networking switch can provide a dedicated switching path between devices on the network, which can improve network performance.
This can help reduce congestion and improve overall throughput. Additionally, using a switch As a result, congestion can be reduced and overall throughput can be improved. Additionally, using a switch can enhance network security by isolating traffic between different segments. Furthermore, switches provide enhanced manageability through features such as port mirroring and VLANs.
When buying networking switches, what should you look for?
When purchasing networking switches, some key factors to consider are port density, scalability, security, energy efficiency, and manageability.
More ports means that you can connect more devices to the switch, which is important for growing networks. Scalability means that the switch can handle increased traffic as your network grows.
Security features like access control lists (ACLs) and data encryption can help protect your network from attacks. Energy efficiency is important for both cost savings and environmental sustainability. Features such as remote management and monitoring can simplify switch administration.
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series: An Overview
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series switches are Cisco’s lead modular enterprise access switching platform and as part of the Catalyst 9000 family, are built to transform your network to handle a hybrid world where the workplace is anywhere, endpoints could be anything, and applications are hosted all over the place.
The Catalyst 9400 Series, including the new Catalyst 9400 SUP-2/2XL supervisor and line cards, continues to shape the future with continued innovation that helps you reimagine connections, reinforce security and redefine the experience for your hybrid workforce big and small.
Advanced persistent security threats, exponential growth of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, mobility everywhere and cloud adoption require a network fabric that integrates advanced hardware and software innovations to automate, secure, and simplify customer networks. The goal of this network fabric is to enable customer revenue growth by accelerating business service rollout.
The Cisco Digital Network Architecture (Cisco DNA) with Software-Defined Access (SD-Access) is the network fabric that powers business. Cisco DNA is an open and extensible, software-driven architecture that accelerates and simplifies your enterprise network operations.
The programmable architecture frees your IT staff from time consuming, repetitive network configuration tasks so they can focus instead on innovation that positively transforms your business. SD-Access enables policy-based automation from edge to cloud with foundational capabilities. These include:
● Simplified device deployment
● Unified management of wired and wireless networks
● Network virtualization and segmentation
● Group-based policies
● Context-based analytics
The Cisco Catalyst® 9400 Series switches are Cisco’s leading modular enterprise switching access, distribution and core platform built for security, IoT and cloud. These switches form the foundational building block for SD- Access ― Cisco’s lead enterprise architecture.
The platform provides unparalleled investment protection with a chassis architecture that supports up to 9 Tbps of system bandwidth and unmatched power delivery with high density IEEE 802.3bt PoE (60W and 90W). Redundancy is now table stakes across the portfolio. The Catalyst 9400 delivers state-of-the-art High Availability (HA) with capabilities like Cisco StackWise Virtual technology with In-Service-Software-Upgrade (ISSU), SSO/NSF, uplink resiliency, N+1/N+N redundancy for power supplies.
The platform is enterprise optimized with an innovative dual-serviceable fan tray design, side to side airflow and is closet-friendly with ~16” depth. A single system can scale up to 384 access ports with your choice of 10G, 5G and 2.5G multigigabit copper, 1G copper, Cisco UPOE+, Cisco UPOE and PoE+ options and up to 384 ports of 10G Fiber and 1G Fiber options.
The availability of 1/10 G fiber ports facilitate aggregation of existing small form factor fixed access switches. The addition of the new SUP-2/2XL supervisors allows unique investment protection through 100G uplink connectivity option which is becoming a popular alternative to 40G in the core. The platform also supports advanced routing and infrastructure services, SD-Access capabilities, and network system virtualization. These features enable optional placement of the platform in the core and aggregation layers of small to medium-sized campus environments.
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series: Product Highlights
● The Cisco Unified Access Data Plane (UADP) 3.0sec ASIC on C9400X-SUP-2XL, C9400X-SUP-2 and Cisco Unified Access Data Plane (UADP) 2.0 ASIC on C9400-SUP-1/1XL/1XL-Y is ready for next- generation technologies with its programmable pipeline, microengine capabilities, and template-based configurable allocation of Layer 2, Layer 3, forwarding, Access Control List (ACL), and Quality of Service (QoS) entries
● Intel 2.4-GHz x86 with up to 960 GB of SATA SSD local storage for container-based application hosting
● Up to 4 non-blocking 100/40 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks and up to 4 non-blocking 25/10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks on Supervisor-2/2XL
● Up to 2 non-blocking 25 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks on Supervisor-1XL-Y
● Up to 2 non-blocking 40 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks (Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable [QSFP]) and up to 8 non-blocking 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks (SFP+) on Supervisor-1/1XL/1XL-Y
● 384 ports of non-blocking 10/100/1000M RJ-45 ports
● 392 ports of non-blocking 1 Gigabit Ethernet Fiber (SFP) ports (Sup1/1XL/XL-Y). 384 ports of non- blocking 1Gigabit Ethernet Fiber (SFP) ports (SUP2/2XL)
● 392 ports of non-blocking 10 Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ ports (8 uplinks plus 384 10G line card ports) (Sup1/1XL/XL-Y); 388 ports of non-blocking 10 Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ ports (4 uplinks plus 384 10G line cards ports) (SUP2/2XL)
● 384 ports of non-blocking 10G/5G mGig RJ-45 ports
● Cisco UPOE+ (90 W) capabilities on 384 ports
● Cisco UPOE (60W)/PoE+ (30W) capabilities on 384 ports simultaneously
● Line rate hardware-based Flexible NetFlow (FNF) delivering flow collection up to 384,000 flows
● IPv6 support in hardware, providing wire rate forwarding for IPv6 networks
● Dual-stack support for IPv4 and IPv6 and dynamic hardware forwarding table allocations for ease of IPv4-to-IPv6 migration
● Scalable routing (IPv4, IPv6, and multicast) tables and Layer 2 tables
● Open Cisco IOS XE: This modern operating system for the enterprise provides support for model-driven programmability, on-box Python scripting, streaming telemetry, container-based application hosting and patching for critical bug fixes. The OS also has built-in defenses to protect against runtime attacks
● End-to-end visualization of the path from campus/branch to clouds/DC with Cisco ThousandEyes Network and Application Synthetics (included with Cisco DNA Advantage licenses)
Conclusion
The Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series is a powerhouse in the world of network switching, offering industry-leading performance and scalability. It’s designed for today’s high-demand environments, with powerful features like Cisco DNA software, line rate routing capabilities, and advanced security options to ensure your data stays safe. If you need more processing power for your business or organization, then consider upgrading to the Catalyst 9400 Series. With its cutting-edge technology and impressive scalability options, it can help you stay ahead of the curve.