Cisco Catalyst 2960s

[gmiller]

Hello

 

Does anyone currently run any Cisco Catalyst 2960s switches? Thoughts and opinions, good or bad welcome. Hows the noise level?

I have a reasonable quote, to do a competitive buyout of my current switches, core and edge and the quote is for these cisco catalyst ones. Quote includes config and installation and the years annual maintenance.

Its a hefty price but i would class it as reasonable as i priced up individually online the switches quoted and could not get them as cheap.

One other thing i would opinions on is the frequency of any cisco IOS updates, how common are they and how easy to install?

Is it worth continuing to pay after the year is up for access to cisco support?

Thanks for any advice.

Miller

[featured_spectre]

Cisco IOS updates are fun to install, get it wrong and you screw your switch! lol. It all depends on what you want them to do, will they be managed or unmanaged, and what warranty terms and conditions are.

[paulfinlay]

Cisco switches cost what they do because they are excellent and offer incredible flexibilty and their support documentation is second to none. Unless you're an ISP or Enterprise customer who already has an investment in Cisco kit I'd suggest you'd get a much better deal going with HP ProCurve or similar

[gmiller]

Dont have any existing Cisco kit and comparing replacement HP kit costs supplied by a supplier against the quote for a full network refurb including installation of Cisco kit, the cisco kit is only £4k more expensive and thats with it installed. My time and effort or the extra £4k and the ability to get on with other things in the summer?

I had every intention going with procurve for this project but this quote has kinda turned my head abit as it competitive.

What i want the kit to do is to provide in time 10g backbone functionality, poe for possible ip telephone system, video integration, etc. Current core switch is 10\100 hp switch, many years old with 1 gig fibre.

Switch capabilites on the other hand, vlans, efficient power management (got to be seen to be green!), and controlling guest access for wifi access. Ruckus will be implemented in future aswell. So maybe this feature is not really needed.

Warranty is the limited lifetime warranty, power supply and fan are 5 years warranty.

Should i look to HP or get the perceived better Cisco equipment with bells and whistles for the small difference? We are a private school not LEA funded or anything so its up to me to justify the cost.

Thanks

Miller

[SYNACK]

Go hp, you are comparing the initial costs where the Cisco is only 4k more but have you considered support contracts for firmware updates that would be free with hp. The hp warrenty is also better and most of the high end hp gear runs technology liscenced from Cisco anyway.

 

I have done Cisco training and all sorts but still lean towards the hps mainly because of the better pricing and the free firmware updates. I don't want to have to allocate %30 of the cost of the gear again every year for firmware, its abusive.

[RabbieBurns]

Enterasys - A Siemens Enterprise Communications Company is who we use. I had never heard of them till I started here, but apparently they were a fraction of the cost of HP / Cisco

[Willott]

I have done Cisco training and all sorts but still lean towards the hps mainly because of the better pricing and the free firmware updates. I don't want to have to allocate %30 of the cost of the gear again every year for firmware, its abusive.

 

Do they still charge for firmware on switches? I've been able to download stuff (ie updated switch firmware) for free from the Cisco Tools site recently. Routers seemed to require a support contract to get firmware updates.

[paulfinlay]

You didn't mentioned how many switches you're buying but I'd have thought on any sizable deal HP should be able to beat Cisco by more than £4k, also HP will normally let you buy on 0% finance. Get in touch with a different HP partner!

[cpjitservices]

Is it just me or are Cisco switches built with cardboard, just been over to the Cisco room (for students) to configure there switch for Internet access and have to move it in the rack - it was a 2950 and it's weightless and it just seems to be built so cheaply!! and it was probably more in price than the one of the single switches we use in one of our racks, i dont mind Cisco stuff but I would buy from someone else especially if it's cheaper.