Cisco Expert Network Consultants

The Catalyst line of modular and fixed-configuration managed switches provides performance and intelligence at the access, aggregation, and backbone areas of converged IP voice, video, and data networks for organizations that range in size from small businesses and branches to global enterprises and service providers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE consultants can provide remote and onsite expertise with Catalyst family switches to help your organization to plan a cost-effective network topology that meets your unique business requirements, configure proof-of-concept testing, install Catalyst switches, establish and validate a sound security plan, streamline system management and performance tracking, provide repair and support services, maximize switch performance, and configure Catalyst's high-availability (HA) technology for non-stop operation.

Progent can assist you to maintain and troubleshoot your older Catalyst switches or migrate seamlessly to current versions of Catalyst switches following industry best practices to ensure that you realize the maximum return from your investment in your network.

The demand for intelligent, high-performance switching is the result 0f a combination of fairly new networking trends whose net effect is a virtual tsunami of traffic:

• Cloud and Internet of Things computing and a consequent reliance on massive network virtualization
• The proliferation of BYOD computing
• Bandwidth-intensive HD video apps
• Social media for business
• The popularity of Big Data in enterprise data analytics
• Ever more sophisticated cyberattacks like ransomware

Cisco's latest portfolio of Catalyst switches are best suited for the distribution and core layers layers of campus deployments where office employees must be supported with unvarying high throughput, strict user access management, tight segregation, application awareness, and wired/wireless convergence. Catalyst switches are designed to meet the demand for speed and control with capabilities such as high-port-count 10G/40G/100G support, switching throughput over 25 Tbps per switch, a powerful collection of tools including EVN to facilitate the deployment of virtual networks, VSS technology for stateful failover with instant backup switch recovery and "five nines" (99.999%) availability, IPv4 and IPv6 capability, Application Visibility and Control to maximize network resource usage, and advanced Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities for business-critical data control.

Catalyst switches allow businesses of all sizes to benefit from incorporating smart switching services into their network infrastructure, deploying an ecosystem that can deal with current requirements, scale to accommodate future growth, guard sensitive data, and differentiate and manage processes to enhance network operations.

Catalyst 1000 Series Fixed Ethernet Switches
Cisco's Catalyst 1000 Series access switches are small form factor, fixed-configuration switches intended for small businesses and branches with up to 250 users and with little if any in-house IT support. The Catalyst 1000 line includes fanless versions for quiet operation within an office venue. Mounting kits include desktop, wall mount, rack mount, and DIN rail mount. Created as an easy replacement for Catalyst 2960-L/2960-Plus deployments, Cisco's Catalyst 1000 Series includes models with 8 to 48 Gigabit Ethernet ports or 24 to 48 Fast Ethernet 10/100M Mbps ports.

Catalyst 1000 set up and administration are easy via a web UI or command-line interface, security is enterprise-class, and PoE+ capability with a dynamically distributed power budget of 740W allows a wide range of IoT implementations. Up to eight Catalyst 1000 Gigabit Ethernet Series switches can be controlled at once with single IP. All Catalyst Series 1000 appliances are nonblocking line-rate devices, and all are based on Cisco's venerable IOS Software. Quality-of-Service (QoS) capabilities include egress queues for each port plus priority packet queuing to deliver optimized throughput for time-critical data. Catalyst Series 1000 switches also support Shaped Round Robin (SRR) service scheduling and Weighted Tail Drop (WTD) congestion management.

Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series Fixed and Modular Managed Switches
The Cisco Catalyst 9000 series of switches offers modular and fixed units and supports all deployment scenarios including access, aggregation, and core switching. The Cisco Catalyst 9000 series offers switches with the appropriate price/performance to connect people and things in venues from small businesses and branches to major enterprises. Catalyst 9000 Series switches can be configured to support any combination of local deployments, private and public clouds, and hybrid networks. Modern network management tools and advanced cybersecurity solutions reduce expenses by saving time and protecting vital network assets. Cisco's 9000X series of switches provide converged switching/routing, delivering the first mix of 400G QSFP-DD ports along with full mGig and PoE ports.

With double the backplane stacking bandwidth for around half the cost of the legacy 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 campus deployments. The Catalyst 9200 portfolio includes models that support 24 or 48 ports with full PoE+; 80-160 Gbps backplane stacking performance; and Layer 3 capabilities that include Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing, EIGP distance routing protocol, IS-IS, and RIP. Catalyst 9200 switches run the Cisco IOS XE operating system.

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

Catalyst 9300 Series switches are fixed, stackable appliances for high-density access switching. Advanced features provided with models in the Catalyst 9300 family include up to 1Tbps backplane stacking performance, stackable SFP fiber, up to 448 mGig Ethernet ports including 288 ports of 90W UPOE+ with an 8-device configuration, line rate IPsec tunnel with AES-256 Encryption and speeds up to 100G, HA fans and power, plus StackPower cables common across the entire Catalyst 9300 product line.

Powered by Cisco IOS XE, appliances in the Catalyst 9300 product line offer automated provisioning, API-based configuration, high-granularity visibility for near realtime monitoring, and transparent software patching. Security capabilities include Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA) along with AES-256 MACsec and IPSec encryption, and Cisco Trust Anchor Technologies with Image signing. Cloud security is strengthened because Catalyst 9300 Series switches have the ability to host the Cisco Umbrella agent directly. This allows organizations to implement their DNS policies granularly to block BYOD or IoT users from accessing malicious websites.

The value-priced Cisco Catalyst 9300L switch provides as much as 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 features 480G of backplane stacking capacity and can provide 48 100M/1G/2.5G/5Gbps Ethernet ports, 24 100M/1G/2.5G/5G/10Gbps ports, or 48 1G SFP ports. Modular uplink speeds available are 1G, 10G, 25G, or 40G. The top-of-the-line Cisco Catalyst 9300X appliance delivers 1T backplane stacking capacity and supports 48 10G Ethernet ports. The 9300X accepts uplink modules with dual-rate 100G/40G, multirate 25G/10G/1G, or mGig. Cisco 90W UPOE+ supports IoT-intensive applications. Cisco offers hardware to support 100G IPsec.

Cisco's Catalyst 9400 Series appliances are modular switches based on Cisco IOS XE and designed for medium-size and large campus access networks. Delivering twice the performance and over quadruple the chassis bandwidth as the Catalyst 6500 it is built to replace, the Catalyst 9400 portfolio ushers switch capability into the modern era of networking driven by security, mobility, Internet of Things, and cloud.

Catalyst 9400 appliances are available with 4-slot, 7-slot, and 10-slot chassis. Two of the slots on the chassis are reserved for redundant supervisor cards, leaving 2, 5, or 8 slots available for line cards. Max bandwidth per line-card slot is 480 Gbps. Switching performance can reach 1.44 Terabits per second and forwarding performance on Supervisor Module is as high as 9 Tbps for the 10-slot chassis. All Catalyst 9400 chassis can provide 90W UPOE+ on every access port, protected segmentation with Software-Defined Access and N+N/N+1 power redundancy for high resilience. Cisco's Catalyst 9400 4-slot switch can support 96 10/100/1000 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 models can support 2 non-blocking 40 Gigabit Ethernet QSFP uplinks and up to 8 non-blocking 10G Ethernet SFP+ uplinks.

Cisco's Catalyst 9500 product line consists of fixed core and edge services appliances designed for the enterprise campus. Catalyst 9500 switches are powered by the Cisco IOS XE operating system and the series incorporates the first network technology to deliver switching speeds higher than 25 Tbps.

Catalyst 9500 appliances provide as high as 6.4 Terabits per second switching capacity with forwarding throughput as high as 2 Bpps. Catalyst 9500 switches can support up to 32 nonblocking 100 Gigabit QSFP28 optical ports, 32 nonblocking 40 Gigabit QSFP+ ports, 48 nonblocking 25G SFP28 ports, or 48 nonblocking 10G ports. You can deploy Multichassis EtherChannel across Cisco StackWise-Virtual members to achieve high availability.

Catalyst 9500X appliances can provide as high as 25.6 Tbps switching capacity with up to 2 Bpps forwarding capacity. Catalyst 9500X devices deliver up to 28 nonblocking 40/100 GB QSFP28 optical ports or 8 nonblocking 40/100/200/400 Gigabit QSFP-DD ports. The 9500X line also includes hardware capability for line-rate 256-bit 802.1AE MACsec and WAN-MACsec1 encryption.

Cisco's Catalyst 9600 Series switches are modular core and distribution switches for the enterprise campus. The 6-slot chassis loaded with a Catalyst 9600X Series Supervisor delivers switching performance up to 25.6 Tbps and can support as many as 256 nonblocking 10/25/50 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 96 nonblocking 40/100G G ports, or 8 nonblocking 200/400 GE QSFP-Double Density ports. The Catalyst 9600 also supports dual-rate 40G/100G and 10G/25G optics. Two chassis slots are dedicated for redundant supervisors. You can combine a variety of line cards for core and aggregation deployments. The chassis is equipped with a passive backplane, making it possible to replace fan tray, power supplies, and line cards without disrupting operation.

End-of-Life Catalyst Switches Still Supported by Progent
Progent's Cisco certified network consultants have extensive experience providing remote and onsite consulting and troubleshooting expertise for early-generation Catalyst Series switches for which Cisco has announced End of Life (EOL). These outdated switches typically cost more to manage and maintain than contemporary products, deliver lower capacity and functionality, and for some situations can expose businesses to compliance and even liability issues. Progent are available to assist your business to maintain and troubleshoot these legacy Cisco products and can in addition help you to design and execute seamless upgrades to newer products within the Catalyst family or to devices from the Cisco Nexus line of network switches which take advantage of Catalyst design experience.

Cisco Catalyst Express 500 Family
Cisco's Catalyst Express 500 and 520 family of fixed-configuration switches are designed for companies with as many as 250 workers and provide the dependability, security, scalability, and feature set small and mid-sized companies require at an economical price. PoE support makes it easy to add network appliances like wireless access points and closed-circuit TV cameras.

Versions of the Catalyst Express 500 switches offer from 8 to 24 10/100/1000BASE-T ports plus optional backup power with automatic switch-over for extra reliability. Interoperation with Cisco access points helps organizations to set up a local wireless environment rapidly and effectively. The Cisco Catalyst Express 500 family offers strong protection against viruses With the Cisco Self-Defending Network technology and Cisco Clean Access solutions. Catalyst 2940 Switch
Cisco Catalyst 2900 fixed-configuration, managed 10/100 Ethernet switches provide fundamental workgroup connectivity for small to medium-size businesses (SMBs). These wire-speed desktop appliances offer IOS Software features for basic data, video, and voice control at the edge of the network. The Catalyst 2940 Series switches are compact, entry-level devices featuring 8 Ethernet connections and one integrated Fast or Gbit uplink. The enclosures can be installed away from the wiring cabinet in space-constrained areas such as on or under a worker's desk or in a classroom.

Catalyst 2960-S Switch
The Cisco Catalyst 2960-S Series are fixed switches intended for small businesses and branch offices. Available models have either 24 or 48 1Gb Ethernet ports, four 1GE or two 10GE uplinks, and provide throughput of up to 176 Gbps. Cisco's FlexStack feature permits four Catalyst 2960-S switches to be combined in a FlexStack stack to perform as one switching unit that provides 40 Gbps of stacking bandwidth and that reduces administrative costs with one-switch configuration. Cisco's IPv6 First Hop Security (FHS) capability guards against IPv6 address theft and malicious threats.

Cisco Catalyst 3560 Family Switches
The Catalyst 3560 Series is a selection of fixed-configuration switches that includes IEEE 802.3af and Cisco Power over Ethernet functionality in 10/100 and Gigabit implementations. The Cisco Catalyst 3560 Series switch is a proven Layer 2 switch for small enterprise LAN access or branch-office environments, combining both 10/100/1000 and Power over Ethernet configurations for high productivity while facilitating the deployment of key applications including Voice over IP, Wi-Fi, video surveillance, and remote video kiosks. Customers can deploy network-wide smart services including quality of service (QoS), rate limiting, access control lists, multicast administration, and broadband IP routing while maintaining the simplicity of traditional LAN switching.

Cisco's Catalyst 3560 Series switch has a powerful set of features that allow for network expandability and enhanced availability through IP routing plus a complete complement of STP improvements aimed to increase availability in an access Layer network. Enhancements to the conventional Spanning Tree Protocol, such as Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus, and Port Fast, as well as innovations such as Flex Links interfaces, improve network efficiency. Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus allows for Data Link Layer traffic balancing on backup links to take advantage of the additional bandwidth inherent in a redundant architecture.

Important technologies including Open Shortest Path First (OPSF), EIGRP, BGP, static routing, and PBR increase network capacity; Protocol Independent Multicast increases utilization of network resources; and VRFLite secures data.

Catalyst 3750 Family Switches
For mid-size organizations and corporate branches, the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series switch eases deployment of converged technologies and adapts to changing business needs by providing configuration versatility, ability to manage converged network traffic, and management-free set up of smart network services. In addition, the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series switch is engineered for high-volume Gigabit Ethernet environments and includes a wide selection of switches that meet the connectivity, aggregation, and backbone-interface requirements of small or midsized networks.

The Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series switch includes the IP Base image or the Services image. The IP Base image features include advanced QoS, rate-limiting, access control lists (ACLs), and basic static and Routing Information Protocol routing capability. The IP Services image provides a richer selection of enterprise network features, such as sophisticated hardware-based IP unicast and multicast routing.

StackWise technology is a stacking architecture optimized for Gigabit interfaces. This technology is intended to respond to additions, deletions, and redeployments while maintaining predictable operation. Cisco StackWise combines as many as 9 separate switches into a single logical device, utilizing custom stack-interface cables and software. Any of the switches can be any mix of the Catalyst 3750 switches and the Catalyst 3750-E Series switches. The stack operates as an individual switching unit that is directed by a master switch, chosen from one of the stack of switches. The master switch intelligently builds and updates all the switching and optional routing tables. A working stack can accommodate new members or delete old members with no operational interruption.

Catalyst 2960 Swiches and Catalyst 3560-CX Switches
Cisco's Catalyst 2960-CX is a fixed-configuration switch that is ultra-compact, fanless, power efficient, and allows flexible mounting options. The switch incorporates eight 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports and two 1-GE uplinks and optionally provides Power over Ethernet (PoE). Cisco's Catalyst 3560-CX appliance is a fixed-port switch housed in a compact, quiet and energy-efficient enclosure that can be placed virtually anywhere convenient. Models are available with eight or 12 1-GE ports or with 6 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports and 2 multigigabit Ethernet ports. Up to four uplinks are offered, and Power over Ethernet is also an option.

Cisco's Catalyst 2960-L line consists of value-priced fixed-port switches designed for small offices, retail venues, and other environments where space is limited. Catalyst 2900-L low-profile appliances have eight to 48 Gigabit Ethernet ports and either two or four Small Form-Factor Pluggable uplink ports. Power over Ethernet support reduces clutter and fanless design for most versions eliminates noise. RJ-45 connectors handle 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T and 1000BASE-T SFP-based ports.

Catalyst 2960-X and 2960-XR switches improve on the 2690-S family of switches by delivering switching performance as high as 216 Gbps and supporting Cisco's FlexStack-Plus Stacking by means of a hot-swappable module that can combine 8 Catalyst switches in a stack capable of 80 Gbps of stacking performance. Cisco Catalyst 2900 Series switches also support NetFlow-Lite for conserving forwarding data for analysis. The Catalyst 2960-XR Series switch is capable of L3 dynamic routing, providing the simplicity of using one device for L2 and L3 routing.

Cisco Catalyst 3650 and Catalyst 3850 Switches
Cisco Catalyst 3650 and Catalyst 3850 switches are fixed-configuration, stackable access devices based on Cisco's IOS XE control software and incorporating comprehensive wireless network controller capability that allows you to control wired and wireless networks on a single device powered by one operating system. Cisco has versions with 24 or 48 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports with Power over Ethernet plus (PoE+), four 1GE or four 10-GB Ethernet uplinks, and capacity for up to 9 Catalyst switches in a FlexStack stack. All versions offer modular Quality of Service, fast switchover for maximum availability, software support for IPv4/IPv6 routing, multicast routing, and advanced security features.

Because wireless traffic is present at the Catalyst 3000 family switch, it is possible to identify and prioritize wireless traffic with Cisco's Flexible NetFlow (FNF) technology along with advanced QoS capabilities for an improved user environment and faster problem isolation. Multigigabit Ethernet switching can handle the high-bandwidth called for by the new 802.11ac Wave 2 wireless standard using currently in-place cabling infrastructure. (To find out about Progent's support for Cisco's 802.11ac Aironet wireless technology, and Meraki cloud-managed APs, visit Planning and Deployment Support for Cisco Wireless Technology.)

The Cisco Catalyst 3650 offers stacking performance as high as 160 Gbps and supports up to 25 wireless APs and 1000 Wi-Fi clients on each switch. The Catalyst 3850 switch offers stacking throughput of 480 Gbps and can control up to 50 wireless APs and 2000 Wi-Fi users per stack. Cisco Catalyst 3850 SFP Fiber Switches have 12 or 24 1G fiber data ports at line rate, offering far reaching connectivity, enhanced security, and an identical wired/wireless user experience.

Cisco Catalyst 4500-E Series and Catalyst 4500-X Series Switches
Catalyst 4500-E and and Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series switches are designed for campus and distribution environments where physical space for networking equipment is at a premium. Powered by Cisco's IOS XE software, both the 4500-E and Catalyst 4500-X families facilitate network virtualization by supporting Cisco's Easy Virtual Network (EVN) and Virtual Switching System (VSS) solutions. Network virtualization makes it possible to divide a physical network into a number of virtual networks (VNs) whose data planes and control planes are logically separate. This provides the high resource utilization, security and compliance, resilience, and simplified management required for Cloud computing or other situations where a single infrastructure must be shared by software and services that need to operate in complete isolation from each other. EVN simplifies the process of deploying VNs and can be expanded to 32 VNs for each switch. Easy Virtual Network utilizes the capabilities of Multi-VRF and provides additional features such as VNET Trunks and an easy way for duplicating replicating routes connecting VNs. Virtual Switching System technology makes it possible to configure Catalyst 4500-E and Catalyst 4500-X Series platforms to produce zero-downtime virtual networks with optimized load balancing.

Catalyst 4500-E Switches
The Supervisor Engine 8-E for the Catalyst 4500-E switch has an integrated wireless controller that supports Cisco's Unified Access solution for wired and wireless convergence. this is the first Cisco Catalyst supervisor engine to enable wired as well as wireless services on a single switch based on IOS XE software. Technologies included are Cisco's Flexible NetFlow technology for capacity planning encompassing wired and wireless networks, TrustSec/SGT2 wired and wireless data security, consistent QoS for wired and Wi-Fi clients, and the extension of Nonstop Forwarding with Stateful Switchover to include Wi-Fi data traffic for world-quality availability.

Available in chassis with from three to 10 plug-in slots, Catalyst 4500-E switches can support up to 384 10/100/1000 Ethernet access ports, 193 Gigabit Ethernet non-blocking fiber ports, 96 10GE fiber ports, and eight 10-Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports. The Catalyst 4500-E Supervisor Engine 8-E provides as much as 928 Gbps of wired access per system and as much as 20 Gbps of wireless termination capacity. 50 wireless APs and 2000 wireless users can be supported on each switch, and up to 250 access points and 4000 wireless users can be supported in a dual-switch deployment without a standalone wireless controller.

Catalyst 4500-X Switches
Catalyst 4500-X switches are fixed-configuration 10GE aggregation platforms that deliver 800 Gbps of backplane switching performance per device. The Catalyst 4500-X supports as many as 32 10GE ports on the unit's baseboard and eight extra 10GE ports on the optional expansion module for a total of up to 40 non-blocking 10GE ports. Eight 10-Gigabit Ethernet uplinks are also available with another module. In addition to offering non-stop performance and simple manageability, Cisco's virtual switching system solution on Catalyst 4500-X switches provides increased system throughput of up to 1.6 Tbps by enabling all possible bandwidth across VSS-linked Catalyst 4500-X Series switches. Other features include Flexible NetFlow solution for capacity planning, TrustSec protection, and wire-rate IPv6 forwarding.

Cisco Catalyst 6500 and Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
Cisco Catalyst 6500 and Cisco Catalyst 6800 switches are enterprise campus backbone platforms that incorporate the field-proven technology of the Cisco Catalyst 6500 line of products, which first appeared over a decade ago and which have been steadily improved since then. Catalyst 6500 and Catalyst 6800 switches provide identical general features and operation, and the modular Catalyst 6807-XL switch accepts the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engine 2T and its portfolio of line cards and service modules. This cross compatibility and program of continual improvement preserves your information technology expenditures and permits you to upgrade your network backbone with little downtime or management staff training.

Shared features of Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series and Cisco Catalyst 6800 modular switches equipped with Cisco's Supervisor Engine 2T include the Cisco Identity Services Engine for simple, single-point administration to ensure consistent policy throughout a distributed network, VSS Quad Sup SSO (VS4O) technology for maximum uptime via multi-level switchover, and the Cisco LISP protocol to facilitate roaming and device mobility and to simplify network virtualization and migration to IPv6. Additional virtualization tools to partition specific client groups and support the unique security/compliance and QoS policy requirements of each group include L2/L3 VPN, complete Multiprotocol Label Switching, Easy Virtual Network (EVN), VRF-aware technology for NAT NetFlow, IPv6 over IPv4 GRE Tunnels, and Layer 2 geographic extensions with virtual private LAN services (VPLS). For converged wired/wireless environments, the WiSM2 for Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series and Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series modular switches can manage 1000 wireless APs and 15,000 wireless users.

Catalyst 6500-E Series Switches
The Cisco Catalyst 6500-E family of modular switches are designed for distribution and enterprise backbone environments that require world-class availability and high concentrations of 1 Gigabit Ethernet, 1 Gigabit Ethernet fiber, or 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports. Models include three to 13 expansion slots and accept a broad range of modules. Integrated service modules enable wireless, traffic monitoring, and security. Only E-Series models of Cisco's extensive family of Catalyst 6500 switches accept Cisco's Supervisor Engine 2T.

The Catalyst 6503-E has a 4 rack unit (4RU) form factor, includes 3 slots, and delivers 180 Gbps of switching capacity per slot. The Catalyst 6503-E switch can support up to 97 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, up to 99 Gigabit Ethernet fiber connections, 34 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports, and up to 8 40-Gigabit Ethernet ports.

The top-of-the-line Cisco Catalyst 6513-E has a 19RU, 13-slot chassis and can deliver as much as 180 Gbps of bandwidth per slot, with a system capacity as high as 4 Tbps. A VSS configured system can deliver 8 Tbps of switching bandwidth. The Catalyst 6513-E Series switch can support a maximum of 529 10/100/1000 Ethernet connections, up to 534 Gigabit Ethernet fiber connections, 180 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports, and up to 44 40-Gigabit Ethernet connections.

Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
Catalyst 6800 switches are campus core switches intended to provide best-of-breed 10/40/100 GE services. The Cisco Catalyst 6880-X switch is a fixed-configuration, compact switch for Ethernet aggregation intended for small or midsize campus cores. The Catalyst 6880-X switch delivers up to 2 Tbps capacity and features four slots for port cards. The top port concentration on one chassis is 80 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports or 10GE ports or as many as 20 40GE connections. With Cisco's Virtual Switching System, a two-chassis system can provide 4 Tbps performance and handle as many as 158 1 Gigabit Ethernet access ports or 10-Gigabit Ethernet access ports or up to 20 40GE ports.

The modular Catalyst 6807-XL switch comes in a 10-rack-unit form factor that has 7 expansion slots and accepts standard Supervisor Engine 2T cards and service modules. (Two slots are reserved for the Supervisor Engine and the other five are for expansion modules.) The Cisco Catalyst 6807-XL can deliver up to 880 Gbps of switching throughput per slot and up to 11.4 Tbps of switching throughput while handling up to 240 10/100/1000 Ethernet connections or 1GE fiber ports, up to 80 10-Gigabit Ethernet connections or up to 20 40GE ports. A two-chassis 6807-XL system configured with VSS can support 22.8 Tbps of switching bandwidth, 480 1 Gigabit Ethernet ports or 1GE fiber ports, 160 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports or 40 40GE connections.

How Progent Can Help You with Cisco Catalyst Series Switches
Progent offers the online or onsite expertise of CCIE-certified network consultants who have extensive backgrounds providing Catalyst switch technology solutions for small and medium sized businesses, branches, campuses, data centers, Cloud environments, and service providers. Progent's skills include Catalyst and Nexus lines of managed switches and Cisco's IOS and NX-OS operating systems. Services offered by Progent's experts for Cisco Catalyst Series switches include proof-of-concept testing, network analysis, network architecture planning, migrations and project management, network virtualization, wired/wireless unification, network management, capacity planning, troubleshooting, business continuity preparedness, and data security assessment and remediation.

Progent's Cisco-certified consultants have deep knowledge of industry standards as well as with Cisco-owned protocols and technologies related to switching and routing including BGP, MPLS traffic engineering, Protocol Independent Multicast, VPNs, STP, virtual LANs, FabricPath, Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), OTV, VRRP, Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), VSS, and Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP). Progent's network specialists also have familiarity with important technologies such as TCP/IP protocols, IPv4/IPv6, Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), RIP, and Internet Group Management Protocol. Progent's CISSP-ISSAP certified network security consultants can show you how to create a comprehensive security strategy and deploy Catalyst switches so that they offer maximum enforcement to your network security policies.

If you need ultra high Ethernet density or extremely low latency switches for an enterprise-class data center, Progent can help your organization to evaluate, design, and carry out a transition to Cisco's Nexus Series switches. To find out about Progent's support capabilities for Cisco's Nexus switches, refer to Cisco Nexus Switch configuration and support services available from Progent. Progent can also help you to integrate Catalyst data center switches with Cisco Meraki aggregation switches. (See Cisco Meraki switch integration consultants.)

To find out additional information concerning Progent's engineering help for Cisco products, choose a topic:

• Introduction to Progent's Cisco Expertise
• Timely Remote Support from a CCIE Network Engineer
• Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewalls: Integration and Troubleshooting Support
• Cisco ASA 5500-X Series Firewall with Firepower Services: Integration and Troubleshooting Services
• Cisco ASA 5500 Firewall Integration Services
• PIX Firewall Upgrade. Migration Support
• Cisco Routers Consulting Support
• Cisco Wireless Consulting Services
• Cisco Aironet Wireless APs Engineering Support
• Cisco Small Business Wireless APs Engineering Help
• Cisco Catalyst Wi-Fi 6/6E Wireless Access Points Planning, Configuration and Debugging Services
• Cisco Wireless Controllers Experts
• Cisco Meraki APs Consulting Help
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and CallManager Consulting and Troubleshooting
• Cisco Voice over IP Phones and IP Video Phones Consulting Services and Cisco Wireless IP Phone Integration
• Cisco Jabber Configuration and Troubleshooting Expertise
• Cisco Nexus Switches Configuration and Maintenance Expertise
• Cisco Meraki MS Switches Consulting and Support Services
• Cisco VPN and Network Security Integration Support
• SIP and CUBE Infrastructure Solutions: SIP Trunks and Cisco CUBE Integration Consulting
• Infrastructure Design for Cisco-based Datacenters
• Network Design Expertise for Internet Service Providers
• Streamlined Network Management Strategies for Cisco-based Environments

If you wish to ask Progent about engineering help for Cisco networking, phone 1-800-993-9400 or see Contact Progent.