Cisco Certified Expert Network Consulting

Cisco's Catalyst line of modular and fixed switches offers speed and control at the access, aggregation, and backbone levels of converged IP voice, HD video, and data networks for businesses that range from small businesses and branches to global enterprises and SPs. Progent's Cisco-certified consultants offer remote and on-premises expertise with Catalyst switches to help your organization to design an efficient network topology that meets your specific business needs, set up pilot testing systems, install Catalyst switches, establish and validate a sound security strategy, automate network management and performance tracking, deliver troubleshooting and maintenance services, maximize switch capacity, and set up Catalyst's high-availability (HA) solutions to achieve near-zero downtime, Progent can help you to maintain and repair your older Catalyst switches or upgrade with minimal disruption to up-to-date versions of Catalyst switches adhering to industry best practices to make sure that you receive the maximum business value from your investment in your network.

The need for intelligent, high-speed switching is driven by a confluence of fairly recent networking trends whose overall effect is a virtual tsunami of traffic:

• Cloud computing and an associated demand for massive network virtualization
• The pervasiveness of always-connected mobile devices
• Data guzzling rich media applications
• Social media for business
• The popularity of Big Data in data analytics

Private, public and hybrid clouds are only financially feasible because of network virtualization. Virtualized infrastructures slash expenses by allowing very high hardware utilization and demanding very little data center space and power use. But this also means that comparatively limited network resources must accommodate large volumes of traffic. The Bring-Your-Own-Device paradigm has created a steep rise in the amount of mobile clients that must be handled by IT networks, and these clients tend to run a high percentage of bandwidth-intensive, HD video apps. Social business technologies are displacing traditional email as the primary enabler of collaboration and is producing an ever increasing requirement for bandwidth. Businesses who want to stay competitive are resorting to Big Data technology to mine vast and disparate silos of corporate data, which in turn generates Big Traffic. All of these computing trends are relatively new, and put together they cause a critical demand for an advanced generation of switches that offer significantly higher capacity, intelligence, uptime and ease of management than previous platforms were designed to provide.

Cisco's current portfolio of Catalyst switches are designed for the distribution and core layers levels of campus deployments where mobile and stationary employees must be supported with dependable high speed, secure access management, careful group isolation, application intelligence, and wired and wireless convergence. Catalyst series switches address the need for speed and control with features such as high-density 10, 40, and 100 Gigabit Ethernet support, switching throughput as high as 11.4 Tbps per switch and twice that per switching system, a powerful suite of tools such as Easy Virtual Network (EVN) to facilitate the creation of virtual networks, Virtual Switching System technology for stateful interchassis failover with subsecond backup switch recovery and 99.999% uptime, IPv6 capability, AVC to maximize system utilization, and advanced QoS capabilities for HD video traffic control.

Catalyst switches enable organizations of all sizes to benefit from incorporating smart switching features into their network architecture, creating an environment that can meet current needs, expand to accommodate expected growth, guard sensitive data, and separate and manage processes to optimize network operations.

Catalyst 2960 Series Switches and 3560-CX Switches
Cisco's Catalyst 2960-CX is a fixed-port managed switch that is low-profile, fanless, low power, and allows a variety of mounting options. The switch incorporates eight 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports and two 1-GE uplink ports and has an option for Power over Ethernet (PoE). Cisco's Catalyst 3560-CX appliance is a fixed-port managed switch housed in a compact, quiet and energy-efficient unit that can be placed virtually anywhere convenient. Models are offered with eight or 12 1-GE ports or with six 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports plus 2 multigigabit Ethernet ports. Two or four uplink ports are available, and Power over Ethernet (PoE) is also an option.

Cisco's Catalyst 2960-L family consists of value-priced fixed-port managed switches designed for branch offices, retail areas, and other places where space is limited. These compact switches include 8 to 48 Gigabit Ethernet ports and two or four Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) uplink ports. Power over Ethernet support saves space and fan-free design for most versions does away with noise. RJ-45 interfaces handle 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T and 1000BASE-T SFP-based ports.

Cisco Catalyst 2960-X and Catalyst 2960-XR switches improve on the 2690-S line by delivering switching performance as high as 216 Gbps and supporting Cisco's FlexStack-Plus stacking technology via a live-swappable plug-in that allows 8 switches in a FlexStack Plus stack with 80 Gbps of stacking throughput. Catalyst 2900 family switches also work with NetFlow-Lite for conserving forwarding data for analysis. Cisco's Catalyst 2960-XR Series switch features Layer 3 dynamic routing, providing the convenience of using a single device for Layer 2 and Layer 3 routing.

Catalyst 3650 and Catalyst 3850 Switches
Cisco Catalyst 3650 and Catalyst 3850 switches are fixed, stackable network access switches powered by Cisco's IOS XE control software and incorporating full wireless controller functionality that lets you control wired and wireless networks on a one device powered by a single operating system. Cisco has models with either 24 or 48 built-in 10/100/1000 Ethernet connections with Power over Ethernet plus (PoE+), four 1GE or four 10GE uplinks, and support for up to 9 switches in a FlexStack stack. All versions provide modular QoS, stateful failover for high availability, software support for IPv4/IPv6 routing, multicast, and enhanced security.

Because wireless traffic is visible at the Catalyst 3000 Series switch, it is possible to identify and assign priorities to wireless data with Cisco's Flexible NetFlow (FNF) solution along with advanced QoS capabilities for a better user experience and faster problem mediation. Fast Ethernet switching supports the high-throughput called for by the new 802.11ac Wave 2 wireless specification using currently in-place cabling solutions. (For information about Progent's support for Cisco's 802.11ac Aironet Wi-Fi access points and wireless controllers, and Cisco's Meraki cloud-managed Wi-Fi APs, refer to Configuration and Troubleshooting Consulting Services for Cisco Wireless Access Points and Controllers.)

The Catalyst 3650 delivers stacking throughput of 160 Gbps and can control as many as 25 Wi-Fi access points and 1000 wireless clients on each switch. The Cisco Catalyst 3850 switch delivers stacking throughput of 480 Gbps and supports up to 50 wireless APs and 2000 wireless users per switch. Catalyst 3850 SFP Fiber Switches incorporate 12 or 24 1G fiber ports at line rate, providing far reaching connections, enhanced security, and an identical wired/wireless user experience.

Catalyst 4500-E Series and Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series Switches
Cisco's Catalyst 4500-E and and Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series switches are intended for campus access and distribution environments where physical space for infrastructure hardware is limited. Running Cisco's IOS XE operating system, both the Catalyst 4500-E and 4500-X families simplify network virtualization thanks to Cisco's Easy Virtual Network and VSS solutions. Virtualization allows you to divide a physical network into multiple virtual networks (VNs) whose data and control planes are logically segregated. This makes possible the economy, protection, resilience, and simplified management required for Cloud computing or other situations where a common resource pool must be shared by software and services that need to operate in complete privacy from one another. Easy Virtual Network streamlines the task of deploying VNs and can be expanded to 32 VNs per switch. EVN incorporates the capabilities of Multi-virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) and adds new features including VNET Trunks and an easy way for duplicating replicating routes between VNs. Virtual Switching System technology makes it easy to set up Catalyst 4500-E and Catalyst 4500-X Series switches to produce zero-downtime VNs with advanced load balancing.

Catalyst 4500E Switches
The Supervisor Engine 8-E for the Catalyst 4500-E switch includes an integrated wireless network controller that works with Cisco's Unified Access technology for wired/wireless convergence. The Supervisor Engine 8-E is the initial Cisco Catalyst supervisor to allow wired as well as wireless services on one platform based on Cisco's IOS XE software. Features included are Cisco's Flexible NetFlow solution for capacity planning encompassing wired and Wi-Fi networks, TrustSec/SGT2 wired/wireless data security, predictable Quality of Service for wired and wireless clients, plus the expansion of Nonstop Forwarding with Stateful Switchover (NSF/SSO) to include wireless traffic for enterprise-quality high availability.

Offered in chassis that have from three to 10 slots, Catalyst 4500-E switches with Supervisor 8-E can support up to 384 1-Gigabit Ethernet ports, up to 192 1GE fiber fiber connections, 96 10GE fiber connections, and eight 10GE uplink ports. The Catalyst 4500-E Supervisor Engine 8-E delivers as much as 928 Gbps of wired capacity for each system and as much as 20 Gbps of wireless termination performance. 50 wireless access points and 2000 wireless users can be handled on each switch, and up to 250 wireless access points and 4000 wireless users can be managed in a multi-switch installation without a standalone wireless controller.

Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Switches
Cisco's Catalyst 4500-X Series switches are fixed-configuration 10-Gigabit Ethernet aggregation platforms that provide 800 Gbps of core switching performance per chassis. The Catalyst 4500-X supports as many as 32 10GE ports on the unit's baseboard and eight more 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports on the optional expansion module for a total of 40 non-blocking 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports. Eight 10-Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports are also available with a separate module. In addition to offering non-stop operation and easy management, Cisco's VSS solution on Catalyst 4500-X switches offers higher system throughput of up to 1.6 Tbps by activating all possible bandwidth across VSS-linked Catalyst 4500-X Series switches. Other features include Cisco's Flexible NetFlow technology for traffic analysis, TrustSec security, and fast, hardware-based IPv6 forwarding.

Cisco Catalyst 6500 and Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
Catalyst 6500 and Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series switches are campus backbone platforms that incorporate the field-proven technology of the Catalyst 6500 family of switches, which first appeared more than a decade ago and have been steadily enhanced ever since. Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series and Cisco Catalyst 6800 switches provide the same general features and operational consistency, and the modular Catalyst 6807-XL switch accepts the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engine 2T and its extensive family of line cards and modules. This cross compatibility and program of continual enhancement preserves your information technology investment and enables you to update your network with little downtime or management staff re-education.

Common features of Catalyst 6500 Series and Cisco Catalyst 6800 modular switches that have the Supervisor Engine 2T include Cisco's ISE technology for convenient, centralized management to put in place unvarying policy throughout a distributed environment, VSS Quad Sup SSO (VS4O) capability for maximum uptime via multi-level switchover, and the Cisco Campus Locator/ID Separation Protocol to facilitate roaming and device mobility and to streamline network virtualization and migration to IPv6. Additional virtualization features to segment specific client groups and support the unique security and QoS policy requirements of each group include L2/L3 VPN, complete MPLS, Easy Virtual Network (EVN), VRF-aware applications for Network Address Translation NetFlow, IPv6 over IPv4 GRE Tunnel Protection, and L2 geographic extensions with virtual private LAN services. For unified wired/wireless environments, the Wireless Services Module 2 for Cisco Catalyst 6500 and Catalyst 6800 Series modular switches can manage up to 1000 wireless APs and 15,000 wireless users.

Cisco Catalyst 6500-E Series Switches
The Catalyst 6500-E family of modular switches are intended for aggregation and campus backbone networks that need maximum uptime and high concentrations of 1 Gigabit Ethernet, 1 Gigabit Ethernet fiber, or 10 and 40 GE ports. Models have three to 13 slots and work with a broad range of modules. Integrated service modules support wireless management, traffic analysis, and security and compliance. Just E-Series models of Cisco's broad family of 6500 switches accept the Supervisor Engine 2T.

The value-priced Cisco Catalyst 6503-E switch has a 4 rack unit (4RU) chassis, includes 3 expansion slots, and delivers 180 Gbps of switching capacity per slot. The Cisco Catalyst 6503-E can support up to 97 10/100/1000 Ethernet connections, up to 99 1GE fiber ports, up to 34 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports, and 8 40-Gigabit Ethernet access ports.

The high-end Catalyst 6513-E has a 19 rack unit, 13-slot chassis and can deliver as much as 180 Gbps of capacity per slot, with a total system capacity as high as 4 Tbps. A VSS configured system can deliver 8 Tbps of switching throughout. The Catalyst 6513-E switch offers up to 529 1 Gigabit Ethernet access ports, up to 534 1GE fiber connections, up to 180 10GE ports, and 44 40GE access ports.

Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
Catalyst 6800 Series switches are programmable core switches designed to deliver best-of-breed 10/40/100 GE services. The Catalyst 6880-X switch is a fixed-configuration, compact switch for high-density Ethernet designed for small or midsize campus backbones. The Catalyst 6880-X switch delivers up to 2 Tbps switching throughput and features four slots for port cards. The top port density per chassis is 80 1 Gigabit Ethernet connections or 10-Gigabit Ethernet access ports or up to 20 40GE connections. With VSS, these switches can deliver 4 Tbps performance and support up to 158 10/100/1000 Ethernet access ports or 10-Gigabit Ethernet connections or as many as 20 40GE access ports.

The modular Cisco Catalyst 6807-XL switch has a 10-rack-unit form factor with 7 slots and supports standard Supervisor Engine 2T cards and modules. (Two slots are for the Supervisor Engine and five are for modules.) The Cisco Catalyst 6807-XL offers as much as 880 Gbps of switching capacity per slot and 11.4 Tbps of full-duplex switching performance while handling up to 240 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports or 1GE fiber connections, up to 80 10GE ports or 20 40GE access ports. A two-chassis 6807-XL system configured with Cisco's Virtual Switching System can support 22.8 Tbps of switching capacity, 480 1 Gigabit Ethernet ports or Gigabit Ethernet fiber ports, 160 10-Gigabit Ethernet connections or 40 40-Gigabit Ethernet access ports.

End-of-Life Catalyst Switches Supported by Progent
Progent's Cisco certified consultants have extensive backgrounds delivering remote and on-premises consulting and troubleshooting services for early-generation Catalyst switches for which Cisco has announced End of Life (EOL). These legacy switches often are more expensive to manage and maintain than current models, deliver less performance and fewer features, and for many cases can subject organizations to regulatory compliance and even liability issues. Progent's consultants can assist your business to support and troubleshoot these legacy Cisco products and can also assist you to design and implement non-disruptive upgrades to newer products within the Catalyst line or to solutions from the Cisco Nexus portfolio of switches which build upon Catalyst design experience. Legacy Catalyst models for which Progent offers support include:

Catalyst Express 500 Series Switches
Cisco's Catalyst Express 500 and 520 family of fixed-configuration switches are intended for businesses with up to 250 employees and provide the reliability, security, scalability, and features small businesses need at an economical price. Power over Ethernet support makes it simple to install network devices like wireless access points and closed-circuit cameras.

Models of the Catalyst Express 500 and 520 managed switches support from 8 to 24 10/100/1000BASE-T ports as well as the option of redundant power supplies with auto switch-over for extra dependability. Interoperation with Cisco wireless access points allows organizations to build a local wireless network rapidly and easily. The Catalyst Express 500 and 520 platform provides strong protection against viruses With the Cisco Self-Defending Network technology and Clean Access solutions.

Cisco Catalyst 2940 Switch
Cisco Catalyst 2900 fixed-configuration, managed 10/100 switches offer basic small-group networking for small to medium-size businesses. These wire-rate desktop appliances deliver IOS Software features for simple mixed-media traffic services at the edge of the network. The Cisco Catalyst 2940 line of managed switches are compact, stackable devices with eight Ethernet connections plus one built-in Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet uplink. They can be deployed away from the wiring cabinet in space-constrained locations such as on a user's desk or in a classroom.

Cisco Catalyst 2960-S Switch
The Catalyst 2960-S Series are fixed switches intended for small businesses and branch offices. Current models incorporate either 24 or 48 1Gb Ethernet ports, four 1GE or two 10-GB Ethernet uplinks, and deliver throughput of 176 Gbps. Cisco's FlexStack feature allows four 2960-S chassis to be combined in a stack to act as a single switching unit that provides 40 Gbps of stacking bandwidth and that reduces operational expense because of one-switch configuration. Cisco's IPv6 First Hop Security technology guards networks against address theft and other threats.

Cisco Catalyst 3560 Series Switches
The Catalyst 3560 family is a selection of non-modular switches that features IEEE 802.3af and PoE functionality in Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet implementations. The Cisco Catalyst 3560 switch is an ideal access-layer switch for small enterprise LAN connectivity or local-offices, combining both Gigabit Ethernet and Power over Ethernet configurations for high efficiency while facilitating the deployment of key applications such a VoIP, wireless connectivity, video monitoring, and building management systems. Customers can activate comprehensive intelligent features such as quality of service, rate limiting, ACLs, multicast management, and fast IP routing while maintaining the simplicity of traditional network switching.

Cisco's Catalyst 3560 Series offers a powerful array of features that permit network scalability and enhanced resilience via IP routing plus a complete suite of STP improvements aimed to maximize throughput in a Layer 2 LAN. Enhancements to the standard Spanning Tree Protocol, such as Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus (PVST+), and Uplink Fast, as well as innovations such as Flex Links, improve network uptime. PVST+ supports Data Link Layer traffic balancing on redundant links to efficiently use the extra capacity associated with a redundant architecture.

Efficient technologies such as Open Shortest Path First, Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol, Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), static routing, and PBR improve network capacity; Protocol Independent Multicast helps improve utilization of network resources; and Virtual Route Forwarding Lite secures network traffic.

Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series Switches
For midsized businesses and enterprise branch offices, Cisco's Catalyst 3750 Series switch eases integration of unified technologies and adapts to evolving business needs by offering configuration flexibility, ability to manage unified network traffic, and automatic configuration of smart network functions. In addition, Cisco's Catalyst 3750 Series switch is designed for high-density Gigabit environments and includes a wide range of switches that address the access, aggregation, and backbone-interface requirements of small or midsized systems.

The Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series has either the IP Base or the Services image. The IP Base image functions include industry-leading QoS, rate-limiting, access control lists (ACLs), and basic static and RIP routing support. The IP Services image provides a broader set of enterprise-level features, such as sophisticated hardware-based IP unicast/multicast routing.

Cisco StackWise technology is a mechanism designed for Gigabit interfaces. This technology is intended to respond to installs, deletions, and relocations while providing consistent performance. StackWise technology combines up to nine individual switches into a single functional unit, using special stack-interface cables and utilities. Any of the switches can be any mix of Cisco's Catalyst 3750 Series and the Catalyst 3750-E Series switches. The stack behaves as a single switching appliance that is managed by a master switch, elected from one of the member switches. The control switch intelligently builds and updates all the switching and optional routing tables. A deployed stack can accommodate new switches or remove existing devices without operational discontinuity.

How Progent Can Help Your Business with Cisco Catalyst Series Switches
Progent can provide the remote or on-premises expertise of Cisco CCIE-certified network consultants who have extensive backgrounds delivering Catalyst switch technology solutions for small and midsize businesses, branch offices, campuses, data centers, Cloud networks, and service providers. Progent's practice areas include Catalyst and Nexus lines of smart switches and with Cisco's IOS, IOS-XR and NX-OS operating systems. Support services offered by Progent for Catalyst switches include pilot testing, system analysis and monitoring, network architecture design, migrations and project management, virtualization, wired and wireless unification, management automation, performance optimization, troubleshooting, disaster recovery and business continuity preparedness, and network security assessment and validation.

Progent's Cisco-certified consultants have broad knowledge of industry standards and with proprietary Cisco technologies related to switching and routing such as BGP, MPLS, PIM, VPNs, ISIS, VLANs, FabricPath, VPC, HSRP, VRRP, Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), VSS, and LISP. Progent's infrastructure consultants also have familiarity with important technologies such as TCP/IP, IPv4, IPv6, Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol, RIP, and IGMP. Progent's CISSP-ISSAP certified data security and compliance consultants can assist you to create a comprehensive security and compliance plan and implement Cisco Catalyst switches so that they provide maximum support for your network security posture.

In case you need the highest available density or sub-microsecond latency Cisco switches for a world-class data center, Progent can assist your organization to analyze, plan, and manage a migration to Nexus Series switches. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Nexus Series switches, refer to Nexus Switch consulting and support offered by 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 more details about Progent's engineering expertise for Cisco products, pick a topic:

• Introduction to Cisco Consulting Services
• Fast and Affordable Remote Access to a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) Network Engineer
• Cisco Firepower Series Firewalls: Configuration and Troubleshooting Expertise
• ASA 5500-X Series Firewall with Firepower Services: Consulting and Troubleshooting Expertise
• ASA 5500 Series Firewall Consulting Assistance
• PIX 500 Series Firewall Engineering Assistance
• Cisco Routers Consulting Services
• Cisco Wireless Consulting Help
• Cisco Aironet Access Points Design Expertise
• Cisco Small Business 100, 300 and 500 WiFi Access Points Engineering Support
• Catalyst Wi-Fi 6 Wireless APs Solution Design, Deployment and Debugging Expertise
• Cisco WiFi Controllers Consulting
• Meraki Wireless Access Points Deployment Support
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and CallManager Consulting and Technical Support
• 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 Deployment Services
• Cisco Security and VPN Engineering Help
• SIP and CUBE Integration Solutions: SIP PSTN Trunks and Cisco CUBE Integration Expertise
• Design and Support for Cisco-powered Data Centers
• Data Center Design Services for ISPs
• Streamlined Network Management Techniques for Cisco-powered Environments

If you wish to get in touch with Progent about technical assistance for Cisco networking, call 1-800-993-9400 or see Contact Progent.