Which Switch Would You Recommend?

asmith1972 · ‎07-30-2007

Hello

We are looking at upgrading the switches in our main data centre. We want to go to 10Gb switches. Currently we are using 120 ports. Made up of 2 stackable 3750G switch 1x single 3750G switch and a 3550.

What would you recommend we upgrade to?

We don't really see that we will be increasing the number of ports we are using.

Thanks

Jon Marshall · ‎07-30-2007

Hi

I'm assuming you mean 10Gbps uplink switches ?.

You could go with the 3750-E which has 10Gb uplinks but the recommended standalone switch for data centre access is the 4948 which you can purchase with 10Gb uplinks.

A lot of it comes down to cost. I haven't priced up the 3750-E but assuming that it is similiar to a 3750 you will find the 4948 a more expensive option.

HTH

Jon

royalblues · ‎07-30-2007

I agree with John in going with 4948 for standalone server switch.

It gives you a 136 GBps backplane whereas the 3750 would give only 68Gbps (about half in backplane capacity)

Plus the price of the 3750E seems to be expensive than the 4948 :-)

HTH

Narayan

Amit Singh · ‎07-30-2007

In addition to Jon and Narayan's post, 4948 will give true non-blocking architecure and ideal for data-center switching. 4948's also supports the redundant power supplies which are not available in 3750's. Although 4948's doesnt support stacking functaionality but looking at the enhanced features supported by 4948's you can get away with that.

HTH,

-amit singh

jwdoherty · ‎07-30-2007

I would recommend a stack of 3750-Es, unless you want to jump into a chassis solution (e.g. 6506/9) or unless there are features in the 4948 you need that the 3750-E doesn't offer.

The 3750-E, besides the 10 Gig module ports, has several performance improvements over the original 3750. Like the 4948, the 3750-E is rated as wirespeed within the box itself. It has doubled the ring bandwidth, it also is smarter in how it uses the ring.

On the issue of dual power, you can use the Cisco Redundant Power System (RPS) 2300.

You can also consider adding a 3750-E to your existing 3750G stack. This would provide a couple of 10 gig uplinks, although the ring continues to run in original 3750 mode.