Looking for 3750 replacements

[Nicholas Deller]

Hi,

We currently have 3750 switch stacks for our office LAN (6 switches in each stack).  These are now end of life/support and are failing on a regular basis.

We are looking to replace them and I am just wondering what people would recommend to replace them with.

The main criteria to fulfil is there must be 1400 ports and they must be POE.  I want 100Mbps ports as I dont really feel gig is required, but would like some gig options as well so I can compare the difference in price.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Reza Sharifi]

Hi,

The new 3850 series is replacing the 3750 series switches.  Have a look at below data sheet for different models with different options.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps12686/data_sheet_c78-720918.html

HTH

[devils_advocate]

The 3850 is the natural successor to the 3750.

However, 1400 ports is a fair amount and if you have the money, I would be looking at something chassis based if I were you.

I would be looking at the 6500, 6800 and the 4500 line of switches if it were me and there was enough budget.

I like stackable switches but would choose a chassis any day of the week if it were an option financially.

[Nicholas Deller]

Thanks for the info so far guys I will start looking into this.

We have 2 x 6509's for our condensed core/dist layer, these will get replaced next year with the new 6500 series ones.

I did read about Nexus switches, would any of you recommend these as they are chassis based, or is it just easier and cheaper ato go for something like the 4500 series if I wanted to go the chassis route.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

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Posting

Nexus are oriented more for high performance in the data center.  For user access, they might be much more expensive and they can (only currently?) miss some features.  (We've found their QoS cannot accomplish what we routinely do on 3Ks, 4500s or 6500s.)

4500s often can be in the same price ballpark of a large(r) 3750 stack, especially when supporting full L3.  Basically 4500 line cards cost less, but that's offset by other 4500 components, especially the supervisors.

[Leo Laohoo]

I spoke too soon:  End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement for the Cisco Catalyst 3560V2 and 3750V2 Switches

[devils_advocate]

At my previous job we had a fairly large campus network (it seemed large anyway ) so we used 6509 switches as access switches.

There are Pros and Cons to both approaches, personally I think chassis based is the way forward but when planning for this you need to make sure you account for growth. Always have a line card or two spare per switch as you don't want to have to buy another chassis because you maxed out the existing one and you need to add a few more users.....

At our tail end sites where we had 300-400 users we used stacks but these were usually 3 stacks of upto 4 switches per stack and a 4900M as a core/dist switch.

[Leo Laohoo]

Deller,

Do your maths first.

3750 will soon be replaced by the 3650/3850.  Cisco is yet to announce the EoS date.  Don't know how far but I believe Cisco is working on fixing some of the bugs with the IOS of the 3650/3850.  Once Cisco is confident it's reached that stage ...

Do your maths.  If you are going to stack 5 or more switches, it's sometimes cheaper to get a 4510R+E chassis with Sup7/Sup8 supervisor card and associated PoE line cards. 

these will get replaced next year with the new 6500 series ones.

Talk to your Cisco SE.  6500, like the 3650 and 3750, will soon be replaced with the 6807X or 6880X.  You also need to look at the 6800ia.

I want 100Mbps ports as I dont really feel gig is required, but would like some gig options as well so I can compare the difference in price.

The only switch right now that can support only FastEthernet access port is the 2960SF.

[Reza Sharifi]

Most switches these days are 10/100/1000.  There are very few models with FE speed. Also, price for 10/100/1000 probably be the same FE if not cheaper.

HTH