cisco 4500-E vs Cisco 3850 for Access

[S891]

Hi,

I am looking for some opinion on whether to go for Cisco 4500-E or stack of Cisco 3850 for wiring closet. Which option is better to go for?

Main features I am looking for is :

- long-term support (at least 5 - 7 years)

- pricing

- poe+ and upoe support

- 10 Gig-T user ports support (for future)

- ease of support and manageability

- scalability

If anyone can share there experience comparing these products. And any comparison with other vendors like Juniper 6200 with these access switches.

Thanks

[Leo Laohoo]

The features and functionality differences between 3850 & Sup8E are almost at par but in some cases, exclusive to one and not the other.  An example, Sup8E supports Easy VSS.

We had, in the past gone through a similar exercise where we wanted to upgrade our floor switches of several buildings and we had the intent to buy 3750X (3850 and 3750X are priced the same) but we found out that if we were planning to upgrade a stack of four (4) or more 3750X it is cheaper to get a 4510R+E with Sup7E line card and four copper line cards with PoE (Sup7E and Sup8E are priced the same).  

I won't recommend which one YOU should go with but do your maths first.  Also, it helps to read the Release Notes to the IOS for the 3850 and Sup8E.

- 10 Gig-T user ports support (for future)

ROFL.  Catalyst switches (maybe with the exception of the 4500X) are NOT designed for multiple-, high-speed-, and hit-less 10 Gbps traffic from servers.  

[decarvalhosylvain]

Converged Wired and Wireless Access

The Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switch brings Cisco IOS excellence to wireless by extending wired infrastructure features, resiliency, granular QoS, and scalability. It provides built-in wireless controller capabilities with 40 G wireless throughput, support for 50 access points and 2000 wireless clients per switch or stack, and support for 802.11ac.

Maybe a solution for a future extention/evolution