Cisco Catalyst 9000 Core Switches: Don't Let Your Core Stop Turning

There have been a lot of talks recently about the article entitled “Multidecadal variation of the Earth’s inner-core rotation”. The title itself does not set off alarm bells until you understand that the study suggests the earth’s core is no longer turning.

Now, I am no seismologist, but…

I know that if the core of your network stops turning it could be cataclysmic.

And this has never been more true than now.

In this world of hybrid work, where video collaboration is the norm and more and more traffic is going from the user through the core to cloud services and back, the core of your network is now acting as the critical conduit for nearly all the traffic. Clearly, core switches are now even more essential to enabling the seamless communication, data exchange, and app experience that has become fundamental to the new work experience.

Video, Video, Video

It is true that video, in its many forms, is easily the largest load on most networks today. The positive impact of video collaboration and hybrid work on our everyday work lives cannot be understated. Removing location and physical accessibility barriers is making it easier to foster diversity and inclusion of thought and perspective, leading to increased creativity and innovation.

Figure 1. Cisco Hybrid Work Index indicates continued dominance of hybrid and virtual

But as more and more moments of collaboration are over latency-sensitive, geo-separated, real-time video and audio connections, you will need to be proactive to make the experience better, more secure, and more resilient. This includes creating a core infrastructure based on technology provided by Cisco Catalyst 9500 and 9600 Series switches like:

Deep HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) buffers
Guaranteed delivery and burst absorption
Low latency and priority queuing
Secure IPv4 and IPv6 from edge to cloud
Speeds (1G to 400G) with the highest port density
Cloud security with SASE / SDA
Highly resilient, modular options with multigigabit support for Wi-Fi 6/6e

Flexibility And Visibility Are At The Core Of Cisco’s Vision For Hybrid Work And Core Switches

Hybrid work is more than just video conferencing. In fact, it is just the tip of the iceberg.

As you think about keeping your users happy and engaged, you also need to think about how you keep your network happy. To do that, you need to understand what is on your network and what applications are driving the ever-increasing bandwidth needs. This can be instrumental in predicting what your network will need to handle in the future.

With a foundation of Catalyst 9000 switches, you can unlock more value from your network with insights from ThousandEyes, Cisco Spaces, Cisco ISE, Cisco DNA Center, and more.

Clearly, to make your hybrid workplace vision a reality calls for you to fundamentally rethink your network foundation and how that network is managed in order to deliver it as part of a cohesive whole.

I am not a fortune teller either, but…

The future is never easy to predict but one thing is for sure, your need for speed will only increase.

Again as part of our steady rhythm of innovation, we are supporting 400G and multi-rate 50G/25G/10G on both the Catalyst 9600 40 port 50G line card (C9600-LC-48YL4CD) and the latest addition to the Catalyst 9500 Series (figure 5), the new high-density Catalyst 9500X 60 port 50G, 4 port 400G model (C9500X-60L4D)

C9600-LC-40YL4CD: Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series 40-port 50/25/10GE, 2-port 200GE, 2-port 400GE Line Card — Figure 4. Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series 40-port 50/25/10GE, 2-port 200GE, 2-port 400GE Line Card

C9500X-60L4D: Cisco Catalyst 9500X switch model with 60x 10/25/50G Gigabit Ethernet + 4x 40/100/200/400G Gigabit Ethernet — Figure 5. Cisco Catalyst 9500X switch model with 60x 10/25/50G Gigabit Ethernet + 4x 40/100/200/400G Gigabit Ethernet

Support for multi-rate 50G is designed to help ease your anxiety as you transition your network, moving from aggregating 10G to 25G now and 50G when and where you need it in the future.

As a Cisco consumer and manufacturing enterprise, we expect product reliability and stability. Additionally, we need the increasing speed performance on port to fulfill our growing business requirements and segmentation to meet an expectation of project complexity. our business a high quality of network services.

~ Tomasz Brzezinski, Senior IT Infrastructure Architect, BSH Home Appliances Group

We are all witnessing an industry transition in how we work, which in turn is changing how our networks work for us. The demands of hybrid work and the transformation towards more and more cloud services are amplifying the importance of a flexible, rock-solid, secure core. A secure, reliable, and scalable network infrastructure based on Catalyst 9500 and 9600 core switches will help your organization stay connected and productive, regardless of where your users are.