We have all been watching this for a while.
More and more devices consuming more and more bandwidth.
And not just more but new kinds of devices. Things that were never connected before.
Add more and more cloud-based apps on top of that and you find yourself with a problem. Your network’s bandwidth is now strained edge to core.
This of course has led to a need for a speed transition. What was Mbps speeds to the edge, 1G or 10G to the distribution and 10G and 40G at the core now needs to be 5G or 10G at the edge, 25G to the distribution and 100G at the core. But like I said, like you, we at Cisco have been watching this for a while. And, in fact, we have been actively working on solutions to help ease the transition.
With a steady rhythm of innovation, the Catalyst 9000 portfolio has continuously expanded with switching options that neatly covers nearly all our legacy Catalyst offerings – offering superior performance and advanced features that make the Catalyst 9000 family leaders in the industry.
We added new hardware and software additions like Wi-Fi 6 and multigigabit technology helping you solve the access bandwidth issues, bringing up to 10Gbps to the edge. With the Cisco Catalyst 9600 and 9500 Series switches, we beef up the core with high-density dual rate 100G/40G and multi-rate 25G/10G/1G.
Now it is time for us to put extra focus on an important piece of the puzzle to help you complete your transition– distribution and “small” two tier collapsed core.
Introducing Cisco Catalyst 9300X
It is with some anticipation that we are now announcing the Cisco Catalyst 9300X – access/distribution switches designed to bring that extra bump in speed with a small bump in price.
As a significant upgrade to the Catalyst 3850 fiber models, the Cisco Catalyst 9300X more than double throughput with 12 and 24 ports of multi-rate 25G/10G/1G, stacking up to an industry leading 1Tbps and dual rate 100G/40G uplinks.
Not only does the Cisco Catalyst 9300X provide you with the speed you need to handle what’s next but with multi-rate speed capabilities, you can make the speed transition much easier, handling the slower speeds of your current network, jumping 25 Gbps when you are ready.
But wait, there is more.
The Cisco Catalyst 9300X also comes with enhanced application-hosting capabilities helping transform the network into a compute platform. With 8 G of RAM memory for onboard CPU, 240G USB 3.0 storage, 2 x 10G AppGig Ports, and “Quick Assist Technology” (QAT) hardware acceleration and security, Catalyst 9300X models can support multiple docker applications with a new level of performance.
Why upgrade from the Catalyst 3850 Series fiber switches?
Scale and performance
- Multi-rate 25G/10G/1G fiber
- 100G/40G/25G/10G and multigigabit uplinks
- 1 Tbps stacking
- Faster CPU performance
- Greater throughput
- Larger flash memory
- Greater VRF scale (virtual routing and forwarding)
- Greater uplink scale
Advanced security
- Zero Trust Network Access
- Native Flexible NetFlow
- Cisco TrustSec® and SGT3 for wired and wireless
- Trustworthy solutions
- Native MACsec-256 encryption
- Crypto support in hardware, including IPSec
- Encrypted Traffic Analytics
Resiliency and availability
- Higher resiliency with improved power supplies and fans
- Higher power budget with StackPower+
- Hot patching
- Graceful insertion and removal
- Pluggable SSD storage starting at 240G
Advanced functionality
- High capacity application hosting with two CPU cores and twice the memory
- Software-Defined Access (SD-Access) programmability
- Fabric-in-a-box
- Extended node
- EVPN – VXLAN
- Cloud and mobility
- Catalyst Cellular 5G gateway support
- Integrated Catalyst 9800 wireless LAN controller
- Embedded wireless in the SD-Access fabric
- Cisco UADP ASIC for wired and wireless convergence
- Hierarchical wireless quality of service (QoS)
- Application visibility across wired and wireless with onboard DNA Spaces
The Cisco Catalyst 9000 family of switches provides mission-critical wired and wireless infrastructure that is always on, cloud-driven, and highly secure. Only Cisco can deliver intent-based networking for the connected experience you need across the network, with flexibility and speed made possible by automation and insights. The new Catalyst 9300X is a natural fit in the family, offer new options to help you now and in the future.
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I want one – now!
Let’s test them out at CPoC Sydney!
Sf
I’m confused by this part: “240G USB 3.0 storage”
Is that correct? USB is not an SSD interface, at least not for internal SSDs. It wouldn’t make any sense to use USB as the interface *inside* a switch or server. Did you mean PCIe 3.0?
All Catalyst 9300 models come with a separate x86 CPU complex for app hosting. On Catalyst 9300X models, this complex comes with 8-GB memory, and 16 GB of flash and *external* USB 3.0 SSD pluggable storage slot (delivering up to 240GB of storage with an option SSD drive).
There is also a USB 2.0 slot to load system images and set configurations.
for small scale deployment, will it become a indoor competition with C9500???
Oliver, The Catalyst 9300X models are perfectly suited for the small scale deployment and was designed to to fit as a lower density, lower cost option to using the Catalyst 9500 Series models for smaller locations or as an aggregation option for larger deployments.
Do you know when they will be configurable/quotable in CCW, and when they are slated for FCS?
Mike, The C9300X-12Y, C9300X-24Y models are currently on CCW.
Mike, Catalyst 9300X FCS is May 31st, 2021.
Hi Team, great addition to CAT9K portfolio. Any chance you have ETA for 9300X to be supported in SD-Access? For now its not part of SDA Compatibility matrix. Many thanks !
Is the same binary used on 9300 and 9300x switches? i.e 17.5.1?