Not too long ago, Cisco invited me to San Jose to get an early review of some pretty cool new products. The main products they showcased were wireless related including some new access points to coincide with a Wifi6 product launch. However, I was more interested in their new switch: the Catalyst 9606. One of my experiences was a roundtable discussion on the Catalyst 9600 with Shawn Wargo. Below is a picture I took with Shawn and the switch – the one on the left is a display model and is not for sale.
Cisco has a great modular switch with the Catalyst 6500 series, but it is now around 20 years old. I have been running this switch for a while and I can tell you it is a true workhorse. However, it is limited by internal bandwidth. With some companies using 10, 25, 40, and even 100Gb network connections, the 2Tb bandwidth limit on the 6500 becomes a bottleneck. Now, the 6500 is still orderable as there are some features (mainly for service providers) that are available on the 6500. However, as someone that works for an enterprise, I can tell you that these features are not what I am looking for.
So, what do companies do when they want a modular corporate switch that can handle those higher speed connections to the access switches? Cisco now has that answer in the new Catalyst 9600 series. This is not an upgraded 6500; it is truly a full redesign. For instance, in the 6500 each line card has processing capabilities to offload from the supervisor card. Alternatively, the 9600 has three processors on the supervisor card. This means that the supervisor card is pushing the traffic with an added bonus that the line cards are cheaper, relatively speaking. Additionally, the 9600 supervisor has an X86 processor, RAM, and an SD hard drive so it can run a virtual machine. Theoretically, it could run a virtual Viptela SD-WAN router or support servers like an AD controller for a branch site.
The physical features of the 9600 really show the design process that went into the switch. Anyone that has installed a 6500 into a rack knows how hard the task is, partially due to the small, metal handles on each side that can dig into your hands while two (or more) people try to get it loaded into the rack. The 9600 has four beefy handles that retract into the top of the switch. The eject handles on the line cards are definitely better than the 6500 – I cannot count how many times I have pulled on the eject arms accidentally. The 9600 line cards have solid handles that have a button on the inside to initiate the ejection process. I really do not see how anyone could accidentally start the ejection process on these new line cards. Finally, the 9600 has a bunch of fans that are all located on a single fan module. This module can be installed in either direction – eject out the front or back of the chassis. You just have to move the fan backplane module to change the eject direction. If you have to replace this module, you have about 2 minutes before you start getting thermal degradation.
Above is the video of the roundtable that I mentioned previously. In this video, we discussed some of the features in the Catalyst 9600. Hopefully, it gives you some idea on why this new switch is a great one to look into. Also, you get to see me in action so let me know if I am ready for Hollywood.