Cisco compresses Catalyst switches to compact size

Cisco has shrunk its Catalyst 9200 switches into three compact models. Switchzilla reckons they exercise the newfound freedom to undertake remote work by letting organizations squeeze a proper enterprise switch into a wider variety of smaller and more exotic places. The smallest of the models measures 4.4cm x 26.9cm x 16.5cm …

[Richard 12]

None of those are "home office"

While I do of course have core and edge switches at home, normal people do not do this.

Normal people only have one work PC, which they connect to their ISP-provided home router. Most likely via WiFi.

They also would not be willing to add another 80-100W to their power bills for the benefit of their employer.

These look more like branch office or portacabin switches to me.

[A Non e-mouse]

Re: None of those are "home office"

And what home workers need a 10Gb/s uplink? Many would love a 100Mb/s uplink to the Internet.

[Halfmad]

Re: None of those are "home office"

I'd be happy with a 5MB/s thanks.

[Mike 137]

Re: None of those are "home office"

"another 80-100W to their power bills"

Maybe a bit excessive? Here, a 16 port 1 Gb managed edge switch (not Cisco), KVM switch and VDSL router draw a total of 27 watts combined. Cisco kits is well known to be power hungry.

[elaar]

Re: None of those are "home office"

I've got a cisco 12port gig switch here, with a cisco 927 router and combined they average 32w (that also includes my monitor on standby), so this Cisco kit isn't too far off of yours.

Firstly, none of us have any idea what the actual average power consumption is (only the maximum), and personally I'm not aware if there's any extra power consumption from ICs that can do 10G, so everyone's just making assumptions at this point.

[Creslin]

Re: None of those are "home office"

80w adaptor doesn't translate into 80w avg draw

I'd imagine mostly these things would be sat nr idle supporting a single home PC

I do agree with the sentiment however - home users are unlikely to want an ugly box of wires at home --- also isnt all this a solved problem with software VPNs, remote desktop/VDIs if company policy desires

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: None of those are "home office"

And the 310W units would only draw that amount if every single port was drawing their full PoE+ allowance.

Still, they would make a good foot warmer...

[Anonymous Coward]

NSA at the edge devices

You can always rely on Cisco for unauthorised root access.

[sanmigueelbeer]

8- or 12-port switches maybe aimed at "home office" users but Cisco is late-to-the-party when they offered 4-port table-top switches, Catalyst Micro Switches.

The Micro Switches run on IOS.

And these switches run on Cisco Smart License! Hoor- ... oh, wait.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's 'Cisco IOS' not 'Apple iOS'

(Cisco came to an agreement with Apple over their (prior) use of 'IOS' once the later had trademarked 'iOS')

[VoiceOfTruth]

What is the life expectancy of these switches?

I feel this needs to be asked given Cisco's recent 'too bad, buy a new router' pronouncement for equipment sold just three years ago.

[elaar]

Re: What is the life expectancy of these switches?

Well traditionally, Catalyst switches tended to outlive humans. You still find 2950s working away in comms rooms.

"for equipment sold just three years ago." - You mean the cheap line of hardware that was released 10 years ago?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What is the life expectancy of these switches?

Yes, our IT group finally swapped out our aging 2950 switch (and binned an unused BayStack) last year after a security audit pointed out they were nearly a decade past their 'use by'.

End-of-Sale Date: 2008-10-21. End-of-Support Date: 2013-10-20

[Anonymous Coward]

Did they shrink all the backdoors too?

[Paul Crawford]

Yes, now BackCatFlaps

[Sparkus]

I suspect that

regardless of Cisco's cautionary availability statement, these new boxen are 'supply chain managed' products being cobbled together from what components Cisco can find.