The Cisco Catalyst 9000 Switch Series represents the next generation of the legendary Cisco Catalyst family of LAN access, aggregation, and core switches. The Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches increase networking power based on enhanced hardware and software innovations that bring a wider range of capabilities and applications. The switches from the 9200 series have proven to be always available, safe and easy to maintain. Unlike the 2960 series switches, the new generation 9200 brings us many hardware improvements, and some of them are in the following table.
|
|
Catalyst 9200 Series |
Catalyst 2960X-Series |
|
Programmable ASIC |
Yes |
No |
|
CPU |
Embedded quad core CPU @ 1.4 Ghz |
Dual core CPU @ 600 MHz |
|
DRAM (DDR3) |
4 GB/2 GB |
512 MB |
|
Flash on board |
4 GB |
Up to 256 MB |
|
mGig Ports |
Yes |
No |
|
25G uplinks |
Yes |
No |
|
Stacking (module) |
StackWise-160/80 |
FlexStack-Plus/Extended module |
|
Number of stack members |
8 |
8 |
|
Stack bandwidth |
160 Gbps/80 Gbps |
80 Gbps |
|
Power supply |
2 FRUable PS |
FRUable on 2960-XR |
|
Platinum Rated Power supply |
Yes |
No |
|
Max PoE budget |
1440W |
740W |
|
Modular uplinks |
Yes |
No |
|
Modular fans |
Yes |
No |
|
Max depth |
13.8 in |
16 in. |
|
Blue Beacon |
Yes |
No |
|
RFID |
Yes |
No |
In addition to hardware enhancements, the switches from the Cisco 9200 series also bring us software enhancements. Features that would not be possible on the 2960 series, and bring us greater resilience, security such as MACsec, Cisco SD-Access and Cisco TrustSec®. The following table shows the software comparison of these two series.
|
Feature |
|
Catalyst 9200 Series |
Catalyst 2960X-Series |
|
Modern operating system |
OS |
IOS-XE |
IOS |
|
Model-driven programmability |
✔ |
❌ |
|
|
Streaming telemetry |
✔ |
❌ |
|
|
Patching |
✔ |
❌ |
|
|
License upgrade |
✔ |
❌ |
|
|
Cisco Plug and Play (PnP) |
✔ |
✔ |
|
|
Advanced routing |
Virtual Route Forwarding (VRF) support |
✔ |
❌ |
|
Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) |
✔ |
❌ |
|
|
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) |
✔ |
✔ |
|
|
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) |
✔ |
✔ |
|
|
Fabric |
SD-Access Fabric Edge |
✔ |
❌ |
|
Security |
IEEE 802.1X |
✔ |
✔ |
|
MACsec-128 |
✔ |
❌ |
|
|
Cisco TrustSec |
✔ |
❌ |
|
|
Security Group Access Control List (SGACL) |
✔ |
❌ |
|
|
First-Hop Security (FHS) |
✔ |
✔ |
|
|
Network visibility |
Full Flexible NetFlow |
✔ |
✔ |
|
Ingress and egress NetFlow |
✔ |
❌ |
The Cisco 9200 series switches bring us many benefits in all segments such as QoS (Quality of Service), more flexible NetFlow, Stacking, and 25-GE interfaces. The Cisco 9200 Series Switches is a new generation of switches with much greater capabilities and fully prepared for the migration from the 2960 Series Cisco Switches.