PACKETPERF

Primary Device

Cisco Catalyst 9300-48P
Cisco Catalyst 9300-48P
★ 3.3 Value Score

Technical Specifications

  • Switching Capacity: 256 Gbps (Standalone) / 736 Gbps (Stacked)
  • Forwarding Rate: 190.47 Mpps (Standalone) / 547.62 Mpps (Stacked)
  • Ports: 48 x 10/100/1000 Ethernet PoE+ ports; modular uplinks (1G, 10G, 25G, 40G options)
  • PoE Budget: 437W (Default with 715W PSU); Up to 1440W (Maximum with dual 1100W PSUs)
  • Layer: Layer 2, Layer 3
  • Stacking support: StackWise-480 (480 Gbps bandwidth; up to 8 units in a stack)

Curation Review

  • ✔ Pros: Industry-leading StackWise-480 stacking bandwidth for high scalability; Innovative StackPower technology for power redundancy across the stack; Advanced security including AES-256 MACsec and Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA); x86 CPU architecture allows hosting of third-party containers and apps
  • ✘ Cons: Complex and mandatory Cisco DNA Smart Licensing model; Higher total cost of ownership (TCO) than the Catalyst 9200 series; Significant heat and fan noise when under full PoE load; Historical hardware reliability issues with specific DRAM/DIMM batches
  • Est. Price: $3,200 - $4,800

Compare Against

Fortinet FortiSwitch 124G
Fortinet FortiSwitch 124G
★ 3.7 Value Score

Technical Specifications

  • Switching Capacity: 240 Gbps
  • Forwarding Rate: 355 Mpps
  • Ports: 24x 100/1000/2.5G RJ45, 6x 10G SFP+
  • PoE Budget: N/A
  • Layer: L2 with Static Routing
  • Stacking support: Yes (via FortiLink)

Curation Review

  • ✔ Pros: Full 2.5G multi-gigabit support on all 24 access ports; robust 60Gbps uplink capacity via 6x 10G SFP+ ports; fanless design for silent operation; native FortiLink integration for centralized management via FortiGate.
  • ✘ Cons: Non-PoE model (requires FPOE variant for power); advanced L3 features like OSPF/BGP require a separate license; lacks hardware-based MC-LAG support found in higher-tier models.
  • Est. Price: $1,130 - $1,504

Popular Comparisons

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