PACKETPERF

Primary Device

Cisco Catalyst 9500-48Y4C
Cisco Catalyst 9500-48Y4C
★ 3.2 Value Score

Technical Specifications

  • Switching Capacity: 3.2 Tbps
  • Forwarding Rate: 1 Bpps
  • Ports (breakdown): 48x 1/10/25G SFP28, 4x 40/100G QSFP28
  • PoE Budget: N/A
  • Layer: L2/L3
  • Stacking support: StackWise Virtual

Curation Review

  • ✔ Pros: High density 25G and 100G port configuration in a compact 1RU form factor; Programmable UADP 3.0 ASIC provides industry-leading performance and future-proofing; Exceptional high availability via StackWise Virtual and redundant, hot-swappable components
  • ✘ Cons: Prohibitively high upfront and recurring costs due to mandatory Cisco DNA licensing; Complex subscription-based software model can be difficult to manage; Substantial power consumption and heat output required for core-level performance
  • Est. Price: $10,500 - $17,500

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

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