3850 Switches

If you want to know about the fundamental differences between the two famous switches, you’ve come to the right place. Below you’ll find a detailed overall analysis after the differences mentioned of both switches in an organized manner, making it easier for you to comprehend and understand. 

Deployment Scope and use cases from users of the Catalyst 2960-X series  

The WS-C2960X-24PSQ-L and WS-C3850-48U-L switches are capable of providing you with more than 270 remote sites with approximately 5000 end users. They also offer the users connectivity at a very competitive price, and this connectivity can even be remotely used from the APIC-EM by using particular templates. Upon using these series of switches, you’ll find a particular liking to the passive cooling of the 8 and 24 port models while, on the other hand, supplying a full PoE+ power. The stability of these has improved over the years, and that has made them reliable. You even forget their operation and so they’re worth the price. 

You can mainly use the Cisco Catalyst 2960 series of switches for the LAN deployments for the customers. The most common use of these switches is beneficial as an access layer switches at different office sites for large organizations where users often require a wired activity.  These switches mostly address a variety of connectivity issues where customers want the traditional setup of a wired network or where weird systems are not possible to be deployed. You can also use these series of switches in data centers and wiring closets. They are the workhorse of end-user connectivity. And that is because they limit the time it usually takes to get users on the network, and they are super easy to use. 

Deployment Scope and use cases from users of the Catalyst 3850 series  

Cisco Catalyst 3850 series can be used in the network distribution scenario. These switches are very robust and easy to use with a lot of technology and performance. They also have many SFP+ and SFP ports. You can use these switches to connect the access switches, which are for securing users’ computers in a particular building to the building with the Switch Core, which is mostly in the organization’s data center. You can join these series of switches with single-mode fiber.

Suppose you’re using Cisco Catalyst 3750 series switches. In that case, you could replace it with the advanced 3850 series because it not only shows a notable increase in the performance but also there is a significant reduction in the use of memory, which now becomes 75% to a phenomenal 30%.

The 3850 series can also be used as an aggregation layer switch for connecting multiple access switches to it, which can then be connected to the core switch to save all the fiber cable running many costs. Cisco WS C3850 48U L Switch is very well suited when used as an L2 aggregation switch, and many people have also been using it as an access switch. It would be less fitting as a core switch to handle a lot of traffic or for it to be used y a lot of high-density users in a single place alone. Usually, 4500 devices are recommended.

Comparison of Cisco Catalyst 2960 series with 3850 series

Cisco Catalyst 2960

The Cisco WS C2960X 24PSQ L has a stacking bandwidth of 80 Gbps. There are eight maximum members in the stack, whereas no Cisco StackPower and stateful switchover (SSD) option. These switches have a memory of 512MB and a flash of 128MB and a partial power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+). Moreover, you’ll find a layer three support in the 2960-XR series but not in the 2960-X series. There is a Lite Flexible NetFlow (FNF) in these switches, and the Quality of service (QoS) is quite traditional. The Cisco Catalyst 2960 series also has a smart install for clients instead of for the director, but there is no Embedded Event Manager (EEM).

Cisco Catalyst 3850

As for the Cisco Catalyst 3850 series of switches, it has a stacking bandwidth of 480Gbps. There are nine maximum members in the stack and the availability of Cisco StackPower and the Stateful switchover (SSD). These series of switches have a memory of 4GB and a flash of 2GB. It has full power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+) compared to the Cisco Catalyst 2960 series switches. Also, you’ll find there is a layer three support in the Cisco Catalyst 3850 series. Advanced Quality of Service (QoS) is available, and it has a smart install for both the client and the director. The number of wireless access points supported for converged access per stack or switch is 50, the highest in any of the Cisco Catalyst switches. These switches come with an Embedded Event Manager (EEM), and they also support converged wired and wireless access (integrated wireless controller).

By Anurag Rathod

Anurag Rathod is an Editor of Appclonescript.com, who is passionate for app-based startup solutions and on-demand business ideas. He believes in spreading tech trends. He is an avid reader and loves thinking out of the box to promote new technologies.