Back to the Future with Cisco Catalyst 9000 Family of Switches

Cisco Catalyst 9000 switches are ushering a new era in the campus fabric architecture that will support business needs for decades to come.

It is not surprising that the campus network has played a key role in the enterprise network architecture and has helped enterprises transform their businesses. Corporations embraced advancement in campus network architecture to execute their business strategies through the integration of collaborative tools, business applications and a mobile workforce.

In the past few decades a major evolutionary step in the campus architecture was realized through the advent of high-end layer-2 and layer-3 switches that enabled a scalable high-performance corporate intranet. With the introduction of various Catalyst switches, Cisco Systems enabled its customers to transform their campus network by providing highly available, high-speed user access, low network convergence time and an easy-to-manage, resilient and hierarchical architecture. This network foundation enabled next-generation applications, the adoption of voice and video applications, and seamless user access to corporate services.

The cycle is now repeating itself.

The future is here

The Cisco Catalyst 9000 family of switches come in three varieties: Catalyst 9300 fixed access switches, Catalyst 9400 modular access switches and Catalyst 9500 fixed core and distribution switches.

These switches are not just good looking; they are designed to help you change your network from a platform of connectivity to an intelligent platform that can adapt to ever-changing business requirements. The latest hardware capabilities allow you to turbo charge your campus network while at the same time implement effective management, network visibility with contextual insights and a secure fabric. The 9000 series allows network architects to be ready for the present, prepared for the future and safely navigate upcoming technological trends.

Get ahead of the curve

The rapid development of networking technologies over the last 20 years transformed corporations and enabled innovations on many fronts. Today, the network infrastructure is playing catch-up as it tries to adapt itself to the rapidly changing business landscape. In today's environment, applications are king and drive business revenue, and security threats are more ominous than ever and can cause a business to lose credibility with customers if trust is breached. Automation and programmability of the infrastructure are a must to help manage network complexity and to provide for agile deployment models. The cloud is transforming network architectures within the enterprise by providing flexible provisioning of resources.

You can stay ahead of these trends by leveraging these Catalyst 9000 capabilities:

• Uniform software image and a common ASIC across all the Cat9000 family of switches providing consistent operation and common capabilities in all segments of the campus network.
• Cisco's Software Defined Access capabilities, which provide central orchestration, end-to-end policy definition, a flexible fabric and secure segmentation of your infrastructure.
• Enhanced security that makes the campus fabric an active participant in detecting and mitigating security threats. Security features such as malware detection on encrypted traffic by Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA) and TrustSec and segmentations for policy enforcement provides higher visibility and consistent security policies across your network.
• Enabling cloud use cases, whether leveraging the high-performance capabilities within private cloud colocation centers or by creating and managing container-based hosting applications, such as network monitoring, that are locally hosted on the switch.
• Ability to seamlessly integrate wired and wireless devices within the same network fabric and automated policy and security posture among all devices.
• Native support for IoT. Catalyst 9000 switches can support high-density perpetual PoE/PoE+/UPOE line cards that can power your digital end devices and securely identify and onboard IoT devices using centrally defined policies.

WWT can help

You want to transform your network, but you need help along the way. WWT provides the necessary tools for a smooth transition as you traverse the stages of architectural definition, technological design and solution deployment. Figure 2 shows different stages in deploying Catalyst 9000 switches towards a future-proof and a next-generation campus network architecture.

Building blocks of migration

WWT can assist in the following ways:

• Network engineers can leverage WWT's capabilities to help your network planners and engineers deploy Catalyst 9000 family of switches across your campus network. By leveraging the Advanced Technology Center (ATC), network engineers can experience firsthand the features and capabilities and verify the operation of your existing configurations against the new platform.
• Network planners can evaluate architectural ramifications of changes to your network by partnering with WWT and conducting proofs of concept (POCs) in the ATC.
• WWT's experts can assist by conducting on-site workshops and training to help you facilitate the integration of Cisco's DNA Center centralized management system and Identity Services Engine (ISE).
• By accessing sandbox environments within the ATC, engineers can evaluate Cisco's Encryption Traffic Analytics (ETA) capability and its integration with Cisco Stealthwatch security suite.
• By leveraging the ATC capabilities, architects and network engineers can experiment with DNAC policy orchestration engine and evaluate the network visibility and assurance capabilities on both wired and wireless devices.
• WWT's professional services are available to help with the design and implementation of complex use cases such as deployment of consistent segmentation across various part of the enterprise network.

Innovate with WWT

Technological innovation is coming full circle. Cisco Catalyst 9000 switches are ushering a new era in networking with programmable ASIC, software innovations, simplified management and double the capacity to support more users and devices.

We invite you to partner with us as you leverage resources within the ATC to implement solutions that help you be ready for the future.