Cisco More Than Doubles Its Catalyst 9000 Customer Base

Posted by CRN on February 20, 2018:

Cisco Systems' Catalyst 9000 switch, the foundation of the company's Network Intuitive platform, has become one of the fastest growing new products the company has ever introduced.

More than 3,100 customers have now bought the subscription-based Catalyst 9000 platform, more than doubling the product's customer base in just three months and setting the stage for the rapid and expansion of the platform into every corner of the Cisco portfolio, according to Chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins.

"This is the fastest-ramping new product introduction we've had in our history and a fantastic example of the innovation we've delivered over the last two years," Robbins said in a conference call with Wall Street analysts recently to discuss Cisco's second-quarter results.

Dave Chandler, practice director, network solutions at World Wide Technology, a St. Louis, Mo., solution provider and one of Cisco's top partners, said the Catalyst 9000 has wide appeal, but for now, sales are concentrated in what he called "architectural" customers.

"We deal with more 9K in that context," Chandler said. "It is much more attractive to customers looking to reduce capex through automation, to deploy SD-WAN to reduce costs." Other "infrastructural" customers are looking at the switch itself as they consider cycling older switches out of their networks. "They're going to buy it and get as much life as they can out of it. Customers in refresh cycles are looking at it, looking at training and how it's different, and there's not much different. It can be plug-and-play."

As a result, Chandler said WWT's switch pipeline has "had a big flip" from Cisco's Catalyst 3850 to the Catalyst 9000. Chandler said he expects the Catalyst 9000 to begin making inroads into the enterprise, as well.

"The capabilities it provides allows it to do good things for the campus, branch, particularly in segmentation and security," Chandler said. "We also have a lot of conversations with enterprise customers. They're doing testing and validation. With large banks, and other institutions, it goes into the lab and is tested before they deploy, and I know several large companies doing just that right now."