Cisco powers up Catalyst product line

Cisco has launched a new range of Catalyst switches which boast 10Gbps throughput suitable for high bandwidth applications such as video.

The Cisco Catalyst 3750-E and 3560-E switches contain 10Gbps uplinks (upgraded from the twin Ethernet Gigabit uplink module). Cisco has also added Power over Ethernet (PoE) to each port of the new switches. It claimed that the full Class 3 15.4 watt power delivery through each port on the switch, was an "industry first". The 3750-E switch goes on sale now and is priced at $9,495 (4,836) and the 3560-E will sell at $5995 (3055).

The closet switches are available in 24 and 48 port version (all with PoE) and have Cisco StackWise Plus which offers ease of use and deployment as well as high performance and resilience. Cisco said the switches will be backward-compatible with StackWise and integrated with Catalyst 3750 switches, Catalyst 3750 integrated wireless Lan controller and integrated services router.

To supplement the PoE capabilities of the switches, Cisco also announced an 8700W power supply for the Catalyst 6500, which will allow it to supply 15.4W of power on 420 ports. The power supply will be available for $7,000 (3,565) and is scheduled for available this month.

Also unveiled at the Cisco Networkers conference was the company's Catalyst 3560 and 2960 compact switches which are fanless and intended for environments where noise can be a problem (such as meeting rooms and classrooms). Both have eight ports and are priced from $895 (455) for the 2960 and $1,395 (713) for the 3560 switch.

The company also announced its Redundant Power System 2300 will be available at the end of the month and priced at $2,195 (1,118). The Power System can connect up to six devices and will provide continuous power to devices as soon as its senses an internal power failure.

Analysts said that Cisco had laid the "groundwork for advanced services deployment for voice and video".

"The announcements today will extend highly secure wired and wireless user access, while easing network and operations management for stretched IT administrators," said Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president of enterprise research at analysts Yankee Group.