Cisco Switches Comparison: Catalyst 9400 vs. Catalyst 9500

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The world is rapidly changing, and your network must keep up. Cisco is transitioning the legacy Catalyst platforms to the new Cisco Catalyst 9000 switches as we approach the next era of networking. These switches are intended to serve as the cornerstone for intent-based network architecture and a revolutionary networking methodology. So what’s the difference between Cisco Catalyst 9400 and Catalyst 9500? How to choose between them?

Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series

Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches are the next generation of Cisco Catalyst 9000 family enterprise-class modular access and aggregation switches. With a centralized switching design capable of handling up to 9 Tbps system bandwidth and unsurpassed permanent PoE power delivery, these switches guarantee unrivaled investment protection.

Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series

With features like NSF/SSO, In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU), uplink resiliency, and N + 1/N + N redundancy with modular power supply, the switch series provides state-of-the-art high availability.

The Catalyst 4500-E series is being renamed Catalyst 9400. Cisco Catalyst 9400 switches are a modular enterprise switching access and distribution platform designed for security, IoT, and cloud. The Cisco Catalyst 9400 provides more advanced features than the Catalyst 9200 and 9300, such as StackWise Virtual, BGP routing capabilities, MACSec-256, MPLS functionalities, and so on.

Feature C9400-SUP-1 C9400-SUP-1XL C9400-SUP-1XL-Y
Cisco Catalyst C9404R chassis 80 Gbps/slot 240 Gbps/slot 240 Gbps/slot
Cisco Catalyst C9407R chassis 80 Gbps/slot 120 Gbps/slot 120 Gbps/slot
Cisco Catalyst C9410R chassis 80 Gbps/slot 80 Gbps/slot 80 Gbps/slot

RS recommends: C9400-PWR-3200AC, C9400-LC-48U, C9400-DNA-E-3Y

Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series

Cisco has combined and improved the Catalyst 4500-X and Catalyst 3850 fiber switches to the Cisco Catalyst 9500 series. Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series switches are the next generation of Cisco Catalyst 9000 family fixed-core and aggregation layer switches. The Cisco Catalyst 9500 series offers up to 6.4 TBps in a small, high-density package. They’re also the first 10/25/40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet switches designed specifically for enterprise applications, with unrivaled table scaling and buffering.

Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series

Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series switches are the first 100, 40 and 25 Gigabit Ethernet feature-rich switches designed for enterprise campuses, with unparalleled table sizes (MAC, route, and Access Control List [ACL]) and buffering for enterprise applications. Nonblocking 100 Gbps Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable (QSFP28), 40 Gbps (QSFP), 25 Gbps (SFP28), and 10 Gbps (SFP+) switches with granular port density are available for a variety of campus requirements.

These switches also support critical services for use in the campus core, as well as foundational software, hardware, and system high availability. There are four platforms in the Catalyst 9500 Series:

Platforms C9500-32C, C9500-32QC C9500-24Y4C, C9500-48Y4C C9500-12Q, C9500-24Q C9500-16X, C9500-48X
Features -32 ports of 100G and 40G with rich campus features

-QSFP+ Technology

-Secure segmentation with SD-Access

-MPLS L2/L3 VPNs, MVPN

-24 and 48 ports of 25 G with rich campus features

-SFP28 Technology

-Secure segmentation with SD-Access

-MPLS Level 2/3 VPNs, MVPN

-32 ports of 40 G with rich campus features

-QSFP+ Technology

-10/40 G uplinks

-Secure segmentation with SD-Access

-MPLS Level 2/3 VPNs, MVPN

-16 to 40 ports of 1/10 G with rich campus features

-SFP/SFP+, 8 x 1/10 G or 2 x 40 G uplinks

-Secure segmentation with SD-Access

-MPLS Level 2/3 VPNs, MVPN

RS recommends: C9500-48Y4C-E, C9500-48Y4C-A, C9500-24Y4C-E, C9500-24Y4C-A

Catalyst 9400 vs. Catalyst 9500

The differences between Catalyst 9400 and Catalyst 9500 can be compared in the following aspects: type, positioning, uplinks, downlinks, high availability capabilities, switching capacity and so on. We can see on the table below that the Catalyst 9400 is the replacement for Catalyst 4500-E and equivalent switches; Catalyst 9500 is the replacement for Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series, Cisco Catalyst 3850 10G fiber (48P), Cisco Catalyst 6880-X and Cisco Catalyst 6840-X. For more details, let’s look at the table below.

Parameter Catalyst 9400 Catalyst 9500
Type Chassis Based StackWise
Positioning Core/Aggregation/Access Core/Aggregation
Replacement for Catalyst 4500-E and equivalent switches Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series

Cisco Catalyst 3850 10G fiber (48P)

Cisco Catalyst 6880-X

Cisco Catalyst 6840-X

100G support No Yes
POE support Yes No
Dedicated Supervisor slot Yes No
Uplinks 1 Gbps

10 Gbps

25 Gbps

40 Gbps

1/10 Gbps

25 Gbps

40 Gbps

100 Gbps

Downlinks Multigigabit

1 Gbps copper

1 Gbps SFP

10 Gbps SFP+

Cisco UPOE

PoE+ options

100 Gbps QSFP28

40 Gbps (QSFP)

25 Gbps (SFP28)

10 Gbps (SFP+)

High availability capabilities ISSU

NSF/SSO

Uplink

Resiliency

N+1/N+N redundancy for power supplies and PoE.

Patching

Graceful Insertion and Removal

Nonstop Forwarding with Stateful Switchover

Redundant platinum-rated power supplies and fans

Switching capacity Up to 9 Tbps Up to 6.4 Tbps

If you want to order Switches, welcome to visit:  Shop Switches at Router-switch.com .

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Reference:

Blog. Differences in the Catalyst 9000 Series Switch Models. [online]

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