Cisco Business Switches FAQ

A.  Our partners and customers who serve and operate small businesses require a complete and reliable network that is simple, flexible, and secure—critical for achieving their business success. Cisco Business meets their needs in this evolving digitized world.

A.  Cisco Business offers a complete portfolio of switching, routing, and wireless products, all managed via the Cisco Business Dashboard and Cisco Business mobile app, enabling a complete network solution that meets our customers’ needs.

A.  Available in most countries, serving the Americas, EMEAR, and APJC theaters. Please contact our sales team for availability in your specific country.

A.  All Cisco Business products will be sold through 2-Tier Distribution Partners. Also available through eCommerce partners, including Amazon, in selected countries.

A.  No. Designed with simplicity, flexibility, and security in mind, the Cisco Business portfolio offers enterprise-class networking solutions specifically for small businesses. Intuitive web-based management tools simplify network management and operation for both self-managed small businesses and managed service providers.

The portfolio, along with right mix of offers, also targets customers who procure from eCommerce and Direct Market Resellers (DMR). Cisco Business offers an affordable product portfolio addressing every stage of business growth.

A.  Cisco Business hardware products do not require subscription licensing to operate. The product and management are flexible in terms of deployment and multi-site management capabilities. Cisco Meraki is a cloud-based solution; Cisco Business offers both on-prem and cloud management capabilities. Meraki Go is targeted at the end customer who will procure, deploy, and manage the system on their own. While Cisco Business can be self-deployed and managed, it also offers the flexibility and capabilities that are required by managed service providers and partners.

A.  To learn more about our Cisco Business products, visit our solution page here.

A.  When building a small office network, the two most essential pieces of equipment you need are switches and routers. Though they look similar, the two devices perform different functions within a network.

Switches are key building blocks for any network. They connect multiple devices, such as computers, wireless access points, printers, and servers, on the same network within an office or building. A switch enables connected devices to share information and talk to each other.

A router connects multiple switches, and their respective networks, to form an even larger network. In addition to connecting multiple networks together, the router also allows networked devices and multiple users to access the Internet. A router connects your business to the world and protects information from security threats.

A.  Managed switches give you greater security and more features and flexibility because you can configure them to precisely match your network requirements. With this greater control, you can better protect your network and improve the quality of service for those who access the network. Cisco Business 350 Series is a family of managed switches.

Smart switches offer some management, quality of service, and security capabilities, so they can be a cost-effective alternative to managed switches. However, they are not as scalable as managed switches and are typically deployed at the edge of a large network, as the infrastructure for smaller networks, or for low complexity networks. Cisco Business 250 Series and Cisco Business 220 Series are families of smart switches.

An unmanaged network switch is designed so that you can simply plug them in and they work, no configuration required. Unmanaged switches are typically for basic connectivity. You’ll often see them used in home networks or wherever a few more ports are needed, such as at your desk, in a lab, or in a conference room. Cisco Business 110 Series is a family of unmanaged switches.

A.  Cisco Business 250 series are advanced smart switches providing extensive capabilities including layer 3 static routing, while still priced lower than fully managed switches. When you need a reliable solution to share online resources and connect computers, phones, and wireless access points, Cisco Business 250 Series Smart Switches provide the ideal solution at an affordable pricing point.

Cisco Business 220 series are smart lite switches that provide network connectivity and simple management at a cost even lower than Cisco Business 250 series. When you need a business-class network and cost is top priority, Cisco Business 220 Series provide an excellent solution.

A.  With the ever-evolving business environment—from shifting consumer behavior to digitization, small businesses expect a fundamental shift in how they conduct their business. This means acceleration of digital transformation. While technologies like 802.11ac wave 2 wireless, Wi-Fi 6, cloud, and Internet of Things greatly improve overall productivity, they also apply even more pressure to your network.

With multi-gigabit network access, high performance wireless access points can be connected at 2.5G or 5G speed to unleash the full potential and provide exceptional wireless experience.

With 10G network core, you can have a congestion free network backbone, improve the productivity of employees, shorten the response time to customers, and bring new products to the market faster.

Cisco Business provides a wide range of switches with 10 gigabit, multi-gigabit and gigabit options for both high performance and cost-effective deployments.

A.  Power over Ethernet (PoE) simplifies deployments for IP telephony, wireless, surveillance or other connected devices without the need for locating devices near power outlets. Cisco Business Switches support both the 802.3af and 802.3at PoE standards, providing up to 30W per port to high-performance wireless access points, pan-tilt zoom cameras, IP phones, and video endpoints.

Models with different PoE power budgets ranging from 45W to 740W are available with 8-, 16-, 24-, and 48-port configurations so any user can find the exact fit for their deployment.

A.  All 24- and 48-port models of Cisco Business switches come with internal power supply because these devices are normally rack mounted and connect directly to AC power outlets. Eight- and 16-port models come with both internal and external power supply options. The external power supply models have smaller enclosure sizes so they can better fit into small spaces like on the desk, in the meeting room, or in the classroom. The internal power supply models have slightly larger enclosure size but provide the benefit of easier connection to AC power outlets.

All internal and external power supplies come with the switch so there is no need to purchase the power supply separately.

A.  Cisco Business 350 Series managed switch models with 10 gigabit uplinks support true stacking up to 4 units.

Some switches claim to support stacking but in practice support only “clustering,” meaning that each switch must still be managed and configured individually. Cisco Business 350 Series Switches provide true stacking capability, allowing you to configure, manage, and troubleshoot all switches in a stack as a single unit with a single IP address.

A true stack delivers unified management, control and traffic forwarding, providing flexibility, scalability, and ease of use because the stack of units operates as a single entity. This capability can radically reduce complexity in a scaling up network environment while improving the resiliency and availability of network applications. True stacking also provides other cost savings and administrative benefits through features such as cross-stack Quality of Service (QoS), Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs), Link Aggregation Groups (LAGs), and port mirroring, which clustered switches cannot support.

Using standard 10G fiber connections, the Cisco Business 350 Series supports both local and horizontal stacking deployments and the flexibility of ring or chain topology.

A.  Cisco Business Switches support a wide range of security capabilities to safeguard the information asset of small businesses. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption protects management data. IEEE 802.1X port security tightly limits access to specific segments of your network. IP-MAC port binding (IPMB) prevents spoofing and detects and blocks deliberate network attacks. IPv6 First Hop Security extends the advanced threat protection to IPv6. Secure Core Technology (SCT) ensures that the switch is able to process management traffic in the face of a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack.

A.  For DIY small businesses managing small sites, Cisco Business Switches come with an intuitive web interface supporting configuration wizards, customizable dashboard, and integrated help. Users with both Cisco Business switches and Cisco Business wireless access points can also use Cisco Business mobile app to set up and manage the local network all from their mobile devices.

For a larger network self-managed or maintained by managed service providers, Cisco Business Dashboard provides a single pane of glass for all Cisco Business switches, routers, and wireless access points across multiple sites. Cisco Business Dashboard simplifies traditional challenges in deploying and managing business networks while automating the deployment, monitoring, and lifecycle management of the network.

For advanced users, command-line interface and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) are also available.

A.  No license or subscription is required for Cisco Business switches. All features and functionalities are available with the hardware purchase.

A.  Cisco Business switches come with a Limited Lifetime (CBS350, CBS250 and CBS110 series) or 3-year warranty (CBS220 series). If there are any hardware defects, Cisco will replace the product upon receipt of the defective device. In addition, the warranty includes free access to technical support during local business hours, 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, for a period of 1 year from the original date of purchase. Software bug fixes are available for the life of the products.

Cisco Business 350 Series Managed Switches come with an Enhanced Limited Lifetime Warranty (ELLW), which provides next-business-day advance replacement where available in addition to the standard coverage in LLW.

Product warranty terms and other information applicable to Cisco Business products are available at https://www.cisco.com/go/warranty.

A.  No, a support contract is not required but will be available for purchase for added peace of mind. Support contracts will extend the phone support for up to 3 years, and enable hardware devices to be eligible for advance replacement in the event of product returns and replacements (RMA).