PRODUCT BULLETIN NO. 2771
Cisco Systems® announces the end-of-sale and end-of-life dates for the Cisco® Catalyst® 3550 Series switches. The last day to order Cisco Catalyst 3550 Series switches is May 2, 2006. Customers with active service contracts will continue to receive support from the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) until May 2, 2011. Table 1 describes the end-of-life milestones, definitions, and dates for Cisco Catalyst 3550 Series switches. Table 2 lists the product part numbers affected by this announcement. The only exception to this end-of-sale announcement is the Cisco Catalyst 3550-24-DC Switch. The Cisco Catalyst 3550-24-DC Switch is not affected by this announcement.
Enterprise customers are encouraged to migrate to Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series and Catalyst 3560 Series switches, which provide new and enhanced functionality including IEEE 802.3af Power over Ethernet (PoE), higher-density Gigabit Ethernet (GE), and IPv6 routing. The Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series switches feature Cisco StackWise™ technology, a 32-Gbps stack interconnect that allows customers to build a unified, highly resilient switching system, one switch at a time.
Service provider customers that are currently using Cisco Catalyst 3550 Series switches for Metro Ethernet services are encouraged to migrate to the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Metro Series switches, which are designed to bring greater intelligence to the Metro Ethernet edge with features such as hierarchical quality of service (QoS), VLAN mapping, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), Ethernet over MPLS (EoMPLS) support, and redundant AC or DC power.
Customers currently using the Cisco Catalyst 3550-24-FX Switch are encouraged to transition to the Cisco Catalyst 3750-24FS Switch, which offers 24 100-FX ports in a one-rack-unit, fixed-configuration form factor.
Information about all of these replacement products can be found at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/index.html.
Table 1. End-of-Life Milestones and Dates for Cisco Catalyst 3550 Series Switches
Table 2. Product Part Numbers Affected by This Announcement
PRODUCT MIGRATION OPTIONS
The recommended replacements for Cisco Catalyst 3550 Series switches are the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series switches and the Cisco Catalyst 3560 Series switches. Table 3 provides a comparison between these three product lines. Table 4 lists the part numbers affected by this end-of-sale announcement and identifies the recommended replacement product(s).
Unique to the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series is Cisco StackWise, a revolutionary stacking architecture that brings high levels of resiliency, automation, and performance to stackable switches. With Cisco StackWise technology, customers can create a single, 32-Gbps switching unit with up to nine Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series switches. A working stack is self-managing and self-configuring. When switches are added or removed, the master switch automatically loads the Cisco IOS® Software release running on the stack to the new switch, loads the global configuration parameters, and updates all routing tables to reflect the changes.
The Cisco Catalyst 3560 Series is a line of fixed-configuration, enterprise-class switches that is ideal in the access layer for small enterprise LAN access or branch-office environments. Both the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series and Cisco Catalyst 3560 Series support IEEE 802.3af PoE and Cisco prestandard PoE functionality in Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet configurations. By combining both high-density Gigabit Ethernet and PoE, customers gain maximum productivity and investment protection by enabling the deployment of new applications such as IP telephony, wireless access, video surveillance, building management systems, and remote video kiosks.
Cisco Catalyst switches must also protect the users and servers attached to them. Unlike attacks that are disruptive to the network, many attacks against users and servers can go undetected. These attacks use common tools that can be downloaded from the Internet. Both the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series and Cisco Catalyst 3560 Series support features such as Dynamic ARP Inspection, IP Source Guard, and DHCP Snooping in the Cisco IOS Software Standard Multilayer Image (available by July 2005). These software features mitigate many of the increasingly common internal security threats seen in LANs and defend against a variety of man-in-the-middle and spoofing attacks.
Table 3. Product Comparisons
Table 4. End-of-sale Product Numbers and Recommended Replacement Products
* Available by May 2005
Customers can use the Cisco Technology Migration Plan (TMP) to trade in products and receive credit toward the purchase of new Cisco equipment. For more information about Cisco TMP, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/tradein/. The Cisco TMP application requires all users to have a Cisco.com user ID.
EOL Q&A
Q. How is the Cisco GigaStack stacking GBIC affected by this announcement and what product should customers migrate towards?
A. The Cisco Gigastack Stacking GBIC is not affected by this end-of-sale announcement. As new products use SFPs instead of GBICS, Cisco Catalyst 3560 Switch customers can use the SFP Interconnect Cable and Cisco Catalyst 3750 Switch customers can use StackWise.
Q. When will the Cisco Catalyst 3750-24-FS switch be available?
A. This product is planned to be available by May 2005.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information about Cisco Catalyst Family of switches, visit http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/index.html or contact your local account representative.
For more information about the Cisco End-of-Life Policy, go to http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/prod_end_of_life.html.
To subscribe to receive end-of-life/end-of-sale information, go to http://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/Support/FieldNoticeTool/field-notice.
