The Cisco Catalyst 1300/X Series Switches are fixed, managed, enterprise-class Layer 3 switches designed for small and medium-sized business and branch offices. These simple, flexible, and secure switches are ideal for deployment out of the wiring closet. The Catalyst 1300/X Series operates on customized Linux OS software, with an intuitive dashboard that simplifies network setup and advanced features that accelerate digital transformation, while pervasive security protects business-critical transactions. The 1300/X Series switches provide the ideal combination of affordability and capabilities for branches and growing networks and help you create a more efficient, better-connected workforce. When your business needs advanced networking features and security for the digital transformation, yet value is still a top consideration, you’re ready for the Cisco Catalyst 1300/X Series Switches.

Business applications

Whether you need a basic high-performance network to connect employee computers or a solution to deliver data, voice, and video services, the Cisco Catalyst 1300/X Series Switches offer a solution to meet your needs. Possible deployment scenarios include:

●     Secure office connectivity: The 1300/X Series switches can simply and securely connect employees working in branch offices with each other and with all of the servers, printers, and other networking devices they use. High performance and reliable connectivity help speed file transfers and data processing, improve network uptime, and keep your employees connected and productive.

●     Unified communications: As a managed network solution, the 1300/X Series switches provide the performance and advanced traffic-handling intelligence you need to deliver all communications and data over a single network. Cisco offers a complete portfolio of IP telephony and other unified communications products designed for businesses. The 1300/X Series switches have been rigorously tested to help ensure easy integration and full compatibility with these and other products, providing a complete business solution.

●     Highly secure guest connectivity: The 1300/X Series switches let you extend highly secure network connectivity to guests in a variety of settings, such as a hotel, an office waiting room, or any other area open to nonemployee users. Using powerful but easy-to-configure security and traffic segmentation capabilities, you can isolate your vital business traffic from guest services and keep guests’ network sessions private from each other.

Features and benefits

The Cisco Catalyst 1300/X Series Switches provide the advanced feature set that growing businesses require and that high-bandwidth applications and technologies demand. They provide the following benefits.

Ease of management and deployment

The 1300/X Series switches are designed to be easy to use and manage by commercial customers or the partners that serve them, including the following features:

●     The Cisco Business Dashboard is designed to manage Cisco Business switches, Cisco Catalyst 1200 and 1300/X Series switches, routers, and wireless access points. It simplifies traditional challenges in deploying and managing business networks while automating the deployment, monitoring, and lifecycle management of the network. It features an integrated AI Assistant to further streamline network management with intelligent insights and support. The 1300/X Series switches support an embedded probe as well as direct management, eliminating the need to set up a separate hardware or virtual machine onsite. The device onboarding wizard simplifies the setup and onboarding of new devices to the network. For more information, visit https://www.cisco.com/go/cbd.

●     The Cisco Network Plug and Play solution provides a simple, secure, unified, and integrated offering to ease new device rollouts or for provisioning updates to an existing network. The solution provides a unified approach to provisioning Cisco routers, switches, and wireless devices with a near-zero-touch deployment experience.

●     The intuitive user interfaces reduce the time required to deploy, troubleshoot, and manage the network and allow you to support sophisticated capabilities without increasing IT head count.

●     The switches also support text view, a full Command-Line Interface (CLI) option for partners that prefer it.

●     Support for Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) allows you to set up and manage your switches and other Cisco devices remotely from a network management station, improving IT workflow and mass configurations.

●     The switches support an external Bluetooth dongle that plugs into the USB port on the switch and allows a Bluetooth-based RF connection with external laptops and tablets (Figure 2,3). Laptops and tablets can access the switch CLI using a Telnet or Secure Shell (SSH) client over Bluetooth. The GUI can be accessed over Bluetooth with a browser.

High reliability and resiliency

In a branch office or a growing business where availability 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is critical, you need to provide business continuity and ensure that employees can always access the data and resources they need. The Cisco Catalyst 1300/X Series Switches support dual images, allowing you to perform software upgrades with minimal network downtime.

Strong security

The Cisco Catalyst 1300/X Series Switches provide the advanced security features you need to protect your business data and keep unauthorized users off the network:

●     Support for advanced network security applications such as IEEE 802.1X and port security tightly limits access to specific segments of your network. Web-based authentication provides a consistent interface to authenticate all types of host devices and operating systems, without the complexity of deploying 802.1X clients on each endpoint.

●     Advanced defense mechanisms, including dynamic Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) inspection, IP Source Guard, and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) snooping, detect and block deliberate network attacks. Combinations of these protocols are also referred to as IP/MAC/port binding (IPMB).

●     IPv6 First Hop Security extends advanced threat protection to IPv6. This comprehensive security suite includes Neighbor Discovery (ND) inspection, Router Advertisement (RA) guard, DHCPv6 guard, and neighbor binding integrity check, providing unparalleled protection against a vast range of address spoofing and man-in-the-middle attacks on IPv6 networks.

Power over Ethernet

The Cisco Catalyst 1300 Series Switches are available with up to 48 Power over Ethernet (PoE) ports. This capability simplifies advanced technology deployments such as IP telephony, wireless, and IP surveillance by allowing you to connect and power network endpoints over a single Ethernet cable. With no need to install separate power supplies for IP phones or wireless access points, you can take advantage of advanced communication technologies more quickly and at a lower cost. Models support 802.3af PoE and 802.3at PoE+.

The Cisco Catalyst 1300X Series Switches include select models that support up to 10 x 60W PoE++ (802.3BT) ports. This enhanced capability enables you to power demanding devices—such as full-featured Wi-Fi 7 access points—directly through a single Ethernet cable. By delivering up to 60 watts per port, the Catalyst 1300X Series makes it easier and more cost-effective to deploy the latest wireless and IoT technologies without the need for additional power supplies. This simplifies your network setup and supports the growing power requirements of advanced business applications. Models support 802.3at PoE+ and 802.3bt 60W PoE++.

IPv6 support

As the IP address scheme evolves to accommodate a growing number of network devices, the Cisco Catalyst 1300/X Series Switches can support the transition to the next generation of networking. These switches continue to support previous-generation IPv4, allowing you to evolve to the new IPv6 standard at your own pace and helping ensure that your current network will continue to support your business applications in the future.

Advanced Layer 3 traffic management

The Cisco Catalyst 1300/X Series Switches provide a comprehensive suite of advanced Layer 3 traffic management capabilities to support the needs of growing networks and expanding branch offices. Both series offer dynamic Layer 3 routing, allowing you to segment your network into workgroups, facilitate seamless communication across VLANs, and maintain strong application performance. These features help boost network efficiency by offloading internal traffic-handling tasks from your router, enabling it to focus on managing external traffic and security.

The Catalyst 1300X Series builds on this foundation by adding support for OSPF (Open Shortest Path First), an advanced routing protocol that automatically determines the most efficient paths for network traffic. OSPF’s main advantage is its rapid convergence and adaptability, ensuring your network remains resilient and high-performing as it grows and evolves.

By combining dynamic Layer 3 routing with OSPF, the Catalyst 1300X Series delivers even greater flexibility and reliability for business-critical communication.

Front Panel Stacking

The Cisco Catalyst 1300/X Series Switches both provide Front Panel Stacking for up to eight switches, enabling you to configure, manage, and troubleshoot your entire stack as a single unit with a single IP address. While both series simplify network administration and scalability, the Catalyst 1300X Series enhances this experience with increased stacking bandwidth. This higher bandwidth delivers faster data transfer between stacked switches, ensuring superior network performance and supporting more demanding business applications as your network grows.

This stack delivers a unified data and control plane, in addition to the management plane, providing flexibility, scalability, and ease of use because the stack of units operates as a single entity constituting all the ports of the stack members. This capability can radically reduce complexity in a growing network environment while improving the resiliency and availability of network applications. Front Panel Stacking also provides other cost savings and administrative benefits through features such as cross-stack Quality of Service (QoS), VLANs, Link Aggregation (LAG), and port mirroring, which clustered switches cannot support.

Compact design

The sleek and compact design for the Cisco Catalyst 1300/X Series Switches provides additional deployment flexibility, including installation outside the wiring closet for sites such as retail stores, open-plan offices, and classrooms without disturbing the environment.

Power efficiency

The Cisco Catalyst 1300/X Series Switches integrate a variety of power-saving features across all models, providing the industry’s most extensive energy-efficient switching portfolio. These switches are designed to conserve energy by optimizing power use, which helps protect the environment and reduce your energy costs. They provide an eco-friendly network solution without compromising performance. The switches feature:

●     Support for the Energy Efficient Ethernet (IEEE 802.3az) standard, which reduces energy consumption by monitoring the amount of traffic on an active link and putting the link into a sleep state during quiet periods.

●     Automatic power shutoff on ports when a link is down.

●     Embedded intelligence to adjust signal strength based on the length of the connecting cable.

●     Fanless design in most models, which reduces power consumption, increases reliability, and provides quieter operation.

Peace of mind and investment protection

The Cisco Catalyst 1300/X Series Switches offer the reliable performance and peace of mind you expect from a Cisco switch. They have been rigorously tested to help ensure optimal network uptime and provide business continuity. Complimentary one-year access to our Small Business Support Center for ongoing support and a limited lifetime warranty with Return-To-Factory (RTF) replacement help keep your business running smoothly.