Easy-to-Use Managed Switches That Provide the Ideal Combination of Features and Affordability
To stay ahead in a competitive marketplace, businesses need to make every dollar count. That means getting
the most value from your technology investments, but it also means making sure that employees have fast,
reliable access to the business tools and information they need. Every minute an employee waits for an
unresponsive application and every minute your network is down has an effect on your profits. The importance
of maintaining a strong and dependable business network only grows as your business adds more employees,
applications, and network complexity.
When your business needs advanced security and features but value is still a top consideration, you’re ready for
the new generation of Cisco® Small Business managed switches: the Cisco 350 Series (Figure 1).
Cisco 350 Series Switches
The Cisco 350 Series, part of the Cisco Small Business line of network solutions, is a portfolio of affordable
managed switches that provides a reliable foundation for your business network. These switches deliver the
features you need to improve the availability of your critical business applications, protect your sensitive
information, and optimize your network bandwidth to deliver information and applications more effectively. Easy
to set up and use, the Cisco 350 Series provides the ideal combination of affordability and capabilities for small
businesses and helps you create a more efficient, better-connected workforce.
The Cisco 350 Series is a broad portfolio of fixed-configuration managed Ethernet switches. Models are
available with 8 to 48 ports of Fast Ethernet and 10 to 52 ports of Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, providing
optimal flexibility to create exactly the right network foundation for your business. However, unlike other small
business switching solutions that provide managed network capabilities only in the costliest models, all Cisco
350 Series Switches support the advanced security management capabilities and network features you need to
support business-class data, voice, security, and wireless technologies. At the same time, these switches are
simple to deploy and configure, allowing you to take advantage of the managed network services your
business needs.
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 350 Series offers a solution to meet your needs. Possible deployment
scenarios include:
● Secure desktop connectivity: Cisco 350 Series Switches can simply and securely connect employees
working in small offices with each other and with all of the servers, printers, and other 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.
● Secure wireless connectivity: With its advanced security features, Power over Ethernet, Auto
Smartports, QoS, VLAN, and access control features, the Cisco 350 Series Switches are the perfect
foundation to add business-grade wireless to a business network.
● Unified communications: As a managed network solution, the Cisco 350 Series provides 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. Cisco 350 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: Cisco 350 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
Cisco 350 Series switches provide the advanced feature set that growing businesses require and that high-bandwidth applications and technologies demand. These switches can improve the availability of your critical
applications, protect your business information, and optimize your network bandwidth to more effectively
deliver information and support applications. The switches provide the following benefits.
Ease of management and deployment
Cisco 350 Series switches are designed to be easy to use and manage by commercial customers or the
partners that serve them. They feature:
● Cisco Smart Network Application (SNA) is an innovative network-level monitoring and management tool
embedded in Cisco 100 to 500 Series switches. It can discover network topology, display link status,
monitor events, apply configurations, and upgrade software images across multiple switches in the
network.
● The FindIT Network Manager and Probe are designed to manage Cisco 100 to 500 Series switches,
routers, and wireless access points. The Manager lets you proactively manage the network instead of
just reacting to events. FindIT Network Management is the perfect addition to your business network. For
more information, visit https://www.cisco.com/go/findit.
● The Cisco FindIT Network Discovery Utility works through a simple toolbar on your web browser to
discover Cisco devices on the network and display basic device information, inventory, and new
firmware updates to aid in the configuration and speed the deployment of Cisco Small Business
products. For more information, visit https://www.cisco.com/go/findit.
● The USB port on the front panel of the switch enables easy image and configuration transfer for faster
deployment or upgrade.
● Simple-to-use graphical 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 Textview, a full Command-Line Interface (CLI) option for partners that
prefer it.
● Using Auto Smartports intelligence, the switch can detect a network device connected to any port and
automatically configure the optimal security, Quality of Service (QoS), and availability on that port.
● Cisco Discovery Protocol discovers Cisco devices and allows devices to share critical configuration
information, simplifying network setup and integration.
● 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.
High reliability and resiliency
In a growing business where availability 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is critical, you need to assure that
employees can always access the data and resources they need. The Cisco 350 Series supports dual images,
allowing you to perform software upgrades without having to take the network offline or worry about the
network going down during the upgrade.
Strong security
Cisco 350 Series switches provide the advanced security features you need to protect your business data and
keep unauthorized users off the network:
● Embedded Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption protects management data traveling to and from the
switch.
● Extensive Access Control Lists (ACLs) restrict sensitive portions of the network to keep out unauthorized
users and guard against network attacks.
● Guest VLANs let you provide Internet connectivity to nonemployee users while isolating critical business
services from guest traffic.
● Support for advanced network security applications such as IEEE 802.1X 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 IEEE
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 the advanced threat protection to IPv6. This comprehensive security
suite includes ND inspection, 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.
● Time-based ACLs and port operation restrict access to the network during predesignated times such as
business hours.
● Uniform MAC address-based security can be applied automatically to mobile users as they roam
between wireless access points.
● Secure Core Technology (SCT) helps ensure that the switch is able to process management traffic in the
face of a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack.
● Private VLAN Edge (PVE) provides Layer 2 isolation between devices on the same VLAN.
● Storm control can be applied to broadcast, multicast, and unknown unicast traffic.
● Protection of management sessions occurs using RADIUS, TACACS+, and local database authentication
as well as secure management sessions over SSL, SSH, and SNMPv3.
● DoS attack prevention maximizes network uptime in the presence of an attack.
Power over Ethernet
Cisco 350 Series Switches are available with up to 48 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 communications technologies more quickly and at
a lower cost. Models support 802.3af PoE, 802.3at PoE+, and 60 Watt PoE.
Multigigabit performance
Network needs are changing quickly. Thanks to evolving wireless standards and the rising number of wireless
devices, keeping up with data rates and growing traffic can be a challenge. Your traditional Ethernet
infrastructure can support speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps), but competing today requires much more
capacity. One option is completely replacing your older cabling infrastructure and upgrading your hardware. But
wouldn’t it be better to increase network speed and traffic capacity in a way that’s quick, inexpensive, and
efficient?
Cisco’s new Multigigabit Ethernet switches offer just that: an easy-to-deploy, budget-friendly solution that
allows you to increase network speed and bandwidth using your existing cables. By partnering with other
industry leaders to form the NBASE-T Alliance, Cisco uses NBASE-T technology to help you get more out of
your existing infrastructure. Save time and money by avoiding upgrades and extending the life of your installed
cable plants. And discover the benefits of meeting consumer demand for increased bandwidth and speeds
without a large initial investment.
Multigigabit Ethernet technology uses capabilities in your existing cabling infrastructure to meet bandwidth
requirements and provide up to five times the performance. The technology enables intermediate data rates of
2.5 and 5 Gbps to ease the jump between traditional rates of 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps. These intermediate rates
run on most installed cables and preserve older UTP wiring, which is good for 802.11ac wireless LAN
applications.
The technology also supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) forms, including PoE+ and 60W PoE. Cisco
Multigigabit Ethernet switches help you avoid having to run multiple cables between switches and access points
and let your networks welcome next-generation traffic speeds and data rates.
Networkwide automatic voice deployment
Using a combination of Cisco Discovery Protocol, LLDP-MED, Auto Smartports, and Voice Services Discovery
Protocol (or VSDP, a unique Cisco protocol), customers can deploy an end-to-end voice network dynamically.
The switches in the network automatically converge around a single voice VLAN and QoS parameters and then
propagate them out to the phones on the ports, where they are discovered. For example, automated voice
VLAN capabilities let you plug any IP phone (including third-party phones) into your IP telephony network and
receive an immediate dial tone. The switch automatically configures the device with the right VLAN and QoS
parameters to prioritize voice traffic.
IPv6 support
As the IP address scheme evolves to accommodate a growing number of network devices, the Cisco 350
Series can support the transition to the next generation of networking and operating systems such as Windows
8, Vista, and Linux. 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. Cisco 350 Series switches have successfully completed rigorous IPv6
testing and have received the USGv6 and IPv6 Gold certification.
Advanced layer 3 traffic management
The Cisco 350 Series enables a more advanced set of traffic management capabilities to help growing
businesses organize their networks more effectively and efficiently. For example, the switches provide static
LAN Layer 3 routing, allowing you to segment your network into workgroups and communicate across VLANs
without degrading application performance.
With these capabilities, you can boost the efficiency of your network by offloading internal traffic-handling tasks
from your router and allowing it to manage primarily external traffic and security.
Power efficiency
The Cisco 350 Series integrates 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 protects the environment and reduce your energy costs. They provide an
eco-friendly network solution without compromising performance. Cisco 350 Series 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
● The latest Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs)
● Automatic power shutoff on ports when a link is down
● LEDs that can be turned off to save power
● Embedded intelligence to adjust signal strength based on the length of the connecting cable
Expansion ports
The Cisco 350 Series provides more ports per Gigabit Ethernet switch than traditional switch models, giving you
more flexibility to connect and empower your business. Gigabit Ethernet models offer 28 to 52 ports to give you
more value, versus the 24-port or 48-port varieties with four shared ports that’s common in the market. The
Cisco 350 Series also offers small form-factor pluggable (SFP) expansion slots that give you the option to add
fiber-optic or Gigabit Ethernet uplink connectivity to the switch. With the ability to increase the connectivity
range of the switches, you have more flexibility to design your network around your unique business
environment and to easily connect switches on different floors or across the business.
Peace of mind and investment protection
Cisco 350 Series switches offer the reliable performance and peace of mind you expect from a Cisco switch.
When you invest in the Cisco 350 Series, you gain the benefits of:
● Limited lifetime warranty with Next-Business-Day (NBD) advance replacement (where available;
otherwise same day ship).
● A solution that has been rigorously tested to help ensure optimal network uptime to keep employees
connected to primary resources and productive.
● A solution designed and tested to easily and fully integrate with other Cisco voice, unified
communications, security, and networking products as part of a comprehensive technology platform for
your business.
● Complimentary software updates for bug fixes for the warranty term. To download software updates, go
to https://software.cisco.com/download/home.
● Telephone technical support at no charge for the first 12 months following the date of purchase.
● Product warranty terms and other information applicable to Cisco products are available at
https://www.cisco.com/go/warranty.
● Cisco Small Business products are supported by professionals in Cisco Small Business Support Center
locations worldwide who are specifically trained to understand your needs. The Cisco Small Business
Support Community, an online forum, enables you to collaborate with your peers and reach Cisco
technical experts for support information.
Cisco limited lifetime hardware warranty
Cisco 350 Series switches offer a limited lifetime hardware warranty with NBD advance replacement
(where available; otherwise same day ship) and a limited lifetime warranty for fans and power supplies.
In addition, Cisco offers software application updates for bug fixes for the warranty term and telephone
technical support at no charge for the first 12 months following the date of purchase. To download software
updates, go to https://software.cisco.com/download/home.
Product warranty terms and other information applicable to Cisco products are available at
https://www.cisco.com/go/warranty.
World-class service and support
Your time is valuable, especially when you have a problem affecting your business. Cisco 350 Series switches
are backed by Cisco SMARTnet® Total Care™ which provides affordable peace-of-mind coverage. Delivered by
Cisco and backed by your trusted partner, this comprehensive service includes software updates and access to
the Cisco Support Center, and it extends technical service to three years.
Cisco SMB products are supported by professionals in the Cisco Support Center, a dedicated resource for
small business customers and networks, with locations worldwide that are specifically trained to understand
your needs. You also have access to extensive technical and product information through the Cisco Support
Community, an online forum that enables you to collaborate with your peers and reach Cisco technical experts
for support information.
