Data Sheet
Cisco ESW 500 Series Switches
Small Business Pro
A Cost-Effective, High-Performance Network Foundation to Keep Your Business Moving
In a world that never slows down, your business needs to keep moving. That means keeping employees connected
at all times -- to each other and to the business applications they need to do their jobs. Imagine a network that
provides a single, high-performance platform for all of your business applications. Where your employees don’t have
to worry about reduced productivity because the network is down or because a vital application is unavailable or
running too slowly. Imagine being able to manage your entire network platform from a single interface, and being
able to easily add new data, voice, video, and wireless applications as your business evolves.
Cisco offers a network switch for small businesses that can make this vision a reality. The Cisco® ESW 500 Series
Switches are cost-effective, easy-to-use switches that provide the foundation of your small business network. These
high-performance switches deliver the reliability you need to keep your employees connected and productive,
preserving the availability of your essential applications and services to keep your business moving.
Cisco ESW 500 Series Switches
The Cisco ESW 500 Series, part of the Cisco Small Business Pro Series, is a group of managed Ethernet switches
that provide wire-speed Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, integrated security, quality of service (QoS),
and Power over Ethernet (PoE) to support all of your business network needs. These switches integrate easily with
other Cisco Small Business Pro Series products as well as the Cisco Smart Business Communications System to
provide a complete data, voice, video, and wireless networking solution for your business. With the Cisco ESW 500
Series, you can take advantage of a proven network solution and a broad portfolio of high-performance, easy-tomanage switches that are designed and priced for small businesses.
Figure 1 shows the portfolio of Cisco ESW 500 Series Switches.
Figure 1. Cisco ESW 500 Series Switches
© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 1 of 9
Data Sheet
Cisco ESW 500 Series Deployment Scenarios
Figure 2 highlights application scenarios for which the different models of the Cisco ESW 500 Series are well suited.
Figure 2. Sample Deployments of the Cisco ESW 500 Series
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Move beyond your traditional phone system: The Cisco Smart Business Communications System lets you
transform your business by bringing together all of your communications onto a single network. The ESW 500
Series works hand in hand with Smart Business Communications System products, such as the
Communications 500 Series for Small Business. Together, the solution lets you support all of your company’s
phone calls, messaging, and data. Your employees can be more productive, and you can save money by
managing and paying for just one network.
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Securely extend network access with wireless: The ESW 500 Series Switches can connect and power
your wireless access points while supporting robust security and identity services to protect your wireless
environment. By choosing ESW 500 Series Switches with both PoE and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, you
can easily integrate the Cisco AP 541N Dual Band 802.11n Clustering Access Point into your network. This
access point features advanced wireless technologies such as 802.11n and extends the life of your wireless
technology investment.
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Connect your small business: The Cisco ESW 500 Series Switches meet the needs of a range of small
businesses. The 10/100 Fast Ethernet switches can provide outstanding desktop connectivity in small
networks to connect computers, printers, and servers. They are well suited to new businesses that are
starting up or businesses that previously used basic, unmanaged switches but now require support for
additional features such as QoS traffic prioritization and advanced security. The Gigabit Ethernet switches in
the Cisco ESW 500 Series can go even further, helping you achieve optimal performance from your desktop
computers, servers, and other shared devices with Fast or Gigabit Ethernet connectivity.
Cisco Unified
Features and Benefits
The Cisco ESW 500 Series Switches provide security, management, and other capabilities far beyond what
unmanaged or smart switches can provide, without requiring you to configure (or pay for) features you don’t need.
The switches are designed to be part of the complete line of Cisco Small Business Pro Series networking and voice
communications products that work together as part of a proven, fully integrated, easy-to-use small business
solution. The Cisco ESW 500 Series provides:
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Outstanding performance: The Cisco ESW 500 Series supports up to Gigabit Ethernet speeds to deliver
optimal network performance, enabling you to add high-bandwidth data, voice, video, and wireless
applications. Ultimately, the switches give you the ability to meet more rigorous application demands and help
ensure that your employees always have access to the tools they need to be responsive to your customers
and each other.
© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 2 of 9
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High reliability: Cisco ESW 500 Series Switches have been developed and rigorously tested to provide
reliable connectivity and performance, especially when supporting advanced voice, video, and wireless
services. They also support an optional redundant power supply that provides uninterrupted failover to help
ensure continuous operation, without the need to reboot, even if the primary power supply fails. These
features help you keep your network available, prevent costly downtime, and keep your employees and
customers connected to the applications they need.
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Power over Ethernet: Cisco ESW 500 Series Switches are available with up to 48 PoE ports of Fast
Ethernet and 24 PoE ports of Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. PoE allows you to power network-attached
devices such as IP phones, video cameras, and wireless access points directly over the Ethernet connection,
without an external power supply. The result is a simpler and less expensive deployment, without the need to
install a separate power supply for each connected endpoint.
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Quality of service: Cisco ESW 500 Series Switches feature QoS intelligence to prioritize delay-sensitive and
high-bandwidth network traffic, enhancing network performance and allowing businesses to support
demanding services such as real-time voice and video.
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Simple configuration and management: Cisco ESW 500 Series Switches are designed to be configured
and managed by small businesses or the Cisco partners that serve them. Whether you are installing a single
switch or an advanced voice and video communications system, simple graphical user interfaces (GUIs) help
your staff easily configure, manage, and troubleshoot your network. The Cisco ESW 500 Series includes an
embedded web-based configuration utility designed specifically for setting up the ESW 500 switch (Figure 3).
Data Sheet
Figure 3. Cisco ESW 500 Configuration Utility
For systemwide deployments, you can use the Cisco Configuration Assistant, a GUI-based application that
configures all of the devices that are part of the Small Business Pro Series as well as the Cisco Smart Business
Communications System. Both the embedded Configuration Utility and Cisco Configuration Assistant feature Cisco
Discovery Protocol to automatically discover all Cisco devices and allow them to share information about one
another. The tools also employ Cisco Smartports technology, which provides preset options for quickly configuring
all ports on a Cisco ESW 500 Series Switch, including QoS and security features (Figure 4). Once the network is
deployed, Cisco Configuration Assistant can generate status reports, synchronize passwords, and upgrade software
across all of your Cisco network devices. All of these features reduce the time and effort your staff must devote to
network deployment and troubleshooting, so that they can focus on your business priorities. Cisco Configuration
Assistant is available for download free of charge at
http://www.cisco.com/go/configassist.
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