Managed switches that provide the ideal combination of features and affordability
To stay ahead in a competitive marketplace, small 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 impact on your bottom
line. 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 affordability and value are key, you’re ready
for the new generation of Cisco® Small Business managed switches: the Cisco 350X Series.
Cisco 350X Series Stackable Managed Switches
The Cisco 350X Series Stackable Managed Switches (Figure 1) are a new line of stackable managed
Ethernet switches that provide the rich capabilities you need to support a more demanding network
environment at a very affordable price. The SG350X models provide 8 to 48 ports of Gigabit and Multigigabit
Ethernet connectivity with 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks. The SX350X models provide 8, 12, 24, or 48 ports of
10 Gigabit Ethernet, providing a solid foundation and more than enough bandwidth for your business
applications today and in the future. These switches are easy to deploy and manage without a large IT staff.
Figure 1.
Cisco 350X Series Stackable Managed Switches
Cisco 350X Series switches are designed to protect your technology investment as your business grows.
Unlike switches that claim to be stackable but have elements that require separate administration and
troubleshooting, the Cisco 350X Series provides true stacking capability, allowing you to configure, manage,
and troubleshoot multiple physical switches as a single device and more easily expand your network.
A true stack delivers a unified data and control plane, in addition to a management plane, providing flexibility,
scalability, and ease of use because the stack of units operates as a single entity. The switches also protect
your technology investment with an enhanced warranty, dedicated technical support, and the ability to
upgrade equipment in the future. Overall, the Cisco 350X Series provides the ideal technology foundation for
a growing business.
Features and benefits
Cisco 350X Series switches provide the advanced feature set that growing businesses and high-bandwidth
applications and technologies require. 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.
High-performance 10 Gigabit Ethernet
Cisco 350X Series switches break the barrier of 10 Gigabit Ethernet adoption by providing affordable and
powerful features for growing small and medium-sized business networks. With the 10G ports in both
copper and fiber, you can easily and cost-effectively enable 10G connections to servers and network
storage devices with standard RJ-45 Ethernet cables. You can also aggregate 10G Enhanced Small FormFactor Pluggable (SFP+) fiber connections to build a high-performance backbone to dramatically increase
the overall speed of your network.
Multigigabit performance
Network needs are changing quickly. With 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 of up to 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps), but competing today requires much
more capacity. One option is to completely replace your older cabling infrastructure and upgrade your
hardware. But wouldn’t it be better to increase network speed and traffic capacity in a way that’s quick,
inexpensive, and efficient?
Multigigabit Ethernet technology uses capabilities in your existing cabling infrastructure to meet bandwidth
requirements and provide up to five times the performance of a 1G switch. The technology enables
intermediate data rates of 2.5 and 5 Gbps to ease the jump from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps. These intermediate
rates run on most installed cables and preserve older Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) wiring, which is good
for 802.11ac and 802.11ax wireless LAN applications.
The technology also supports Power over Ethernet (PoE), 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.
Easy configuration and management
Cisco 350X Series switches are designed to be easy to use and easy to manage by small business
customers or the partners that serve them.
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Smart Network Application (SNA) is an innovative network-level monitoring and management tool
embedded in the 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. They let you proactively manage the network instead of just
reacting to events. Cisco 350X Series switches support the embedded FindIT Network Probe,
eliminating the need to set up a separate hardware or virtual machine on site. For more information,
visit https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/cloud-systems-management/findit-network-
management/index.html.
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The FindIT Network Discovery Utility works through a simple toolbar on the user’s 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/c/en/us/products/cloud-systems-
Simple or advanced-mode Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) reduce the time required to deploy,
troubleshoot, and manage the network. Configuration wizards simplify the most common configuration
tasks and provide the ultimate tool for anyone to set up and manage the network.
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Cisco Smartports technology provides more advanced capabilities and hands-on control by
automatically configuring ports with specific levels of security, Quality of Service (QoS), and availability
according to the type of connected device, based on Cisco best practices and pretested
configurations. The Auto Smartports feature automatically applies the intelligence delivered through
the Smartports roles to the port based on the device types discovered over Cisco Discovery Protocol
or Link Layer Discovery Protocol Media Endpoint Discovery (LLDP-MED). This capability facilitates
zero-touch deployments.
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The USB port on the front panel of the switch enables easy image and configuration transfer for faster
deployment or upgrades.
Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+) and 60W PoE
PoE technology simplifies the deployment of IP phones and wireless access points by allowing you to
connect and power network endpoints over a single Ethernet cable, without having to install separate power
supplies. The 350X Series switches support 15W PoE and 30W PoE+. The switches also support 60W PoE
on selected ports to power compact switches, high-power wireless access points, or connected lighting.
The PoE power is intelligently managed such that only the amount of power needed by an endpoint is
delivered to it and none is wasted. As a result, the switches can support devices that require more power,
such as 802.11ac wireless access points, video-based IP phones, surveillance cameras, and more. The PoE
features in the 350X Series switches are also fully backward compatible with 802.3af PoE, 802.3at PoE+,
and Cisco legacy PoE protocols.
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. In these environments, stackable switches
can play an important role in eliminating downtime and improving network resiliency. For example, if a switch
within a Cisco 350X Series stack fails, another switch immediately takes over, keeping your network up and
running. You can also replace individual devices in the stack without taking your network offline or affecting
employee productivity.
The Cisco 350X Series also 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.
Cisco 350X Series switches help optimize your IT operations with built-in features that simplify and
streamline day-to-day network operation:
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True stacking allows you to troubleshoot, configure, and manage multiple physical switches as a
single entity.
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Cisco switches use common chipsets and software across all switching portfolios, so all Cisco
switches within a category support the same feature set, making it easier to manage and support all
switches across the network.
True stacking
Some switches claim to support stacking, but they only support “clustering” or “virtual stacking,” which
means each switch must still be managed and configured individually. They cannot be managed as a single
entity or device. Cisco 350X Series switches provide true horizontal stacking, enabling you to configure,
manage, and troubleshoot multiple physical switches as a single device, with a single IP address, for up to
four units and up to 208 ports.
A true horizontal stack delivers a unified data and control plane, in addition to a 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. True stacking also
provides other cost savings and administrative benefits through features such as cross-stack QoS, Virtual
LANs (VLANs), Link Aggregation Groups (LAGs), and port mirroring, which clustered switches can’t support.
Strong security
Cisco 350X Series switches provide the advanced security features you need to protect your business data
and keep unauthorized users off the network:
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Embedded Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption protects management data traveling to and from
the switch.
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Extensive Access Control Lists (ACLs) restrict sensitive portions of the network to keep out
unauthorized users and guard against network attacks.
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Guest VLANs let you provide Internet connectivity to nonemployee users while isolating critical
business services from guest traffic.
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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 802.1X clients on each endpoint.
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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).
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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.
Time-based ACLs and port operation restrict access to the network during predesignated times such
as business hours.
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Uniform MAC address-based security can be applied automatically to mobile users as they roam
between wireless access points.
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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.
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Private VLAN Edge (PVE) provides Layer 2 isolation between devices on the same VLAN.
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Storm control can be applied to broadcast, multicast, and unknown unicast traffic.
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Protection of management sessions occurs using RADIUS, TACACS+, and local database
authentication as well as secure management sessions over SSL, Secure Shell (SSH), and Simple
Network Management Protocol (SNMP) v3.
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DoS attack prevention maximizes network uptime in the presence of an attack.
IPv6 support
As the IP address scheme evolves to accommodate a growing number of network devices, the Cisco 350X
Series can support the transition to the next generation of networking and operating systems such as
Windows 7, 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 350X Series switches have successfully
completed rigorous IPv6 testing and have received the USGv6 and IPv6 Gold certification.
Advanced Layer 3 traffic management
The Cisco 350X Series enables a more advanced set of traffic management capabilities to help growing
businesses organize their networks more effectively and efficiently. 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 350X 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 350X Series switches
feature:
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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
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The latest Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), which use low-power 28-nanometer
technology and low-power, high-performance ARM CPUs
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Automatic power shutoff on ports when a link is down
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LEDs that can be turned off to save power
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Embedded intelligence to adjust signal strength based on the length of the connecting cable
Using a combination of Cisco Discovery Protocol, LLDP-MED, Auto Smartports, and Voice Services
Discovery Protocol (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.
Peace of mind and investment protection
Cisco 350X Series switches offer the reliable performance and peace of mind you expect from a Cisco
switch. When you invest in the Cisco 350X Series, you gain the benefit of:
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Limited lifetime warranty with Next-Business-Day (NBD) advance replacement (where available;
otherwise same day shipping)
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A solution that has been rigorously tested to help ensure optimal network uptime to keep employees
connected to primary resources and productive
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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
Cisco limited lifetime hardware warranty
Cisco 350X Series switches offer a limited lifetime hardware warranty with NBD advance replacement (where
available; otherwise same day shipping) 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/navigator.html.
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 350X Series
switches are backed by the Cisco Smart Net Total Care® Service, which provides affordable peace-of-mind
coverage. This subscription-based service helps you protect your investment and derive maximum value
from Cisco Small Business products. 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 Small Business 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.
Standard 802.1d spanning tree support
Fast convergence using 802.1w (Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol [RSTP]), enabled by default
Multiple spanning tree instances using 802.1s (MSTP); 8 instances are supported
Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus (PVST+); 126 instances are supported
Rapid PVST+ (RPVST+); 126 instances are supported
Support for IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)
● Up to 8 groups
● Up to 8 ports per group with 16 candidate ports for each (dynamic) 802.3ad LAG
VLAN
Support for up to 4094 active VLANs simultaneously; port-based and 802.1Q tag-based
VLANs; MAC-based VLAN
Management VLAN
Private VLAN with promiscuous, isolated, and community port
Guest VLAN, unauthenticated VLAN, protocol-based VLAN, IP subnet-based VLAN, CPE
VLAN
Dynamic VLAN assignment using RADIUS server along with 802.1X client authentication
Voice VLAN
Voice traffic is automatically assigned to a voice-specific VLAN and treated with
appropriate levels of QoS. Auto voice capabilities deliver networkwide zero-touch
deployment of voice endpoints and call control devices
Multicast TV VLAN
Multicast TV VLAN allows the single multicast VLAN to be shared in the network while
subscribers remain in separate VLANs. This feature is also known as Multicast VLAN
Registration (MVR)
VLAN translation
Support for VLAN One-to-One Mapping. In VLAN One-to-One Mapping, on an edge
interface, Customer VLANs (C-VLANs) are mapped to service provider VLANs (S-VLANs)
and the original C-VLAN tags are replaced by the specified S-VLAN
Q-in-Q
VLANs transparently cross over a service provider network while isolating traffic among
customers
Selective Q-in-Q
Selective Q-in-Q is an enhancement to the basic Q-in-Q feature and provides, per edge
interface, multiple mappings of different C-VLANs to separate S-VLANs
Selective Q-in-Q also allows configuration of the EtherType (TPID) of the S-VLAN tag
Layer 2 protocol tunneling over Q-in-Q is also supported
GVRP/GARP
Generic VLAN Registration Protocol (GVRP) and Generic Attribute Registration Protocol
(GARP) enable automatic propagation and configuration of VLANs in a bridged domain
UDLD
Unidirectional Link Detection (UDLD) monitors physical connections to detect unidirectional
links caused by incorrect wiring or port faults to prevent forwarding loops and blackholing
of traffic in switched networks
DHCP relay at Layer 2
Relay of DHCP traffic to a DHCP server in a different VLAN. Works with DHCP option 82
IGMP (versions 1, 2, and 3)
snooping
Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) limits bandwidth-intensive multicast traffic to
only the requesters; it supports 4000 multicast groups (source-specific multicasting is also
supported)
IGMP querier
Used to support a Layer 2 multicast domain of snooping switches in the absence of a
multicast router