Making a Splash: Catalyst IE3400 Heavy Duty Switch Series

Last month at Cisco Live U.S., we announced our new Catalyst IE3400 Heavy Duty Switch Series offering the Catalyst intelligence, manageability and security features that our customers know and love. But this series has been designed for even the harshest environments. IP67-rated for water and dust resistance, the Catalyst IE3400 Heavy Duty Switch Series is also hardened to withstand extreme temperature exposure, and severe shock and vibration. And it can be mounted in harsh environments without a cabinet.

To bring those benefits to life, we made a literal splash with the product at Cisco Live with an exciting demo in our launch zone. Throughout the event, we featured a live stream of visitors checking out the demo. Here’s the big splash: The video feed was powered by a network running on a Catalyst IE3400 – while a unit of the new switch was submerged under water!

The demo attracted a lot of attention and sparked some great conversations. For one thing, it offered powerful evidence that Catalyst IE3400 Heavy Duty Switches can withstand demanding conditions – including plant floors in manufacturing environments. We designed this industrial ethernet platform with manufacturing plants in mind, and my discussions throughout the event affirmed that manufacturing customers are excited about what we have created.

While manufacturing environments may remain the most popular destination for this product, I was thrilled at the number of customers who brainstormed other use cases with me.

For example, several network engineers from institutions of higher education expressed enthusiasm about the platform. They told me about some of their challenges in keeping rugged parts of their campuses – such as sports stadiums and farming areas – on the network. While they have devised workarounds to overcome moisture, temperature and humidity challenges, they were excited about this new option. Similarly, IT leaders from the professional sports industry told me how much they would appreciate having this product in their team’s hockey arena – where melting ice can be a nuisance to the network.

Beyond those examples, I heard from attendees with network deployments in arid areas prone to dust storms that in many cases, it becomes necessary to vacuum their network hardware every couple of weeks to ensure that it keeps running. With the Catalyst IE3400 Heavy Duty Switch Series, they could have a secure connectivity– without that biweekly “housecleaning.”

As my encounters at Cisco Live demonstrate, this is a product with many use cases and more to come! Dive into the details to learn more about what makes the Catalyst IE3400 Heavy Duty Switch Series special – and let us know how we can support an innovative use case within YOUR organization.