SAN JOSE, Calif. -- March 1, 1999 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced that its Catalyst. 1900 Series Ethernet switches have surpassed the 300,000 unit shipment milestone and are now more affordable than ever before. Today's announcement includes the addition of the Cisco Catalyst 1924F switch.
The new Catalyst 1924F switch, an ideal desktop Ethernet solution, combines 24 desktop Ethernet ports with two high-speed fiber uplinks. New pricing actions across the Catalyst 1900 Series translate to an exceptional list price of $48 a port for the Catalyst 1924 Standard Edition switch.
The concept for the Cisco Catalyst 1900 Series originated as the Grand Junction FastSwitch 10/100 in 1993, prior to the 1995 Cisco acquisition of Grand Junction Networks. Grand Junction Networks, the inventor and pioneer of 100BaseX Fast Ethernet, provided Cisco with an entry into the fast-moving desktop switch market. Since then, the Cisco Catalyst 1900 Series has been enhanced more than a dozen times to become the premiere 10 Mbps switch available in the market today.
"We are pleased to be recognized as the recipient of the 300,000th Cisco Catalyst 1900 switch," said Steve Williams, network administrator at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, in Santa Clara, CA. "The dozens of Catalyst 1900 switches we deploy throughout our medical center have given us a cost-effective, high-performance alternative to our older, shared media infrastructure. The switches are a critical part of our medical center's network, ensuring that we have immediate access to vital information and are able to serve our patients with the care and high level of service they have come to expect from the medical center."
"We are very pleased with customer response to our desktop switching offerings," said Larry Birenbaum, vice president and general manager of the Cisco Desktop Switching Business Unit and former engineering vice president and founder at Grand Junction Networks. "We never imagined that our invention of Fast Ethernet would drive a revolution in desktop switching. Today, we are happy to report, based on the Dell'Oro Group's latest market share numbers that we hold a leadership position in the Ethernet desktop switch market and have rapid momentum in the explosive 100 Mbps desktop switch market."
The Little Switch That Could
Available in more than 14 different configurations, the Catalyst 1900 Series is an ideal migration solution for customers with older Ethernet shared media hubs, in small to medium-sized businesses, enterprise branch offices and cost-sensitive enterprise networks. The Catalyst 1900 switch offers customers the benefits and performance of switching at the price of aging shared media technology and allows them to achieve performance upgrades, while preserving their substantial 10BaseT investments.Combined with the recently announced Catalyst 2912MF XL switch, the Catalyst 1924F offers customers a very cost-effective fiber solution for linking the wiring closet to a fiber backbone.
New Lifetime Warranty
Emphasizing Cisco's commitment to product reliability, all new and existing Catalyst 1900 and 2900 XL Series switches are covered by a limited lifetime warranty. With this new warranty coverage, demonstrating a high level of confidence in product quality, Cisco delivers support for as long as the customer owns the product.Pricing and Availability
The new Catalyst 1924F Standard Edition switch is available now at a U.S. list price starting at $1,795.The new price reductions on all Catalyst 1900 Series switches result in a U.S. list price starting at $895 for the 12 port, Catalyst 1912 Standard Edition switch, and $1,295 for the 24 port, Catalyst 1924 Standard Edition switch.
