Cisco introduced new Catalyst access and core switches at Cisco Live US, and the access-layer numbers are the ones security designers should note: the Catalyst 9350-48HX carries a 4320W PoE budget, enough to deliver the full 90W of 802.3bt Type 4 power on all 48 copper ports simultaneously.
Why full-budget PoE matters for security networks
PoE budgets are where security estimates quietly fail. A switch that offers 90W “per port” but cannot fund it across the chassis forces spreadsheet gymnastics once PTZ cameras with heaters, multi-sensor units, video-capable intercoms, and Wi-Fi 7 access points stack onto the same closet. A full-budget switch removes the math: every port can power the worst-case device. For Canadian exterior deployments, where camera heaters push winter power draw to the top of the 802.3bt range, that headroom is the difference between a clean design and a mid-project surprise.
The 9350 series stacks up to eight units for 1.6 Tbit/s of throughput and offers an optional SSD up to 240GB for running container workloads on the switch itself.
The core side
The new Catalyst 9550 core series scales to 96x50G plus 4x400G ports on the top C9550-96L4D model, with 6.4 Tbit/s of full-duplex capacity. Both series add MACsec and IPsec link encryption, hardware-ready BGP-EVPN, and agentic AI features aimed at autonomous network remediation.
The read
Video keeps pushing camera counts and per-device power upward, and the access layer is where it lands. If a project is specifying switching this year for a camera-heavy campus, full 802.3bt budgets and link encryption belong in the requirements, not the nice-to-haves.