N9K-C93360YC-FX2 Cisco 96 Ports L3 Managed Qsfp28 Rack-mountable Switch

Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 Managed L3 Switch Overview

The Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 is a high-performance 96-port L3 managed switch designed for enterprise data centers, offering robust connectivity, flexible management, and advanced routing capabilities.

Key Manufacturer Details

• Manufacturer: Cisco
• Model / Part Number: N9K-C93360YC-FX2
• Device Type: Switch
• Port Configuration: 96 Ports

Technical Specifications

Form Factor & Physical Dimensions

• Form Factor: Rack-mountable 2U
• Dimensions: 17.4" W x 22.9" D x 3.4" H
• Weight: 54.45 lbs

Memory and Storage

• RAM: 16 GB
• Built-in Storage: 128 GB SSD

Ports & Interfaces

• Data Ports: 96 x 1/10/25 Gigabit SFP+
• High-Speed Ports: 12 x 40/100 Gigabit QSFP28
• Management Ports: 1 x RJ-45, 1 x SFP+
• Other Interfaces: 1 x USB, 1 x Serial RS-232

Supported Routing Protocols

• OSPF
• RIP / RIP-2
• BGP & Multiprotocol BGP
• EIGRP
• HSRP
• PIM-SM
• ECMP, MPLS, RSVP

Advanced Features

• Layer 3 Switching
• MPLS & VXLAN Support
• Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) & Multiple STP (MSTP)
• Access Control List (ACL) Support
• MACsec Security
• vPC Technology
• EVPN, POAP, PSE
• 40 MB System Buffer
• Three Cooling Fans

Compliance & Standards

• IEEE 802.1ae (MAC Security)

Power & Redundancy

• Power Supply: Internal, Hot-plug
• Maximum Supported Power Supplies: 2
• Redundancy: Optional

High-Density Data Center Switching Architecture

The Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 belongs to the advanced category of high-density, rack-mountable Layer 3 managed data center switches designed for modern enterprise, cloud, and service provider environments. This category focuses on delivering ultra-low latency, massive throughput, and flexible port configurations that support evolving workloads such as virtualization, containerized applications, AI/ML clusters, and large-scale storage networks. Built on Cisco Nexus 9000 Series architecture, this switch category emphasizes scalability, programmability, and consistent policy enforcement across leaf-spine fabrics.

Within data center networking, high-port-count switches like the N9K-C93360YC-FX2 play a central role in aggregating compute, storage, and network resources while maintaining predictable performance. The category is engineered to handle east-west traffic patterns that dominate modern applications, ensuring deterministic latency and high availability. The rack-mountable form factor allows seamless integration into standard data center racks, optimizing space utilization while supporting dense cabling environments.

96-Port QSFP28 High-Speed Connectivity

This category is defined by its extensive use of QSFP28 interfaces, providing 100 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity per port. The Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2, with its 96 QSFP28 ports, represents the upper tier of density and performance within this segment. Such port density enables organizations to consolidate networking infrastructure, reduce hardware footprints, and simplify cabling architectures while still supporting massive bandwidth requirements.

High-speed QSFP28 ports are essential for supporting spine-leaf architectures, where predictable latency and non-blocking throughput are critical. The category supports flexible breakout options, allowing each QSFP28 port to be configured into multiple lower-speed connections when needed. This flexibility ensures that the switch category adapts to changing network designs without requiring immediate hardware replacement, protecting long-term infrastructure investments.

Non-Blocking Fabric and Line-Rate Performance

Switches in this category are engineered with non-blocking switching fabrics capable of delivering full line-rate performance across all ports simultaneously. The Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 exemplifies this capability by enabling consistent data forwarding even under peak traffic loads. This characteristic is vital for latency-sensitive workloads such as high-frequency trading, real-time analytics, and large-scale virtualization clusters.

Line-rate performance across all QSFP28 ports ensures that application performance is not constrained by the network layer. The category is optimized to handle microbursts and sustained traffic patterns, maintaining quality of service across diverse workloads. Advanced buffering and traffic management mechanisms further enhance reliability, making this switch category suitable for mission-critical data center deployments.

Layer 3 Managed Switching Capabilities

The Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 belongs to a category of fully Layer 3 managed switches that integrate advanced routing and switching functionalities into a single platform. This category supports dynamic routing protocols, extensive VLAN and VRF segmentation, and high-performance IP forwarding. Such capabilities allow organizations to design scalable, multi-tenant data centers with fine-grained traffic control and policy enforcement.

Layer 3 management is a defining attribute of this category, enabling centralized control, automation, and visibility across the network fabric. By combining high-speed switching with advanced routing intelligence, these switches reduce network complexity and operational overhead. They are particularly well-suited for data centers adopting software-defined networking and intent-based networking models.

Advanced Routing and Protocol Support

Switches in this category support a comprehensive set of routing protocols that enable seamless integration into complex network topologies. The Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 is designed to operate efficiently in large-scale Layer 3 fabrics, supporting equal-cost multipath routing and fast convergence. This ensures high availability and optimal traffic distribution across the network.

The category is optimized for both IPv4 and IPv6 environments, enabling organizations to future-proof their infrastructure. Robust routing capabilities allow these switches to serve as both leaf and spine nodes within a data center fabric, simplifying network design and enhancing scalability.

Virtualization and Multi-Tenancy Enablement

Modern data centers rely heavily on virtualization and containerization, and this switch category is built to support such environments at scale. The Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 enables advanced segmentation through VLANs, VRFs, and overlay technologies, ensuring secure isolation between tenants and applications.

Multi-tenancy support allows service providers and large enterprises to host multiple workloads on shared infrastructure without compromising performance or security. This capability is essential for private clouds, hybrid cloud deployments, and colocation facilities where efficient resource utilization is critical.

Rack-Mountable Design and Data Center Integration

The rack-mountable nature of this switch category ensures compatibility with standard data center environments. The Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 is designed to fit seamlessly into existing racks, supporting front-to-back or back-to-front airflow configurations depending on deployment requirements. This flexibility helps maintain optimal thermal management in diverse data center layouts.

Physical design considerations are central to this category, with emphasis on cable management, power efficiency, and serviceability. Hot-swappable components and redundant power options are common attributes, minimizing downtime and simplifying maintenance operations in large-scale deployments.

Power Efficiency and Thermal Optimization

High-density switches generate significant heat, making efficient cooling a critical requirement. The category emphasizes advanced thermal design to ensure reliable operation under continuous high-load conditions. The Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 is optimized to balance performance and power consumption, reducing operational costs while maintaining peak throughput.

Energy-efficient design aligns with sustainability initiatives by lowering overall power usage in the data center. This makes the category attractive to organizations seeking to optimize both performance and environmental impact.

Scalability for Growing Data Centers

Scalability is a defining characteristic of this switch category. The Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 supports incremental expansion of network capacity without requiring disruptive upgrades. Its high port density allows data centers to scale horizontally while maintaining consistent performance across the fabric.

This scalability ensures that organizations can adapt to increasing data volumes, new applications, and evolving business requirements. The category supports long-term growth strategies, making it suitable for enterprises planning multi-year infrastructure investments.

Programmability and Automation Readiness

The category encompassing the Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 is designed with programmability and automation at its core. Modern data centers demand rapid provisioning, consistent configurations, and reduced manual intervention. These switches integrate seamlessly with automation frameworks and orchestration platforms, enabling policy-driven network management.

Programmability enhances operational efficiency by allowing network changes to be implemented quickly and accurately. This category supports modern DevOps practices, enabling infrastructure to evolve alongside application development cycles.

Integration with Software-Defined Networking

Software-defined networking is a key focus of this switch category. The Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 supports centralized control and policy-based automation, enabling consistent network behavior across distributed environments. This capability reduces configuration errors and improves overall network reliability.

SDN integration allows organizations to align network behavior with application requirements dynamically. This adaptability is critical in environments where workloads are constantly changing and performance demands fluctuate.

Operational Visibility and Telemetry

Enhanced visibility is another hallmark of this category. Switches like the Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 provide detailed telemetry data that enables real-time monitoring and analytics. This information helps network administrators proactively identify issues, optimize performance, and plan capacity expansions.

Advanced telemetry supports data-driven decision-making, allowing organizations to maintain high service levels while reducing troubleshooting time. This capability is particularly valuable in large-scale data centers where manual monitoring is impractical.

Enterprise, Cloud, and Service Provider Use Cases

The Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 switch category addresses a wide range of deployment scenarios across enterprises, cloud providers, and service operators. Its combination of high port density, Layer 3 intelligence, and automation readiness makes it suitable for diverse workloads and architectural models.

Enterprises benefit from the category’s ability to support mission-critical applications and internal cloud platforms. Cloud providers leverage its scalability and performance to deliver reliable services to customers. Service providers utilize the category to build robust, high-capacity network backbones that support multiple tenants and services.

Support for Modern Application Workloads

Modern applications demand predictable network performance and low latency. This switch category is optimized to handle such requirements, ensuring that applications perform consistently even during peak usage periods. The Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 supports data-intensive workloads, making it suitable for analytics, AI, and large-scale database environments.

The category’s design aligns with the needs of distributed applications, microservices architectures, and hybrid cloud deployments. Its flexibility ensures seamless connectivity between on-premises infrastructure and external cloud resources.

Future-Ready Networking Foundation

The Cisco N9K-C93360YC-FX2 represents a future-ready networking category that anticipates ongoing evolution in data center technologies. Its high-speed interfaces, advanced Layer 3 capabilities, and automation support ensure long-term relevance in rapidly changing IT landscapes.

By investing in this category, organizations establish a resilient and adaptable networking foundation capable of supporting emerging technologies and business models. The switch category continues to play a vital role in enabling digital transformation and high-performance computing environments.