why Cisco?

Hi all, could someone pls tell me why Cisco products are so much in use nowadays. i understand they are top in terms of networking but could there be any othor major reasons why virtually all organisations use Cisco products? I want to recommend Cisco products in my design project but dont really know why?

many thanks for any response in advance

Well there are a few reasons:
1) They provide a comprehensive set of features enabling them to be deployed with confidence in any commercial application
2) They are stable, proven devices that have the track record of being 'up to the job' for use in business and commercial applications
3) Cisco themselves have been around a long time unlike some other major vendors who have dabbled at the market and sometimes let customers down by changing their strategy
4) The support is reliable
5) Use of a "standard" command interface (IOS) across the range makes support more efficient
6) Because they have good market share the support skills are readily available
7) Because they have good market share the 'safety-in-numbers' philosophy applies - to paraphrase the old PC adage, "nobody ever got sacked for buying Cisco"

many thanks for that fast reply. never knew all this about Cisco but now I know.

Anyone know how to calculate or work out say the number of routers (and ports) required to connect a particular number of workstations?

e.g. I have 1500 desktops, obviously one switch cannot connect all of them therefore is it right to connect lots of switches together in order provide a port for each of the workstations (in this case say 1500)?

If thats right how would you workout how many more switches to get say we are using a 48 port switch....also allowing for scalabilty (extra free ports)? thanks in advance

My thought: will it be 1500 / 48 or something like that...pls help

hope i made myself clear.

Not to worry i think im correct...

Yes but remember the stacking constrraints. For example, using Cisco 3750s you can build a stack of up to 9 units. Therefore each stack of 9 x 24 or 9 x 48 would need one uplink connection into the central core switch(es) of your network. Since you're producing a hierachical design you'll need to either check what your chosen product can actually do, or if you're not going to that level of detail just make a reasonable assumption and go with that