The Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series is Cisco's lead stackable enterprise access platform in the Catalyst 9000 family. The C9300X is its high-performance member, built on the UADP 2.0sec ASIC, which adds 100G line-rate hardware IPsec (an HSEC license key is required to enable it), and Cisco positions it as a successor to the end-of-sale Catalyst 3850. The C9300X-24Y-E is the 24-port 25G SFP28 fiber configuration at the Network Essentials tier, aimed at dense high-speed fiber aggregation rather than copper endpoint access, and its tier separates it from the otherwise-identical Network Advantage C9300X-24Y-A. Network Essentials covers Layer 2 switching with routed access for a single-tier campus design. Three field-replaceable fans and dual power supplies keep it serviceable in always-on deployments.
