Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group Inc. in Boston, said the software activation feature in the switches will eventually be "huge" to users, many of whom have done a poor job of keeping track of the many versions of IOS they are running across hundreds of switches or routers. "Companies can end up with dozens of even hundreds of configurations of different versions of IOS," he said.

The Catalyst 3750-E, a stackable switch, starts at US$9,495, while the Cisco Catalyst 3560-E, a stand-alone switch, starts at $5,995. Cisco also announced two compact switches, the Catalyst 3560, starting at $1,395, and the Catalyst 2960, starting at $895.

Also, a new 8700W Enhanced AC Power Supply for the Catalyst 6500 Series switch starts at $7,000, while the new Redundant Power System 2300 starts at $2,195. Cisco also announced a Full Image In-Service Software Upgrade capability for the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series, allowing software upgrades without downtime, starting at $5,000.