Cisco C9300X-24Y-E — Catalyst 9300X 24-Port 25G SFP28 Switch with Network Essentials
What it is
C9300X-24Y-E is a Cisco Catalyst 9300X Series high-performance enterprise switch designed for aggregation, distribution, high-speed access, and dense fiber deployments.
It provides 24 × SFP28 ports supporting 1G / 10G / 25G Ethernet, plus a modular uplink slot for additional high-speed connectivity. The “-E” version includes the Network Essentials software tier.
Why buyers pick C9300X-24Y-E (plain English)
24 high-speed fiber ports: Each downlink can run at up to 25Gbps, giving you strong port density for servers, storage, access switches, and other high-bandwidth devices.
Flexible 1G / 10G / 25G operation: The same ports can support multiple speeds depending on the installed optic or cable, making upgrades from 10G to 25G easier.
Strong aggregation platform: With 24 SFP28 ports, it works well as an access aggregation or distribution switch in bandwidth-heavy enterprise networks.
Modular uplinks: The C9300X network-module slot lets you add higher-speed uplinks such as 40G or 100G where required.
Network Essentials licensing: Provides the core enterprise switching and routing feature set without the broader Network Advantage license.
60-second spec box (C9300X-24Y-E)
Access / downlink ports
- 24 × SFP28 ports
- Supported speeds:
- 1 Gigabit Ethernet
- 10 Gigabit Ethernet
- 25 Gigabit Ethernet
- Fiber or DAC connectivity depending on transceiver/cable
Uplinks
- Modular uplink slot
- Supports compatible C9300X-NM network modules
- Available high-speed options include:
Stacking
- Cisco StackWise-1T
- Up to 1 Tbps stack bandwidth
- Multi-switch stacking support
- Single logical management plane
Switching / routing
- Managed Layer 2 and Layer 3
- VLANs
- QoS
- STP / RSTP / MSTP
- EtherChannel / LACP
- IPv4 / IPv6
- Static routing
- ACLs
- Multicast support
- DHCP security features
Software
- Cisco IOS XE
- Network Essentials
- SKU suffix: -E
Management
- Cisco CLI
- SSH
- SNMP
- NETCONF / RESTCONF
- Cisco Catalyst Center integration
- Telemetry and automation support
Power / cooling
- Redundant power supply support
- Hot-swappable fan architecture
- Designed for continuous enterprise operation
Physical
- 1U rack-mount switch
- Catalyst 9300X chassis
Where it fits (and when to choose something else)
Perfect for:
- 25G server connectivity
- Access-layer aggregation
- Distribution-layer switching
- Fiber-dense enterprise networks
- Storage connectivity
- High-speed switch-to-switch links
- Networks migrating from 10G to 25G
Choose something else if:
- You only need 12 × 25G ports → choose C9300X-12Y-E
- You need more advanced routing features → choose C9300X-24Y-A
- You need copper multigigabit access → consider C9300X-48TX-E or C9300X-48HX-E
- You need a larger number of native 100G interfaces → consider a Catalyst 9500 / 9500X platform
TL;DR
C9300X-24Y-E is a Cisco Catalyst 9300X enterprise switch with 24 × SFP28 ports supporting 1G, 10G, and 25G, modular high-speed uplinks, StackWise-1T, Cisco IOS XE, and Network Essentials licensing — ideal for dense 25G aggregation and enterprise distribution networks.
