A very flexible lab switch

A very flexible lab switch

Due to the fact that my Cisco UCS M4 is such a beast of a server, it's mega loud! So I had no choice but to tuck it away in my workshop. I needed to come up with an economical way of providing network connectivity to the workshop but giving me the best features possible. I already have a mix of Cisco and Ubiquiti fully managed switches that provide a network to my whole house, but I didn't really buy another brand,  and I wanted to move away from Cisco switches. These days I'm leaning more towards Ubiquiti as I use Ubiquiti UAP-AC-Pro along with the Ubiquiti Gen1 Cloud Key for my Wifi setup,  I'm a big fan of the whole Software-defined networking, anyway back to the new lab switch. I went for a Ubiquiti USW-FLEX Switch, what I like about this switch off the bat, is the ability to provide POE power to the Ubiquiti Flex switch ports from my existing Cisco 2960 POE switch. So not only can I provide multiple Gigabit connections to the Cisco UCS, but I can also run a CCTV IP cam and power Ubiquiti UAP-AC-Pro as well, not forgetting I can control switch port profiles from Unifi Controller software😀 The only real downside is that there are only 5 switch ports and I've used all of them, however, that being said I paid under £100 fo this switch back in December 2021 which was a steal in my opinion. Bad news though, looking on Amazon today the price of the USW-FLEX Switch has dramatically increased 😞