Cisco C1300-12XS — Catalyst 1300 Series 12-Port 10 Gigabit Managed Switch
What it is
C1300-12XS is a Cisco Catalyst 1300 Series managed switch built for businesses that need high-density 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity without moving into a full enterprise Catalyst 9000 deployment.
It provides 10 × 10G SFP+ ports plus 2 × 10G copper/SFP+ combo ports, giving you flexible fiber or copper connectivity for servers, storage, aggregation links, and other high-bandwidth devices. It also includes a dedicated 1 Gigabit out-of-band management port.
Why buyers pick C1300-12XS (plain English)
Lots of 10G connectivity: Ten dedicated SFP+ ports make this a strong option for server, storage, aggregation, and high-speed backbone connections.
Flexible combo ports: Two additional ports can operate as either 10G copper RJ-45 or 10G SFP+, so you aren't locked into one cabling type.
Strong performance: The switch delivers up to 240 Gbps switching capacity and approximately 178.57 Mpps forwarding performance, with wire-speed nonblocking switching.
Layer 3 capability: Unlike a basic smart switch, the C1300-12XS supports IPv4/IPv6 routing, static and dynamic routing features, RIP v2, and policy-based routing.
Hardware stacking: Multiple compatible Catalyst 1300 switches can be combined into a hardware stack and managed as a single system.
60-second spec box (C1300-12XS)
Network ports
- 10 × 10 Gigabit SFP+
- 2 × 10 Gigabit RJ-45 / SFP+ combo ports
- Up to 12 active 10G interfaces
-
1 × dedicated Gigabit Ethernet management port
Performance
- 240 Gbps switching capacity
- 178.57 Mpps forwarding rate
- Wire-speed, nonblocking switching
-
3 MB packet buffer
Switching / routing
- Managed Layer 2 and Layer 3
- VLANs and 802.1Q
- STP / RSTP / MSTP
- LACP link aggregation
- IPv4 and IPv6 routing
- RIP v2
- Policy-Based Routing
- DHCP server / relay
- IGMP snooping
- QoS
- ACLs
Stacking
- Hardware stacking supported
- Up to 8 switches per stack
- Cross-stack LAG
- Active/standby stack control
- Ring or chain stacking configurations
Management
- Cisco web-based management interface
- CLI
- SSH
- SNMP
- Dedicated 1G out-of-band management port
Physical / power
- Rack-mountable
- 268 × 300 × 43.94 mm
- Approx. 2.67 kg / 5.89 lb
- Internal universal 100–240V AC power supply
- Operating temperature: -5°C to 50°C
- Single cooling fan
Where it fits (and when to choose something else)
Perfect for:
- 10G server and storage connectivity
- Small-business or branch-office aggregation
- Fiber-heavy network environments
- Connecting NAS/SAN appliances at 10GbE
- High-speed links between access switches
- Businesses wanting 10G without the cost and complexity of Catalyst 9300/9500
Choose something else if:
- You need mostly 10G copper RJ-45 → consider C1300-12XT-2X
- You need more 10G ports → consider C1300-24XS
- You need PoE for phones/APs/cameras → choose a PoE Catalyst 1300 model
- You need advanced enterprise routing such as OSPF → consider the Catalyst 1300X or Catalyst 9000 family
- You need enterprise campus features such as full Catalyst 9300/9500 capabilities → move to the appropriate Catalyst 9000 platform
TL;DR
C1300-12XS is a compact Cisco 10 Gigabit managed switch with 10× SFP+ ports plus 2× 10G copper/SFP+ combo ports, delivering 240 Gbps switching capacity, Layer 3 routing, and hardware stacking for high-speed server, storage, and network aggregation deployments.
