New MikroTik CRS 10GbE and 40GbE Switches for 2019

MikroTik this week released details on a number of new switch products. We covered the announcement last year of new 10GbE and 40GbE MikroTik switches. Some of those, like the MikroTik CRS309-1G-8S+IN we now have in the lab. Others, we did not see in the market. Still, we wanted to cover the newest switches to be announced.

MikroTik CRS312-4C+8XG Switch

Perhaps this will end up being the most highly anticipated for some of STH’s readers. The MikroTik CRS312-4C+8XG switch has eight 10Gbase-T copper ports. In addition, there are four RJ-45 / SFP+ combo ports. One gets a total of twelve 10GbE ports to use on the switch.

This small switch also has redundant power supplies and both console and management ports available. We were told that the switch would be available in Q2 2019 which means it is close to being ready. If pricing holds, this may be the lowest cost managed 12-port 10Gbase-T switch in the market.

MikroTik CRS326-24S+2Q+ Switch

This one is extra exciting. MikroTik is promising the release of this 24x SFP+ 10GbE and 2x QSFP+ 40GbE switch as soon as Q3 2019.

The MikroTik CRS326-24S+2Q+ was previously announced as the MikroTik CRS332-32S+ last year. One can see that the main difference is that there are two QSFP+ 40GbE ports replacing 8x SFP+ 10GbE ports. We now have an estimated ship date as well.

If you use smaller 10GbE switches in your deployment, this may be a great option. We still think there is a lot of value in using 32 port 40GbE using breakouts for 40GbE. On the other hand, this can be a lower-cost option potentially with significant power savings.

MikroTik CRS354-48G-4S+2Q+ Switch

One that I am excited about is the MikroTik CRS354-48G-4S+2Q+ switch. This is a 1U switch that has 48x 1GbE ports (PoE version as well), 4x SFP+ 10GbE ports and 2x QSFP+ 40GbE ports.

We are told that this is a Q4 2019 version. We would have liked to have seen this switch with a single 100GbE uplink port because, by late 2019, 10GbE/ 40GbE market share will be dropping.

CCR1036 and CCR1016 Updates

Although MikroTik has features on their CRS series, those switches are more of L2 switches rather than routing devices. Instead, MikroTik has the CCR series for routing. The CCR1036 and CCR1016 are getting a few updates.

The updates generally focus on power supply improvements.

Final Words

Last year’s switch announcements were exciting, but we are still waiting on a few of them. It seems as though MikroTik lowered the number of switch announcements in order to have a higher success rate releasing products this time around. While many STH readers will be focused on 25GbE and later generations, there is still a need for lower-end 10GbE gear. MikroTik continues to serve that market with lower cost and lower power designs.