I'm working in a couple of closets, which have Catalyst 6509s in them. In the past, ethernet drops were pulled to the closet, and punched-down on the backs of some RJ45 patch panels. Patch cords were used to cross-connect the panels to the Catalyst switches. As the switches filled-up, their faceplates have become pretty-much a mass of cable; it is a pain to get fingertips in, to add or remove a single cable. You can't see most of the LEDs. Lord help me if I ever have to replace a linecard.
I've seen some pretty sales pictures showing the Catalyst switches, precabled with structured wiring to a patch panel field. Connections between the drops and switchports are made using cross-connects from one patch panel to the other.
What kind of connectors are used to terminate the cables from the switch, onto the patch field? Do people punch-down every one of those cables on the back-sides of the patch field?
What's the point of making dense switches, if we have to use a second rack to spread out the jacks to something more reasonable? I'd pay extra for a 6509 that took up a whole rack, with integrated horizontal and vertical cable management :) .
Alternatively, can't Cisco just sell a card with integrated RJ21x, the way the Cat5k had an RJ21?