Cisco Ethernet Switches Reviews, Competitors and Pricing

it_user111150

System Engineer Monitoring and Response at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 23, 2017

Pro's and Con's - Cisco vs. Juniper

Competitive strength – Cisco and Juniper are a good fit in any data centre.

Competitive weaknesses –

Cisco takes a proprietary spin on standards, increasing fear of vendor lock-in and cost to replace. Juniper has to spend time explaining the technology.
Cisco’s Nexus portfolio is broad and complex, requiring advanced skills to design, deploy and manage which increases costs. Juniper’s market share remains small compared to equally well-known competitors and calls into question the company’s ability to execute and attract channel and other partners.

Current Perspective –

Cisco switches remains a leader in the data centre due to both market presence and portfolio breadth.
Cisco switches continues to win new customers based on both its portfolio and its technology partner network

Strength and weaknesses

Cisco’s portfolio of switches, servers, software and services makes it one of the preeminent data centre technology partners for enterprises today.
Cisco constantly strives to develop and deliver cutting edge solutions through innovations that meet the needs customers face today.
By simplifying operations, Juniper’s networks increase business agility and at the same reduce operating expenses
Cisco is a company driven by the market and by customers, and the resulting solutions produced and offered are a direct result of that demand
Junipers inter operate with any vendor’s switch devices very well.

Convergence

Cisco is the only vendor that delivers an all Unified Ports form factor of switches that can support any Ethernet or storage protocol (FC, FCoE, iSCSI, and NAS).

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user3396Team Lead at Tata Consultancy Services

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May 30, 2017

Cool report

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it_user1143

Network Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Jul 13, 2012

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Cisco Catalyst 3560G - Reliable switches with exceptional performance

Valuable Features:

Catalyst 3560G is a full duplex and supports layer 3 switching, which provides you with a lot of configuration options.Switch combines power over Ethernet (POE) capability with 10/100/1000BaseT interface / ports for maximum productivity.High performance IP routing, advanced QoS, and access control lists.Very stable switch. We use them as core switches at some of our locations and we never had any issues.

Room for Improvement:

Costly as compared to other brands, but with Cisco you definitely get reliability.

Other Advice:

Cisco Catalyst 3560 is a series of enterprise-class switches with a fixed-configuration. These switches include power over Ethernet (POE), Fast Ethernet, and Gigabit Ethernet configurations, and are suitable for small enterprise LAN access or branch-office environments.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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Cisco Ethernet Switches

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Nation Simango

System Engineer at compulink Systems

Jun 3, 2021

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Stable ethernet switches

Pros and Cons

"Cisco Ethernet Switches are stable."

"Cisco is not user-friendly. It would be best if you had a technical expert. The graphical user interface is more like a command line, and most functionalities are on the command line."

What is our primary use case?

We use Cisco Ethernet Switches for local area networks in banks.

What is most valuable?

Cisco Ethernet Switches are stable.

What needs improvement?

Cisco is not user-friendly. It would be best if you had a technical expert. The graphical user interface is more like a command line, and most functionalities are on the command line.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco Ethernet Switches for two and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

I am satisfied with it.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward, but it takes a long time to implement and deploy these switches.

What other advice do I have?

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Cisco Ethernet Switches a nine.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller

Varun Malhotra

Chairman Infrastructure & Application Development Services at atnis

Jul 21, 2020

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Good material available on their website enables an easy setup

Pros and Cons

"Cisco is the world leader in these systems. The expertise they have is very good compared to others. We can trust Cisco from a technical perspective."

"Cisco could also open the API up to work closely with other systems."

What needs improvement?

Cisco is now competing with companies that are putting out cheaper switches so the price could be something that could be improved upon. However, if you want the best in the industry then you need to pay for it. Cisco could also open the API up to work closely with other systems.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Cisco Ethernet Switches for eighteen years. We only deal with Cisco switches.

How are customer service and technical support?

It is much easier and faster to get to the Cisco support, which is good. Secondly, Cisco is the world leader in these systems. The expertise they have is very good compared to others. We can trust Cisco from a technical perspective. For example, if you are buying a car you would not buy from a company that will not give you support. Also, you wouldn't buy a car from a company that is not proven in the industry. These are two things that should be taken into consideration while you are looking at any product. Then you should get into technical features.

How was the initial setup?

Cisco has very good material available on their website to read and to do yourself. This makes the initial setup of these switches very easy.

What about the implementation team?

We handle all of the setup ourselves.

What other advice do I have?

I highly recommend Cisco Ethernet Switches if you have the budget for it. I would rate Cisco switches at a ten on a scale of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller

it_user116220

Works at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Jul 14, 2014

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Best in its class but warranty costs are high. This is the reason HP and Juniper are getting their clients

What is most valuable?

High Availability, Toughness under temperature rise situations.

How has it helped my organization?

Integration of Voice and Data over a single wire without any loss in voice quality. Security throughout LAN and WAN devices. Redundancy and extremely high availability of devices.

What needs improvement?

The Warranty costs are high. This is the reason HP and Juniper are somehow getting their clients.

For how long have I used the solution?

9 Years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Sometimes it is quite complex as there is still the need for qualified technicians. For example: in the case of Cisco Nexus series.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: GoodTechnical Support: Good

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used, 3com, Dell, Dlink but didn’t find the ease of use and features rich device!

How was the initial setup?

Initial Setup with Cisco device configuration is always quite easy. They have a setup wizard that asks you the parameters that are needed to make the switch up and running.

What about the implementation team?

Yes, our Client used a vendor team. Their work was fine; they were experts in settings up the small data center.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

HP, Dlink.

What other advice do I have?

Go for the Cisco Solution if Your Company can afford support Service and Warranty cost in future.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user117876Network Engineer at a tech company with 51-200 employees

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Jul 16, 2014

In my experience, the cisco devices do handle extremes quite well, I've worked with millitary deployable kit thats dropped off trucks or out of aircraft, or in mine sites with unstable power and numerous other nasties. The biggest issue with these kinds of environments is dust and extreme temperatures, or in the outback the bull dust, being sucked through the machines, not an issue until moisture is also incurred. All vendor network devices will suffer under those forms of conditions, but the Cisco kit still seems to keep ticking even with that sort of harsh treatment. Can't say what the Cisco RMA returns engineers would think on opening up a returned device thats full of bulldust though, I'd assume that might void the warranty :-).

it_user92235

Security System Engineer at a wholesaler/distributor

Mar 4, 2014

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The interface needs improvement to make it more friendly but overall the products are reliable

What is most valuable?

Reliability and availability

How has it helped my organization?

Eliminates weak points, it simply does its job.

What needs improvement?

More friendly interface, less Cisco centric approach

For how long have I used the solution?

8 years

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: Rather good, I've only needed to contact them on really rare occasions.Technical Support: There was no need for technical support. T only thing I did was a memory upgrade which was quick and not problematic.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Yes, linux based routers such as pfsense, zentyal. Those solutions were much more unstable. I also used some less known switches. First power supply issues eliminates them fast.

How was the initial setup?

If you have the proper knowledge level there is no problems with initial setup. You simply need to know what are you doing.

What about the implementation team?

In-house

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Initial costs were reasonable and the day-to-day cost is the cost of keeping a Cisco engineer on staff

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes- 3com, Mikrotik

What other advice do I have?

Hire/educate a Cisco engineer or a fast learning IT manager.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.