Name: Cisco Ethernet Switches
Brand: Cisco
Rating: 4.3 (137 reviews)

Dmitriy Ronkin

Network Engineer at a transportation company with 501-1,000 employees

Jun 12, 2017

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Pros: streamlined and versatile solutions. Cons: expensive maintenance fees and they are slow with patches

What is most valuable?

Versatility and streamlined IOS

Availability of expertise on the market (resources)

How has it helped my organization?

Streamlined IOS helped to develop templates for Ethernet Switches without worrying of compatibility of commands in regards to hardware platforms.

Modularity of Industrial switches (IE3000) provides flexibility in solutions yet based on one platform.

Vast array of Industrial models (IE2000, IE3000, IE4000, IE5000).

What needs improvement?

Acceptance of open source trends (there is slight move already - just keep going)

For how long have I used the solution?

10 years overall for all switching/routing products. Industrial switches for last 5 years.

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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?

Well, need more pro-active option to add PoE modules to Industrial switches.

How are customer service and support?

Customer Service:

We deal with a Cisco partner - 4.5 out of 5.

Technical Support:

We deal with a Cisco partner - 4.0 out of 5. Sometimes we find the solution before we get an answer from the Cisco partner.

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

Everything is driven by business requirements, which in turn different from one project to another. Major points are: availability of support/expertise beyond internal resources, territorial coverage, performance and support of multiple options from enterprise to industrial environment

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

90 % in house. Vendor team has sufficient skills.

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

Cisco should look into more flexible licensing for hardware/IOS. It is hard to beat some vendors' lifetime warranty even they offer less in functionality compare to Cisco.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

There are multiple vendors but they are very specialized and do not support versatile solutions. For example, we had to move from Schneider switches as they were just a marketing move by vendor and did not provided better performance or compatibility with SCADA products.

What other advice do I have?

Start from your business requirements (what would you like to have) and budget (what can you afford).

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user3396Team Lead at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

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May 30, 2017

Cool report

See all 6 comments

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Ethernet Switches

February 2026

Free Report: Cisco Ethernet Switches Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Cisco Ethernet Switches. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2026.

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881,757 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Simon Chaba

ICT Manager at a aerospace/defense firm

Jul 7, 2015

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Modules are hot swappable, as you have dual power supplies. If you need improvements, you'll need to upgrade the hardware.

What is most valuable?

Support for various dynamic IP routing protocols and the ability to slot in additional modules while the switch is running.

How has it helped my organization?

Modules are hot swappable, as you have dual power supplies, as well as support for various dynamic IP routing protocols.

What needs improvement?

Nothing that I can think of. If you want to improve, you have the choice to upgrade the hardware.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for four years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's been very stable since deployment.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's very scalable, as you just need to buy new modules, and slot them in as and when required.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Excellent customer service.

Technical Support:

I never had an issue yet with this product which required TAC intervention but from my previous experience Cisco TAC support is the best.

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

We previously used 3com switches, and we switched to Cisco in order to standardize our network hardware.

How was the initial setup?

It's easy to deploy if you know what you are doing, and do proper planning. For me, it was pretty straightforward. I have years of experience on Cisco products.

What about the implementation team?

It was an in-house deployment.

What was our ROI?

It's high.

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

It's worth the price you pay.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We considered using Cisco 3700 series switches and stacking them.

What other advice do I have?

It's best for access layer deployment.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user146331

Senior Network Operations Specialist at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees

Sep 3, 2014

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Cisco 6509 Ether Switches can be a one stop and do-it-all product for a huge enterprise.

What is most valuable?

The blade module feature which provide the scalability for site expansion.

How has it helped my organization?

A Cisco Network Structure consisted of 3 Layers (Core, Distribution & Access). We used the FWSM (Firewall Services Module) to route the traffic and as a gateway to get to the WAN. As a result, we were able to collapse the Core Layer into the Distribution Layer with a few blade modules (FWSM, SUP & Ethernet).

What needs improvement?

A FoE module would be imminent in the future. This module can communicate with storage devices' and ESXi Servers' HBA (fiber) connection via fibre channel switches (Brocade or Cisco MDS). This can provide a cost effective method in a data center environment without upgrading to a more advanced Cisco Nexus core switch.

For how long have I used the solution?

5 years

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

The power supply requires certain sockets and UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). Each device should require a designated UPS for it. The UPS should not be shared with other devices. An improper termination of the switch's power supply cased a power surge and took out a SUP module during an annual power test.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No extraordinary issues. Just minor day-to-day issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The Chassis can run out of slots as the environment expand further along.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: Great but Cisco outsources its customer support services to India since most of our issues and outages occurred after hours. Some support technicians have a heavy Indian accent which led to difficult comprehension and time consumption.Technical Support: 4.5 out of a 5 since Tech Support personnels are very knowledgeable of the product.

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

No, I have not due to our contract agreement with Cisco.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup consist of the right personnel to set up and administer the product.

What about the implementation team?

All implementation were completed by in-house team members.

What was our ROI?

Centralized administration and reduced time consumption.

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

The SUP (Supervisor) module can provide up to 720 GBPS of data transmission compared to a stackable Cisco 3750 switches.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes, the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series core switches.

What other advice do I have?

No further comments.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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_user98859

Consulting Engineer EMEA at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

Jun 29, 2014

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Remote management and monitoring, multi-layer switching and flexibility are valuable features.

What is most valuable?

Remote management and monitoring, multi-layer switching, flexibility, per port configurations, possibility of port aggregation, standard management interface, loads of documentation available from Cisco and Partners, multitude of troubleshooting tools embedded in the OS, QoS.

How has it helped my organization?

Ease of deployment of internal networks, separation of departments traffic, replacement of hubs (and the respective absence of collision related network unavailability), implementation of VoIP, improved configuration and access management.

What needs improvement?

VTP should be configured as Transparent by default.

For how long have I used the solution?

Several years, on different projects.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

A close look at each part-number characteristics is recommended, especially regarding the type of Uplink Ports (do you need fiber or copper uplinks for example?) and specific protocols (do you need BGP? is RIPv2 enough, for instance), as some of them are only available in specific models or with additional licenses. Selecting the licensing type can be the slightly tricky part, although you can usually upgrade it later.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Not unless it was caused by malfunction or a mixup in configuration.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

On the specific cases I used, never. Adding new switches to the networks is painless (but please be careful with the VTP configuration though, as if it’s not configured you do have the possibility of a new switch giving you trouble with the VLAN configuration).

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: Excellent.Technical Support: Besides the great set of documentation available, partner support is usually good, no issues so far, on different projects.

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

Previous configuration was based on a basic router and switch configuration for each separate network, interconnecting at router level. The needs included reducing equipments, add management to the network to allow central monitoring and configuration, and adding new functionalities to the network, as well as having a buildup of different networks to separate traffic.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward if you’re installing for the first time. If it’s not the first installation, and you have multiple VLANs in place, be careful with the VTP configuration setup, as a misconfigured switch, since it’s on VTP server mode, can give you trouble.

What about the implementation team?

Mixed types of implementations. Mixed expertise levels - some partners have better technicians than others, but never had a case where the technician didn’t leave with the configuration completed.

What was our ROI?

Generally a reduction on the number of equipments to manage, less time to manage and higher uptime.

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

Day to day costs are the maintenance costs from the manufacturer (different levels available), and part of the time of the IT Team. Setup Costs have depended on projects, and specific setup needs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

A few, namely Huawei and HP. While Huawei did allow some of the same characteristics at a lower price, available expertise and documentation, tipped the balance to Cisco, and the greater flexibility and feature set tipped the balance from HP.

What other advice do I have?

Check that it’s the most cost effective solution (it’s very expensive if you only want to connect 4 users and a printer.); Check the model that fits your needs, regarding number of ports, and PoE for instance (no need of PoE for most uses.); Main uses would be to use a solution with multiple internal VLANs (needs at least IP Base License), VoIP implementations, and adding security and manageability to the network; Carefully check what License Feature set you need (there are 3 levels, LAN Base, IP Base, and IP Services), depending on your needs. You may be able to upgrade the software feature set later, but should check ahead.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user133842

Infrastructure Connectivity Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jun 22, 2014

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Cisco Ethernet Switches are very reliable in any network.

What is most valuable?

Port-based security feature, network virtualization using VLAN, loop-avoidance mechanism using different variants of STP, many others.

How has it helped my organization?

It has improved the network reliability, It has improved the network availability which results to improved productivity of the users ( Increased ROI).

For how long have I used the solution?

4 to 5 years now

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: GoodTechnical Support: Good

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

Yes, due to demand driven by requirements.

What about the implementation team?

In-house

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Dlink, Mikrotik

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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.