Cisco Nexus Reviews

The pros of the Cisco Nexus are the simplified integration with the data center and the end platform before building a data center.

Our primary use case of this solution is for the data centers. 

This product has improved the way our organization functions in the way that the rack-based design allowed us to eliminate chassis-based designs. The chassis design is more complicated to manage and maintain in field operations.

The most valuable feature of this solution is the ease of management.

I would like to see network function virtualization with no hardware.

I would like to see the integration of the products into something where it's seamless where an engineer never touches the switch again, never does CLI and you move to an application based network organization.

The stability of the solution needs to get a better handle on the vulnerability in recent code releases that aligns better with the DCN product. We'd like to avoid the need for continual upgrades and potential outages in our data centers and having to reboot the switches for each OS upgrade.

Cisco Nexus is stable, but then, in February of 2017, a cyberwar started. Cisco is getting hammered and we're seeing that evidence in very frequent updates to the OS system. If you have six data centers or you've got multiple locations around the world, these efforts take many months to update successfully to every device. 

When it takes us multiple months and two or three releases in the middle, we invest a lot of money in maintaining the device. The hacker community is the issue. 

The scalability is fine. 

The solution's technical support is used by my architects. I don't use it personally. 

The way that our airline works, because we've recently been in a merger, is that we're putting two big airlines together. Our primary driver has been the end-of-service lifecycle and the ability to remain PCI compliant. We must also remain compliant with cybersecurity.

We typically wait until the end of service life. As we practice this, we end up doing these refreshes and adding new architecture. We're making decisions now based on features, functionalities, and outcomes for passengers getting on planes to improve their experience.

We initially started a couple of years ago with Cisco Nexus. We started the design with 9Ks and 5Ks, we ended up reevaluating the situation features and going with more 2Ks to lower the costs for what we need. 

For the deployment, we used our staff engineers and Cisco people. We worked together with Cisco on finding the right solutions for implementing the product.

I am intimately aware of what the licensing costs are with Cisco Nexus. It depends on what we decide, how much margin, and what our strategy is when we have an intersection point to where we think won't be spending money on equipment we aren't going to use. 

I have already had conversations, here and at the five portals required to manage the licensing, with the new OS releases and the requirement to use the smart license portal. There are too many portals. We need a manager. 

Cisco Nexus is similar to other licensing costs but it's painful right now. I've sent everything to our account executive to work with for our systems integration and logistical partners. They need to solve this and help train the team. There's a big gap in there.

Cisco Nexus is very costly for the service. It's insurance in case something happens. We have a very good strategy that we're happy with, it's just the renewal process that is problematic on the license. 

When I walked through the customer experience center and explained the situation, they got a good feel for how much pain and suffering it's been. Cisco needs to understand how hard the renewals are each year for us. 

Even having the SmartNet Total Care portal, having a person dedicated to the distributors, etc. it's still a mess. If the incentives get better, which I know Cisco is working on, it would be great, right now, we're buying the license year-to-year.

We have three hundred to four hundred data centers of Nexus. So the coverage associated with Smart Net, 27 by 4, is basically what we spend each year. 

We did look at another vendor. Cisco is found around the world with good support and credibility in the industry. It was an easy choice even though the functionality from the competitor was more.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate this product an eight for the way I work with my team. They select the product, I serve them. I rate it from a perspective of what the quality of life my team has from using this product. How simple, risk-free, and smooth can we do this without putting the data centers in jeopardy.

Make sure you do your comparisons and make the right decision with the right product before you decide. I would recommend taking a good hard look at Cisco and the Nexus product line and what it could do for you.

Our primary use case for the Cisco Nexus solution is to provide data center access for our customers. This includes providing servers, storage, and interconnecting those to the rest of the network.

This product has improved the way our organization functions by providing fast access to storage and data center resources. We are getting better performance out of our network by using this platform.

The most valuable feature of this solution is the capacity of the switches. One of the main advantages of going with the Nexus 9000 is that it can do advanced routing and segmentation with VLANs. 

In the next release of the solution, I would like to see varying integration between VRF (Virtual Routing and Forwarding) instances so we can integrate BGB into different VRFs in a more organized way. We have some issues with tunnels and VRFs. 

The stability of this solution is pretty cool. NX-OS is a solid match. It does run the features and all the protocols very well for us.

The scalability of this solution is very good. We had different options for physical form factors. It does work for what we need on our enterprise network.

We have a 1GB connection to a data center. Then we upgraded a server. We can quickly get more scalability from the switch by migrating to 10GB or even 25GB connections.

Cisco technical support is a good backup team when you have issues with anything. If you open a case they are very good at following up and making sure that the issue's resolved according to the needs of our network.

We knew we needed to invest in a new solution because upgrading the network is a must for every company. We had to just take into consideration the legacy switches that we were using were not giving the performance needed for the network. The old hardware did not support the demands of our clients connecting to the network.

The initial setup, if you know what you are doing, is very straightforward. You have to know what a switch is and what routing protocols are, like any other device.

If you are familiar with the IOS it is a little bit easier to translate to NX-OS and use the switch.

We're the reseller for Cisco Nexus.

We have seen new ROI from the previous platform to the new one. We're starting to see that.

Our licensing costs for this solution are approximately $100K a year for the switching part.

The products on our shortlist were mostly Cisco Nexus and Meraki.

On a scale from 1 - 10, I would give Cisco Nexus a 9. It's a solid platform. We've been having very good stability from the use of that network device.

Take into consideration the features and the protocols that are in use. Make sure that whatever is being used as a current platform can be migrated to the Nexus and that the features are available before you purchase the hardware. Understand exactly how the infrastructure will work from the operating system of the switch in case you're using any advanced features from another platform. Make sure that the transition is as expected and don't go down a bad path.

Our primary use case is for multitenant switching in our data centers for our edge equipment to go in between our firewalls and out to the internet.

It's performing well. 

The most valuable feature is the capacity for the number of customers that we can get onto it.

I get more of the frustration out of Juniper equipment than I do from Cisco products. Cisco Nexus is more versatile for us in comparison to Juniper. The routing is easier with Cisco.

The stability is good. We've never had any of them die. They've been very consistent.

The scalability of Cisco Nexus is good. We've had them for the entire lifetime. We've never had to upgrade them yet.

Their technical support is good and very helpful. They knew exactly what we needed. If I call during a high volume, I might get someone that just doesn't know as much or it takes a little bit of time and they put us on hold more. Otherwise, it's good. 

We used a consultant for the deployment. 

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Cisco Nexus a ten. I like it. I would advise anyone to go through a professional consultant with Cisco training.

The primary use case for Nexus in our company is for the data center. Everybody that has access to our remote server rooms throughout the campus wants 10G data ports all the way across. 

This product helps us by resolving the issue of not having to install fiber everywhere. If you use Nexus, it has the 10G copper ports. That way we can just use the current infrastructure. Cisco Nexus saves us money in the long run.

The most valuable feature of this solution is that it scales well. It supports a lot of servers. We don't have to come up with different designs for anything. That's the best part about it.

I would like to have the feature where you can install something like operf on it so you can do troubleshooting without having to configure operf on servers.

We had issues with Cisco Nexus during upgrades. When we first got the system, we were having some issues. The whole system crashed. 

The stability of this product works great.

The scalability of Cisco Nexus is wonderful. It supports the whole data centers. We have no issues with scalability.

They need to understand that when we call them and have an issue, it's our production and sometimes they want us to do repairs that would cause other issues. That's the biggest problem.

We are a Cisco shop. We don't have to worry about learning different commands with Cisco Nexus. It still has different commands because of the platform, but it was a lot easier to understand than if you're going through a different company.

The initial setup was straightforward on Cisco's part. Other customers that we work with didn't understand their equipment.

We installed it ourselves. We just ordered our equipment through a reseller. They weren't involved in any on-site work.

It was Cisco or Juniper.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate Cisco Nexus an eight. When trying to do the upgrades sometimes there are issues. Sometimes you get a bug that Cisco doesn't know about. When you try to explain it to them, they always say it's impossible and can't be replicated.

You need to understand all the options, the servers and different applications you can run, and how Cisco Nexus supports the overall picture.

Our primary use case for Cisco Nexus is for our data center and for collaboration with other switches.

This product has improved the way our organization functions in the way we communicate with data from devices out there. Everything is on the radar if you deploy it on Nexus.

The most valuable feature of the solution is network visibility. It touches all of the switches. It becomes the core switch. All of the devices connected to it route towards it and so we're able to see all of the devices. 

Cisco Nexus is very stable. It's getting better now. The technology is moving to a fast and very innovative switch. It picks up all these new options and integrates them into the device. It's good for our infrastructure.

The solution's technical support is very robust. They're able to resolve any issues very quickly. There were not any issues that Cisco could not resolve for us so far.

We were using Nexus 6000 and now we're moving towards 9000. We switched because we are doing a cleanup. We are building up our infrastructure from the ground up, adding more new devices, revamping our infrastructure, and revamping our data center. It's just a need because we got too comfortable using our old devices, which are not supportive so we lost our patching. We ourselves were creating security holes. We have a need now for this solution.

The initial setup of the Cisco Nexus platform takes a long time. It's a complex system because we have a lot of security layers. 

We used a reseller for the deployment. 

We also looked at PCM. 

On a scale from 1 to 10, I would rate Cisco Nexus a good nine. Cisco is moving to new technology. It's more advanced. Anyone should invest in it. It's good.

Our primary use case for the Cisco Nexus solution is as a core fiber switch.

We upgraded from a 6509 unit to a 9504. We got increased bandwidth, faster performance, and newer software which has improved our organization. 

We use Cisco Nexus as a switch that houses all of our fiber connections.

They should make it easier to update the code on it. Upgrading should also be easier. 

The stability of the solution is very strong. No downtime with it. No problems. No issues.

It scales to just about any use that we needed to throw at it. It's very accommodating.

The solution's technical support is perfect. We have had no problems with it.

We switched because our current product was end-of-life and falling out of support.

The initial setup was straightforward. It has a simple routing protocol, not very many static routes.

We used a certified reseller for deployment. Our experience with them was excellent.

We have seen ROI. 

We didn't have any other vendors in mind. Cisco is the product that we've used quite heavily, so it made sense to stay with them.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate this product a ten. Cisco Nexus is very solid and easy to use. 

Go with Nexus, you won't regret it.

Our primary use case for the Cisco Nexus solution is for our core. We have Nexus 9000 and also Catalyst 9000 floor switches.

This product has improved the way our organization functions through automation. Before 9000, we were just using the 7000 and the Nexus OS. With 9000 now, we have much more automation. Everything was more manual before. 

The most valuable feature is the automation that we can do with it. 

Cisco Nexus is very new. We're still on the learning curve for the 9000.

It is very stable. We have not had any issues so far.

The Cisco Nexus platform is very scalable with the modular design.

The solution's technical support is very good. It's Cisco. For 9000 they're very responsive. We haven't had any 911 issues so far because it's new to our organization.

Whenever we have a problem or question they're very good and pretty responsive. Any ticket receives almost immediate help. We haven't had anything negative so far.

We switched because we needed automation and because the 7000s were reaching end-of-life.

The initial setup of Cisco Nexus was straightforward. It was good. It wasn't that complex because we already had the 7000. 

We used a reseller for the implementation. 

I don't really deal with the pricing but I know that it's not cheap. 

On a scale from one to ten, I rate this product a solid nine. They've been very good to us.

I would advise reading information online to learn more about Cisco Nexus. See how powerful it is.

Our primary use case of this solution is to provide Nexus 9000 in different models for the user on top of our switches or as core switches. It depends on the design and the customer's needs.

The product has improved the way our organization functions in the way that we have been able to implement this product in many customer's sites and it has been running for one of our main customer's enterprise sine 2014.

The most valuable features are that it is easy to use, provides stability, easy to configure, low latency, and it provides communication to the data center. 

In terms of improvement, the stacking between the two switches in the higher availability model should be similar to Catalyst. It's better to have one interface for configuration.

I hope to see more features for high-availability configuration such as a VSS configuration on the Catalyst series. To have one management console for both chassis. I also hope to see the dependency on the management interface for high-availability lowered.

What needs improvement is the price on the DNA subscription. It's obligatory for all the switches and you should have the option to remove it or keep it as optional. Cisco has the option to remove it now. We have agreed that in the future, they will offer a permanent license for it.

It's stable. 

Nexus has good scalability features. It provides the customer's needs.

The solution's technical support is good. We had to deal with some cases and the response times were very good. It met expectations. Response time was amazing. The customer was satisfied. 

We used to have another solution and used other products. This product provides us with better high-performance support at a good price.

The initial set up was very straightforward. It is easy to follow and we didn't have any obstacles during the implementation.

We used both a reseller and a product consultant.

Cisco Nexus has provided a good initial cost for our customers with minimum renewal fees over the next few years.

Customers do not understand the new licenses or subscription very well. Cisco should work on this. 

The subscription for licensing is expensive while other vendors provide a switch with everything at a lower price.

We previously used Catalyst 6500. 

On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate Cisco Nexus a nine because it has helped us a lot with our customers. There's always room for improvement.

I would advise someone considering this solution to go for it. It's a stable product.