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Aruba Switches vs Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Switches
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Juniper EX Series Ethernet ...
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
67
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Ethernet Switches category, the mindshare of Aruba Switches is 12.1%, up from 12.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches is 3.1%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Ethernet Switches
 

Featured Reviews

Eunice Thirikwa - PeerSpot reviewer
Stable hotel networking enhances return on investment with valuable modular features
There are issues with the distribution side of Aruba Switches. For instance, the distributor in our country cannot sell to neighboring countries, creating complications in project execution. Improving the distribution network across regions would be beneficial. Also, the SFP modules are significantly more expensive than industry peers, which affects cost-effectiveness.
Bona Chhith - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides campus switches and access switches that are simple to deploy, but the code isn't stable enough for a leaf and spine design
If we're building a data center and have Juniper, we have hundreds of Juniper switches in a leaf and spine design architecture, and it's horrible. Sometimes after an upgrade, half of the even port can't be detected. They don't recognize third-party SFPs, and now they claim that they don't support that anymore. There are a lot of issues with the hardware and software. Juniper needs to get their code up to par because it isn't stable enough for a leaf and spine design. If you have over 10,000 VMs or Mac addresses, it doesn't scale. I would love Juniper to have more stable features, hardware, and code. We have so many tickets open with Juniper. The switch reboot doesn't detect the port. About 80% of my problems aren't engineering problems, but are Juniper's problems. In comparison, Arista gives me 10% of the problems that Juniper gives me when it comes to hardware and software. It's falling behind compared to Palo Alto because of its features. Juniper's campus switches and data center switches for the leaf and spine design for the overlay and underlay is horrible. I wouldn't recommend that anyone use Juniper fabric, because there are so many problems, issues, and features that aren't supported.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable feature is that it's very easy to configure."
"I rate the stability of Aruba Switches a ten."
"Licensing costs are competitive with other solutions on the market."
"The most valuable feature is the security that these switches provide."
"We can scale as needed."
"It allows us to manage the switches through the cloud, which is good."
"It can scale well."
"Aruba Central is very valuable to us."
"Juniper switches are very good with MPLS."
"The thing that sets Juniper apart from most switches is that when you're in the command line and you make a configuration change, you just write the command and then say "commit confirmed minutes". For example, I'm configuring a switch here in my office, which is five miles away, and I say, "commit confirmed 5". If I can't get back to the interface within five minutes to be able to make sure the switch came up, it rolls back to the previous configuration. This way I do not get locked out, or the switch doesn't get messed up because of the incorrect configuration. That's an automatic feature, which is pretty slick. I haven't seen that feature with other vendors that I've worked with. That's probably my most favorite feature."
"It is easy to configure, and there are three routing switches."
"It's stable and reliable."
"The most valuable feature is that Juniper is multiple kernels, so there's isolation, which means you won't get a process that runs away, creating problems across the whole platform."
"The feature I like the most is the ability to reword changes before committing to the change. We can always reword changes in 10 minutes if they don't work."
"Compared to Cisco, Juniper offers better stability and low prices."
"The setup phase was straightforward."
 

Cons

"It would be good if I could get a 24-port, 10 gig module."
"A challenge is the process required to reset the switches, which involves using two pins in tiny holes. An easily accessible button for resets would be a better design."
"There are issues with the distribution side of Aruba Switches."
"The templates to automate our switches need improvement."
"We would like to see centralized, cloud-based management."
"I would like to see the data center area improving by some added features in the future."
"This solution could be improved if it offered long term support on a specific model or product."
"The interface could be more user-friendly and the dashboard could be improved."
"The Virtual Chassis Fabric is kind of complicated to troubleshoot sometimes. On the MPLS side, they're good — they're fine for the pseudo-wires and stuff—but they need more work on the LAN. It is difficult to troubleshoot their LAN technologies like Virtual Chassis."
"Their web GUI interface needs to be a lot better, especially when compared to HP. The command line is good, but you have to know how to get around it. The GUI is clunky and very slow."
"We need to start seeing some kind of AI to assist with some of what we really want to accomplish from a policy standpoint to achieve better efficiency."
"More security could be provided, especially with the rising cyber-attacks in business organizations."
"We would like it if there was more security added in future releases."
"The security features for the product should be more unified for the product regardless of the product model."
"Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches lack to offer the latest management tools."
"The upgrading of the system should be simplified and made faster."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is a little expensive for customers from other countries."
"Comparing with Cisco, and some other solutions, it's a cheap product."
"I am paying for the hardware and Aruba Central licenses, but I would like a version of Aruba Central to come out with a light version with a few features turned off. Ubiquiti and other vendors have free tools. I believe they're looking at that, but it's not out yet. I hope they will release that to make it competitive because I'm using an enterprise-class switch for small businesses. We're looking for some of those capabilities, but not all of them."
"There is not a switch that I would give more than six out of ten for pricing because, over the last year, the prices have been increasing very high."
"There are no licensing costs for the Aruba Switches."
"Aruba Switches are very expensive."
"This is an expensive product, costing about double what most competitors do."
"Aruba Switches have good stability."
"We only pay for support."
"The initial cost of the solution can be expensive."
"I think the tool's prices are competitive with the vendors."
"The Juniper switches are less expensive than competing brands."
"It's was $100,000 per year."
"We don't need to pay for the solution's features."
"The price could be cheaper."
"This solution is cheaper than Cisco or HP switches."
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Comparison Review

it_user82779 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 29, 2014
Benefits of Juniper vs Cisco
Both are decent products. I prefer Juniper for the following reasons: 1) Cleaner separation of data plane from control plane. Higher end Cisco devices are better at this but most of the lower end products still seem to be more integrated than I like. 2) The Hierarchical config design means I can…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
7%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Aruba Switches?
Aruba lives up to the expectations of the tech giant hewlett packard enterprise providing excellent networking capabilities at a very affordable price compared to the equivalent from another tech g...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Switches?
I find it to be middle to high. It's not always affordable, but they're losing the pricing market against Huawei, let's just put it like that.
What needs improvement with Aruba Switches?
There isn't much room for improvement. A more granular breakdown in debugging would be beneficial. Apart from that, not much is needed.
In terms of ethernet switches, would you go with Cisco or Juniper?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Cisco or Juniper Ethernet switches were the better fit for us. We decided to go with Juniper. Juniper ethernet switches are a lesser-known...
What advice do you have for others considering Juniper Ethernet Switches?
Juniper EX model is ok for the campus network as the ex4300 is EOL in a few years and the new ex4400 is the standard. Now for the QFX model, 5k/10k in CRB mode IP fabric Ethernet switching is horri...
What is your primary use case for Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches?
I use the solution in my company for our customers in the retail and financial companies. We are using the switches in data center operations for our customer environment. We are using Juniper for ...
 

Also Known As

8400 Series, 8320 Series, 5400R Series, 3810 Series, 2930M Series, 2930F Series, 2920 Series, 2540 Series, 2530 Series
Juniper Ethernet Switches
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Purdue University
BlackLotus, Staminus, Community Bank, BAS Group, Cloud Dynamics, Privalia, Fluidata, and Tesla Motors.
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Switches vs. Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.