Cisco and NETGEAR both compete in the network switching market. Cisco holds an advantage in enterprise-grade features and reliability, while NETGEAR stands out for cost-effectiveness and ease of use.
Features: Cisco Ethernet Switches feature a power-saving design, advanced security with MACSec encryption, and extensive management capability with Smartports and Cisco IOS IP Base Software. They support high availability, dynamic IP routing, and network virtualization, ideal for enterprises. NETGEAR Switches are known for easy installation and low power consumption, offering basic managed and unmanaged options and simply managed via remote applications.
Room for Improvement: Cisco faces challenges with complex setup and pricing, requiring licenses and sometimes lacking full IGMP snooping or ISL trunking. NETGEAR could improve on enterprise-level security, VLAN setup, CLI interface, virtual stacking compatibility, and consistent management across devices.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco offers robust hybrid and on-premises deployment options, with broad documentation, though local support could be variable. NETGEAR simplifies deployment, offering accessible customer service and easy remote management through apps, albeit with potential variability in support depth and availability.
Pricing and ROI: Cisco's higher price aligns with its extensive enterprise features, appealing for mission-critical needs, despite costly licenses. NETGEAR presents a lower total cost of ownership with budget-friendly pricing, especially for SMBs, with no extensive licensing fees, offering quick savings and competitive price performance.
NETGEAR Ethernet Switches is an Ethernet solution that offers businesses of all sizes the ability to easily set up secure and highly scalable networks. Small to medium-sized companies have the option to choose from three different switching options. The three options that are most appropriate for businesses of this size are the NETGEAR Unmanaged, Plus, and Smart Switch solutions. If you're managing a large enterprise network or a campus network, then NETGEAR Fully Managed Infrastructures is the solution for you. All the NETGEAR Ethernet Switches and solutions are innovative, easy to install and use, reliable, and very cost-effective.
NETGEAR Ethernet Switches have many features that make them a most effective product. Included in these is the ability to virtually stack IP addresses in such a way that users can scale their network up with ease. These IP addresses are grouped together. Once additional data ports are connected, you have only a single switch to manage and you gain both a much higher level availability of data and a greater level of network resilience.
Benefits of NETGEAR Ethernet Switches
Some of the benefits of using NETGEAR Ethernet Switches include:
Reviews from Real Users
There are a number of characteristics that make NETGEAR Ethernet Switches extremely effective. Two major ones are its inherent flexibility and its user-friendly nature.
PeerSpot user Kevin W., a network delivery architect at a tech-services company, notes that NETGEAR Ethernet Switches gives users the ability to tailor the switches to fit their needs. He writes, "The big winner for NETGEAR is their modular switch: the 96X version. That is something that you don't see in the market anywhere else, except for Cisco who has it at a high level for a high expense. The ability to customize your own switch with their modules is a big plus for what we do in the market right now. Instead of having to piece together standardized switches, trying to make something work, or fitting the design into the mold, the modular switches are aware that you can make a mark in the industry because you purchased one switch and design with different modules added and removed later on for functionality."
PeerSpot user Chris W., a system engineer at Diversified, notes just how easy they are to use when he writes, "The ease of use of these switches is very good because of the Cisco CLI. If you are familiar with CLI, then you can configure the switch that way. It also has a relatively straightforward web interface. Using the web interface is good for beginners or people who aren't familiar with Cisco CLI. However, having a common command line interface method is great for some of our more advanced guys who are familiar with it."
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