Cisco Nexus vs Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] comparison

Cisco and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the LAN Switching category. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.

Cisco Nexus

Read 108 Cisco Nexus reviews

4,272 Views
1,965 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Dell PowerConnect Switches ...

Read 34 Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] reviews

90% willing to recommend

Cisco Nexus

Dell PowerConnect Switches ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Nexus and Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Netgear and others in LAN Switching.

To learn more, read our detailed LAN Switching Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

LAN Switching

April 2026

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Helped 894,998 peers since 2012

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

Cisco Nexus

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

108

Ranking in other categories

LAN Switching (2nd), Data Center Networking (1st)

Dell PowerConnect Switches ...

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

Fakhar Mahmood

Sr. Network Administrator at i2c

Migration between data centers has strengthened core connectivity and simplified segmentation

The biggest problems during migration were corporate issues, including dependencies on other devices such as F5, HSMs, and firewalls from Palo Alto. Everything was connected over the core switches, which made this a quite difficult part to manage and to onboard the teams and to understand the impact of the migration. We encountered an issue where we have two data centers, and unknowingly we were configuring the devices with the same VPC number on both devices. By doing that, we were not able to terminate the lease lines over those core switches. According to Cisco, we had to change the VPC number of one of the data center's core switches since they are in a VPC. We are still waiting, and it has been more than five to six years just to change the VPC number and migrate back the lease line. Now we are having cabin switches for the lease line and then the core switch. That VPC number issue was quite surprising for us. However, we have a very frequent issue with Cisco Nexus, particularly with the SFPs. Every time a port or the SFP heats up, it gets faulty. We have almost sixteen Nexus switches per data center. In a year, we experience one or two port issues per annum. We have standard Equinix data centers with standard installations, but somehow the temperature is always maintained and there is no ducting, yet the ports and the SFPs heat up or become faulty. This is a very frequent issue with the SFP-based port.

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LarsEvans

Chief Technology Officer / Chief Information Security Officer at Lorton Data, Inc.

Reliable and useful for network segmentation

The solution's most valuable feature stands up well. The tool is reliable, and it stands up well. The solution works fine and lasts a long time. I think if you speak about the features that have a flow and you can measure, it is hard to say. I don't spend a lot of my time with the tool, but I know that Dell APEX is the solution's cloud. I would say the VLAN features are important. The VLAN features are really useful because network segmentation is important. I would say the tool is easy to program. I don't know if the tool has any security features that I am aware of other than the fact that the solution is for networking. The VLAN and the ability to segment your networks are easy, which is its security feature.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This solution improves network speed and provides high availability for our users."

"The most valuable features of Cisco Nexus are the performance, flexibility, configuration, and cost."

"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 Nexus platform is very stable, has a lot of features, and does not fail, so if you are looking for performance, stability, and reliability, the Nexus product seems to me to be the best solution."

"It's pretty easy to use and operates at high speed."

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

"The 9000 series works really well in the spine-and-leaf architecture and gives you capabilities up to 400 gig."

"They are very high-performance switches and they are made for lossless data, so they're a good play in the customer environment."

More Cisco Nexus pros

"PowerConnect Switches' stability is satisfactory."

"This is a very good product, and it can be used lightly, but you have to understand how it works before implementing it."

"The security is the most valuable aspect of this solution. It also has good storage and resource handling."

"The security is the most valuable aspect of this solution; it also has good storage and resource handling."

"This solution comes with a lifetime warranty."

"The tool is reliable, and it stands up well. The solution works fine and lasts a long time."

"We have these switches installed in an environment with hardware from many other vendors, and so far, so good."

"The setup is straightforward. It takes minimum time for deployment."

More Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] pros

Cons

"There's a couple of really bad incidents lately. Probably luck of the draw."

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

"They should work to make the pricing more reasonable for the local market."

"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."

"They should make it easier to update the code on it."

"We are switching away from this solution because it is too much for what we have."

"This is a very expensive product."

"One of our switches died last week and we were able to RMA it. Within four hours it arrived on time and worked."

More Cisco Nexus cons

"The configuration should be improved."

"Because of the stackings, you lose some boards and the two switches."

"A big issue with this product is that when our customer migrated the data center, one cluster blocked the whole network and because we had a new approach, some commands were not compatible with the new version."

"The product needs to improve in terms of reports and backups."

"We've only been using the solution for half a year. We haven't run into any issues, but maybe over time, that may change."

"You have to build the stackable interface by yourself in Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL], making it an area that can be considered for improvement."

"An area for improvement would be that it's very hard to configure if you're not familiar with the UI or CLI of the product. The UI itself could also be improved."

"I do not like this solution. It runs ok but we have had problems."

More Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."

"This solution should be made more affordable."

"The Nexus 9000 is very competitively priced."

"We have a three-year subscription for our licensing fees."

"All of our costs including subscription, licensing, and support services are bundled together, and the cost is approximately $100,000 USD per year."

"If you compare Cisco hardware to any other vendors, such as HPE, they are more expensive. There is a license to use the solution. If my customer's licenses are about to expire I receive notification from Cisco, this is very helpful."

"It's around $160K a year for our license."

"We have three hundred to four hundred data centers of Nexus. So the coverage associated with Smart Net is 27 by 4, is basically what we spend each year. If the incentives get better, which I know they're working on, it would be great but right now we're buying year to year."

More Cisco Nexus pricing and cost advice

"If you want to purchase a new Dell PowerConnect Switch, you will pay up to $1,600, but I bought them used. I bought the four Dell PowerConnect Switches that I used for $1,000."

"The product is cheaper than Cisco and licensing is yearly. We have to pay additional costs for support."

"If one is the cheapest price and ten is the most expensive, I rate the product price as an eight or nine. The tool is not cheap."

"Its price is okay. Sometimes, it is lower than a Cisco solution."

"On a scale of one to ten, if one means it is a cheap solution, and ten means it is a very expensive tool, I rate the product's price as seven. The tool is a bit pricey."

"Cheaper than its competitors"

"The product has a low price for the features it provides."

"This solution is much cheaper than comparable products by Cisco."

More Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Marketing Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	17
Large Enterprise	83

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	21
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Nexus?

We are a reseller, and we sell products to our customers.

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What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cisco Nexus?

Cisco Nexus is used in data centers with a simple Nexus OS deployment model. In our environment, we do not use programmability with Cisco Nexus. The switches are used very basically in our infrastr...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerConnect Switches?

The solution is cheaper than Cisco.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell PowerConnect Switches?

Some proprietary commands available in Cisco are preferred by users accustomed to Cisco systems. These users might hesitate to switch because they want to continue using familiar commands and see t...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Dell PowerConnect Switches?

Dell PowerConnect Switches are primarily used at the distribution layer, but as the product evolved, higher models became available. These newer models can function closer to the core network or th...

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Comparisons

Juniper QFX Series Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 12% of the time

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 11% of the time

Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 10% of the time

Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 9% of the time

Arista Campus LAN Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 7% of the time

More Cisco Nexus Competitors

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL]

Compared 29% of the time

HPE ProCurve vs Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL]

Compared 17% of the time

NETGEAR Switches vs Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL]

Compared 17% of the time

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series vs Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL]

Compared 13% of the time

ExtremeSwitching vs Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL]

Compared 7% of the time

More Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Nexus

May 2026

Download Cisco Nexus product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL]

May 2026

Download Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] product report

Also Known As

No data available

PowerConnect Switches

Overview

Cisco Nexus delivers flexibility, scalability, and performance for data centers, offering stability and ease of management. The integration with third-party security and high port density support are key features, making it ideal for core network infrastructures.

Cisco Nexus stands out in data centers for backbone switching and network management, known for its modularity and Virtual Port Channels. Organizations value its capacity for handling large data volumes and automation capabilities. The system's redundancy features enhance reliability in complex network environments. Despite its strengths, technical support, licensing complexity, and integration require improvement. Users benefit from features like Active/Active FEX connectivity and wish for enhancements in routing support, interface usability, and documentation. Cost concerns and port overheating issues are noted, with calls for better training and simplified configurations.

What are the key features of Cisco Nexus?

Modularity: Enables customization and upgradability.
Virtual Port Channels (VPCs): Offers resilience and high availability.
Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF): Supports routing domains within a network device.
High Port Density: Allows connection of multiple devices in a compact space.
Automation: Simplifies network management and operations.
Redundancy Features: Provides network reliability and uptime.

What benefits and ROI should users expect from Cisco Nexus?

Scalability: Supports growing network demands.
Stability: Offers a reliable operational environment.
Efficiency: Enhances data center connectivity and management.
Security Integration: Works seamlessly with third-party security solutions.
High Performance: Optimizes data handling and throughput.

In enterprise settings, Cisco Nexus is essential for switching, routing, and server connection aggregation. It's integral in spine-and-leaf architectures for scalability in multi-tenant environments, often integrated with hyper-converged technology to ensure reliable, secure server connectivity. Implementations span industries, each leveraging its strength for improved network efficiency.

Cisco

PowerConnect Switches family offers a set of flexible, manageable and comprehensive switch solutions supporting up to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and optimized Internet iSCSI (iSCSI) performance with Dell Storage solutions, ideal for enterprise and campus LAN environments alike.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

Advanced Medical Transport, Banco de Guayaquil, Baylor Scott & White Health, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, Calligaris, Children's Hospital Colorado, City of Biel, Del Papa Distributing, Department of Justice, Dimension Data, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS), Hertz, K&L Gates , LightEdge, Lone Star College System, Management Science Associates, Mindtree, NBC Olympics, Quest, Sony Corporation, The Department of Education in Western Australia, Valley Proteins

Amerijet Holdings Inc., CGD Securities, MavenWire, Tulane University

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Netgear and others in LAN Switching. Updated: April 2026.

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