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Cisco Nexus vs Dell PowerSwitch N-Series comparison

Cisco and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the LAN Switching category. Cisco is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.6, while Dell Technologies is ranked #12. Cisco holds a 8.7% mindshare in LS, compared to Dell Technologies’s 3.2% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 50% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.
Cisco Nexus
Read 105 Cisco Nexus reviews
  • 1,564 Views
  • 1,090 Comparison Views
96% willing to recommend
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series
Read 2 Dell PowerSwitch N-Series reviews
  • 249 Views
  • 194 Comparison Views
50% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series and Cisco Nexus compete in the networking hardware sector. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series provides competitive pricing and reliable customer support, while Cisco Nexus offers advanced features, making each appealing based on user priorities.

Features: Dell PowerSwitch N-Series provides robust scalability, energy efficiency, and seamless integration with third-party products. Cisco Nexus offers high-performance capabilities, advanced security features, and extensive support for virtualization.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is noted for its straightforward deployment and responsive support team, ensuring a smoother installation process. Cisco Nexus, with its more complex setup, benefits from comprehensive documentation and advanced support, aiding large-scale deployments.

Pricing and ROI: Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is preferred for its lower initial setup costs and effective ROI, appealing to budget-conscious buyers. Cisco Nexus requires a larger upfront investment but delivers long-term value through high performance and innovative features.

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To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Nexus vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series Report (Updated: April 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Nexus vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series
April 2025
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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
Ranking in LAN Switching
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
105
Ranking in other categories
Data Center Networking (3rd)
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series
Ranking in LAN Switching
12th
Average Rating
6.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 8.7%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is 3.2%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
LAN Switching
 

Featured Reviews

Joe Benítez - PeerSpot reviewer
Offer high performance capabilities and enables efficient data transmission and processing
Before Nexus, I used to have Catalyst 6500 switches. Those 6500 series chassis gave us a lot of problems. Too many problems, actually. And we had a Cisco ASA firewall blade within those chassis. And they were running outdated software. So, in fact, it was the firewall blade that caused us too many problems instead of the chassis. The chassis itself was working well and performing fine, but the firewall card was not suitable for our needs. That was one aspect. Additionally, those chassis had been in operation for more than five years. As we are a local government, we have a policy to renew hardware every five years. That's because we need to maintain all the hardware and software in the latest versions and keep up with the technology lifecycle of the technology we use.
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Al Vasek - PeerSpot reviewer
Performs well, but the support and stability could be improved
There is a lack of support because there is a lack of adoption. Because Cisco switches are so widely used, anyone in the world can support them. It was two Cisco engineers who released Arista's code. In terms of programming functionality, they essentially duplicated the Cisco iOS, so all Cisco commands work on the Arista commands. You can do an Arista if you can do a Cisco. Aruba isn't all that different. It's a little different, but they have all of HPE's money and stuff behind it and things like that. I would say the same thing about Extreme or some of the other switches where it's penny-wise, pound-foolish. You save some money if you are a small shop with only one or two guys, it's understandable. Fortinet is now in the switch business, and they have their FortiSwitch devices, which are controlled by the FortiGate firewalls to do all of the programs. There is a lot to choose from. But, in my opinion, a lot of it is dependent on the use case and the customer type. Meraki is a nice little Cisco product for the right kind of business, but I wouldn't use it in an enterprise setting.
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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

"We have continuity with Cisco, which provides a very high-end solution."
"The most valuable features are the access layer security, OpenConfig, and OpenFlow."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is its speed."
"This solution has saved us both time and money because we now have the ability to control all of these telephony devices that are deployed nationwide."
"This solution streamlines how we have to configure things because we can do everything from one device, whereas if we had individual devices we would have to go to each one and configure them manually."
"The ability to tenant-out the traffic and segment it, without having to get into separate physical hardware or trying to figure out VDCs manually, has been really powerful and extremely useful for us."
"The product has a stable and strong server panel switch."
"We are a Cisco shop. This solution is better compared to other options."
More Cisco Nexus pros
"For a customer, it is easy to configure and to add ports through the LAN the GUI."
"Port density and port speed performance are both suitable. It has some appealing intangibles."
 

Cons

"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."
"In the Nexus 3500, you can't do per-port Jumbo frames, so you have to enable it as a global configuration."
"The code quality for this solution has gotten worse and needs improvement."
"I would like to see a central management solution in order to have all of the equipment in one place."
"If we could get some more automation integrated into it, it would make it easier."
"Technical support could be better."
"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."
"They need to offer fibre switches in the 9K series."
More Cisco Nexus cons
"Instead of competing at the enterprise level with that product, they should probably scale it. With all of the ports, they should develop a good mid-level business to truly scale it and gain adoption before attempting to go after the enterprise."
"Customers do not prefer this to connect to multiple cities."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our licensing fees are approximately $2,000 USD per year."
"All of our costs including subscription, licensing, and support services are bundled together, and the cost is approximately $100,000 USD per year."
"The price of this solution is good when compared to others in the market."
"The solution should be more cost-effective in general."
"We only have a yearly support contract, as we do not use any of the subscription-based functions at this time."
"The license on a yearly basis is $200,000."
"The license for Cisco Nexus is one year to three years, in this case for the SMARTnet. It is a price per unit, in terms of this specific appliance."
"Our licensing costs for this solution are approximately $200 USD per month."
More Cisco Nexus pricing and cost advice
"You are selling it to larger customers and in larger environments, where it's a less expensive model than Cisco, which is attempting to use the same approach Arista did, but with a completely different programming language."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
24%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
24%
Comms Service Provider
13%
University
7%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Nexus?
The product's initial setup phase is very easy.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Nexus?
The price of Cisco Nexus is on the higher side due to the premium services Cisco offers. Despite the cost, it offers valuable features and services.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus?
When I talk about data centers, which are critical infrastructure and centralized application hubs, the Nexus platforms should be highly stable. Initially, the codes I received through ACI were qui...
See all answers
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Comparisons

Juniper QFX Series Switches vs Cisco Nexus Logo
Juniper QFX Series Switches vs Cisco Nexus
Compared 45% of the time
Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus Logo
Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus
Compared 19% of the time
Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Nexus Logo
Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Nexus
Compared 12% of the time
ExtremeSwitching vs Cisco Nexus Logo
ExtremeSwitching vs Cisco Nexus
Compared 5% of the time
NETGEAR Switches vs Cisco Nexus Logo
NETGEAR Switches vs Cisco Nexus
Compared 3% of the time
More Cisco Nexus Competitors
Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Dell PowerSwitch N-Series Logo
Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Dell PowerSwitch N-Series
Compared 70% of the time
More Dell PowerSwitch N-Series Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Cisco Nexus
April 2025
Cisco Nexus reportDownload Cisco Nexus product report
Buyer's Guide
LAN Switching
March 2025
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series reportDownload Dell PowerSwitch N-Series product report
 

Overview

The Cisco Nexus family of switches is designed to meet the stringent requirements of the next-generation data center. Not simply bigger or faster, these switches offer the following characteristics: infrastructure that can be scaled cost-effectively and that helps you increase energy, budget, and resource efficiency, transport that can navigate the transition to 10 Gigabit Ethernet and unified fabric and can also handle architectural changes such as virtualization, Web 2.0 applications, and cloud computing and operational continuity to meet your need for an environment where system availability is assumed and maintenance windows are rare if not totally extinct.
Cisco

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series bring users efficient connections to the network with highly functional access and aggregation switching. Products consist of: Dell EMC Networking N1100 Series, Dell Networking N1500 Switches, Dell Networking N2000 Series, Dell Networking N3000 Series and Dell Networking N4000 Series.

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
Norwich University of the Arts, Shelby American, City and Islington College
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Nexus vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series
April 2025
Free Report: Cisco Nexus vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series
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We monitor all LAN Switching reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.