Cisco Nexus vs HPE A-Series [EOL] comparison

Cisco and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the Data Center Networking category. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

Cisco Nexus

Read 108 Cisco Nexus reviews

2,502 Views
1,902 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

HPE A-Series [EOL]

Read 1 HPE A-Series [EOL] review

100% willing to recommend

Cisco Nexus

HPE A-Series [EOL]

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Nexus and HPE A-Series [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Juniper, Cisco, Arista and others in Data Center Networking.

To learn more, read our detailed Data Center Networking Report (Updated: January 2026).

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Data Center Networking

January 2026

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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

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

108

Ranking in other categories

LAN Switching (4th), Data Center Networking (5th)

HPE A-Series [EOL]

Average Rating

8.0

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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Mohamed-Mousa

IT manager at CNE

Stable and scalable with a good user interface

Overall, everything related to the interface is very good Some follow up from our user-partners would be useful. Letting users know what is up and coming or providing better documentation would be helpful. Overall, the solution could offer its users better support. I've been using the solution…

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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

"The initial setup is easy."

"When it comes to data centers, Cisco Nexus is the best."

"The solution is very expensive. Currently, we pay an yearly licensing cost. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten."

"The most valuable feature is performance."

"Cisco Nexus is a stable solution."

"We have continuity with Cisco, which provides a very high-end solution."

"Current flexibility and the opportunities for future planning and scaling make this product line an ultimate opportunity."

"This product has improved the way our organization functions through the ability to do things in a maintenance window while allowing other teams to continue to work."

More Cisco Nexus pros

"The solution is very stable."

Cons

"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."

"Multi contexts would be nice to have to separate different tenants logically and securely."

"In the next release of this solution, I would like to see a focus on backplane deployment, so you can stack more."

"I would like to see a central management solution in order to have all of the equipment in one place."

"Don't discard Cisco Nexus because of the price."

"Cisco Nexus is just a platform. You just set it up, give it an IP, and then start configuring it. But there are a million features to configure."

"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."

"The installation process lasted too long, taking 16 to 24 hours for full completion."

More Cisco Nexus cons

"Some follow up from our user-partners would be useful. Letting users know what is up and coming or providing better documentation would be helpful. Overall, the solution could offer its users better support."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."

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

"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."

"The subscription model and price could be better."

"In most cases, there is a need to secure perpetual licenses to be able to use the product. When I set up the product, there isn't just a one-time cost that is involved."

"The licensing fees for this solution are approximately $800,000 USD annually."

"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."

"Cisco Nexus is not a cheaply priced product."

More Cisco Nexus pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Performing Arts

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Nexus?

The product's initial setup phase is very easy.

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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?

Cisco Nexus may not be very popular because of the requirements that we come across, as it will go into the core data centers, whereas we work with most of the corporate sectors, so Cisco Nexus is ...

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Comparisons

Juniper QFX Series Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 28% of the time

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 12% of the time

Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 12% of the time

Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 7% of the time

Juniper QFabric vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 7% of the time

More Cisco Nexus Competitors

No data available

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Nexus

January 2026

Download Cisco Nexus product report

Buyer's Guide

Data Center Networking

January 2026

Download HPE A-Series [EOL] product report

Also Known As

No data available

A-Series, HP A-Series

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

Information not available

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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

SEED Infotech, Weta Digital, BlueShore Financial

Buyer's Guide

Data Center Networking

January 2026

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