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

2,995 Views
2,186 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 Cisco, Dell Technologies, Juniper and others in Data Center Networking.

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

Buyer's Guide

Data Center Networking

March 2026

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Helped 885,311 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 (3rd), Data Center Networking (3rd)

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 a media company with 201-500 employees

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 most valuable features are the access layer security, OpenConfig, and OpenFlow."

"With a beautifully engineered hardware and Android OS, Nexus 7 is definitely a choice worth making."

"We really like this solution; it's a great switch, and if there is a data center switch we try to lead with, it's the 9K."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is stability. We have a pretty large campus."

"This solution has allowed us to better prepare our network for 10-gigabit."

"In terms of stability, this solution is rock solid."

"The scalability of Cisco Nexus is good. We've had them for the entire lifetime. We've never had to upgrade them yet."

"This solution is the backbone of our data center."

More Cisco Nexus pros

"Overall, everything related to the interface is very good."

"The solution is very stable."

Cons

"The code quality for this solution has gotten worse and needs improvement."

"The problem with Cisco, from what I see, is that their costs are much higher."

"The product lacks options for integration with other market products that would allow us more flexibility."

"The licensing is the area that we are working that's a challenge."

"Currently, the platform is heavy. I would like to see a lighter platform."

"The product could be updated more frequently for other phone model support."

"The flexibility and configuration could be better. It is not as reliable as Catalyst."

"Customers do not understand the new licenses or subscription very well. Cisco should work on this."

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."

"Overall, the solution could offer its users better support."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

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

"Licensing is annual or every three years. We were one of the big customers, and we used to get good prices, but the cost of the support can be improved."

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

"The problem with Cisco, from what I see, is that their costs are much higher."

"Cisco's licensing structures can be complex across different technologies, for example, unified communications."

"This solution should be made more affordable."

More Cisco Nexus pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Marketing Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

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?

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Comparisons

Juniper QFX Series Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 17% 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 8% of the time

Arista Campus LAN Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 7% of the time

More Cisco Nexus Competitors

No data available

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Nexus

March 2026

Download Cisco Nexus product report

Buyer's Guide

Data Center Networking

March 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

March 2026

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