Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] vs Juniper QFabric comparison

"PowerConnect Switches' stability is satisfactory."

"Its throughout and compatibility are the most valuable."

"The most valuable feature of Dell PowerConnect Switches for me is the throughput. I also like that the product has more compatibility with Dell infrastructure, especially with EMC and new generation Dell servers. Dell PowerConnect Switches can also easily integrate with Dell servers, and this is another pro."

"Dell PowerConnect Switches are very easy to configure with the GUI. Dell supports the solution even though it has been discontinued."

"It's easy to set up. We can put it in production in a couple of minutes."

"The most valuable feature is stability."

"When the price is competitive the customers tend to choose the cheaper brand and then look at the features. So having a competitive price is a plus."

"The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it is a stable and reliable product covered with good warranties and prices that ensure deep discounts for partners."

"The solution is easy to use and has good performance."

"It's user-friendly."

"QFabric supports redundancy and includes all of the enterprise and service provider features that customers would want in data center or service provider network."

"Juniper QFabric has various advantages including scalability, simplicity, performance, and flexibility."

"The most valuable features of this solution are the fabric backplane having upwards of 160 GB of communication. It is a top-of-the-rack solution where you have your directors sitting in the main area and then you have your nodes expanded out to your multiple cabinets. It has a very good design and could be your server backbone."

"The solution is stable."

"The vendor maintains the product well."

"The 40 gig backbone InterConneX was valuable for our use case. It is even faster now. QFabric has spine-leaf technology or topology, which basically makes every single hop only one hop away in terms of connecting from one device to another. It is a pretty good and robust solution. It works pretty well in terms of scalability, and their technical support is amazing."

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

"When it comes to the configuration, there should be documentation and interactive help available to assist people who have experience with products from other vendors."

"Accessibility and management could be improved."

"Not a ten because I have to do a lot of testing on it. The correlation is okay."

"The CLI for Dell PowerConnect Switches is sometimes confusing, especially with the LAN, but for the GUI it is simple."

"The solution could provide more integration to focus on targeting the network as a whole rather than a unified environment. It is meant for a built environment, so integration with other third-party vendors will likely be necessary."

"The pricing could always be a bit lower."

"Dell is sometimes slow to provide updates to firmware."

"They are working on the virtualization of the actual fabric layer. They are moving away from the original spine-leaf design to a different infrastructure. Instead of having three tiers, which was the director of the interconnected nodes, they cut them back, and they still have that kind of structure."

"Improvements could be made to QFabric's life cycle management, particularly in maintaining stable versions and extending product support."

"It works too much on rebooting and there is some memory leakage."

"I do not use GUI's very much for switch stacks. I am always in the CLI. However, I do know that Juniper in the past has lacked on their GUI's, but they have been working on it."

"Having support for all OpenFlow versions would be beneficial."

"The stability needs to be improved."

"The disruptive upgrade was an issue for us."

"The pricing structure could be more budget-friendly."

"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."

"Pricing for Dell PowerConnect Switches is quite competitive compared to Cisco and HP pricing. Dell has cheaper pricing and the company is trying to push for sales for its switching infrastructure because right now, the current market is dominated by Cisco. In the US market, there's Cisco, HP, Juniper, and Arista which you can buy for data center switching meant for different kinds of enterprises and ISPs. Dell PowerConnect Switches, on the other hand, is a product for people who need smaller setups or individual switches, especially those looking for a cheaper product and basic switching, though you can also buy a complete suite packaged with the switches."

"Inexpensive"

"The price of these switches is okay."

"Dell PowerConnect switches are cheaper than Cisco switches. Cisco's higher capacity switches (100 or 200 gigs) are super-expensive. With the higher capacity, the price of the switches and the price of the architecture go high. Dell is cheaper and modular. So, I don't need to invest 100% upfront. I can invest as I progress. That is an option because the chassis will not be populated with all the pluggables. I have a choice because it is modular. I can go for 25 gigs today, and after four months, I can go for 100 gigs, and after that, I can go for 200 gigs. I have a choice when it is not a fixed switch."

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

"The initial cost was high but since they have lasted for over ten or twenty years they are worth it."

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

"In terms of price, the QFabric solution is going to be probably in the middle of the road for a fabric solution."

"The price is relatively high, but it offers an advantage over its competitors by providing better performance and functionality."

"Juniper QFabric is a high-level solution but it could be less expensive."

"The pricing is high."

"The pricing is high and it is possible to find better pricing option solutions on the market, but the licensing model is quite flexible."

"The price for Juniper QFabric could improve. There are subscription, maintenance, and add-on feature fees."