HPE Ethernet Switches Reviews

We primarily use it for switches. We use it to interconnect all the LAN, and WAN switches. It's great for creating an interconnected network. 

It's stable and performing well.

The solution is simple to set up.

We've been using old models for the longest time now. They're reliable and function well even after all this time. The wear factor is very low, and they're still reliable. If the bandwidth is not an issue, a company can use it for a very long time.

Some of the older versions have lower bandwidth. 

The scalability is limited. 

We've used the solution for the longest time right now.

The solution is stable and the performance is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It does not crash or freeze on us. It is reliable. 

The solution can only scale so much. There are limitations in terms of the number of ports.

While we have one group using the switches, everyone is benefiting from them as we are using them to connect our networks.

We have about 3,000 users on the solution right now. 

I'm not sure if we have plans to increase usage. We're still coming out of the pandemic. 

Our vendor usually provides support. We're satisfied with the level of service we have. 

The initial setup is simple. It's straightforward. It's not complex or difficult. 

My colleague implemented it with other switches. 

The vendors who are bringing the switches to our company, or the vendors who are selling the switches, will provide the staff to help install the solution. Usually, there are around five persons at a maximum helping to assist.

We've seen an ROI. With some switches, they are still with us, they're still operational. We've only had to upgrade a bit which is the only reason why we're replacing them. If we didn't replace them for the upgrade they'd still be working. They last a very long time. You get your money's worth.

I can't speak to the exact licensing costs. 

I'm not familiar with which version we're using. 

I'd recommend the solution to others. 

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. 

HPE Ethernet Switches are scalable, and their software is also quite sturdy. The solution's security is up to the mark according to industry standards. HPE Ethernet Switches are very easy to use, and the MTBF or failure rate is very low.

The solution’s licensing could be improved.

In my current organization, I have provided HPE Ethernet Switches to one or two customers, but in my previous organization, we have provided HPE Ethernet Switches to more customers. They entered the Indian market in 2008 and have a very good reputation.

I rate HPE Ethernet Switches a nine out of ten for stability.

The technical support team of HPE Ethernet Switches is very good.

The setup of HPE Ethernet Switches depends on the SoW, and it's not complex at all. The solution's initial setup is quite straightforward.

L2 switches are deployed in half an hour to one hour. But L3 switches get deployed in one, two, or three days depending on the SoW.

Depending on the quantity, one or two L2 or L3 people are more than sufficient for the solution's implementation. Two people are required to implement L3 switches, and depending on the SoW, the job can be finished in one or two days.

HPE Ethernet Switches used to have a lifetime warranty for some of the products. We have to see only the security part when considering licenses because the licenses upgrade.

Since the Indian market is very price-sensitive, HPE Ethernet Switches are preferred from a commercial point of view. Cisco switches are more stable from a technical and commercial point of view, but commercially, HP is the choice for any enterprise. Since HPE Ethernet Switches have an SMB presence, SMB customers will buy them.

Overall, I rate HPE Ethernet Switches an eight or nine out of ten.

We primarily use this solution for video surveillance.

The best part about this solution is the price.

This solution is easy to use.

The technical support for this solution has improved from what it was.

We have had some rare occasions with glitches, so the stability can be improved.

This solution is stable, but on the rare occasion, we have had glitches like dropped packets.

We do not tolerate serious issues in the backbone or infrastructure. We do not go for something cheap and hoping that it will work, especially when it comes to networking.

I cannot comment on the scalability because it is not something that we consider. When we decide on a solution, we go for it completely, from the beginning to the end. We start with the complete solution on day one, as opposed to starting small and then looking to scale it later on.

The number of users for each of our switches depends on the circumstances. In some sites, we have ten or twenty users. In other sites, depending on how big it is, like an industrial facility or a hotel, we do not know. Many of our solutions are used in retail or hospitality environments.

We do not speak with HPE technical support because everything has to go through the distributor.

Most of the time, we use solutions from Cisco. They are well supported in Egypt. However, new regulations in Egypt require that if we are buying a product from abroad then we have to be a partner, and have a letter from the vendor to indicate this. Is has to do with the ability to provide local support.

Because we are not a partner with Cisco, we need to purchase equipment from the local partner. This means that we have to work with their fees and time schedule. Paying in advance is not a problem, but you have to wait for an unspecified period of time to receive your equipment. They won't give you an estimate as to the duration.

We switched to HPE simply because they are easier to get than Cisco or Sophos.

Our deployment took a couple of days.

We have not had to maintain our switches, except for one time when we had a bad experience. It was a long time ago, and we had HPE switches from a system integrator. One had a problem and it was under warranty, but instead of replacing the switch, they started swapping pieces one at a time. This switch was in a very crucial data center and it was very difficult to get there.

Ultimately, we lost the customer and the system integrator lost their reputation. I think that HPE lost a lot because it was much easier to replace the entire unit instead of replacing one piece at a time. They ended up replacing entire modules. Since that time, we don't rely on local partners. We talk to HPE directly or we collect the whole unit and send it to HPE.

Our in-house team handled the implementation.

Licensing fees are on a yearly basis.

These switches are not as stable as those from Cisco.

We were looking at some switches from Alcatel-Lucent, but they are not popular in Egypt.

This is a solution that I recommend.

My advice to anybody researching this type of solution is to not go for the cheap solution. Go for the right one. You get what you pay for.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

The company wanted to extend our network and also wants to have the SAN storage, so we deployed it on other switches to create a new network segment and also connect the SAN switches on it.

The solution works well and offers good performance. The client is satisfied. 

We found the installation process to be simple. 

The solution is stable.

It can scale. 

Technical support is fine.

I cannot say what areas need improvement. 

We would always be happier if the price were reduced. 

I've used the solution for less than one year. 

The solution is stable. It offers good performance. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

It's scalable. 

We only have two clients on the solution at this time. 

Technical support has been fine. They are okay. I find them to be responsive. If we need help with something, we can get assistance. 

I'm working a lot with Aruba Switches right now. 

The product is straightforward to set up. It's simple. We did not find it to be complex. One switch might take a day to deploy and two or three days to finalize the operations and make it stable. It takes about that long to make sure everything is working well. 

I'm not sure of the exact cost of the solution. Of course, it could always be less expensive. 

I'd recommend the solution to certain clients. It's a fine product.

I would rate the solution seven out of ten. 

I would say, to start with, the most valuable feature is that HP is not too different from existing systems. You don’t have to change too much the mode of operation that the ops teams are used to, and the command interfaces are workable.

We’re still in the implementation phase.

We’ve been getting fixes for things that were missing initially, but v6 support is there and has everything we need.

Because this is a modular device, we feel we can use scale in the future. The IRF is also important to us.

Overall good. We’re running into some issues when looking at beta code, something HP isn't focused on. The support people don’t want to talk too much about that.

We’re basically trying to look at an openstack infrastructure solution. We’re using it on a voice-over-infrastructure, supporting IMS. We’re using a Cisco solution right now.

I would say it’s no more complex than anything else, so we’re learning that people are protecting systems a bit differently.

We looked at -

• Cisco
• Juniper
• Alcatel Lucent
• HP
• Aresta
• Erickson

We chose HP because they met most of the criteria that we were looking at, and they were able to come up with some solutions that were a little outside of the box when things didn’t quite fit. They were more proactive on the sales/engineering side and with pre-solution support.

You should look for high performance, low maintenance, open flow, and XLAN when choosing a solution. Compatibility with other products is also very important. Some routing protocols were required.

Overall, the solution is a little more complicated than we initially wanted, but it’s pretty good. It’s going to be a learning and teaching experience for service providers. Solutions are there, but they’re not always the same methodologies for the same businesses.

The primary use case of this solution is for the office network connection.

What I like the most is the management system integrated with the HP system. Our server is HPE and we have the management system to supervise. Now it is our system, but at the same time, it is the HPE because it is integrated into our system.

I am now using a new model because we had a problem with the speed, but the problem was with the network infrastructure, not with the HPE. We did not have the fiber backbone in our company.

We need more support to fix simple issues. For example, to find a problem in the LAN or why the systems speed is slow.

When we have a lot of clients on the system, we lose signal and have to restart our antenna. 

It would be better to be able to provide my number and have the information needed in regards to the equipment when a change is proposed.

You will need the assistance of a technician because the implementation is not that easy.

If you change your old equipment then it will be replaced but you have the same issues in five years' time because HPE does not have the equipment to solve my issues.

In the next release, I would like to see technical support for simple issues and to simplify the implementation.

I have been using this solution for six years.

This solution is stable. 

The switches have been installed for a minimum of five years, and have never been switched off. The problem is the cable or the rack gripped the cable, not the switch.

The switches are old, but there are components available that are not too expensive.

We have fifty users. This includes a technical and IT office with three people, a mechanical office with ten engineers, and an electronic office with three engineers.

This solution is scalable.

In our company, we want to change to a Fiber backbone and the switches we have are too old and only have STF ports with a maximum speed of one gigabit. The network needs ten gigabits to scale one gigabit for the client.

The technical is okay for our system. With the issue we have now, we contacted web support. We were satisfied with the support that we received. 

We had a problem with the shipment being lost, and they had to ship another one, but that was a problem with the shipper and not HPE.

The support not only solves my problems but they try to solve future problems that may occur.

Previously we used Cisco Atlantis. We switched to HPE because we had a good impression of this solution and good experience with the switches. Our network system was also older, with older equipment.

I find the setup in Cisco to be more difficult than HPE, but I know HPE better than Cisco.

If you use the web interface, the GUI interface, you need to have a basic knowledge to manage the network, it's easy. If you use the command line interface it's not as easy.

The time it takes to deploy really depends on the complexity of the network. If, for example, you have one HPE switch without a VLAN system, it's not easy. A network deployment can take a week with ten switches and to set up every port.

To implement this solution to make a separate VLAN for the CMC or to deploy the VPN connection we used an external technician. The technician, in this case, was HPE certified.

There were three options, but we prefer HPE, it was our first choice.

My advice would be to draw the network system before calling a technician. It's necessary to do a good job.

The price is not the only thing to consider when making your decision.

The switches are guaranteed for life, it's a great solution.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We use this solution for our office network in an on-premises deployment.

It handles only our office traffic, and our main computers are on the cloud.

We use classical features such as trunking and VLAN. We don't really use the fancy stuff like SNMP.

The HPE Ethernet switches have very low latency.

The interface is old in appearance and needs to be modernized.

I would like to see better URL filters and security.

It would be helpful to have training available for this solution.

We have had no problem with respect to stability, and we are very happy.

We have not needed to scale this solution.

We had to contact technical support one time to update the software. It was not easy because this unit is very old. We could not find the current files on the HP support page.

Currently, we do not have a contract with technical support.

We had a NETGEAR solution and it was not stable. I did not like the interface because it was very slow. It was a pain to work with and maintain the configuration. It also had very high latency. After switching to HPE we have had no problem at all.

The initial setup of this solution is straightforward. It has been very easy to change the computers whenever we needed to.

Our deployment took approximately one day. It was easy to get working.

A single technician is enough for deployment and maintenance.

I have also been working with Cisco solutions, which are really great but there is a problem with integration. If everything is Cisco then it is very smooth, but if you mix vendors then it's a problem. This is the reason we did not choose Cisco here.

I have also worked with other kinds of switches like D-Link, but they are not for a business like ours.

I would recommend this product and also a support contract. I don't think that I would pay this price without getting the support.

We are happy with this solution but it is really an old model.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

The most valuable feature is that you do not require a spanning tree. With some of the other vendors, some of the other competitors, you require a spanning tree which cause a lot of looping issues in your data center or in your network. The other thing is, the HP 5400 switches comes with a lifetime warranty, so you don't have to invest anything onto a contract side, which is very good thing about it. The 5400 switches, you can use as a whole or access layer in your network and work out great.

The benefits are it's been running robust, the hardware is running robust, no issues at all. It's lifetime warranty again. From the hardware standpoint, configure standpoint, it's all working fine.

I don't know about specifics, but so far all the switches that we deployed, it meets all of our needs. For what we require, it has all of features. It also varies on the switch by switch version, and it depends on what kind of switches you have. For me, right now it's meeting all my needs, so I don't have any complaints about it.

We deployed HP for almost five years and it's been rock solid. All the switches, no single-out days with the switches. The switches hardware have a long life, and it has been working great for us.

Stability is pretty good, as I say that we deployed HP, it's been about four years and we haven't had a single out day in my data center. I can't ask anything more than that.

All the hardware that we have, our portfolio at HP, it's pretty scalable to the latest and greatest technology. You can have a 40 GIG QSFP Uplink for the top of Rex switches, or even one for your core switches, that's over 40 GIG, 100 GIG Uplink. That is what everybody is going towards now, with all the data centers. It's up to the mark.

To me, the technical support is not that good. Trust me, we don't use the technical support anymore from HP because we tried to use them and we didn't get much of a response from them. I know everybody's experience is different, but we try to do it by ourselves. We try to figure out by ourselves if any kind of software issue or any kind of hardware issue. The support, we didn't get much response from HP about the software support, configuration support, we just tried by ourselves, but hardware, it's pretty good.

With the old technology we were paying more money with the context. Obviously, we were having a lot of issues with the Data Center, where Data Center used to go down with the old legacy technology. We decided to move forward with RFP. We evaluated a few vendors in the market and after evaluation we decided to go with HP and it's been working out great for us.

When we started deploying, it was H3C and they have a different division, Comware, and HP are 5400 Series, they have a different set up command lines. Now, they are making everything together on the Comware division. When we deployed, it depends on the switches. If you buy Comware switches, they have a different command set compared to HP or H3C switches. It was kind of hard for us to learn the command line initially, but now we are all comfortable with it and it's working fine. Since they are all HP now, all the switches, they only have a one command line in the Comware 7, if you have that, it's pretty easy to deploy initially.

We tried Cisco, we tried Dell. Again, it's more robust and the most important factor was a price. I just look at the technology and see if it meets your needs for your data center and not in HP, looks like they did, they did meet our needs, what we needed for our data center, for our campus, branch offices and it's been working out great.

Hardware can last for a while. You have all of options to upgrade the switches, a lot of options to support the connectivities, like 1 GB, 10 GB, 40 GBs, different varieties of the switches. You can choose from.

I just want to say that best thing about HP is they don't have a technology called a Spanning Tree Protocol, which can cause a lot of issues on your network, and HP kind of get rid of that. When you do a HP IRF, you kind of don't need that Spanning Tree, which is the most important part about HP.

Other than that, again it's a hardware stability. Hardware stability, they have IRF for the switches to virtualize your switches. The easy set of command line, with the new Comware 7.