Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches Reviews and Pricing

Engineer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Jan 29, 2014

Benefits of Juniper vs Cisco

Both are decent products. I prefer Juniper for the following reasons:

1) Cleaner separation of data plane from control plane. Higher end Cisco devices are better at this but most of the lower end products still seem to be more integrated than I like.

2) The Hierarchical config design means I can make changes only in areas that concern me without necessarily impacting other areas.

3) Easier rollback when one makes mistakes

4) I think there are less bugs/vulnerabilities in Junos vs IOS.

5) iOS has too many flavors leads to confusion with deployment.

One more advantage of junos over iOS. Juniper adheres closer to the standards than Cisco. Epigraph is nice, auto rp is cool, but with the less protocols in the standards it's much earlier to configure junos.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user111156Consultant

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May 6, 2014

Either vendor has a switch that will do the job. However I perferer Juniper due to

a. rollback is quick and easy in the event of issues arising from chnages
b. easier fault finding (once you get your head around how its implemented)
c. no need check the switch to find which OS feature set is installed and if memory / flash upgrade is required - its all in the OS with very few licenses (usually none) required to get full functionality if you have select the correct product in the first place
d. Hierarchical config is much easier to follow - great concept that most programmers can pickup quickly
e. don't need to learn different variants of the CLI as is required on IOS (even HP manage to stay relatively consistent there)
f. decent speed stacking interfaces on enterprise grade switches (particular 4x00 series)
g. more function for $ (at retail prices)
h. closer to standards than Cisco - easier interoperability in multi vendor environment
i. does not have legacy protocols that are not used or so rarely used that they don't matter in the day and age

Purchase and implementation of Cisco maintenance process is MUCH simpler to the end customer

Worked on both brands for a number of years.

Wesley Wang

DevOps System Engineer at Monash University

Aug 22, 2021

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A stable and scalable solution which is easy to use and install and provides good tech support

Pros and Cons

"The solution is certainly scalable."

"The price is in the intermediate range. It is not overly expensive, but also not cheap. It could stand improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for ethernet access.

What is most valuable?

I like the solution's ease of use and stability.

What needs improvement?

The price is in the intermediate range. It is not overly expensive, but also not cheap. It could stand improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Juniper Ethernet Switches for a couple of years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is certainly scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

Tech support is fine. There is no need to improve it.

How was the initial setup?

The solution is easy to install.

While the installation time can vary depending on the project involved, for a simple one it takes around 10 or 15 minutes.

What about the implementation team?

There are five engineers who were involved in the deployment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price could be cheaper.

What other advice do I have?

We have over 1,000 customers making use of the solution, mainly in Taiwan.

I would recommend the solution to others.

I rate Juniper Ethernet Switches as a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner

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Alejandro Mendez

External Plant Coordinator with 201-500 employees

Feb 4, 2018

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Supports all our connectivity infrastructure in our datacenter

Pros and Cons

"Juniper supports all our connectivity infrastructure in our datacenter, supporting optimal availability and performance for services."
"The Virtual Chassis, because you have a centralized administration of a set of switches which makes the operation more efficient."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use is as a datacenter, as aggregation and access switches. They are also used in wireless nodes in the core switch segment receiving all last mile services, as in optical fiber.

How has it helped my organization?

Juniper supports all our connectivity infrastructure in our datacenter, supporting optimal availability and performance for services.

What is most valuable?

The Virtual Chassis, because you have a centralized administration of a set of switches which makes the operation more efficient.

What needs improvement?

Support prices and licensing scheme need to be improved to allow some features to be purchased at lower costs, for example, RPM.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Cisco.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Brocade.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

reviewer1226619

Data Center Architecture and Planning at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

Nov 21, 2019

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Good stability and extremely good scalability but doesn't offer very good integrations

Pros and Cons

"The scalability is excellent. It's one of the aspects of the solution that is quite good."

"We are undergoing a migration to software-defined networking. Different vendors have to integrate with each other and we are not seeing this type of capability within Juniper. We are getting left behind in this technology trend by staying with this solution. Juniper is also losing a bit of market share because of this."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for our data center.

What is most valuable?

The switches are pretty typical. They offer good control and good switching.

What needs improvement?

We're currently in the process of switching to Cisco as we haven't been too happy with Juniper.

We are undergoing a migration to software-defined networking. Different vendors have to integrate with each other and we are not seeing this type of capability within Juniper. We are getting left behind in this technology trend by staying with this solution. Juniper is also losing a bit of market share because of this.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for between five and ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is excellent. It's one of the aspects of the solution that is quite good.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is not so good. Sometimes we contact them, but they don't offer the best service.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. I joined the company after deployment, so I'm not sure how long it takes.

What other advice do I have?

We use the on-premises deployment model.

I'd rate the solution no more than seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

reviewer1521459

Senior Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Mar 21, 2021

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Secure, easy to install, easy to use, scalable, with good technical support

Pros and Cons

"The security is good."

"They could improve the code, as there are some issues with it."

What is our primary use case?

We use only Firewalls, Juniper Switches. We don't have SD-WAN solutions.

We use this solution for connecting.

What is most valuable?

It's user-friendly.

The security is good.

What needs improvement?

Stability is an area that needs improvement.

They could improve the code, as there are some issues with it.

Marketing could be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Juniper Ethernet Switches for six years.

We are using the EX series.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable solution, but there are some limitations.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I don't have any issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

The vendor support is good.

The technical support is good.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. It's not complex. It's easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't have any knowledge of pricing, I am in the technical department.

What other advice do I have?

It's a good product.

It's user-friendly and has good security also.

I would recommend it to others.

I would rate Juniper Ethernet Switches an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user90057

Owner at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Feb 13, 2014

Pros and cons of both Cisco and Juniper configs, but you can see the benefit of why they organized it the way they did

After being primarily a Cisco user for many years, I find the switch to Juniper refreshing. The CLI is intuitive and I appreciate the hierarchy of the various configuration groups to be much more organized. I also think it is better with regard to config checking, and ensuring that the items entered into the config work with the rest of the config. For example if you happen to forget a line in a policy, or make an error in referencing a particular object, it will not let you commit the config. I know there are pros and cons of both configs, but once you get used to Juniper, you can see the benefit of why they organized it the way they did.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user111924VP of Network/Comms/Infra at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

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Nov 11, 2014

Hi, well to your point about rollbacks, the benefits of this feature are quite obvious in that they provide a fail safe mechanism should your changes inadvertently isolate you from a remote device due to some unforeseen error/mistake (it happens!).
I often hear people compare this age old Junos feature to Cisco's "reload in|at x" command, however if the difference isn't already obvious, that command results is a device reload, whereas Junos rollbacks do not. Picture a scenario whereby your action isolates you from a remote device yet that device is still carrying production traffic loads. In this scenario, the user of rollback would be able to regain access to the device without impact to traffic through the device, whereas the user of the reload command would see an outage. Consider a worst case scenario whereby the device fails to complete its boot cycle and there my friend you have hell on your hands. May as well pack your stuff into a box and grab your coat at that point.

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reviewer1457472

Firewall Engineer at a marketing services firm with 1-10 employees

Aug 15, 2021

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Highly stable, good performance, and modern protocol

Pros and Cons

"The combination of hardware and software makes it a very good solution. It is a modern protocol that they have supported in the switches. The solution has good performance."

"I have found the scalability could be improved in the version I was using."

What is our primary use case?

Juniper is a very powerful open-source operating system. You are able to do routing and other tasks using the switches. I was using Juniper Ethernet Switches for a hotspot network.

What is most valuable?

The combination of hardware and software makes it a very good solution. It is a modern protocol that they have supported in the switches. The solution has good performance.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for a few months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is highly stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have found the scalability could be improved in the version I was using.

We have approximately 90 users using this solution.

How was the initial setup?

The configuration of the solution could be easier. We had to do the configuration through the command-line interface. However, we are using an older version and the newer versions could be better with a graphical interface.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution does not require a license to use it.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Juniper Ethernet Switches a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.