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Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Juniper QFX Series Switches comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Catalyst Switches
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
8th
Ranking in Data Center Networking
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
172
Ranking in other categories
LAN Switching (1st), AV Over IP Switching (1st)
Juniper QFX Series Switches
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
19th
Ranking in Data Center Networking
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

SameerBali - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 2, 2022
Reliable and stable catalyst switch; can be easily installed
I like Cisco Catalyst Switches because most of the time, we can do what we want with the product. Cisco has good guidelines that enable us to implement anything, so we can have a multiple ability product on most of the network equipment worldwide. Cisco has communities or forums that help us implement more complicated areas in terms of network, so in addition, Cisco is not just a network equipment company, because they provide us most of the solutions, development, protocols, and new technologies, more than any other company in the world. I also like the availability of Cisco Catalyst Switches, including scalability and reliability. You can find all these in this product.
Abdul  Malik - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 4, 2024
Offers high port density, including 1/25G/40G/100G and 400 options upto 2 RU and lower power consumption and leverages Broadcom chipsets for enhanced performance
In terms of performance, scalability, and other factors, I would rate them around eight out of ten. I've encountered a few issues during deployments based on customer experiences. My first deployment was with the QFX5100-48S for a data center customer. I implemented layer-2 connectivity on them. Overall, I would say they're good for small-scale and medium scale so it seems these problems can persist for some time. However, the QFX series is still generally considered a good product and offers more flexibility than other options. It's very scalable. I haven't heard any customer complaints about scalability. In my experience, even the QFX5110 series extends for many years without needing upgrades. This scalability solves the challenge of needing to upgrade due to unknown internal problems, even when the release is stable.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"We haven't needed to contact technical support because we haven't had any issues so far."
"It is easy to use."
"It is a stable and good product. It is also easy to install."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco equipment is reliability."
"Easy to manage, with a long lifespan."
"Its implementation is quite simple as there's good documentation you can reference."
"It has become easier for us to troubleshoot and find issues faster in the management software for the switches. It saves us troubleshooting time because if the network is down it has a big impact on production."
"With Cisco Catalyst Switches, everything is working perfectly. We have not had issues with this solution."
"The most valuable features are the VxLAN and the EVPN."
"The QFX series is a good choice for large data centers, particularly for Spine-Leaf architectures."
"It's a stable solution."
"EVPN-VXLAN feature offers the most benefits."
"Juniper QFX Series Switches provide a good platform for all of our hardware and are easy to use."
"It's really easy to replicate rules. It's the one that I've used; it was CLI-based. You can implement a large set of rules with CLI. You can just copy a script and add additional changes to the source and destination on the part. And so it's easy to do large zone-based rules."
"Support is good and customer-friendly"
 

Cons

"The solution was stable 10 years ago, there is room for improvement in this area."
"In the future, I would like to see better security for this product."
"The only drawback I saw with Cisco Catalyst Switches is that it's not cloud-managed."
"The security of the solution could be improved, it is really important to us."
"Its price can be improved. Some devices can be very expensive."
"An area for improvement would be the documentation and training on configuring this product."
"With most of the Cisco devices and models, we faced a slight decrease in speed during the initial setup and while restarting the system"
"In a future upgrade, I would like to see integrated wireless in the solution."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing model. It is too high."
"The price could be cheaper."
"It is very costly."
"Integrating QFX switches was the first point of challenge."
"I faced issues with the deployment and upgrade. In the QFX5110 series, features like ISSU and DSSQ should be improved. Upgrades should be smoother."
"There have been some issues sometimes. When you upgrade the device, it doesn't come up. It gets stuck."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of this solution is reasonable."
"This is an expensive product."
"Cisco Catalyst Switches is an expensive solution."
"Pricing could be cheaper as well."
"There is a license required for the use of this solution and we pay annually."
"We are on an annual license to use this solution and the price of the solution could be reduced. We have spent hundreds of thousands on our Wi-Fi network."
"I don't see any price issue with Cisco. Whenever you buy a quality product, you always have a mindset of paying the premium amount. For any good product, you pay a premium amount, but that also means you are going to recover that premium over a period of time in terms of performance."
"Compared to the price of other solutions such as Huawei and HP, Cisco Catalyst Switches is a cheaper solution."
"The solution is cheap, especially compared to competitors like Cisco."
"The cost is expensive."
"The price of Juniper QFX Series Switches is expensive because we are running some enterprise hardware. However, they are less expensive than Cisco or HPE hardware."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
60%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
4%
Manufacturing Company
3%
Computer Software Company
22%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Would you recommend replacing a Cisco Catalyst Switch by a D-link one?
Hello Mesfin It depends on the real scenario, the cisco 2960 is a very good device and they usually have routing functions but there are many different models within the same 2960 line, and on the ...
What do you like most about Cisco Catalyst Switches?
We are a vendor for the healthcare sector, especially hospitals, and normally, we use a full Cisco solution for stability, especially for the stability of the Access Points and the security of swit...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Catalyst, Catalyst
No data available
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Afni, Anilana Hotels and Resorts, Baylor Scott & White Health, Beachbody, Bellevue, Del Papa Distributing, Explorer Pipeline, Mindtree, Omaha World Herald, Radio 538, Sony Corporation, Telecom Italia, Telenor Arena
Linode, VPRO, West Chester University
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Catalyst Switches vs. Juniper QFX Series Switches and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
814,528 professionals have used our research since 2012.