Tarek Ashur - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead, Consumer Retention at North Africa Bank
Real User
Useful documentation, good interface, and responsive support
Pros and Cons
  • "Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches have a good interface, and the documentation is detailed."
  • "Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches could improve their price, it is high."

What is our primary use case?

Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches are used to direct network traffic.

What is most valuable?

Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches have a good interface, and the documentation is detailed.

What needs improvement?

Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches could improve their price, it is high.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches for approximately three months.

Buyer's Guide
Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
768,415 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches are stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches is good.

We have approximately 1,800 people using this solution in my company, including all branches.

How are customer service and support?

I have contacted the support from Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches and they were good. Their response was fast.

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

I have used other switches previously and we changed all the brands to Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches. When we upgraded our network we went with an all-Cisco network. 

What about the implementation team?

We have a third party install our Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches and configure them.

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

Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches prices are high. However, it was acceptable. The price is higher than competitors.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others is this is a good solution and they should use it.

I rate Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Muhammad Salahuddin - PeerSpot reviewer
Unit Head - Network and Security Solutions at FPM Solutions
Real User
Top 5
Easy to set up with excellent support and good reliability
Pros and Cons
  • "They have so many series that can cater to SMBs, banks, or telcos. They have a wide range of options."
  • "Their price is quite high compared to their competitors."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution as a switch. 

What is most valuable?

Ciscos Switches are one of the best switches in the industry.

Big players are using the product, including banks and companies in the financial sector.

Cisco is ubiquitous. It's used everywhere. 

They have many product lines. They have so many series that can cater to SMBs, banks, or telcos. They have a wide range of options. 

The setup is simple and straightforward. 

Techical support is helpful.

The stability has been good. 

What needs improvement?

Their price is quite high compared to their competitors. This should be less.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for more than 15 years, or maybe for as much as 20 years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution has been quite stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. Both hardware and software wise it's stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is scalable. They have a wide range of product lines for small to medium enterprises to banks. They cover every area. For every customer, they have a solution.

We have 70 or more companies using the solution right now. 

We do have plans to increase usage at this point. 

How are customer service and support?

Support is very good. They offer very helpful assistance. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

I'm also aware of Juniper Switches and Brocade solutions. People are also beginning to use Huawei products. Huawei is much cheaper in terms of routing and switching.

How was the initial setup?

It's a simple setup. Cisco is simple plug-and-play. Starting is easy. If you don't want any complexity, then you can simply opt for plug and play. 

If you want more complexity or more security, that's still quite simple. They have spent so much time and expertise in education. Cisco education is everywhere. It makes it so that people are aware of Cisco Control and Cisco Command Line. Many users feel comfortable with it. 

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

The price of Cisco options is quite high.

What other advice do I have?

I'm not sure which version of the solution I'm using. It might be version 10 or 11. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
768,415 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Director of Information Technology at UniTeller Financial Services
Real User
Easy-to-use, with great product support, this versatile, mature product is a multi-faceted solution
Pros and Cons
  • "Ease-of-use and ease-of-management are good qualities of this product."
  • "The Cisco user interfaces can be difficult to use and maintain."

What is our primary use case?

I have been in so many situations using this product it is hard to choose a primary use. I have worked for many companies, so we have used them as access switches, we have used them as distribution switches, we have used them as IDF (Intermediate Distribution Frame) closets for floor switches. We have used them as code switches and clusters and chassis. I have gone through using all the different versions of switches in many scenarios, like remote offices, access to quotas for distribution. I have used the switches on every level and in exhaustive possibilities.  

What is most valuable?

I think the most valuable feature of Cisco Switches is basically the ease of use, the ease of management. The most important thing may be the support. Support is available and having access to good support has been the difference all along as a user of Cisco products. The most important thing about product support is that everything is made very available. Most of this stuff — I would say more than 90% of the technical stuff — is available online. Anybody can just go online and Google their questions, problems, or what they want to find out about and just download the documents and then get to work with the product. Some other products are good products, but there is not so much good technical information out there to support the products. Those products become less useful and less fully utilized.  

What needs improvement?

I think that Cisco UI interfaces need to be a little better. They use Java for parts of the graphical user interfaces and that messes up things from time-to-time. It is very hard to maintain that graphical user interface. If it would be anything but Java it would be better. Like if you could just access the GUI from a browser, that would be wonderful. But every time Cisco has their own product — like CCP (Cisco Configuration Professional) which is a nightmare to use.  

What I believe they could do more with is enhancement of the security features. The security controls that are given to users with Cisco 4600 now can be integrated with the Cisco firewalls. I think something similar needs to be done on those Lynksys models as well.  

For how long have I used the solution?

It feels like we have been using Cisco Switches forever. I have been using their products since I started my career and that was back in 1988. That makes it about 32 years now.  

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco Lynksys Switches are pretty stable. No complaints. I think, in general, the majority of the Cisco switches are very stable if not all of them.  

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is easy to scale the Cisco products, absolutely. There are a variety of ways to scale it.  

How are customer service and technical support?

Cisco has good technical support. But Cisco is also an advantage when you go out and you want to hire someone for your group to work with the product. For Cisco products, you can find a lot of candidates with experience. If you go with some other products that are not so commonly used, they will not have as many available certified technical people. So it is not as easy to find good candidates for those other products. For Cisco, you can find a lot of people with the necessary skill set.  

Technical support is one of the biggest reasons to go with Cisco as a mature and competitive product that is familiar and generally has good support.  

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

I have been using Cisco products for my entire long career. They are not exactly the same product for the entire time but they are Cisco quality. If there is a switch between solutions it may be to upgrade or because I moved companies or that requirements change. It has been nothing unusual to switch using one Cisco product for another.  

How was the initial setup?

I think it is pretty straightforward to set up and implement. I think they are pretty standard. It is not rocket science. The person doing the work should have some basic knowledge of working with switches. That would be all they need.  

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

When it comes to pricing, I think the licensing cost is not that bad. It is actually very competitive within the product category.  

What other advice do I have?

The advice I would offer to others in implementing Cisco Lynksys Switches is that somebody on the team has to be well aware of basic networking and how the search network works. That will make them easier to use and implement.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate the Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches depending on the class. For example, I think the Cisco 9300s are almost an eight-out-of-ten.  

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Senior service engineer at Panduit
Real User
Top 5
Very reliable, great performance, but a high cost
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is performance."
  • "The solution's support can use improvement because they are not very good at following up."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is used to connect to the local area network for the server room to connect our different floors, and levels, to interconnect all the users from different locations within the campus.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is performance.

What needs improvement?

The solution's support can use improvement because they are not very good at following up. A reduction in cost can improve the solution. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for over one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability should be fine because I'm using Cisco, and I think I have no problem with that.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

Whenever we raise tickets we never receive further feedback or callbacks.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

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

We have always used Cisco products.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. 

Normally, we have a face-to-face implementation, so it could last three to six months for the implementation because there are a lot of teams involved, including security, and application.

What about the implementation team?

The deployment was completed in-house.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution a seven out of ten.

We currently have 300 people using the solution and will probably be increasing that number in the near future.

We have 46 members on our technical team.

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.
PeerSpot user
Penetration tester at KNBS (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics)
Real User
Top 5
Good support, a straightforward setup, and offers the ability to expand
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is stable."
  • "They could work on the pricing and make it more affordable for everyone."

What is our primary use case?

The solution lets me connect to so many hosts and the downtime is very, very minimal.

What is most valuable?

What I like most about the product is basically the user support. Sometimes, I'd get stuck on something, and I could contact customer support. They're always there to assist me with my issues.

The initial setup was straightforward. 

Technical support is good.

The solution is stable.

You can scale the product as needed. 

What needs improvement?

The costs are a little bit high. 

They could work on the pricing and make it more affordable for everyone.

If possible, they could have a good customer care system. For example, on a website, I can see issues that have already been raised before. Sometimes I've had an issue, however, it's already been solved, yet I can't find the solution to my problem easily. It should be published and readily available to users. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with the solution for four months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is okay. There are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It is reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product can be scalable. It's very, very scalable.

We have about 120 people using the solution right now.

We plan to increase usage as we add more employees. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support has been okay. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We've always used Cisco switches. We have not used anything else. 

How was the initial setup?

The solution's implementation is pretty straightforward and simple. It's not overly complex. 

Since we were doing it for an entire office, an entire building, it took us a whole week to get everything up and running.

I'd rate the entire process a four out of five in terms of ease of setup. 

We have ten technical people that can handle the deployment and maintenance of the solution. We have developers, engineers, and cyber security experts as well as regular IT experts available. 

What about the implementation team?

We handled the implementation ourselves in-house. We did not have the help of any consultants or integrators. 

What was our ROI?

We have witnessed an ROI with this solution. 

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

The pricing is a little bit expensive. However, it does offer a good value for money. I'd rate it a three out of five in terms of affordability.

What other advice do I have?

I am an end-user. I'm using the latest version of the solution. 

I'd advise potential users to just go for it. They will not be disappointed in this product. 

I would rate the product an eight out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user1414992 - PeerSpot reviewer
DGM Programming at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Reliable hardware that does its job so you can do yours
Pros and Cons
  • "My work is able to continue because the switches are reliable."
  • "The simplicity of management could be improved so the object-based switch management is possible."

What is our primary use case?

In our environment, we are using Cisco switches in Visio clusters. We are using Dell servers, and we are using Dell Precision workstations. I do not remember the model number of the Cisco switches. We are using the Cisco network series of switches and they are the L2 class. I think they are the 2960 series of switches.  

At present, our company policy does not allow us to host any of our data on the public cloud. We are revising the information security policy. Until this new policy comes into effect, we will not be able to go into the public cloud.  

In the end, the switches will continue to be a component of data interpretation in our environment.  

What is most valuable?

My work is able to continue because the switches are reliable. That is mostly what is important to me. I can not say that I like the product more than other switches because I have not worked with other switches in a long time and I have not had any difficulty with these. They are working fine right now and the support is good for so far.  

What needs improvement?

In particular, the simplicity of management could be improved. At present, all these switches require a software layer. For example, I am asking for the SDN (Software Defined Networking) for managing a network-based project. Similarly, I would like to get the SDS (Smart Distributed System) for storage projects. Managing things is a little bit difficult, definitely. So, manageability can be improved. At the individual product level, an improvement to the difficulty of management will be very helpful for admin users.  

For how long have I used the solution?

I think we have been using these Lynksys Ethernet switches for five or six years, but as far as Cisco products are concerned, we have been using Cisco products for a much longer time.  

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Overall, my organization has more than 30 or 40 work centers, data centers, and more than about 15 or 20,000 users. It is not possible to tell the exact number of end-users. So we are already running on a large scale. Our plans are to subscribe to a private cloud. By that, I mean we plan to convert the whole data center to cloud services. As far as the technical capabilities are concerned, Cisco Lynksys switches will be something we can still use. Commercially, I do not know if they are feasible. I already talked to a Cisco person about the technical qualifications and he assured me that the product qualifies technically.  

How are customer service and technical support?

Personally, I have never taken any personal support, because I have a different team. But there definitely has been no complaint regarding the Cisco support. I cannot say every customer gets the same support, but at our company we definitely have got good support.  

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

We use L3 switches in one of the Nexus series of switches. I do not remember the series. We use them concurrently. It depends on the situation.  

How was the initial setup?

It is a little difficult to answer if it is straightforward or complex because some parts are easy and some parts are difficult. Also, it will not be possible for me to say first-hand, because when the deployment was going on, I was not here.  

Nowadays everything is software-driven. Even network products are configured through NFS (Network File System). Because we have to configure each individual switch, which makes it more complex. Once you are on object-based storage like SDN, it becomes easy to manage things. Most of the time, it is manageability which is complex. It is not the product which is giving us any problems. Managing every little product one-at-a-time is difficult. With something like SDN, or these types of alternative management systems, we can manage all these things through a single software interface — a single pane of glass — that becomes easy.  

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this product for other users who want to start using it. We do not have anything negative to say about the product and it has been serving us well. There would be no reason not to recommend it.  

On a scale from one to ten (where one is the worst and ten is the best), I would rate this product from my perspective as a nine-out-of-ten. It would be very difficult for me to give it a higher rating. There are parts of it that can be improved.  

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.
PeerSpot user
Senior Data Center Engineer at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
A flexible solution that is suitable in many different networking environments
Pros and Cons
  • "The most important feature related to this solution is that most of the time, it covers all of what we need for our projects."
  • "In the future, I would like to see more focus on software-defined networking solutions."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution to build networks that interconnect different branches and buildings in different layers. We can also connect to a cloud environment.

The model of switch that is used depends on the application. I prefer to use the 4500 series for the distribution layer, but for the access layer, the 2950 series is better.

What is most valuable?

The most important feature related to this solution is that most of the time, it covers all of what we need for our projects. It is suitable as a complete solution.

The generalization is useful.

This is a flexible solution that integrates well with other platforms and products.

What needs improvement?

In the future, I would like to see more focus on software-defined networking solutions.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for nine years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Usually, this solution is stable. Even when there are bugs or errors, Cisco pays attention to cover them.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a scalable solution.

We have about ten users in our current department. They are network engineers.

How are customer service and technical support?

I am not personally in charge of speaking with technical support, but we are quite satisfied with them.

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

For a short time, I worked with both Huawei and MikroTik switches, but I was not satisfied with them.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of this solution is easy, although it depends on your knowledge and experience. Usually, it is easy. An average deployment might take six hours.

What about the implementation team?

We have our own network team for implementing this solution.

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

The price of this solution is high, but it depends on the number of units that you want to order. 

What other advice do I have?

Cisco is a market leader in this product.

I would rate this solution 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.
PeerSpot user
VP Global Information Technology at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
A stable and reliable solution
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is stable and reliable."
  • "The price of the solution should be lower and it should have better security and scalability."

What is our primary use case?

We deploy our internal applications on our DC setup. 

What is most valuable?

The reliability is the best feature. 

What needs improvement?

The price of the solution should be lower and it should have better security and scalability. 

An alternate solution boasting the same scalability and security as Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches, but carrying a lower price tag, would be more attractive. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches for almost six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable and reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is sufficiently scalable, although this could stand improvement.

How are customer service and technical support?

For the moment, we have encountered no issues requiring technical support. We did have one issue in the past, but found it to be good at the time. 

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

We did not use other solutions prior to going with Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches. 

How was the initial setup?

The installation was easy, although I don't know how long it lasted, as the team handled it. 

What about the implementation team?

We used a consultant for the deployment.

This deployment comprised a technical team of around 20 or 25 people, consisting of engineers, managers and administrators. 

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

The solution should be better priced. 

It has a yearly licensing subscription. 

What other advice do I have?

Our organization has approximately 10,000 users who are making use of the solution.

I would recommend this solution to others. 

I rate Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches as 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.
PeerSpot user
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Download our free Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
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Download our free Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.