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Arista Networks Platform vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series comparison

Arista and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the Data Center Networking category. Arista is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4, while Dell Technologies is ranked #2 with an average rating of 9.0. Arista holds a 17.1% mindshare in DCN, compared to Dell Technologies’s 1.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Arista users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.
Arista Networks Platform
Read 27 Arista Networks Platform reviews
  • 3,990 Views
  • 1,636 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
Dell PowerEdge R-Series
Read 228 Dell PowerEdge R-Series reviews
  • 13,105 Views
  • 131 Comparison Views
98% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 26, 2025

Arista Networks Platform and Dell PowerEdge R-Series compete in the networking and hardware solutions market. Arista has an advantage in telemetry and ease of management in large data centers, whereas Dell stands out for its flexibility, reliability, and remote management capabilities.

Features: Arista Networks Platform is a robust network solution favored for its simplicity in configuration, standards-based approach, and ease of management with a single operating system across models. It excels in data center environments with strong telemetry and support for EVPN and VXLAN. Dell PowerEdge R-Series is recognized for its flexibility and comprehensive support infrastructure, offering remote management via iDRAC, cloud integration, and energy efficiency. Dell's servers are known for their performance and hardware quality, making them a reliable choice for versatile deployment.

Room for Improvement: Arista Networks Platform could enhance its documentation, improve security integrations, and offer modular functionalities for VXLAN/EVPN. Stability and pricing are often highlighted for improvement. Dell PowerEdge R-Series needs to focus on improving management interfaces and accelerating deployment processes. Enhancements in energy efficiency and analytics capabilities and quicker hardware deployment times are potential areas for development.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Arista Networks Platform is noted for its straightforward deployment and responsive worldwide support team, resolving issues efficiently. Dell PowerEdge R-Series provides extensive deployment options for both on-premises and cloud solutions, with reliable technical support. However, users mention that response times and deployment support could improve in newer geographical regions.

Pricing and ROI: Arista Networks Platform is costly compared to competitors like Cisco and Juniper but targets large-scale data centers, offering significant operational savings and strong long-term ROI. Dell PowerEdge R-Series offers competitive pricing with transparent licensing, providing excellent value through cost efficiency and energy savings. Dell is often preferred for its favorable terms and lower long-term costs, making its solutions more accessible across various market segments.

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To learn more, read our detailed Arista Networks Platform vs. Dell PowerEdge R-Series Report (Updated: September 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Arista Networks Platform vs. Dell PowerEdge R-Series
September 2025
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Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.7
Arista Networks Platform delivers good ROI, justifies higher costs with long-term savings, especially compared to Cisco and Juniper.
Sentiment score
7.1
Dell PowerEdge R-Series delivers financial benefits through reliability, cost-effectiveness, seamless integration, and long lifecycle, enhancing productivity and morale.
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Arista Networks Platform report
By not having to worry about it, I would estimate we save two to four hours a week, depending on what's happening, such as if we need to spin up a new server, which would contribute to more time if done the old way.
In my immediate case for antenna analysis, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers offer a reduction from days of computing to half a day or hours.
The value of uptime to us is critical.
For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerEdge R-Series report
DR
DH
reviewer2707641 - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.6
Arista Networks Platform offers fast, proficient support, praised for direct engineer access and high customer satisfaction globally.
Sentiment score
7.5
Dell PowerEdge R-Series support is valued for responsive service and expertise, despite minor delays and communication issues.
They provide instant support and maintain commitments regarding replacement products.
According to my team’s feedback, we receive extended support from the Arista team.
For more quotes and insights, download the Arista Networks Platform report
It has always been scheduled maintenance, which says a lot for a production environment, as we haven't had to call in a trouble ticket for the actual hardware during its entire run.
Typically, the contacts we have on-site are very knowledgeable, they come in within a day and usually have it fixed and taken care of if there are issues.
When we had a power supply failure out of the box, we called support, and they delivered the replacement within four hours as promised.
For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerEdge R-Series report
MR
NP
DR
BD
JP
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Arista Networks Platform offers scalable, reliable networking for data centers, praised for network capacity, low latency, and intuitive management.
Sentiment score
7.5
Dell PowerEdge R-Series is scalable and adaptable, supporting diverse workloads with modular upgrades for growing business needs.
Scalability is a key feature of Arista, owing to the possibilities to manage the entire data center network from a single console.
For more quotes and insights, download the Arista Networks Platform report
The scalability of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is excellent.
Any outages or blackouts are limited to particular servers, not affecting the whole chassis or enclosures.
We bought our product with scaling involved, and we've been scaling it up anytime we've needed more storage.
For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerEdge R-Series report
NP
reviewer1362099 - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer926175 - PeerSpot reviewer
AY
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Arista Networks Platform is highly stable with minimal downtime, praised for reliability when following best practice configurations.
Sentiment score
7.9
Dell PowerEdge R-Series offers reliable, robust performance with minimal downtime and efficient operation under demanding workloads, ensuring user satisfaction.
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Arista Networks Platform report
Over four years, we've had less than 1 percent downtime.
There is a feature to update the server while it is running, so there is no need to restart.
We have truly not had any downtime on the infrastructure at all.
For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerEdge R-Series report
Thim Johnsen - PeerSpot reviewerHariraj Chauhan - PeerSpot reviewer
AY
 

Room For Improvement

Arista Networks needs better documentation, integration, pricing, security, stability, management, community support, and network feature expansion.
Dell PowerEdge R-Series improvements include memory speed, management, scalability, documentation, integration, security, pricing, support, and noise reduction.
Feature-wise, it addresses most customer requirements.
Arista Networks is currently less popular as they were initially more focused on data centers than campus networks.
For more quotes and insights, download the Arista Networks Platform report
We need to know about any upcoming updates so that we can plan accordingly.
The beneficial aspect of that feature was that we could skip the PowerStore and just have the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers alone, as they also served as storage, which helped us save money.
This forces you to go up to a larger server to get the desired processor, which increases the cost.
For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerEdge R-Series report
NP
MR
MD
MP
SA
 

Setup Cost

Arista Networks is costly, with high hardware and licensing expenses, especially compared to Huawei and NETGEAR, affecting affordability.
Dell PowerEdge R-Series pricing is seen as competitive and valuable for its reliability, support, and transparent pricing.
Compared to Cisco, Arista routers are significantly cheaper.
Arista products are perceived as costly, especially compared to competitors like Cisco.
For more quotes and insights, download the Arista Networks Platform report
They have been stable and running for years without performance downtime or significant disc failures.
Some customers find it cheaper due to contractual agreements, while others find it expensive, especially when scaling up.
The software associated with servers, like VMware subscription licenses, drives costs.
For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerEdge R-Series report
MR
NP
ZK
DF
reviewer1362099 - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Valuable Features

Arista Networks Platform is praised for its reliability, scalability, Linux shell, efficient management, automation, and unmatched monitoring capabilities.
Dell PowerEdge R-Series excels in scalability, reliability, security, and performance, offering efficient remote management and versatile configurations for businesses.
Features include plug-and-play auto-discovery, allowing centralized configuration and management.
The most valuable features of Arista include low latency, scalability, and sustainability of the products.
For more quotes and insights, download the Arista Networks Platform report
They keep running for at least five to seven years without any issues.
With PowerEdge Servers, I don't need a one-to-one ratio redundancy, which leads to about eighty percent downtime reduction.
One of the valuable features is Active Directory, which helps in managing the network.
For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerEdge R-Series report
MR
NP
NA
ZK
Ahmed Salah - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Categories and Ranking

Arista Networks Platform
Ranking in Data Center Networking
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Ethernet Switches (14th)
Dell PowerEdge R-Series
Ranking in Data Center Networking
2nd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
228
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (4th), Blade Servers (5th), Rack Servers (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Data Center Networking category, the mindshare of Arista Networks Platform is 17.1%, down from 19.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is 1.7%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Center Networking Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Dell PowerEdge R-Series1.7%
Arista Networks Platform17.1%
Other81.2%
Data Center Networking
 

Featured Reviews

MarekSzafrański - PeerSpot reviewer
Affordable for enterprise-sized companies
Speaking about whether the product enhanced our company's data center scalability, I would say that it was a solution that was used in a banking company, where it served as a replacement for Cisco. Though Arista Networks Platform is similar to Cisco IOS CLI, I feel that the former product offers better prices compared to the latter tool. Arista Networks Platform office is more efficient at a lower cost. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. The tool is stable and cheaper than Cisco. I would say that Arista Networks Platform is 100 percent compatible with the existing infrastructure in my company. The impact of the tool's network telemetry on our company's troubleshooting practices was just good for the scope for which I need the product. I rate the overall tool a nine out of ten.
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Ravi Ramananda - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers unmatched security, stability, and uptime
Based on my experience, one area where Dell could improve the PowerEdge R-Series servers is in the disk bus controllers. There is a need for advancements in this area from a hardware perspective. While PowerEdge has several AI-enabled models and is making strides in technology, I believe that the hard disk controllers need to be more effective compared to competitors like Lenovo and HPE. Currently, even when using SSDs or SaaS disk models in my Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers, the throughput is roughly 10%-15% lower compared to similar offerings from HPE and Lenovo. While this doesn't have a major impact on my business, it is worth noting since Dell has a strong position in Gartner ratings. Overall, the hardware quality is good, but I frequently encounter errors that are not hardware-related; they're mainly cyclic errors where the server struggles to process data as quickly as other manufacturers' controllers. Despite this, I am completely satisfied with the functionality of the Dell PowerEdge R-Series. Flexibility is a debatable topic, and I would rate it about a six out of ten. When it comes to flexibility, we do need to account for downtime if we want to extend or make changes. There are very few hot-pluggable devices in Dell servers compared to others, making online plug-and-play opportunities limited. So, I would rate flexibility as a six rather than a five.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Educational Organization
7%
Computer Software Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
6%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business79
Midsize Enterprise52
Large Enterprise95
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Arista Networks Platform?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Arista Networks Platform?
Arista products are perceived as costly, especially compared to competitors like Cisco.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Arista Networks Platform?
Currently, Arista is too costly for its customers. Feature-wise, it addresses most customer requirements. However, we sometimes face challenges when integrating with proprietary protocols and solut...
See all answers
When shopping for a rack server, would you go with Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether the Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem rack servers were the better fit for us. We ultimately decided to go with Dell EMC Poweredge....
See all answers
What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
It has helped us reduce unplanned downtime by 20% to 30%.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
Dell PowerEdge R-Series can improve on its flexibility; having more flexible options would be beneficial. Their strength and weakness simultaneously is having built solutions, and the lack of custo...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Arista Networks Platform Logo
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Cisco Ethernet Switches vs Arista Networks Platform Logo
Cisco Ethernet Switches vs Arista Networks Platform
Compared 10% of the time
Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches vs Arista Networks Platform Logo
Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches vs Arista Networks Platform
Compared 10% of the time
Aruba Switches vs Arista Networks Platform Logo
Aruba Switches vs Arista Networks Platform
Compared 8% of the time
Cisco Nexus vs Arista Networks Platform Logo
Cisco Nexus vs Arista Networks Platform
Compared 7% of the time
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HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series Logo
HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series
Compared 40% of the time
Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series Logo
Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series
Compared 27% of the time
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series Logo
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series
Compared 10% of the time
IBM Power Systems vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series Logo
IBM Power Systems vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series
Compared 6% of the time
Huawei FusionServer RH Series Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series Logo
Huawei FusionServer RH Series Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series
Compared 5% of the time
More Dell PowerEdge R-Series Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Arista Networks Platform
October 2025
Arista Networks Platform reportDownload Arista Networks Platform product report
Buyer's Guide
Dell PowerEdge R-Series
October 2025
Dell PowerEdge R-Series reportDownload Dell PowerEdge R-Series product report
 

Also Known As

7000 Series
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
 

Overview

Arista Networks Platform is a stable and reliable solution for data center features, specifically for non-blocking switches used for spine-leaf connectivity with servers hooked to these switches. It also provides multi-layer switches for client networks, particularly in the banking sector. 

Arista products are preferred for their stability, good hardware, ease of adoption and configuration, responsive and helpful support, and high throughput ratings. The solution has helped prevent screen loss and business outages in the media industry and is designed for next-generation data centers.

Arista

PowerEdge R-Series delivers high performance, flexibility, and scalability for data centers. It supports demanding tasks with robust management tools and advanced cooling, providing reliability and efficiency across various workloads.

Engineered for large deployments, PowerEdge R-Series supports extensive configurations optimizing performance in data centers. With features like advanced cooling and energy-efficient architecture, it empowers organizations to manage heavy workloads while facilitating seamless scalability. It offers remote management, robust security, and integration with VMware ensuring operational excellence and high availability for business-critical applications.

What are the key features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series?
  • Scalability: Supports flexible configurations for diverse workloads.
  • Remote Management: iDRAC and OpenManage facilitate easy oversight.
  • Energy Efficiency: Architecture helps reduce energy consumption.
  • Security: Robust features ensure protected performance.
  • VMware Integration: Enhances manageability and productivity.
What benefits and ROI should you look for?
  • Performance: Handles high-performance and demanding tasks.
  • Flexibility: Offers easily upgradable configurations.
  • Reliability: Provides consistent performance with long-term support.
  • Efficiency: Reduces energy use and operational costs.
  • Ease of Use: Simplifies management and maintenance.

PowerEdge R-Series is deployed across industries for virtualization, database hosting, and application servers. It supports environments like VMware and Hyper-V for AI, cloud infrastructure, and computing tasks. Widely used by finance, healthcare, and academia, it enhances reliability and efficiency of IT infrastructure.

Dell Technologies
 

Sample Customers

American Internet Services
NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Buyer's Guide
Arista Networks Platform vs. Dell PowerEdge R-Series
September 2025
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