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Aruba Instant On Switches vs Dell PowerSwitch N-Series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Instant On Switches
Ranking in LAN Switching
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series
Ranking in LAN Switching
9th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
3.9
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Aruba Instant On Switches is 7.9%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is 5.6%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
LAN Switching Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Aruba Instant On Switches7.9%
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series5.6%
Other86.5%
LAN Switching
 

Featured Reviews

MI
System Engineer at University of Kelaniya
Solution offers straightforward management and compatibility, though user support needs direct access improvement
Sometimes some features are not available. For example, the network discovery protocol, LLDP, is not available on some of the switches. When we look at the CLI management, we are considering Cisco, and we are familiar with the Cisco commands. In that case, at the command level, Cisco is much better than Aruba Instant On Switches. Considering the configuration and the CLI level and some of the features, Cisco has better offerings than Aruba Instant On Switches. There are Netgear and some other low-cost switches, but the quality of those is not aligned with our organization's requirements. Overall, I rate Aruba Instant On Switches a seven out of ten.
Mahendra Basera - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr.Engineer at Akara Capital Advisor Pvt. Ltd.
Reliable switching has supported secure audits and simplified long-term data center operations
Deploying Dell PowerSwitch N-Series on HA is very simple and easy. If we face any problem, we have our Dell support team to help us during the installation. They provide L2 engineers for supporting us on configuring the basic level configuration, stacking, and peering with others on HA. They have helped us with any faults or hardware issues, and we have taken high level care packs with three hour response time and same day hardware replacement. When we talk about the deployment of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series, when we extended our data center from starting from scratch, we had at that time nearly 170 physical servers. Then we virtualized it from mixed hardware, as we were using HCL, HP, or old heavy servers. Dell came to us and gave us a good solution with VMware, storage of Dell, and network devices. During the deployment, there were three team members from Dell and two from myself on the networking side, and one or two members from OS and server side. Almost five to six team members were there during the deployment from a hardware to a virtualized environment. The best advantages of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is that it is very much similar to Cisco. There is a little bit of difference at the command level, and it is easy to handle. It is easy to handle whether it is a CLI base or a GUI base, and it is very easy to configure. It is also reliable. We had a low fault issue, and when we talk of switching level, in a time frame of 17 years, we faced a switching issue only one time, which was a hardware failure. That is it. It is as reliable as Cisco.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is straightforward to set up."
"It is easy for deployment and configuration."
"The solution has a simple deployment and zero border."
"Regarding the feature, my clients are currently favoring it because it enables them to switch back to phone functionality."
"These switches are very easy to handle and there are no issues, both the CLI and the web management are available, making it easy to handle."
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"Aruba Instant On is a good choice for small businesses, as it is easy to set up and manage and offers a wide range of features that are suitable for small businesses while also being very cost-effective."
"The solution provides GUI control, making it particularly suitable for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and small office/home office (SOHO) networks."
"The automated configuration management tools of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series help improve network traffic management."
"Port density and port speed performance are both suitable."
"Currently, I am using the Dell S4048; it's a nice switch and it gives you good results in terms of a broadcast station connection, with HSRP (Hot Standby Router Protocol) and bandwidth allocation that are very nice, and for a customer it is easy to configure and to add ports through the LAN GUI."
"For a customer, it is easy to configure and to add ports through the LAN the GUI."
"The best advantages of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is that it is very much similar to Cisco, it is easy to handle whether it is a CLI base or a GUI base, it is very easy to configure, and it is also reliable, as in a time frame of 17 years we faced a switching issue only one time, which was a hardware failure, and it is as reliable as Cisco."
"Port density and port speed performance are both suitable. It has some appealing intangibles."
 

Cons

"The solution does not have any console access. For example, if you do not have internet access on your side and you need to configure anything, you should at least have CLI access to do something or manage the solution to put to some IP."
"In general, mostly in Instant On series, if we could have much more control on the switches, at least. We'd like a CLI access so that, when we want to do some advanced configurations we could."
"It is not a very scalable solution."
"The solution isn’t too scalable."
"They don't have a lot of diagnostics tools, which could be an area for improvement."
"We would like to see more documentation."
"The price has room for improvement."
"Instant On Switches' layer 3 and visibility could be improved."
"I would not recommend it to smaller businesses because they could not afford it."
"Instead of competing at the enterprise level with that product, they should probably scale it. With all of the ports, they should develop a good mid-level business to truly scale it and gain adoption before attempting to go after the enterprise."
"The disadvantages of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is that only the booting time is a weak point."
"Customers do not prefer this to connect to multiple cities."
"Some features need improvements with stability."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If one is very bad, and ten is a very good price, I rate the tool's price as a six."
"I give the price seven out of ten."
"The product is not cheaply priced, especially when compared to the other vendors in the market."
"It is an expensive solution."
"Aruba Instant On Switches is cheaper than Cisco and expensive compared to some Chinese brand products."
"The pricing is quite low compared to other products, which is good for the customer."
"The pricing is cheap."
"Pricing is competitive, and there are no supplementary fees."
"You are selling it to larger customers and in larger environments, where it's a less expensive model than Cisco, which is attempting to use the same approach Arista did, but with a completely different programming language."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Educational Organization
11%
Retailer
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise7
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Aruba Instant On Switches?
The solution has a simple deployment and zero border.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Instant On Switches?
The pricing was good because they do not nickel and dime on costs.
What needs improvement with Aruba Instant On Switches?
Aruba Instant On Switches could be improved by utilizing more AI features. They are starting to use some AI capabilities, though I haven't kept up with developments since I left.
What needs improvement with Dell-Force10 Campus LAN Switches?
The disadvantages of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is that only the booting time is a weak point. When we reboot that switch, it takes time. As compared to Cisco, it takes almost three to five minutes,...
What is your primary use case for Dell-Force10 Campus LAN Switches?
We are using McAfee XDR solution rather than Cisco XDR. On Cisco products, we are using Cisco routers and Cisco switches. We work with Dell, specifically Dell switches, and we are using PowerEdge i...
What advice do you have for others considering Dell-Force10 Campus LAN Switches?
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is the one we have been working on. There was an advanced Layer 3 configuration on Dell PowerSwitch N-Series, and we have almost every security which can be configured on ...
 

Also Known As

Aruba Instant On 1930 Switches
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

KEMET, Vestavia Hills City Schools, Dropbox
Norwich University of the Arts, Shelby American, City and Islington College
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Instant On Switches vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,286 professionals have used our research since 2012.