Broadcom StrataDNX vs Cisco Ethernet Switches comparison

Broadcom and Cisco are both solutions in the Ethernet Switches category. Broadcom is ranked #25 with an average rating of 8.0, while Cisco is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8. Broadcom holds a 0.9% mindshare in ES, compared to Cisco’s 12.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Broadcom users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

Broadcom StrataDNX

Read 3 Broadcom StrataDNX reviews

779 Views
779 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco Ethernet Switches

Read 136 Cisco Ethernet Switches reviews

12,875 Views
12,875 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Broadcom StrataDNX

Cisco Ethernet Switches

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Cisco Ethernet Switches and Broadcom StrataDNX are products competing in the networking solutions category. Broadcom StrataDNX has an advantage due to its advanced features.

Features: Cisco Ethernet Switches are known for comprehensive security, scalability, and ease of integration. Broadcom StrataDNX offers high-throughput capabilities, flexibility, and innovative packet processing.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Deploying Cisco Ethernet Switches is straightforward with extensive support. Broadcom StrataDNX requires a more complex deployment model but offers customizability.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Ethernet Switches offer competitive setup costs and strong ROI, appealing to budget-conscious operations. Broadcom StrataDNX involves a higher initial investment but promises significant ROI in high-demand environments.

To learn more, read our detailed Broadcom StrataDNX vs. Cisco Ethernet Switches Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Broadcom StrataDNX vs. Cisco Ethernet Switches

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:

Categories and Ranking

Broadcom StrataDNX

Ranking in Ethernet Switches

25th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

3.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Cisco Ethernet Switches

Ranking in Ethernet Switches

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

136

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Ethernet Switches category, the mindshare of Broadcom StrataDNX is 0.9%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Ethernet Switches is 12.4%, down from 18.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Ethernet Switches Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Ethernet Switches	12.4%
Broadcom StrataDNX	0.9%
Other	86.7%

Ethernet Switches

Featured Reviews

Wisely Ng

Senior rPLM and Consulting Engineering, IP and Optical Networks, APAC at Nokia Corporation

Cost-effective chipset saves resources and offers rich features

The Broadcom StrataDNX chipset, such as the DNX, is quite a generic chipset and from the cost perspective, it is quite cost-effective hardware. When we decide to use such an Ethernet switch, our R&D and headquarters consider using the Broadcom chipset as one of the merchandised chipsets in our system, providing a cost-effective solution to our customers. The cost-saving with Broadcom StrataDNX is one of the critical criteria for using the DNX as one of our hardware chipsets. From the features perspective, it is quite feature-rich, so we can leverage those existing functions on the SDK to develop our own features in our equipment.

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Myint Aung

Head of the Solutions Department at BIM Group of Companies

Exceptional network support and AI integration drive performance while suggesting enhancements for future use cases

I work with both HyperFlex and other Cisco products. I prefer to make online support available because I can utilize my CCIE architect, solution consultant, and engineer team along with our account manager and product sales team. We can clarify requirements and decide how to support you. We should arrange a conference call about Cisco Ethernet Switches where I can invite my architect and consultant to clarify more about the features that are most beneficial for improving network efficiency. Today is AI day, and all the new firmware includes AI to optimize the performance, traffic, and security of Cisco Ethernet Switches. It's performing very well. With many solutions and vendors available, you have to decide on one. I am extremely satisfied with the licensing cost for Cisco Ethernet Switches. For the price of Cisco Ethernet Switches, I would rate it a 7. My overall rating for Cisco Ethernet Switches is 10 out of 10.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The cost-saving with Broadcom StrataDNX is one of the critical criteria for using the DNX as one of our hardware chipsets, and from the features perspective, it is quite feature-rich, so we can leverage those existing functions on the SDK to develop our own features in our equipment."

"Easy to integrate with any of the other hardware platforms."

"The Broadcom StrataDNX chipset, such as the DNX, is quite a generic chipset and from the cost perspective, it is quite cost-effective hardware."

"The good thing about the StrataDNX is that the Broadcom family is very interchangeable, so they work well with different optical transceivers."

"The queue functionality is the solution's most valuable feature, specifically because we are delivering a lot of Layer 2 services. Layer 2 protocol tunnels work well on Cisco switches."

"It is very scalable."

"The initial setup was for Cisco Ethernet Switches was straightforward."

"The quality, like all Cisco solutions, is very high. The fact that it's Cisco is one of the reasons we chose to use it."

"The solution effectively provides a stable connection for users."

"The product offers very good customer support. It's likely the best in the industry."

"The power stacking feature in Cisco Ethernet Switches can be considered the most valuable."

"Cisco Ethernet Switches is stable and robust."

More Cisco Ethernet Switches pros

Cons

"The standard features do not provide a full feature set, so we need to create our own features to compensate for those limitations."

"There is room for improvement in the pricing model."

"The number of surfaces that can be handled by the chipset could be increased."

"There are some GUI configuration improvements that they can implement in the future for the product models."

"There's are other products that are better for network programmability. Cisco isn't as programmable as some preferred vendors. For example, on iOS 6 products, you have to commit the change directly on the running configuration. If you have a generic product you can do this, so it can improve in programmability."

"In terms of features, they tick all the boxes as of now. That could be because we tailor the solution around the product. I have not seen anything that pulls me back or is not working well for me. However, there could be better integration with the network monitoring systems. It doesn't mean it is currently not there, but there could be better discoverability with some of the network monitoring systems to be able to have more visibility. When you're setting up a control room, you can have more visibility into what is going on in the network. It has been doing that, but it can do that more."

"Cisco should consider adding a GUI as most vendors now offer the ability to manage switches via a graphical user interface, while Cisco switches are managed using pure CLI."

"The solution needs to work on lowering the amount of bugs. We find them quite regularly."

"This may be something that they are already working on, but it would be an improvement if they could add a layer of security to layer two and layer three to protect the server and to protect the data."

"Technical support could be better. Firmware upgrades should be better. We have an issue with upgrading the firmware. It's not upgradable. I think it should be easy to improve and upgrade the firmware."

"Cisco's pricing can be a concern, particularly with support fees."

More Cisco Ethernet Switches cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"We get the SMARTnet and one of the switches has that Cisco ONE licensing. It's probably running about $12,000 a year right now."

"Cisco offers annual and three-year license options."

"Cisco now has more products that are priced for small businesses, so they do have some cheaper models."

"The solution is not too expensive."

"Pricing for this product is high but the cost is worth it if you can afford it."

"This is an expensive solution, but you are paying for stability."

"There is a license required for this solution and the price could be better."

"The cost of Cisco Ethernet Switches is expensive."

More Cisco Ethernet Switches pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user82779

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

23%

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	58
Midsize Enterprise	36
Large Enterprise	53

Questions from the Community

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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 ...

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Which would you choose - Fortinet Fortiswitch secure access or Cisco Ethernet Switches?

We researched Cisco but ultimately chose Fortinet FortiSwitch Secure Access, mostly because of the price. Fortinet FortiSwitch is an ethernet switch solution that provides security and performance...

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In terms of ethernet switches, would you go with Cisco or Juniper?

Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Cisco or Juniper Ethernet switches were the better fit for us. We decided to go with Juniper. Juniper ethernet switches are a lesser-known...

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Comparisons

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Compared 71% of the time

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Fortinet FortiSwitch - Secure Access vs Broadcom StrataDNX

Compared 5% of the time

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Aruba Switches vs Cisco Ethernet Switches

Compared 20% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

D-Link Ethernet Switches vs Cisco Ethernet Switches

Compared 9% of the time

NETGEAR Switches vs Cisco Ethernet Switches

Compared 7% of the time

H3C Ethernet Switches vs Cisco Ethernet Switches

Compared 7% of the time

More Cisco Ethernet Switches Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Ethernet Switches

August 2025

Download Broadcom StrataDNX product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Ethernet Switches

September 2025

Download Cisco Ethernet Switches product report

Also Known As

StrataDNX

Cisco Industrial Ethernet Switches

Overview

The StrataDNX product line offers the greatest extensibility and scalability of any merchant silicon switch in the industry, with the ability to scale both tables and buffering with external lookup engines or memory. The StrataDNX chips can also be connected together via DNX fabric elements to build industry-leading switches and routers with hundreds of terabits of bandwidth. The StrataDNX line features a service-rich, carrier-grade programmable architecture to meet the needs of service provider core, metro transport, mobile backhaul, microwave, POTN, access, and data center networks.

Broadcom

Cisco Ethernet Switches scale to meet the needs of networks of all sizes. They are Secure, Reliable and Seamless.

Cisco

Sample Customers

Hill International, Coty, Banese, Algar Tech

Linz AG

Buyer's Guide

Broadcom StrataDNX vs. Cisco Ethernet Switches

September 2025

Free Report: Broadcom StrataDNX vs. Cisco Ethernet Switches

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