We performed a comparison between Cisco Catalyst Switches and Dell PowerConnect Switches based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Users feel Cisco Catalyst Switches provide great stability, intuitive reliable analytics, seamless scalability, excellent PoE capabilities, and solid robust security. However, users are happier with the pricing of Dell PowerConnect Switches.
"If we lose some network connections, the system automatically creates new connections between equipment."
"The solution works well with analytics."
"The solution is easy to implement and quick to deploy."
"It is a very scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"Overall top of the line solution."
"We have dealt with Cisco's technical support in the past. They were especially helpful and very polite. They are always there if we need them and their insights are always excellent. I would say that we have been satisfied with the level of support we've gotten so far."
"The most valuable features are the Stacking and the capacity of the switches because they have more throughput. Layer 2 is also part of its rich feature set."
"The product is convenient to deploy."
"The technology is good and the interface is simple. We haven't had any bugs, disconnections or delays."
"PowerConnect Switches' stability is satisfactory."
"Dell PowerConnect Switches are very easy to configure with the GUI. Dell supports the solution even though it has been discontinued."
"Its throughout and compatibility are the most valuable."
"The most valuable feature is stability."
"When the price is competitive the customers tend to choose the cheaper brand and then look at the features. So having a competitive price is a plus."
"Dell offers very good support."
"Dell PowerConnect Switches are easy to configure."
"Cisco is the most expensive product."
"Cisco Catalyst Switches' pricing can be cheaper."
"The only improvement I would like to see with Cisco Catalyst Switches is the pricing."
"There are multiple operating systems across Cisco's portfolio, which is problematic."
"Their centralized management could be better. There should be some kind of software for centralized management so that I don't need somebody else to manage it."
"Cisco should provide customers with a more advantageous licensing model included with the purchase of the equipment."
"The general price of the solution could be cheaper."
"In a future upgrade, I would like to see integrated wireless in the solution."
"The solution's ROI for generic networking is not extraordinary."
"An area for improvement would be that it's very hard to configure if you're not familiar with the UI or CLI of the product. The UI itself could also be improved."
"Accessibility and management could be improved."
"The one issue you face in the industry there is always some planned obsolescence in these switches."
"Their hardware is not reliable, it's faulty."
"A big issue with this product is that when our customer migrated the data center, one cluster blocked the whole network and because we had a new approach, some commands were not compatible with the new version."
"It would be great to have modules that integrate with SDN solutions such as Cisco ACI, Arista SDN, Huawei Agile, and IBM."
"Dell is sometimes slow to provide updates to firmware."
Cisco Catalyst Switches is ranked 1st in LAN Switching with 166 reviews while Dell PowerConnect Switches is ranked 3rd in LAN Switching with 29 reviews. Cisco Catalyst Switches is rated 8.6, while Dell PowerConnect Switches is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Cisco Catalyst Switches writes "Reliable and stable catalyst switch; can be easily installed". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Dell PowerConnect Switches writes "Excellent support, good pricing, and easy setup". Cisco Catalyst Switches is most compared with Arista Networks Platform, HPE ProCurve, Cisco Nexus, ExtremeSwitching and Aruba Instant On Switches, whereas Dell PowerConnect Switches is most compared with Cisco Nexus, HPE ProCurve, NETGEAR Switches, Arista Networks Platform and Dell PowerSwitch N-Series. See our Cisco Catalyst Switches vs. Dell PowerConnect Switches report.
See our list of best LAN Switching vendors and best Data Center Networking vendors.
We monitor all LAN Switching reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.