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Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

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
6.3
Cisco Catalyst Switches provide high ROI with consistent performance, durability, and operational reliability, despite initial cost concerns.
Sentiment score
7.3
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers deliver reliability, cost savings, and efficient management, enhancing performance and financial outcomes for organizations.
From an investment standpoint, deploying Cisco Catalyst Switches offers tangible benefits, including cost reductions.
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.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
Cisco Catalyst Switches support is mixed; users praise documentation but criticize slow responses and varying expertise levels.
Sentiment score
7.5
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers' support is responsive and reliable, with effective solutions and generally positive user satisfaction.
On a scale from one to 10, I would rate the technical support of Cisco at 10 out of 10.
Cisco's support is good, one of the best supports that you will get.
Cisco support is very good and responsive.
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.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Catalyst Switches provide scalable solutions for diverse deployments, supporting seamless network growth and expansion in varied environments.
Sentiment score
7.6
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers provide scalable configurations, supporting growth with expansion capabilities despite some concerns about advanced scalability limitations.
The scalability of Cisco Catalyst Switches is very much scalable, as it supports the stacking feature and growth; for instance, with 94K modular switches, based on the requirement, we can even increase modules for more bandwidth.
Cisco Catalyst Switches are scalable, and I would rate them eight to nine out of ten for scalability.
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.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Cisco Catalyst Switches are praised for their reliability and stability despite occasional minor hardware issues, making them a preferred choice.
Sentiment score
8.1
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are praised for their stability, reliability, robust construction, and efficient uptime, enhancing user confidence.
Cisco Catalyst Switches are stable.
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.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Catalyst Switches need improved third-party integration, simpler licensing, better documentation, user-friendly configurations, and enhanced security and AI features.
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers users seek performance, management, design improvements, better support, pricing adjustments, and flexible configurations.
Currently, I don't see much AI integration with Cisco Catalyst Switches; though they've started, it still needs improvement.
Cisco Catalyst Switches could be a little bit cheaper as they are very costly.
There could be improvements in the repeat configuration with some file integration that is currently missing.
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.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Catalyst Switches are reliable but costly, with complex licensing; potential buyers seek competitive pricing and bulk purchase discounts.
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers offer competitive pricing with perceived value and reliability, often providing better deals than rivals like HPE.
Cisco provides unique features that justify their pricing.
Cisco Catalyst Switches are quite pricey.
Cisco usually is costly compared to other vendors.
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.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Catalyst Switches are robust, versatile, and scalable, featuring advanced management and supporting diverse network infrastructures with excellent documentation.
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers offer scalable, reliable performance and ease of management with powerful Xeon CPUs and integrated tools.
Cisco Catalyst Switches are valuable for their reliability and performance.
The most beneficial features for our network management are their stability and good customer support.
Catalyst Switches are efficient and swift, which is valuable for my organization.
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.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Catalyst Switches
Ranking in Data Center Networking
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
177
Ranking in other categories
LAN Switching (1st), Ethernet Switches (7th), AV Over IP Switching (1st)
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
Ranking in Data Center Networking
4th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
211
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (3rd), Blade Servers (5th), Rack Servers (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Data Center Networking category, the mindshare of Cisco Catalyst Switches is 22.0%, down from 31.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is 0.9%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Center Networking
 

Featured Reviews

Joshua Odunsi - PeerSpot reviewer
Ensures efficient performance and supports network growth with optimal speed
Catalyst Switches are efficient and swift, which is valuable for my organization. I experience optimal speed and effective configuration, making them stand out compared to other switches. The PoE switches offer more ports on SFP, and it is efficient in use. Overall, the switches provide me with the value I expect in terms of speed and efficiency.
Syed Masuood - PeerSpot reviewer
Handles workloads and diverse applications efficiently
We have a lot of VMs on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. On a single server, we have probably hosted 14 or 15 VMs. Out of these, 8 to 10 are continuously running, and four of them are backup VMs, so it can handle a good workload. For cybersecurity, it is only accessible on the intranet; it is not accessible through the web. We use it for local development purposes, and it is behind our firewall. Its security is strong. We handle a lot of test data for government and confidential customers. It is safe and strong locally. We have not experienced any security issues. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime if we need to replace a hard disk, instead of completely shutting a server, there is a hot swap feature. It is quite good in that aspect. Usually, for any activity, there is a downtime of about 30 minutes. It has saved a lot of time. We have tried AI workloads for a development environment for a government customer in Singapore. The servers are hosted in Singapore. It is an ML-based engine with AI. It is a government project where data is processed, and we run it on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. The benefit of running AI workloads on PowerEdge Servers is that it is easy to allocate memory. The application we are running is memory intensive. It is pretty easy to scale memory and storage.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Would you recommend replacing a Cisco Catalyst Switch by a D-link one?
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 ...
What do you like most about Cisco Catalyst Switches?
We are a vendor for the healthcare sector, especially hospitals, and normally, we use a full Cisco solution for stability, especially for the stability of the Access Points and the security of swit...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Catalyst Switches?
For pricing satisfaction, I'd say it will be six to seven because Cisco usually is costly compared to other vendors. Regarding pricing, there is indeed room for improvement.
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....
What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
It has helped us reduce unplanned downtime by 20% to 30%.
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
Mainly, I would like to improve the speed of storage response. We would like to improve our performance by using disks without rotation. The price is better now, and I think it will be better in th...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Catalyst, Catalyst
PowerEdge R
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Afni, Anilana Hotels and Resorts, Baylor Scott & White Health, Beachbody, Bellevue, Del Papa Distributing, Explorer Pipeline, Mindtree, Omaha World Herald, Radio 538, Sony Corporation, Telecom Italia, Telenor Arena
NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Catalyst Switches vs. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.