Cisco Ethernet Switches and Juniper QFX Series Switches are leading competitors in the networking hardware industry. Cisco seems to have the upper hand in deployment flexibility and customer service efficiency, while Juniper is noted for offering competitive pricing with robust features.
Features: Cisco Ethernet Switches provide power-saving design, Smartports, and MACSec encryption for security. They support StackPower for increased power availability and offer efficient QoS and hot-swappable components. Juniper QFX Series Switches deliver high port density and efficient power usage. They also incorporate Broadcom chipsets for reliable performance and support EVPN-VXLAN for scalability.
Room for Improvement: Cisco Ethernet Switches are noted for their high cost and complex licensing, and they could improve in areas like port-based ACLs and GUI usability. Juniper QFX Switches need a more intuitive user interface and better scalability options to enhance data center integration.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco supports hybrid cloud and on-premises deployments with a generally responsive customer service but faces inconsistency depending on the region. Juniper is more focused on on-premises setups, benefiting from strong documentation and a good technical reputation. Both have knowledgeable support, yet Cisco has a more efficient global service network.
Pricing and ROI: Cisco Ethernet Switches are durable with premium pricing, proving to provide ROI over long-term use. Juniper QFX Series Switches offer lower initial costs, providing a cost-effective solution for enterprises needing robust functionality without as high an investment. Both solutions promise ROI through low failure rates and enduring performance.
Other brands might break after three or four years, but with Juniper, I can use it until now, around nine years, and it's still very usable and very stable.
The normal ROI customers work with is five years unless there is a major change in technology.
It takes two to three days for Cisco support to address issues.
Currently, we don't have any technical support because our license doesn't allow for direct support.
Cisco support is quick and responsive, often answering within an hour.
The technical support of Juniper is very helpful because if we have some big issues, we can raise P1 or P2 tickets, and the response from Juniper is very fast.
Sometimes parts are not available in stock, then you have to wait for replacement time.
Cisco mainly provides security, patch management, hardware reliability, durability, scalability, and security features supporting my organization's expansion.
The latest products do not allow integration with the earlier environment.
The scalability depends on the model.
When building a fabric, you can add multiple leaf switches and multiple spine switches if required.
The switches are very stable, rated ten out of ten.
Juniper has better performance than any other networking product as far as performance is concerned in the router area.
The pricing and hardware warranty renewal costs are more expensive than other products.
FortiGate switches are considered more valuable because they have firewall capabilities.
For example, on switches, filtering specific sections isn't supported, whereas, on routers, you can do 'show run' with additional commands to filter.
My personal opinion is that if anyone wants to work with a Layer 3 fabric in a data center, they should choose Juniper because working with ACI and APIC is very complex in the Cisco part.
I would like to see other cheaper plans for the license on the QFX series.
Cisco Ethernet switches are priced at a rating of nine, indicating they are expensive.
We need to pay for the subscription, as there are extra expenses after purchasing the product.
Regarding the cost, Cisco Ethernet Switches have a competitive price.
We are a number one, tier-one partner of Juniper. Therefore, we normally get better discounts than with Cisco because we don't have the level one partnership with Cisco.
Their stability and durability are essential features we've been looking for many years, and they are still working fine.
The Cisco Ethernet switches are sturdy products that do not require any kind of maintenance.
The most valuable features of Cisco Ethernet switches include plug-and-play capabilities.
They are easy to use and flexible to deploy in any kind of environment.
The best feature of Juniper QFX Series Switches is the virtual chassis feature because it's very stable in my experience.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Cisco Ethernet Switches | 10.3% |
| Juniper QFX Series Switches | 0.6% |
| Other | 89.1% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 59 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 35 |
| Large Enterprise | 55 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 5 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 1 |
| Large Enterprise | 2 |
QFX Series Switches deliver industry-leading throughput and scalability, an extensive routing stack, the open programmability of the Junos OS, and a broad set of EVPN-VXLAN and IP fabric capabilities. With QFX, you’ll find premier solutions for data center spine-and-leaf, campus distribution, core, and data center gateway and interconnect switching.
Rethink data center operations and fabric management with turnkey Juniper Apstra software in your QFX Series environment. You can automate the entire network lifecycle to simplify design and deployment and provide closed-loop assurance. With Apstra, customers have achieved 90% faster time to deployment, 70% faster time to resolution, and 83% OpEx reduction.
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