Cisco FabricPath and NETGEAR Switches compete in the networking market, with Cisco leading in large enterprise environments and NETGEAR offering appealing solutions for smaller businesses. Cisco FabricPath holds the upper hand for advanced enterprise features and network stability.
Features: Cisco FabricPath is recognized for data center features, ease of VM migration, and robust security, making it ideal for complex networks. It supports multiple protocols and offers traffic prioritization, catering to comprehensive enterprise needs. NETGEAR Switches stand out for ease of use and simple setup, appealing to small-to-medium businesses. They offer affordability, versatility, and intuitive remote management via Insight Pro.
Room for Improvement: Cisco FabricPath could enhance interoperability with various IT solutions, improve its documentation, and adjust pricing for better competitiveness. The graphical interface could also be more user-friendly. NETGEAR Switches would benefit from improved security features, a more detailed CLI interface, and better integration with third-party solutions, alongside enhancing technical support and update processes.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco FabricPath is praised for its stable on-premises deployment and strong technical support, although some users desire better localization support. NETGEAR Switches excel in ease of deployment, particularly for on-premises setups, though their cloud capabilities are limited. Their support, while adequate, has room for improvement in terms of responsiveness and expertise.
Pricing and ROI: Cisco FabricPath is known for its high cost, justified by performance and stability, though considered expensive by some users. Despite significant upfront and licensing costs, its network management and resilience provide long-term value. NETGEAR Switches offer a strong price-to-performance ratio with transparent pricing and minimal extra costs, making them attractive for cost-sensitive SMEs.
Based on my experience with technical support from Cisco, they are helpful and responsive; they respond based on severity.
Cisco provides excellent support.
There are issues distinguishing which switches support cloud features.
The scalability of NETGEAR Switches is easy and very beneficial for us.
NETGEAR's scalability through its Insight Cloud system is on par with Ubiquiti's, although it must offer features beyond its competitors.
Cisco FabricPath is stable.
We've experienced failures such as a 16-port dying after three to four years.
Additionally, parts availability in these regions needs improvement to address hardware failure situations, such as the availability of parts like a power cable.
In future updates, I would prefer to see features such as more AI functionality or better integration added to Cisco FabricPath.
They should introduce features like dual firmware or dual boot that allow systems to be updated without downtime.
They can improve on the commercial part, specifically the cost, as it is higher than other brands.
Additionally, many products have subscriptions, making it very expensive when you bundle all together.
While pricing is slightly on the higher side, the overall assessment, which includes cost and technical capabilities, often favors Cisco.
Some high-end switches required for specific advanced features, like precision time protocols, can be more expensive.
Cisco is the best choice in terms of cost, quality, and post-procurement services.
I have experienced operational efficiencies with Cisco FabricPath that are 200% better than the old legacy equipment and protocols.
The precision time protocol feature caught our interest for future use in specific settings like churches, where low latency is required.
The most valuable features are routing and access control.
NETGEAR Ethernet Switches is an Ethernet solution that offers businesses of all sizes the ability to easily set up secure and highly scalable networks. Small to medium-sized companies have the option to choose from three different switching options. The three options that are most appropriate for businesses of this size are the NETGEAR Unmanaged, Plus, and Smart Switch solutions. If you're managing a large enterprise network or a campus network, then NETGEAR Fully Managed Infrastructures is the solution for you. All the NETGEAR Ethernet Switches and solutions are innovative, easy to install and use, reliable, and very cost-effective.
NETGEAR Ethernet Switches have many features that make them a most effective product. Included in these is the ability to virtually stack IP addresses in such a way that users can scale their network up with ease. These IP addresses are grouped together. Once additional data ports are connected, you have only a single switch to manage and you gain both a much higher level availability of data and a greater level of network resilience.
Benefits of NETGEAR Ethernet Switches
Some of the benefits of using NETGEAR Ethernet Switches include:
Reviews from Real Users
There are a number of characteristics that make NETGEAR Ethernet Switches extremely effective. Two major ones are its inherent flexibility and its user-friendly nature.
PeerSpot user Kevin W., a network delivery architect at a tech-services company, notes that NETGEAR Ethernet Switches gives users the ability to tailor the switches to fit their needs. He writes, "The big winner for NETGEAR is their modular switch: the 96X version. That is something that you don't see in the market anywhere else, except for Cisco who has it at a high level for a high expense. The ability to customize your own switch with their modules is a big plus for what we do in the market right now. Instead of having to piece together standardized switches, trying to make something work, or fitting the design into the mold, the modular switches are aware that you can make a mark in the industry because you purchased one switch and design with different modules added and removed later on for functionality."
PeerSpot user Chris W., a system engineer at Diversified, notes just how easy they are to use when he writes, "The ease of use of these switches is very good because of the Cisco CLI. If you are familiar with CLI, then you can configure the switch that way. It also has a relatively straightforward web interface. Using the web interface is good for beginners or people who aren't familiar with Cisco CLI. However, having a common command line interface method is great for some of our more advanced guys who are familiar with it."
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.