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Cisco Nexus 9000 Series vs Cisco Optical Networking comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Cisco Nexus 9000 Series
Ranking in Data Center Networking
5th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Ethernet Switches (9th)
Cisco Optical Networking
Ranking in Data Center Networking
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

AS
Technical Marketing Engineer Hybrid Cloud Infrastructures at NetApp
Policy-driven data centers have delivered low-latency connectivity for critical applications
The most critical and important feature in Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is VPC. Apart from VPC, there are many other features in Cisco Nexus 9000 Series that stand out as advantages. You can apply access control lists on that. You can do Layer 3 capabilities. You can configure HSRP. You can implement VRFs. You can isolate the L3 network within your data center. It has a lot of features including network segmentation capabilities. You can apply a lot of security hardening and manage the access on the switches through auditing to see who is doing what and restrict access based on the network admin role. These are great features. The overlay technology support in Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is good for large-scale deployment where you are going to build something like a hyperscaler. You need more network segments, and with VXLAN, you can definitely build a large fabric with those Nexus switches.
Abdul Samad Irfan Shaik - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Lead at Numeric Technologies
High-speed fiber links have protected critical data and keep our multi-city cloud services running
In terms of improvements, one thing is about how data is transferred. Predictive monitoring would help by using artificial intelligence to identify optical signal degradation, performance issues, downtimes, glitches, increasing error rates, or potential fiber issues such as cuts. Predictive monitoring will definitely assist in this area. Faster troubleshooting could be enhanced by providing a knowledge base related to regular activities. A simpler dashboard is preferred rather than a complex one, as clubbing everything into a single user interface is not helpful for grasping everything easily. Supporting integration with third-party optical equipment and existing network monitoring platforms will play a major role, and the connectivity should be easier with improvements in third-party integration being essential. Regarding support documentation, I would prefer to speak about support rather than documentation. One enhancement needed is better automation capabilities. We aim to reduce manual intervention during network failures by enabling faster automated alarm triggers that should automatically fix issues and control recovery workflows. We have covered all of the necessary improvements.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The best features Cisco Nexus 9000 Series offers are ease of use, easy configuration, and ultra reliability."
"The features of Cisco Nexus 9000 Series that I appreciate most are the ease of deployment and the vPC, or Virtual Port Channel, along with high availability when deployed according to best practices."
"Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is easy to use, and the performance is exceptional."
"The high-speed downstream connectivity and VXLAN features of Cisco Nexus 9000 Series allow me to connect customer devices with good speed, and I'm using the VXLAN feature to extend the VLANs, which is very useful for setting up my network for my customers."
"The low latency feature of Cisco Nexus 9000 Series has benefited our OT network significantly, as we need a fast network with low latency, especially since we have a lot of cameras, which truly helps us for our OT environment."
"There has been improvement in our connectivity with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series, and there is less drag."
"Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is quite a complex machine, but we are using a very simple configuration with basic Nexus switching, and we don't have many issues with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series at the moment in our present infrastructure."
"For one of the biggest European customers, they deployed Cisco Nexus for their core networking and it has been running for a few years without having a single downtime."
"Cisco Optical Networking provides high-capacity bandwidth and fiber connectivity between the data centers, supporting data replication, backups, disaster recovery, and managing how data is transferred across great workloads."
"After implementing Cisco Optical Networking, I could transport terabits of traffic over long distances, which has amazed us while also reducing the effort and thought involved in network management."
"Cisco View allows me to see when circuits are up or down very quickly, and I can connect circuits very quickly by a virtual picture."
"Cisco Optical Networking has positively impacted my organization by providing cost reduction, better network performance, high reliability, and most importantly, business growth."
"Cisco Optical Networking has positively impacted my organization by helping add resilience and redundancy."
 

Cons

"The old perpetual licensing was 100 times better, and the new licensing is quite frankly a nightmare."
"I would rate the technical support for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series an eight out of ten. This rating is not because of their lack of expertise, but just the assignment period."
"Cost-wise, Cisco Nexus 9000 Series is very expensive."
"Even though it is expensive, I am not sure about the return on investment. It is expensive, and you will need to pay for subscription fees that also are not cheap."
"So far, I haven't seen a return on investment, as I cannot identify any relevant metrics such as fewer employees needed, money saved, or time saved."
"If I have a Juniper and want to uplink with Cisco, there could be some configuration challenges."
"I have not seen a return on investment from using Cisco Nexus 9000 Series from that perspective."
"Sometimes tough cases may present difficulties to resolve or take longer than expected, but overall it is satisfactory."
"When it comes to features or tools that stood out to me in Cisco Optical Networking, I faced issues such as wavelength allocations due to fixed grid limitations, which led to spectral inefficiencies when mixing different wavelengths."
"There is much work that needs to be done, and providing more proactive artificial intelligence-driven monitoring will definitely help mitigate failures."
"In terms of improvements for Cisco Optical Networking, I believe we can enhance monitoring by improving real-time optical power, signal quality, link error, and bandwidth utilization, which leads to better network monitoring."
"Customer support is good only if you pay for it; if you forget to renew a license and you need support, it is not always so great."
"Cisco Optical Networking could be improved by having more documentation and more training."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
20%
Outsourcing Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
9%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
I would appreciate improvements in Cisco Nexus 9000 Series as data center equipment. I would like to see features that control traffic and maintain service continuity during the transfer of signals...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
I am working with multiple clients, approximately ten clients who use Cisco Nexus 9000 Series in their data centers. I am currently supporting clients with Cisco Nexus 9000 Series and Cisco technol...
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Nexus 9000 Series?
In networking, I recommend Cisco for switching and data center equipment including switching, Wi-Fi, and Cisco ISE to clients every time. It is still a perfect solution due to its high pricing, but...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Optical Networking?
The pricing is a bit high, but considering the features, it is reasonable. If Cisco adds more AI assistance, I do not believe the pricing is excessive, so I am satisfied with it.
What needs improvement with Cisco Optical Networking?
In terms of improvements for Cisco Optical Networking, I believe we can enhance monitoring by improving real-time optical power, signal quality, link error, and bandwidth utilization, which leads t...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Optical Networking?
Cisco Optical Networking's main use case is to convert data center connectivity by connecting data centers over high-speed optical links for large-scale data transfer and disaster recovery. It ...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Nexus 9000 Series vs. Cisco Optical Networking and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,523 professionals have used our research since 2012.