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Dell PowerSwitch N-Series vs ExtremeSwitching comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

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

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series
Ranking in LAN Switching
9th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
3.9
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ExtremeSwitching
Ranking in LAN Switching
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Data Center Networking (8th), AV Over IP Switching (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is 5.1%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ExtremeSwitching is 8.3%, up from 6.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
LAN Switching Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ExtremeSwitching8.3%
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series5.1%
Other86.6%
LAN Switching
 

Featured Reviews

Mahendra Basera - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr.Engineer at Akara Capital Advisor Pvt. Ltd.
Reliable switching has supported secure audits and simplified long-term data center operations
Deploying Dell PowerSwitch N-Series on HA is very simple and easy. If we face any problem, we have our Dell support team to help us during the installation. They provide L2 engineers for supporting us on configuring the basic level configuration, stacking, and peering with others on HA. They have helped us with any faults or hardware issues, and we have taken high level care packs with three hour response time and same day hardware replacement. When we talk about the deployment of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series, when we extended our data center from starting from scratch, we had at that time nearly 170 physical servers. Then we virtualized it from mixed hardware, as we were using HCL, HP, or old heavy servers. Dell came to us and gave us a good solution with VMware, storage of Dell, and network devices. During the deployment, there were three team members from Dell and two from myself on the networking side, and one or two members from OS and server side. Almost five to six team members were there during the deployment from a hardware to a virtualized environment. The best advantages of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is that it is very much similar to Cisco. There is a little bit of difference at the command level, and it is easy to handle. It is easy to handle whether it is a CLI base or a GUI base, and it is very easy to configure. It is also reliable. We had a low fault issue, and when we talk of switching level, in a time frame of 17 years, we faced a switching issue only one time, which was a hardware failure. That is it. It is as reliable as Cisco.
Shrikant Teggi - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Area Technical Manager at tata elxsi
Excellent support and reliable performance drive positive experiences
We have been working with wireless for the last seven to eight years. At the moment, the customer has decided to go with a different brand. We are only dealing with the wired switches, not the wireless ones. We use ExtremeSwitching only, not Enterasys. Enterasys was the old one. I am not a networking person, so at this point in time I do not have much working experience on the switches. We have a separate team here who are working on these products. We have not reached that stage yet, but definitely in the near future we may use this kind of feature. Recently they have introduced platform one, which is an AI-based automation tool. That is definitely on the cards. Maybe in one year, we may start using that option as well. First of all, the product is robust and they are also coming up with new features. The second part is the support is excellent from ExtremeSwitching. They maintain delivery time and follow through on their commitments properly. The performance we expected, we are getting from ExtremeSwitching. All these requirements we have are being met with the product, features, and support. It is cost effective. I rate ExtremeSwitching a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Port density and port speed performance are both suitable. It has some appealing intangibles."
"The best advantages of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is that it is very much similar to Cisco, it is easy to handle whether it is a CLI base or a GUI base, it is very easy to configure, and it is also reliable, as in a time frame of 17 years we faced a switching issue only one time, which was a hardware failure, and it is as reliable as Cisco."
"For a customer, it is easy to configure and to add ports through the LAN the GUI."
"The automated configuration management tools of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series help improve network traffic management."
"The most valuable features of ExtremeSwitching are that they are robust and have plenty of features. There is a lot of functionality. They have a lot of other features ExtremeSwitching that you can get involved with but I haven't been using many of them."
"Our vendors are great and they offer very good support services."
"The solution has inspection firewalls that can do a deep packet inspection on a port basis."
"The switches are fast."
"ExtremeSwitching is a good, stable platform."
"The solution excels in configuration and other aspects. It offers reliability and performance."
"Some of the most valuable features of ExtremeSwitching are Fabric Attach and BGP, as well as the price point, which are superior in the market."
"The product offers a single management platform for multiple models of switches. The tool also allows users to manage multiple sites from a single dashboard."
 

Cons

"Customers do not prefer this to connect to multiple cities."
"The disadvantages of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is that only the booting time is a weak point."
"Instead of competing at the enterprise level with that product, they should probably scale it. With all of the ports, they should develop a good mid-level business to truly scale it and gain adoption before attempting to go after the enterprise."
"Their support could definitely be better."
"Extreme Networks does not have any entry-level products. This is a problem for them because Aruba has an Instant On series, which is new and cost-effective. Cisco also has the 1000 series, and other brands offer entry-level products."
"The solution lacks a cyber asset attack capability."
"Improving product awareness and possibly enhancing technical documentation or training resources could be beneficial."
"The solution as a whole has hardware quality issues."
"I believe they should be more aggressive in terms of pricing."
"The pricing of the universal switches is an area of concern that needs to be improved."
"We noticed over the years that the price of the Extreme Switches has been rising and this will become a concern in the future."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You are selling it to larger customers and in larger environments, where it's a less expensive model than Cisco, which is attempting to use the same approach Arista did, but with a completely different programming language."
"The pricing and licensing are good with the cloud."
"There is no license required to use the solution. The hardware controller is expensive, and this is why I prefer controlling ExtremeSwitching on the cloud."
"We paid 25,000 to 30,000 INR."
"It is not a subscription-based model, and there is no licensing concept. We have to pay for hardware AMC. We have hardware on our premises and for the hardware support, we have to go for the annual maintenance contract with the partner."
"On pricing, ExtremeSwitches are going to beat most of the major competition."
"The product is expensive."
"ExtremeSwitching offers very good pricing plans for their licenses. Compared to their rivals, ExtremeSwitching's prices are very affordable and reasonable. This is why our customers are happy to pay for their service critical support. ExtremeSwitching also offers a great portal to track clients, further satisfying our customers. They are always happy to pay for the service every month. The pricing is very reasonable."
"There is a cost for ExtremeSwitching and if you want the support and maintenance, there are additional costs. My clients typically pay for the support and maintenance annually."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
11%
Educational Organization
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
University
9%
Manufacturing Company
18%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
7%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Dell-Force10 Campus LAN Switches?
We don't leverage the open networking standards of this Dell PowerSwitch N-Series capability. In the high availability direction, better clustering or stack functionality to connect all Dell switch...
What is your primary use case for Dell-Force10 Campus LAN Switches?
The main use case for this product is network switch for all network, including management network, network for the user, and network for the SAN.
What advice do you have for others considering Dell-Force10 Campus LAN Switches?
We don't work with solutions such as Aruba or Cisco. There are routers in our infrastructure, but they are not our responsibility or accountability. We work with servers and storage, specifically s...
What do you like most about ExtremeSwitching?
The product offers a single management platform for multiple models of switches. The tool also allows users to manage multiple sites from a single dashboard.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ExtremeSwitching?
I would rate the pricing for ExtremeSwitching six to seven out of ten.
What needs improvement with ExtremeSwitching?
Regarding what could be better with the product, I am not aware of how much AI functionality is provided in ExtremeSwitching. Everyone is talking about AI, so there should be AI facilities provided...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Norwich University of the Arts, Shelby American, City and Islington College
Blue Waters
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerSwitch N-Series vs. ExtremeSwitching and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.