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Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center vs NVIDIA Mellanox comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

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
1.0
Fortinet FortiSwitch offers cost-effective integration and ease of use, with Cisco providing better long-term returns for higher budgets.
Sentiment score
1.0
Users reported time and cost savings from NVIDIA Mellanox, highlighting improved performance, reduced latency, increased efficiency, scalability, and reliability.
The integration of Fortinet infrastructure, including FortiSwitches, is cost-effective compared to Cisco, especially when paired with Fortinet wireless solutions.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.9
Fortinet FortiSwitch support is highly rated for responsiveness and reliability, though some users suggest better speed and consistency.
Sentiment score
7.5
Customers desire multilingual NVIDIA Mellanox support, rating it satisfactory to good, while often relying on peer assistance.
Technical partners provide responses within a day for any technical queries.
Customer support needs improvement in terms of speed and reliability.
On a scale from one to 10, I would rate the technical support of Fortinet an eight.
I would assess their technical support as good—not the best, but it is good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center is scalable and cost-effective, ideal for enterprises, with some fiber port limitations noted.
Sentiment score
5.8
NVIDIA Mellanox's scalable leaf and spine architecture efficiently supports network growth for organizations across various sectors.
When used in a dedicated Fortinet infrastructure, FortiSwitch scalability is better than some other switches, like Cisco, Meraki, or Arista.
Scalability is generally good, with transitions from gigabit to ten giga, twenty-five giga, and forty giga.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center is highly stable and reliable, with minor issues mainly due to vendor integration challenges.
Sentiment score
5.8
Users are satisfied with NVIDIA Mellanox for its reliable performance and stability, with improvements noted over time.
There is room for improvement as it sometimes takes over an hour to push configurations onto the devices from the management tool.
I would rate it a seven because the old versions were not stable, but it is becoming stable over time.
 

Room For Improvement

Pricing is high; improvements needed in automation, integration, user interfaces, management, certifications, features, support, and performance.
NVIDIA Mellanox needs improved user-friendliness, better integration, enhanced GUIs, faster support, and occasional bug fixes.
Sometimes, customer support does not provide prompt assistance, leaving projects hanging.
The commercial aspect presents challenges, particularly with pricing, as customers often ask for Juniper or Cisco, brands they are more aware of, which makes awareness about Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center another weak point.
There is room to improve the integration between FortiSwitch and other third-party solutions, as challenges arise when integrating with different vendors.
I think it's okay; it's the best solution for now for AI data centers.
 

Setup Cost

Fortinet FortiSwitch is competitively priced, sometimes seen as expensive, offers no extra licensing with FortiGate, and occasional discounts.
NVIDIA Mellanox offers competitive pricing, strong performance, and cost-effective licensing, making it a highly-rated, affordable enterprise solution.
The Fortinet switches come with no additional cost as they are open source, with only hardware warranties applicable.
Pricing is competitive, although it's not the cheapest option.
For its performance, it's cheaper.
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiSwitch offers centralized management, enhanced security, and efficient integration with FortiGate for flexible, cost-effective network control.
NVIDIA Mellanox excels in performance, flexibility, and integration with AI systems, making it ideal for data centers.
The main actual benefit that Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center brought to my customer's environment is secure connectivity while minimizing downtime from unexpected traffic or broadcasting.
This feature allows the switch's ports to be used as firewall ports, enhancing network security by enabling IPS and network profiling directly on the ports.
It allows me to create VLANs, implement security measures, and push configurations using a single tool.
The biggest advantage is that the vendor is the only one providing no-drop traffic.
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data...
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
15th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NVIDIA Mellanox
Ranking in Ethernet Switches
20th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
4.7
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Ethernet Switches category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center is 1.9%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NVIDIA Mellanox is 2.1%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Ethernet Switches Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center1.9%
NVIDIA Mellanox2.1%
Other96.0%
Ethernet Switches
 

Featured Reviews

Rutul SHah - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides seamless traffic control and secure connectivity while minimizing downtime and optimizing resource allocation
There is always room for improvement in Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center because with this switch, they can reduce downtime due to broadcasting issues by denying specific traffic on particular ports. Currently, I am not identifying any weak points of Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center because it meets the customer's use case. However, the commercial aspect presents challenges, particularly with pricing, as customers often ask for Juniper or Cisco, brands they are more aware of, which makes awareness about Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center another weak point.
Nurudeen Suleiman - PeerSpot reviewer
Automation and integration improve operations efficiently
We wanted to utilize the advanced InfiniBand and Ethernet solutions offered by NVIDIA, but the users are not too familiar with the InfiniBand environment, which is why we are using the Linux Cumulus 5.6, which is usually the normal Ethernet. I am familiar with NVIDIA Mellanox, as I have products from NVIDIA on review here on our website. I use enhanced multi-tenancy features. Currently, within the data center, we have mixtures of both Cisco Nexus switches, NVIDIA switches, and Huawei switches, so eventually, we are changing all the switches to NVIDIA. On a scale of 1-10, I rate NVIDIA Mellanox an eight.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center?
The Fortinet switches come with no additional cost as they are open source, with only hardware warranties applicable.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center?
There is always room for improvement in Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center because with this switch, they can reduce downtime due to broadcasting issues by denying specific traffic on particular po...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Mellanox Switches?
The pricing is competitive. For its performance, it's cheaper, so I would rate it a four if cheaper is lower.
What needs improvement with Mellanox Switches?
The feature we would want to see in future updates of NVIDIA Mellanox is improved accessibility for normal users, as quite a lot of experience is needed before using Mellanox. None of the Mellanox ...
What is your primary use case for Mellanox Switches?
NVIDIA Mellanox is usually used for numerous purposes, but in our case, we are using it in a data center for high-end servers running 200 gig interfaces, and we are able to link it up with Ansible ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Mellanox Switches, Mellanox SN2700
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
CNPC, Korea Consumer Agency, Nutanix, Roxo Systems, StorPool, Atlantic.Net, INFN, StarWind, NYSE Technologies, Creative Consultants, ENKI
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiSwitch - Data Center vs. NVIDIA Mellanox and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,370 professionals have used our research since 2012.