HPE Ethernet Switches vs Huawei Ethernet Switches comparison

I think - HP is niche solution.
You could use it in DC environment, for example, in office net.
For choosing the best solution you should describe your project, your task, your goal, after that there should be understandable the best solution for exactly your case.

Depends on the purpose of the switch. There is a core switch and 2 access switches with a Wi-Fi switch.

The core switch is modular and perhaps more expensive….

Just depends what it is going to be used for. “fit for purpose” comes to mind.

Hi.

Never used either of them, but I did some research. What really matter here is for what type of network configuration and services you are going to use it for. If you need leyer 3 services like UDP helper function and a higher speed among other good features the HP 5412 is the one, if you only have a normal Ethernet network, with a normal traffic working mainly on leyer 2 you can go with the HP 2920. I hope this can help you.

Hi,

It entirely depends on your budget and requirement for IDC or End User.

While you select POE switch you need to be very careful on below points

1) assessing the capability to provision power of switch

2) How POE enable device can be connect to Access switch (limitation)

Above two points mainly left aside while selecting the POE switches by majority of the NW admins.

Also you can look for new series release by HP, which can be stack to 9 switch in a single stack.( HP 5130-48G-4SFP+ EI Switch)

However for Huwai, don’t have any idea.

Thanks & Regards
Ankit Shah

Hi there Avigail,

It really depends on use and budget. Those switches are quite different in many ways. The HP 5412zl (and btw, that model is EOL you should get the 5400-R series which was released a few months ago) is part of HP's "ProCurve" range (i.e. there pre-3Com acquisition). It's one of my personal favourite switches due to its versatility, reliability, performance and price. ProCurve switches have a CLI based on HP's licensing of Cisco IOS around 15 years ago which was then simplified so setting them up even in fairly complex environments is a snap. They also come with a lifetime NBD warranty so you can usually self-spare and not bother with hardware maintenance. It supports a number of core features such as IPv4/v6 (dual stack) routing (RIP/OSPF/BGP), VRRP and basic distributed trunking but it doesn't stack all that well.

The Huawei 7706 is a different beast altogether. Think of it as a clone of the Cisco 4500 series. It's far higher performance than the HP switch and allows 40/100GbE interfaces (the HP can only do 10GbE) as well as supporting true stacking and far more granular configurations. It's also somewhat more expensive and will require ongoing hardware maintenance.

The choice for core switch really thus comes down whether or not you need the advanced features and performance of the Huawei switch and are willing to bear their upfront and ongoing cost. If not then the HP 5400 is the winner. (NB: Huawei and 3COM have common routes so if you like the Huawei 7700 you might want to consider the HP Comware 7500 which is more or less identical).

The access switch is somewhat easier. The S5700 is way overkill for an access switch and no doubt cost a lot more. The HP 2920 series is a high-performance access switch which supports the fundamental technologies you need as well as easy stacking whilst the S5700 is better suited to a distribution switch where technologies like MPLS are required. HP also gets the nod for ease of configuration and pricing (paritcularly since the lifetime NBD warranty extends to all their stackable switches).

The wireless is a bit more complicated since those APs are somewhat different. The HP 425 is a dual-radio 2:2 MIMO 802.11n AP whilst the Huawei AP5130D is a single radio 802.11AC device. I'm not a fan of single radio APs since even a single slow client (i.e. 802.11a/b/g)/n will slow the AP down somewhat and it will be a long time before all clients are running 802.11AC.

I'm not a huge fan of the HP 425; it's a budget model and I much prefer the MSM460/466 (dual-n) or the 560 (n/AC) as being more powerful and versatile. I can't comment about alternate Huawei wireless as I am less familiar with their wireless products but they have quite a broad range.

With wireless, both vendors are very good so it somewhat comes down to the controller. The Huawei controller is very CLI focused (somewhat like Cisco) and - IMO - a bit of a pain in larger distributed deployments but it is very flexible and reliable. The HP MSM controller is quite a bit easier to configure and learn to use but it only scales to 800APs whereas the Huawei device can go much futher than that. Both vendors offer embedded controllers within their chassis switches but only HP maintains the free lifetime warranty.

Whichever vendor you choose make sure you include their management software (IMC for HP, E-sight for Huawei). Again these are both very similar - and very good - offerings. This will make management and troubleshooting of your environment much easier and more streamlined.

Probably the final consideration you need to make is the support offered by each vendor in your country and there - if you are not in Asia - HP probably has the advantage of having an extremely mature support and logistics model given there global presence and longevity.

I hope this helps, I've tried to be as unbiased as possible in my response.

Michael