Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] Reviews

The product has a low cost. The product is reliable.

The network features are not good.

My organization has a partnership with Dell.

The tool’s stability is good. I rate the stability a nine out of ten.

We have multiple customers. Each customer has around 100 users.

The technical support team is good.

Positive

The solution is not popular in the market. Cisco and other brands are more popular. The customers often choose Cisco. Cisco is known for its good network features.

The initial setup is easy. The tool doesn’t provide a GUI. Other products provide GUI. The time taken for deployment depends on the configuration and how the servers and nodes are connected.

The product has a low price for the features it provides. The price is comparable to other brands like HPE. The solution is worth the money.

It is a good solution with good features. Overall, I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

They do not have any extraordinary features.

The switches are generic. There are no significant differences between the product and competitors. The commands may be different, but functionalities are the same. But, as Cisco dominates the network, Cisco-centric things might need to be present in Dell products. One area that needs improvement is their routing protocol approach or command, which gets a little complex.

We have been using the solution for three to four years.

It is a stable solution. I rate it as a six out of ten for stability.

The solution has 300-400 users in our company.

We have used solutions from Cisco, HP, Telstra, etc.

The setup is straightforward. It takes minimum time for deployment. Although the following policy configuration takes a little time, that doesn't hamper the business.

We implemented the solution with the help of a general networking resource.

The solution's ROI for generic networking is not extraordinary. As long as the price is reasonable, it is fine.

The licensing of the solution depends on what comes with the model. There's no add-on license apart from it. There could be one for the very high-end supply.

I recommend others use the solution to some extent. I suggest they prioritize solutions from HP over it. I rate it between six and seven.

We are a reseller for Dell. We wanted to evaluate the product to see if it suits some of the customer requirements. If it does, we will craft it in the form of a solution, and we will sell it to customers. So, we are still evaluating it. 

It is currently in our testing environment. We wanted to use spine-leaf architecture, and that's the reason we are using this product. We are doing a proof of concept for the spine-leaf architecture, and we are using Dell switches for that.

We are not using OS10; we are using SONiC.

Their support has been excellent, and it has been quite stable and easy to set up.

I expect it to be a zero-touch or a plug-and-play device. To some extent, it is, but we need to know the architecture, and we need to know what exactly we are doing. It is not so easy to implement. It depends on what exactly we are doing and it is still not a plug-and-play or zero-touch device. In the upcoming version, they can make it zero-touch, where we can just power it on and start using it. They can have some templates for different scenarios, such as when you are using it for the data center or adding it to your existing infrastructure.

We started making use of Dell switches in December of last year. So, it has been less than a year.

It is quite stable.

Scalability is the reason why we are going for spine-leaf architecture. This is a PoC environment. So, we want to scale. We want to replicate the same thing 100 times or 200 times, and we should be able to scale to that extent. 

Users-wise, currently, it is for our internal users. There are not many users.

Their support is excellent. We are also using Dell Server. The entire architecture is Dell, so the support is good. I would rate them a five out of five.

Positive

We have also worked with Cisco switches. There were so many gaps, and we are still trying to cover the gaps. We are very well-versed with Cisco to monitor everything. We were not able to initially monitor with Dell, but now, we are able to monitor. So, monitoring is one aspect. We are looking into auto-deployment. It is available in higher-end Cisco switches but not on all switches. We are still exploring this feature.

The pricing of Dell PowerConnect switches is much less than Cisco switches. Cisco switches are super-expensive.

It is quite straightforward. We are using a network operating system (NOS), so it is quite straightforward.

Dell PowerConnect switches are cheaper than Cisco switches. Cisco's higher capacity switches (100 or 200 gigs) are super-expensive. With the higher capacity, the price of the switches and the price of the architecture go high. Dell is cheaper and modular. So, I don't need to invest 100% upfront. I can invest as I progress. That is an option because the chassis will not be populated with all the pluggables. I have a choice because it is modular. I can go for 25 gigs today, and after four months, I can go for 100 gigs, and after that, I can go for 200 gigs. I have a choice when it is not a fixed switch.

I'm very lucky to have support from Dell. I also have experience in implementing OS10. If you want to use Dell from scratch, you should watch some videos and understand the limitations. There is a support matrix, and you should go through the support matrix because not everything is open-open. So, compatibility can be an issue. You should get in touch with the Dell support team. They have some use cases, and one of the use cases could be similar to yours and match the requirements. Otherwise, it could end up in a mess.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Our primary use case is we connect people to them.

They are easy to work with and very reliable.

The one issue you face in the industry there is always some planned obsolescence in these switches.

I have been working with Dell PowerConnect Switches for the past ten years.

There is high reliability since we have used them for close to twenty years and only had possibly one failure.

We do not stress out our systems and so there is very little need for extra maintenance.

The initial setup was easy you just turn them on and plug them in.

The initial cost was high but since they have lasted for over ten or twenty years they are worth it.

I would rate Dell PowerConnect Switches a ten out of ten.

Dell is sometimes slow to provide updates to firmware. In the future, I would like PowerConnect Switches to be more secure and more manageable in web-based environments.

I've been using PowerConnect Switches since before 2018.

PowerConnect Switches' stability is satisfactory.

PowerConnect Switches are priced well.

I would give PowerConnect Switches a rating of eight out of ten.

Dell PowerConnect Switches is used as the backbone for my network, which is a high-performance computing network.

Dell PowerConnect Switches are very easy to configure with the GUI. Dell supports the solution even though it has been discontinued.

Dell has done a good job in the PowerConnect series and the one I have Power over Ethernet. If I have a remote device that needs power, I can perform the switch without having to stretch for cables.

The CLI for Dell PowerConnect Switches is sometimes confusing, especially with the LAN, but for the GUI it is simple.

I have been using Dell PowerConnect Switches for approximately two years.

The stability of Dell PowerConnect Switches is very good.

Dell PowerConnect Switches can scale very well.

I didn't have any problem with the technical support. Dell PowerConnect Switches manuals are very descriptive. It's more descriptive than any other manual that I've seen.

When doing the implementation I don't stack Dell PowerConnect Switches up because my systems are dispersed from each other. However, they are very nice for stacking, though the cables are sometimes short. If you want to stack them up in the same rack, some of the cables might be short.

If you want to purchase a new Dell PowerConnect Switch, you will pay up to $1,600, but I bought them used. I bought the four Dell PowerConnect Switches that I used for $1,000. 

If you consider the density of the switch, which has 48 ports with Power over Ethernet, the overall cost is low.

I rate Dell PowerConnect Switches a nine out of ten.

My primary use cases of this solution are for wireless, routing, and filtering. For example, we use one as an edge router for our DMZ, so people from outside can reach several DMZs from our enterprise organization.

The most valuable feature is its ability to multitask.

An area for improvement would be that it's very hard to configure if you're not familiar with the UI or CLI of the product. The UI itself could also be improved.

I've been using this solution for ten to twelve years.

The stability of this product is ok.

This solution is fairly scalable, though it is limited by the size of your CPU.

Technical support tends to give conflicting advice on how to configure the product.

I previously used Cisco ACI and Cisco Wireless but switched because of their pricing.

The initial setup was very complex.

I implemented this solution myself.

This product is fairly cheap compared to its competitors, and there are no additional costs.

I evaluated Cisco, Meraki, Ruckus, and SonicWall.

This is a very good product, and it can be used lightly, but you have to understand how it works before implementing it. I would give this product a score of seven out of ten.

We use these switches in our pharmaceutical company, which has been running for more than twenty years, since 1984.

We have these switches installed in an environment with hardware from many other vendors, and so far, so good.

Their hardware is not reliable, it's faulty. After three years of use, something goes wrong with the switches and they need replacing.

It's prone to be faulty. We expect it when we deploy them out of the box. We expect that this will be corrected and they will be more reliable in the near future. Our hope is that it would be close to the stability of Cisco and Nortel.

I have been using Dell PowerConnect Switches for three years.

In our experience, the hardware in Dell switches is not stable.

We have deployed more than 150 mixed brand switches in our office.

We use a mixture of brands. Lately, we have purchased Dell products.

Cisco and Nortel are very stable. We have been using some switches for more than ten years. When they do have issues, we just restart and everything comes back to normal.

After trying Dell switches, we will be looking to explore other options.

I have been a senior executive for more than 15 years.

I would rate Dell PowerConnect Switches a five out of ten.