How would you improve Cisco and Juniper Ethernet Switches?
If you were in the room with the product manager from Cisco and Juniper and could give them advice on how to improve their Ethernet Switches, what areas for improvement would you target?
Manager of Architecture/Design at a tech services company
Consultant
2014-07-07T11:23:32Z
Jul 7, 2014
Both are excellent choices and the real differences boil down to cost,
post-purchase maintenance (Cisco engineers are ten a penny, Juniper
engineers harder to come by), and warranty levels.
With regards to performance, however, there are alternatives with much
lower 'in switch latency' such as Mellanox Infiniband switches. But that is
a whole new ball game.
Finally, the inevitable Software Defined Networking (SDN) and switch
virtualisation, will probably be the deciding factor over the next few
years and although both Juniper & Cisco have virtual offerings, both are
still climbing the Gartner Hype Curve and are really only in the early
adopter phase
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Ethernet Switches vs. Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
Cisco Ethernet Switches and Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches compete in the network infrastructure category. Cisco holds an advantage for high-performance needs, while Juniper is often chosen for its flexibility and competitive pricing.Features: Cisco Ethernet Switches provide power-saving designs, Smartports for management, and MACSec layer-2 encryption. They include advanced configurations such as layer 3 switching and various dynamic IP routing protocols. Juniper EX Series Ethernet...
Both are excellent choices and the real differences boil down to cost,
post-purchase maintenance (Cisco engineers are ten a penny, Juniper
engineers harder to come by), and warranty levels.
With regards to performance, however, there are alternatives with much
lower 'in switch latency' such as Mellanox Infiniband switches. But that is
a whole new ball game.
Finally, the inevitable Software Defined Networking (SDN) and switch
virtualisation, will probably be the deciding factor over the next few
years and although both Juniper & Cisco have virtual offerings, both are
still climbing the Gartner Hype Curve and are really only in the early
adopter phase
Hope that helps
Best regards
Ben WOODS