Arista 7000 series vs HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches

Likelihood to Recommend

Core and data center applications are the strengths of Arista products. The distribution layer is also a good fit. For the access layer, it would be more of a niche product.

Read full review

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Hospital & Health Care Company, 501-1000 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

HPE Aruba Switches are a good cost-effective alternative to high-end switches. They offer management capabilities which allow the extra features that are necessary in a corporate environment in today's world. Depending on budget, they may still be too expensive for some users.

Read full review

Verified User

Professional in Information Technology

Consumer Goods Company, 51-200 employees

View all 9 answers on this topic

Pros

The 7304's along side our core network design has provided 100% uptime during the 5 years of deployment.
The multi-chassis LAG has provided near 100% connectivity to the distribution and access switches.
Very low maintenance attention is needed.

Read full review

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Hospital & Health Care Company, 501-1000 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

REST API capability
Wired & Wireless 802.1x configuration easiness
Wireless Access Points (APs) zero touch provisioning
Its high-end family (running the AOS-CX firmware) supports a virtualization technology called VSX (Virtual Switching Extension) which allows 2 switches to present itself as one virtualized switch under Layer 2, and as 2 separate routers under Layer 3; thereby providing high availability.

Read full review

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Oil & Energy Company, 501-1000 employees

View all 9 answers on this topic

Cons

The 7304's lack a graceful non-intrusive upgrade method even though they are dual supervisor.
I would like to see more integration with Aruba's ClearPass and Airwave products.

Read full review

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Hospital & Health Care Company, 501-1000 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

I have had issues finding monitoring software that natively supports Provision/Aruba OS. Most are designed primarily with Cisco in mind.
HPE/Aruba switches have historically had issues with corrupt flash. This seems to be less common in more recent models.
HPE/Aruba's switching portfolio can be confusing. Some models run on the Aruba OS while some others run on Comware. There is some overlap in these model lines so at times is can be tough to tell which switch is right.

Read full review

Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 201-500 employees

View all 9 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

—

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

—

Support Rating

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches 10.0

Based on 11 answers

It is a very good product, has almost all the feature you can need to access switches, a simple web GUI management, but not all can be configured from the GUI interface.

Read full review

Verified User

Consultant in Engineering

Computer & Network Security Company, 1-10 employees

View all 11 answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

I have used the Catalyst 6500 series in the past. From my point of view, the Arista surpasses the Catalyst on just about every front. Originally we were planning on implementing the Nexus 7000/7700 series switches for our core. Though a little more feature rich, it did not provide features we needed that the Arista did. The Nexus also was a confusing and complex platform to work with. Also, the Nexus was a significantly more expensive solution. Although very happy with the Arista switches we may evaluate the Aruba HPE 8400 chassis-based switches along with Arista switches in the future.

Read full review

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Hospital & Health Care Company, 501-1000 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

I think it compares very favorably against Cisco and others because it is much cheaper and doesn't require continued support costs.

Read full review

Chris Hein

Systems Engineer

CIHFinancial Services, 51-200 employees

View all 9 answers on this topic

Return on Investment

The Arista 7000 series met or exceed our data center switching and routing needs.
It provided a more cost effective alternative to other products we were considering.
Implementation was quick and easy due to the simple standards-based configuration.

Read full review

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Hospital & Health Care Company, 501-1000 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

Ease of deployment has cut back on labor hours.
Ease of management has allowed us to be more proactive to other potential issues that may occur on the network.

Read full review

Verified User

Manager in Information Technology

Education Management Company, 10,001+ employees

View all 9 answers on this topic

Arista 7000 series vs HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches