Cisco 500 Series Network Convergence System (NCS 500) vs. Juniper Enterprise Routers

Well suited for10G aggregation at network edge. Small managed networks such as school districts or distributed enterprise campus. Not well suited to RPHY aggregation at network core — queuing in NCS540 results in jitter and poor RPHY performance. Allow port license purchases in smaller units. Better support for SLA performance monitoring capabilities would allow use as a box for 10G aggregation for Carrier Ethernet NNI handoff.

Incentivized

As an edge/WAN router that contains internet BGP routes, it handles this work very well. And the devices are robust, able to manage a significant load. However, the interface cost can be somewhat of a hindrance when wanting to use it to interconnect many metro clients.

Incentivized

• Switching.
• Routing.
• Access.

Incentivized

• Version tracking/rollback
• Logical configuration layout
• Verbose status/logs for troubleshooting purposes
• Flexible configuration styles (carrier vs enterprise)

Incentivized

• MPLS feature set on NCS520
• Full support for RFC2544, Y.1564 across the product line
• Greater clarity of the impact of smaller buffers on NCS540 when compared to other Qumran chipsets — some use cases like RPHY aggregation at network core are not a good fit.

Incentivized

• I would like to able to find more examples of configs. Given the multiple ways to configure the same setting, having a little more documentation would be helpful.
• I wish the FPCs and interfaces were cheaper.

Incentivized

Juniper support is friendly, easy to understand, widely knowledgeable, and easy to get ahold of. I did not give them a higher rating as some of my more complex issues, were solved by myself while under consultation from Juniper TAC.

Incentivized

Cisco NCS is smaller and for us newer. Better cost with similar capabilities.

Incentivized

The simplicity, elegance, and robustness of Juniper's solution make it much easier to troubleshoot and configure, when compared to Cisco Routers, especially considering Cisco's implementation of BGP (why are IPv4 and IPv6 linked in Cisco configuration?). Furthermore, the implementation of commit and rollback cannot be understated when compared to the Cisco solutions. This feature is a huge time saver when attempting to troubleshoot and remote configuration instances.

Incentivized

• Relatively low cost access layer device.
• Very cost effective means of getting 10G interfaces.
• Some features available on other devices out of the box are more complex or absent on the NCS without licensing or assistance.

Incentivized

• The stability and robustness of this solution provide a rock-solid foundation for all of our internet traffic.
• The easy to use rollback and commit features simplifies remote administration and configuration, alleviating the need to travel to remote installation sites.

Incentivized