Cisco 550X Series Stackable Managed Switches vs. Juniper EX Series Switches

It works very well as stack of core switches in small/medium company with 4x 10Gbit SFP+ interfaces. Native stacking is simple and in ring topology every switch has 2 redundant connections. They support maximum of 8 units per stack. You could use Cisco SG500X in hybrid stack with other series of switches, but make sure if other switch is compatible with hybrid mode stacking. Hybrid stack mode lower the number of units in stack. You should consider other model of switches if you need more then four SFP+ ports to connect more access switches using fiber cables.

Incentivized

They work great as core switches, data center switches, top of rack switches. They can even serve as routers, their routing capability is great, except for where you need lots of routing processing power. I would not use many of them for branch office switches though, due to noise and slowness of bootup

Incentivized

• Easy to create stacking
• Easy to configure using web interface or command line
• Similar command line to Cisco IOS

Incentivized

• Very stable.
• Cost efficient
• Easy management
• Great Juniper 24*7 TAC support
• Different variants available for different requirements.
• Easy to replace faulty hardware

Incentivized

• Missing command line options like show running-config "| include, exlude"
• Possibility to connect to switch using usb console cable or usb dongle
• Missing vtp protocol support, only gvrp available

Incentivized

• Virtual chassis new switch has overwritten existing config if not performed in a particular way.
• Applying a configuration to a range of interfaces could be done in a better way.
• Applying firewall rules to multiple security zones could be done a little more efficiently.

Incentivized

The Mist portal is extremely easy to use. I only have a few issues with it. The configuration between Mist and the CLI is not uniform. If you push some command line configurations to the switch, they won't be mirrored in Mist. You need to use the CLI portion on the switch config page to push some CLI only configurations. If you want to remove those lines, you need remember to do the inverse of the config. You need to make sure your juniper admins understand this as well. Simply removing the line from the CLI text box of the Mist page does not remove the config line from the switch itself.

Incentivized

When you open ticket, normally a L2 support engineer request support file and give you a valid fast solution. They replace switch if no solution are available due to minimize downtime

Incentivized

Cisco 550X switches stack using 10Gbit SFP+ ports on the front, while Dell N Series has dedicated ports (with cables) on the back of the unit. On the other hand dell N switches has number on small digital display showing stack member number, which is easier to identify. The cisco switches has dot beside the number of the switch member. I think Cisco devices are more reliable and stable than dell switches.

Incentivized

Juniper EX Switches are far more reliable than NETGEAR Ethernet Switches. The Juniper EX Series Switches offer a wider scope of options for configuration. The EX switches can be deployed faster and easier to configure. The Juniper EX Series Switches offer more value for their price point than most switches on the market, in my opinion

Incentivized

• Money savings as they are cheaper than competative Cisco IOS switches
• Cisco Business Switches has limited lifetime warranty
• Good switching capacity, and reliability

Incentivized

• The Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches have provided a life span beyond what our replacement cycle allots, which allows us to have more time to budget for replacements.
• The initial purchase price is very competitive with other enterprise network switching companies.

Incentivized