Cisco Business 350 Series vs. Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches

This is a small business switch, and for me, that means that if all I need is just this one switch, then I am on the right path. I would not want to use this switch to support a couple of hundred people trying to access heavy local resources. It should be used when you have a few dozen devices and/or users and a fairly flat network.

Incentivized

If you have a big environment with a lot of edge switch needs and department groups, then Extreme's fabric connect can save a lot of management time. If your environment is small then you may want to stick with the traditional model since fabric connect costs more. Also if you make lots of configuration changes all the time then fabric connect will be helpful. Otherwise, making an occasional change you don't need fabric connect.

Incentivized

• Good throughput per port
• Good manageability
• Reasonable price point

Incentivized

• Uptime has been fantastic. We have had no issues with our switches shutting down or crashing
• Policy, We have the ability to enforce Policy at the port

Incentivized

• Not every feature in the GUI is available at the command line
• Software can only be updated via the GUI interface
• It would be nice if the physical foot print were smaller

Incentivized

• They are working on it, but a single console to manage the policies across all switches.
• For those with a Cisco background, the CLI commands are different with Extreme so you have to get used to that. Nothing necessarily wrong though.
• If you want a chassis core switch/router then those are becoming less available and won't find many options with Extreme.

Incentivized

Great product, great support and very happy with the reliability.

Incentivized

Very easy to use, the CLI is a little different than competing products, but the GUI is very intuitive.

Incentivized

There hasn't been a single problem with the code or hardware that hasn't been resolved in a timely fashion. You get technicians who know the product and who will work with you to get things fixed. That being said, I never ran into a problem with Cisco tech support either. I love that both groups were willing to teach me as they fixed things.

Incentivized

We are a big Cisco shop and wanted to use Cisco switches for this application. We knew that we'd be able to configure them quickly and the time saved doing the configuration would be to our benefit. Knowing that we wanted to go with a fully managed switch also was a major tipping point in Cisco's favor. Having used some of the other vendors' "managed" switch interfaces, nothing comes close to Cisco's approach. Having a better user interface will give us plenty of time down the road.

Incentivized

We upgraded to Extreme Switches from Cisco SG500 and SG250 small business switches. Extreme Switches offer a much easier to use GUI management platform called Extreme CloudIQ, which makes visibility into our network much easier and user friendly. Performance wise these offered higher uplink speed as well.

Incentivized

• We replaced thirty older switches for very little capital investment.
• The new devices are compliant with our security needs, so we quickly cleared those issues.
• The new switches were very easy for us to apply a standardized configuration that allowed us to get them up and operational in minutes.

Incentivized

• Extreme [Ethernet Switches] have a long-life. You can easily get 7 years in main production life depending on when you buy in the product life-cycle.
• Extreme [Ethernet Switches] are expensive, no doubt, but we also don't have "weird" network problems or other issues with the network randomly going down.
• If you use fabric connect switches then the ease of managing many switches is of no concern.

Incentivized