What users are saying about
21 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 9.5 out of 100
Based on 21 reviews and ratings
44 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.9 out of 100
Based on 44 reviews and ratings
Attribute Ratings
- HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches is rated higher in 1 area: Support Rating
- Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches and HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches are tied in 1 area: Likelihood to Recommend
Likelihood to Recommend
9.4
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
94%
16 Ratings
9.4
HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
94%
9 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
91%
3 Ratings
HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
N/A
0 Ratings
Usability
8.6
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
86%
2 Ratings
HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
N/A
0 Ratings
Support Rating
9.1
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
91%
4 Ratings
9.9
HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
99%
11 Ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
Cisco Catalyst [6800 Series] Switches provide good selection of models with various port densities and capabilities. We use Catalyst switches in most location in various functional setups. Chassis switches in Data Centers, stacks of multiple switches at many locations within campus, 24-48 port models at larger branches for routing and switching.
IT Infrastructure Planner/Architect
FortisBC Energy Inc.Utilities, 1001-5000 employees
HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
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.

Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Consumer Goods Company, 51-200 employeesPros
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
- In general Cisco Catalyst Switches are a nice piece of kit both in hardware and software.
- You can keep these guys running for years without nary a reboot necessary.
- Even if you have to reboot you have multiple fail overs and redundancies.

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employeesHPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
- 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.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Oil & Energy Company, 501-1000 employeesCons
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
- There are some known bugs that cause interface errors and are listed as "cosmetic" and they do not plan to address them. This makes troubleshooting very difficult to determine what are real errors and what are cosmetic.
- We have had a few batches that get stuck in random reboots.
- Cisco foolishly has discontinued R&D for this line of Catalyst when they were finally showing some innovation that set them apart from other vendors.
Sr. System Engineer
Kent Intermediate School DistrictEducation Management, 501-1000 employees
HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
- 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.

Verified User
Analyst in Information Technology
Government Administration Company, 201-500 employeesPricing Details
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Likelihood to Renew
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches 9.1
Based on 3 answers
Because they work well at what they do. They are highly innovative with their hub and spoke firmware deployment. Once again Cisco was extremely stupid to stop R and D on them.
Sr. System Engineer
Kent Intermediate School DistrictEducation Management, 501-1000 employees
HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches 8.6
Based on 2 answers
Cisco Catalyst switches are the standard for usability. The Cisco command line is 1 of 2 formats for a command line interface in the computer networking industry. They literally define the standard for the industry, so naturally the usability is going to be high -- simply because that's what everyone uses. I rated them as 9 because they have some consistency issues within the IOS for different versions/platforms.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Government Administration Company, 1001-5000 employeesHPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches 9.1
Based on 4 answers
They are easy to get a hold of and are very effective.

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Banking Company, 5001-10,000 employeesHPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches 9.9
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.

Verified User
Consultant in Engineering
Computer & Network Security Company, 1-10 employeesAlternatives Considered
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
The Juniper lineup offers better pricing versus the Cisco line up but you do definitely lose some hardware prowess, and stability that you can count on with Cisco devices. Also the support is not as robust from Juniper as it can take longer and be more frustrating getting a support ticket going with them.

Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employeesHPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
I think it compares very favorably against Cisco and others because it is much cheaper and doesn't require continued support costs.
Systems Engineer
CIHFinancial Services, 51-200 employees
Return on Investment
Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches
- It's all about making the right choice in the right time. Let's face it - CISCO Catalyst switches are not cheap. But if you take the time to research and design your network the ROI rate will be faster than you imagine. Having a stable and scalable network is the most important aspect of Catayst - upgrading the core and backbone infrastructure allows you to push the older devices to the outer edges of the network or to new, under/undeveloped regions.
CIO (Chief Information Officer)
UltraNET LtdInformation Technology and Services, 51-200 employees
HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
- 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.

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Education Management Company, 10,001+ employees