Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches vs Dell PowerConnect Switches

Likelihood to Recommend

Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches are enterprise-class network core switches. They are not meant for small to medium size companies or satellite offices. These switches are useful to provide a highly available network backbone where all of your firewalls, edge routers, top-of-rack switches, and fabric interconnects can terminate on a scalable and secure network.

Read full review

Mark McCully

Senior Network Administrator

University HealthSystem ConsortiumHospital & Health Care, 1001-5000 employees

View all 11 answers on this topic

We work in the electric industry. These should not be used in a high-heat environment. We like to keep the temperature of the room in the low 60's so they are not suited for our Substation locations due to extreme heat and cold. However, they perform great in a server room.

Read full review

Seth Urbanczyk

Network Administrator

Deaf Smith ElectricUtilities, 51-200 employees

View all 18 answers on this topic

Pros

Dual supervisors and up to 6 power supplies keep them running continuously.
Multigig ports and a high throughput backplane keeps the data flowing as fast as users need.

Read full review

Eric Stearns

Network Engineer II

Regional HealthHospital & Health Care, 1001-5000 employees

View all 11 answers on this topic

Reliable.
Excellent hardware support from Dell including 4 hour parts/replacement.
Excellent technical support from Dell on software, troubleshooting, and configuration.
More affordable than its main enterprise competitors.
Easy to use CLI.

Read full review

Verified User

Executive in Information Technology

Information Technology & Services Company, 11-50 employees

View all 18 answers on this topic

Cons

Software needs improvement, where features are added (Stack wise) or removed (GLBP) without solicitation from a wider audience or depreciation, respectively
Software bugs recently in basic features like AAA
Ability to turn off all unused services or features to reduce the attack surface
Cisco CoPP functionality is not like it was on the Cat 6k platform - users cannot create custom policies for use at the control-plane interface

Read full review

Verified User

Supervisor in Information Technology

Utilities Company, 10,001+ employees

View all 11 answers on this topic

Precarious graphical (GUI) mode, needing to be updated for more efficient technologies such as HTML5
Short support time, given how much these devices support in terms of use. I have owned the devices for years, but no longer have a warranty

Read full review

Roni Peterson Alvarenga

Diretor de Tecnologia da Informação e Telecomunicação

Câmara Municipal de CampinasGovernment Administration, 501-1000 employees

View all 18 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

Dell PowerConnect Switches 9.1

Based on 3 answers

Dell ProSupport is outstanding. Dell ProDeploy is likewise outstanding. I prefer them even over traditional Cisco support. I've had repeated cases where Dell immediately addressed or fixed an issue with US-based support, including firmware hotfixes. Not even Cisco can boast that.

Read full review

Verified User

Executive in Information Technology

Information Technology & Services Company, 11-50 employees

View all 3 answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

We ran a proof of concept for HPE and Cisco switches. Cisco won out due to the following:

Cisco's positive track record of previous Catalyst switch platforms we've had experience with (2900, 4500, 6500).
Large TCAM space to support large ACLs used to lock down endpoint access.
Cisco's community is large so it's typically easy to find answers online to questions we have about design, installation, or troubleshooting.
Catalyst 9000 is a newer platform than Aruba's switches that were perceived as re-branded HP Procurve switches, which have been around longer. While we can't say for sure this will amount to better ROI, we certainly felt like we'd get more life out of the Cisco 9000s.
ROI for Aruba Mobility Access Switches was low due to an unexpected EoS/EoL announcement, affecting our campus access switch deployment. This forced us to replace Aruba MAS switches sooner than expected, leaving a bad taste in our mouth.

Read full review

Verified User

Technician in Information Technology

Insurance Company, 1001-5000 employees

View all 11 answers on this topic

I selected Dell mainly due to previous experience using them in a business environment. I've never had a unit fail on me and when my budget for equipment like network switches has been less than a training class on how to use those switches, it's incredible to be able to find quality equipment at the price point Dell offers and even more so when their enterprise support has been as excellent as I have been accustomed to dealing with. In all honesty, even if I had a larger budget, I would have bought these same switches since they were exactly what I needed to suit my needs. We looked into HPE/Aruba network switches, and while they would have performed everything we needed and more, they were almost four times the cost of these Dell network switches. That's a hard sell when it comes to planning a tight budget.

Read full review

Chris Funk

IT Director

Clark County Juvenile CourtGovernment Administration, 51-200 employees

View all 18 answers on this topic

Return on Investment

Don't need to buy services - lifetime warranty
Stability - even 10 year old devices are still running and doing the job
Sometimes lines of products are on the market for a very short time (eg. 6800 instant access) - it is hard to buy equipment to make the network bigger.

Read full review

Verified User

Team Lead in Information Technology

Oil & Energy Company, 10,001+ employees

View all 11 answers on this topic

Reports are easily created and very useful.
Quick creation of different network connections.
Excellent and secure channels for multiple data management.
Great data visualization options offered by Dell PowerConnect Switches.

Read full review

Annette Gilmour

Senior Project Manager

Linio GroupInternet, 1001-5000 employees

View all 18 answers on this topic

Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches vs Dell PowerConnect Switches