Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches vs. HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Cisco offers the Catalyst 9400 enterprise series of LAN switches.N/A
HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
HPE offers Ethernet switches under the Aruba Networks product line.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series SwitchesHPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series SwitchesHPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series SwitchesHPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
Considered Both Products
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
Chose Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
As our organization expands, we enter in to relationships with entities that have deployed switches from providers other than Cisco. From our experience, those platforms seem to have more issues with throughput or memory. Often we come across poor performance that gets cleared …
Chose Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches
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.
HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series SwitchesHPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches
Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches
Score 9.1 out of 10
Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches
Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Catalyst Switches
Cisco Catalyst Switches
Score 9.0 out of 10
Cisco Ethernet Switches
Cisco Ethernet Switches
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series SwitchesHPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
Likelihood to Recommend
9.4
(13 ratings)
10.0
(10 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(6 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series SwitchesHPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches are well suited for data closets in today’s ever expanding network system requirements. Today’s businesses rely on stable, fast, and highly available data connectivity. Businesses perform at such a quick pace now and the need to consume data resources is an integral part of most every business function. There can no longer be outages. Slow data connectivity and sluggish system response is directly related to business success. The Cisco Catalyst platform has provided our company with a network foundation that is fast and reliable so that the business can concentrate on what they do best.
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise
We manage a lot of public infrastructure and schools which
means we need reliable hardware that is easy to prep and install quickly due to
time constraints. The price is great as we must keep a close eye on our budget.


We use these switches in all types of situations and
configurations some are full SFP and others are ethernet but honestly the software
and hardware are great for our usage.
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Pros
Cisco
  • The Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches provide reliable connectivity for multiple client device types whether computers, phones, wireless access points, etc.
  • The Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series Switches has deployment flexibility from traditional IOS-XE deployments to Cisco Catalyst SD-Access and now Meraki monitored solutions.
  • Multiple switch models allow us to customize each data closet deployment to exactly fit the port density and power-over-Ethernet requirements.
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise
  • 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.
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Cons
Cisco
  • 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
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise
  • 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.
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Support Rating
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
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.
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Alternatives Considered
Cisco
The Catalyst switches definitely have a more robust feature set than the Meraki switches but the Meraki switches are intended for a different use case than the Catalyst switches. We used Catalyst switches in our wiring closets because they fit in better with the topology and feature sets that we wanted to deploy.
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise
The HPE Aruba Switches are definitely easier to setup than Cisco Catalyst Switches. We prefer to have a managed interface, so the HPE Aruba Switches are a better option than most Netgear or D-Link switches. Compared to HPE Networking Switches, the Aruba models typically are cheaper and perform nearly as well
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Return on Investment
Cisco
  • 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.
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise
  • 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.
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