Cisco's Catalyst IE3400 Rugged Series switches combine full Gigabit Ethernet switch solutions with advanced features in a modular design. Expandable up to 26 ports in a compact form factor, these rugged switches are optimized for size and power, and bring Cisco intent-based networking to Industrial Ethernet applications.
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HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches
Score 8.4 out of 10
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HPE offers Ethernet switches under the Aruba Networks product line.
Amazing network management and extremely perfect network security production and its notification options are very responsive. Creating real time analytics and the visualization capability is fantastic. This Cisco Catalyst platform has effective insights gathering tools and its data quality control functions are good and quick on process reports preparation and workflow easy management product.
These devices are rock solid, you will se them up once and not have to mess with them for years. They are work horses that don't die. We use them in an office environment and have only ever had 1 fail due to a PSU issue, we got a replacement next day and it's been working great.
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.
The portdensity is poor (when compared to competition) which means that the IE-switches takes more space then competition.
The price is not competitive, only possible to ship/sell to customers that are set on the Brand. To say that Cisco has more features (to motivate that these units cost more then the double) is not correct, the competition solves the same stuff differently.
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.
I preferred the OS running on the 2530 series switches, but the ArubaOS is very usable. It's similar to the Cisco OS command line interface, but somehow more understandable. It takes a bit of getting used to, but the documentation is great and it makes sense after a while of using it.
HPE Support is very easy to reach. A knowledgable rep can be reached in a few minutes. After some basic troubleshooting if the failure is due to hardware I can receive a replacement within a day or even in a few hours.
For certain cabinets where space is limited or industrial cabinets with harsh environments (dust, moisture, temperature), Cisco Catalyst IE3400 Rugged Series Switches are a good fit.
We used to have a lot of Cisco switches which are great, but the support contracts and other expenses mount up quickly; one of the main reasons for switching to HP for networking was the cost, but the hardware and software have gotten so much better over the years.
I can’t see us changing network hardware unless the price increases dramatically.
Before implementing these switches, production lines were constantly stopped due to network failures. This had a huge financial impact on the company.
In addition to mitigating those flaws, you now have complete network monitoring with the joint implementation of the Cisco Industrial Network Director.
When comparing Aruba to Cisco and Dell there is no comparison in cost. Aruba is a better value and will not require additional licensing like it often the case with Cisco.
The Aruba OS is very simple to use and understand. A user with very little networking experience can understand the config of an Aruba switch.
Aruba's hardware warranty assures me that even my oldest switches are covered due to hardware failure.
In the 11 years I have worked with HPE/Aruba and with over 55 switches I have had a hardware failure less than a handful of times.
