Cisco Nexus Series Switches vs. Juniper EX Series Switches

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Cisco Nexus is a series of network switches.
$49
Juniper EX Series Switches
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Juniper Networks offers the EX Series Ethernet switches, as cloud-grade switches designed for the converged enterprise branch, campus, and data center, and for service providers. They address growing enterprise demands for high availability, unified communications, and virtualization.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Nexus Series SwitchesJuniper EX Series Switches
Editions & Modules
Starting Price
$49.00
Maximum Price
$200,000.00
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Nexus Series SwitchesJuniper EX Series 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 Nexus Series SwitchesJuniper EX Series Switches
Considered Both Products
Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Chose Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Pretty much we're a Cisco shop. I have used Juniper before, their EX series, but it more of an access type switch, stackable, so it's really hard to compare the two. So nothing really comparable to the Nexus.
Chose Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Cisco Nexus Series Switches are reliable and scalable for data and security center operation. Cisco Nexus Series Switches give competition to other sw vendor on feature and continuous functionality like VPN feature, High Data Bandwidth, required less maintenance over year.
Chose Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Cisco has better support than Juniper. Cisco techs/engineers are more available in [the] market than Juniper. Cisco has better documentation available on google/online platforms than Juniper or other vendors in [the] networking domain. Cisco has popular certifications in …
Chose Cisco Nexus Series Switches
In retrospect, I think the Juniper EX Series would have been a better purchase for our environment. However at the time we choose Cisco Nexus due to future support of Netflow, the Juniper EX did not and had no plans to provide Netflow data (which was important to our …
Chose Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Nexus and Juniper switches we have compared are both performing well in our environment and both are capable to deliver what they promise. From an operations point of view, Cisco is more familiar to many people than Juniper, so small pros to Cisco Nexus on that part.
Juniper EX Series Switches
Chose Juniper EX Series Switches
Juniper is a pretty good competitor compared with these lines. It has the easiest CLI and they are very easy to manage. The most amazing thing about [the] Juniper EX line is [that] they are pretty stable as compared to the other vendors. Also [another] thing is that they have …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Cisco Nexus Series SwitchesJuniper EX Series 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 Nexus Series SwitchesJuniper EX Series Switches
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(74 ratings)
9.0
(7 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.5
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(5 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.7
(10 ratings)
8.6
(4 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.9
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Nexus Series SwitchesJuniper EX Series Switches
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
Fairly stable and easy to operate - but I haven't any experience with other brands, so I don't have anything to compare with. Fairly fast in the OS. Easy to upgrade - but with some SW issues. Sometimes clearing of log folders is needed. Access to bash is cool. Tips & cool tricks for operations could be nice to share.
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Juniper Networks
They work great as core switches, data center switches, top of rack switches. They can even serve as routers, their routing capability is great, except for where you need lots of routing processing power. I would not use many of them for branch office switches though, due to noise and slowness of bootup
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Pros
Cisco
  • Continuous system operation:
  • Maintenance, upgrades, and software certification can be performed without service interruptions because of the modular nature of NX-OS and features such as In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) and the capability for processes to restart dynamically
  • FabricPath:
  • Enables each device to build an overall view of the topology; this is similar to other link state routing protocols. Each device in the FabricPath topology is identified by a switch-id. The Layer 2 forwarding tables are built based on reachability to each switch-id, not by the MAC address. Eliminates spanning-tree to maximize network bandwidth and flexibility in topological configurations, as well as simplify operational support and configuration. This enables a tremendous amount of flexibility on the topology because you can now build FabricPath topologies for Layer 2-based networks the same as for Layer 3-based networks
  • Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV): Enables the Layer 2 extension between distributed data centers over any transport Layer 3 network
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Juniper Networks
  • Very stable.
  • Cost efficient
  • Easy management
  • Great Juniper 24*7 TAC support
  • Different variants available for different requirements.
  • Easy to replace faulty hardware
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Cons
Cisco
  • Implementing jumbo frames on interfaces of its fabric extender series (N2k, etc.) by editing the network QoS does not have to be a global configuration that would affect all its interfaces. It can be improved to become just an interface configuration.
  • Licensing on the NXOS is a bit complicated and expensive. I understand that the Nexus is made for core data center switching but it does not have to break the bank.
  • OTV technology is for Nexus only. Based on the advantage of the technology, it should be made vendor-neutral to accommodate other vendor devices.
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Juniper Networks
  • Virtual chassis new switch has overwritten existing config if not performed in a particular way.
  • Applying a configuration to a range of interfaces could be done in a better way.
  • Applying firewall rules to multiple security zones could be done a little more efficiently.
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
We will use it for a long time, since they are switches with great capacity and positive results, they promote the perfect operation of our data center, I always recommend them, because they are switches with good results.
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Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cisco
In our environment (and especially during COVID and the Work From Home era), I would really like our network devices to be more resilient [against} errors in remote configuration. Having a standard, easy to use, configure, commit/deploy, rollback system should be installed, but it's not there. Other companies have been providing this for over 20 years, and Cisco does this on some of their devices. Why not all?
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Juniper Networks
The Juniper EX Series Switches are very easy to configure and quick to deploy. The ability to make changes and troubleshoot issues is top-rated. I have never had trouble contacting support. They also have many knowledge articles on use. Always adding new features to the Juniper Mist Dashboard for easy visibility into your network
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Reliability and Availability
Cisco
Our network is very well design. Any components or device failure. Doesn't affect network availability
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Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Performance
Cisco
These switches are very fast. They've been designed to work within the data center. We connect them to Cisco UCS-B Mini servers with the storage being directly attached. They are able to handle the data traffic pretty easily. We can also move servers pretty fast from data center to data center without overloading them. This has allowed our company to stay running during any kind of conditional outage. We have come to really rely on them for business continuity.
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Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco
Overall, Cisco has great products and I believe that they believe in the philosophy of a great customer experience. Although there have been a few technical support issues that caused a lot of company anxiety, in most cases, Cisco has gone above and beyond in making a valiant effort to help the customer solve any issues.
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Juniper Networks
Many times when contacting Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches support, it seems that it is easiest for support to recommend a straight replacement (RMA) instead of taking time to walk through a solution on the faulty system. We find we get better help from a third-party consulting firm that has Juniper certified technicians or professionals on staff. They take the time to explain processes and workflow, which Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches support seems to shy away from.
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In-Person Training
Cisco
Trainer didn't has good handon experience.. he was bookish trainer.
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Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Cisco
Never had it
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Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Cisco
It is reliable and working as expected
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Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cisco
The Cisco 9000 stacks up quite well against the Cisco Catalyst 3850 switches. The additional features available in the Nexus 9000, such as VPN, FCoE, 40 gigabits, give us the ability to support the future needs of the company in our data center. The Nexus 9000 allowed us to condense our core and aggregation environment that comprised of 2 Catalyst 6504 and 2 Catalyst 6509 to a port of Nexus 9000. Although the Catalyst 3850 would be sufficient to handle routing, those features in the Nexus 9000 made it the clear choice for us.
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Juniper Networks
The rollback, commit and confirm are the biggest players in the game. Juniper is the only one who has those features, so I believe they have a leg up in the game. The CLI is one of the easiest to work with.
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Scalability
Cisco
The Nexus 3000 series switches are data center switches, so I would say they have similar security ability to other switches in this segment. I don't have a lot of experience doing more than basic ACL security on switches, but I know these can be integrated into other security solutions like Cisco ISE and 802.1x authentication. It could also be integrated into an ACI solution to add micro segmentation, which would bring in other security functions.
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Juniper Networks
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Cisco
  • We expected the switches to provide ROI and they did as advertised.
  • NX-OS was pretty similar to IOS so the learning curve was pretty low.
  • Being a Non-Profit we need to be extremely cost conscience and buy gear that has a long shelf life. Nexus line of switches met this objective.
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Juniper Networks
  • From a user's point of view, the ease of configuration and management has been incredible. Much less time is spent maintaining Juniper than previous solutions.
  • From a reseller's point of a view, Juniper is excellent. They treat small partners like us very well even if our volume is not huge. Juniper switches are part of our standard solution that has been great for our customers.
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