Cisco NX-OS vs. Junos Network Operating System (Junos OS)

It's definitely very well suited for data center environments and the scale that is sometimes required. We also manage many enterprise environments, and we almost never see Cisco NX-OS or Nexus in an enterprise environment, only specifically on the data center side. Mainly because of the lower bandwidth requirements and so on. But it depends on the hardware, since it's a software product.

Incentivized

Juniper Operating systems are well suited for distribution and edge networks. When we evaluated them for a proposal to core networks we decided to go with other vendors, as the processing capacity of core routers was lower. Typical environments Junos OS has fit in our organization are enterprise, customer edge, distribution networks.

Incentivized

• I think one feature it does really well is the virtual port channel feature. We have a lot of switches around the place that don't necessarily do port channeling really well. The Nexus platform comes in using the VPC feature, we're able to have multiple servers and then user devices connected, which gives us a lot better resiliency and scalability. Availability, it's easy to use, easy to maintain. Downtime is almost minimal. I think without a particular feature we would be stuck, so it's very good.

Incentivized

• BGP auto-peering
• Juniper ATP cloud for threat profiling
• Segment Routing algorithms allows customization

Incentivized

• One thing that's disturbing me is that with a wide range of Cisco products, there are many different OSs used for Cisco. And sometimes it's really confusing that things are not always the same.
• At the company I work for, we not only sell and manage Cisco products, but also those from other vendors. And some vendors seem to do a better job and keep things consistent.

Incentivized

• GUI has come a long way, but can be improved
• SDN features
• Training, documentations and online discussion forums can be improved.

Incentivized

NX-OS has many similarities with the traditional IOS which is quite beneficial when it comes to configuration and learning. As a native Linux system, there are a lot of tools and features that can be enabled for any use case.

Incentivized

Excellent and the best Automation capabilities with Cisco NX-OS which effectively allows easy management of different networks across the whole organization keeping all the business data secure and well managed. With its ability to detect any data threat and effectively fix the issue, Cisco NX-OS has extremely powerful options and its process monitoring capabilities are the best.

Incentivized

Cisco support never fails me. In terms of timely response, no one is on par with them. They really value the impact of having technical issues and potential business stoppage. Also, their support staff are well equipped with knowledge and skills and easily resolve the most common incidents. Most of the time, we can resolve an issue by just calling them once.

I am much more familiar with the commands in Cisco IOS as it has been around for many more years. I know why NX-OS is a different system and can see the benefits of the fibre channel integration, but I do not understand why the commands had to use a different syntax. With the Nexus switches you don't get a choice of operating system unfortunately.

Incentivized

We have stuck to iOS for datacenter networks for many years due to familiarity and ease of use. Junos OS is well suited for business customers, due to cost-effectiveness and not frequent changes to end routers. Junos OS is very comparable to its competitors, but it bit behind on core layer solutions.

Incentivized

Up to now, we haven't had a major ground-shaking attack on our networks but we take no chances by using NX-OS alongside a SIEM. All endpoints and workloads are secure so I would say we have plenty of trust in their security model.

Incentivized

• Cisco NX-OS has provided extremely high availability in our organization; especially when we've had to perform upgrades. We've been able to leverage their ISSU technology to perform system upgrades/downgrades with no downtime
• Cisco NX-OS has allowed us to leverage high throughput packet forwarding for all of our application needs. I can't remember the last time anyone has complained about slow application speeds in my environment.

Incentivized

• Junos OS is cost effective
• Uptime is impressive and has proven availability
• Lack of training among employees has made it harder for few teams to troubleshoot

Incentivized