Dell PowerConnect Switches (discontinued) vs. Huawei CloudEngine Data Center Switches

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.

Incentivized

The focus of the solution is datacenter, so it is a waste of resources to use them as SOHO or as access switches. All your robustness needs to be used correctly, so that there is no wasted investment. I also note that, as good practices, it is necessary to ensure redundancy and availability of assets and connections, so the investment is high, even more so if you need to mix fiber and twisted pair solutions.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• connection stability
• Simplified port-channel configuration
• Interoperability with various solutions

Incentivized

• 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

Incentivized

• Documentation, like every huawei product, needs improvement
• The official training of this solution is extremely boring and theoretical. It is necessary to make something more practical and useful in everyday life.
• As it is a line for datacenters, I believe that the product needs a better development in its chassis. It seems very fragile to me.

Incentivized

The Dell PowerConnect switch is a great switch in certain use cases. It really works well when training users to set up their own vlans in a technology class. We have a lot of different scenarios happening at this company, with 8 different buildings and multiple different affiliate entities. For some of the departments, the budget is the most crucial element. That is where the Dell PowerConnect switches are a really great option.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

The Huawei CloudEngine Data Center Switches solution, as the name implies, is aimed at Datacenters and ToR applications. The development of such equipment was all designed to meet high processing loads and connections of servers, storages and other high-performance assets. The other solutions evaluated (and some we even have in our park) are for other purposes, such as access and edge.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• The investment ensured a better response, at the network level, of the applications
• Support for 60 months guarantees better predictability when evaluating new investments of this type.
• Product redundancy ensures greater availability of the entire infrastructure and applications, thus reducing downtime.

Incentivized