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Dell PowerConnect Switches (discontinued) vs. MikroTik Cloud Router Switch

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Dell PowerConnect Switches (discontinued)

    Score8 out of 10
    N/ADell PowerConnect were a series of managed and unmanaged ethernet switches for data centers, discontinued by Dell. They have been superseded by the PowerSwitch line of switches, from Dell.N/A

    MikroTik CRS Series

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AMikroTik offers a series of Cloud Router Switches (or their CRS series), their flagship products.N/A
    Pricing
    Dell PowerConnect Switches (discontinued)MikroTik CRS Series
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Dell PowerConnect Switches (discontinued)MikroTik CRS Series
    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
    Dell PowerConnect Switches (discontinued)MikroTik CRS Series
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    MikroTik
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    12 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    12 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    12 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    12 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Best Alternatives
    Dell PowerConnect Switches (discontinued)MikroTik CRS Series
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
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    Medium-sized Companies
    RUCKUS Ethernet Switches
    Score1 out of 10
    Cisco Routers
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Ethernet Switches
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Cisco Routers
    Score9.1 out of 10
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    User Ratings
    Dell PowerConnect Switches (discontinued)MikroTik CRS Series
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (14 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Dell PowerConnect Switches (discontinued)MikroTik CRS Series
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    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
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    MikroTik
    MikroTik Cloud Router Switch work very well as layer2/3 switches in enterprise environments, aggregation or distribution layers. Example: in our case (ISP) we use CRS326 and CRS317 at multi-dwelling units to finish the customer lines, manage vlans of service and apply basic qos. They offer a good variety of ports 1/10G, which is perfect for connecting other ISPs or connecting corporate end users. MikroTik Cloud Router Switch would work fine in low-traffic Routing and Switching, you could configure L3 Hardware offloading and serve some significant traffic, but you may missing some features like, mangle, nat, firewall or other things that may be solved with other device in an upper layer of infrastructure. Based on our experience MikroTik Cloud Router Switch is not good for high performance traffic, they are not optimized for heavy L3 routing task. Example: if you use a CRS as core or router in a small DC or IX the result is traduced on high cpu usage and load performance. If you are looking for special works, MikroTik Cloud Router Switch in this aspect is out.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • 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
    Read full review
    MikroTik
    • L3 Hardware Offloading
    • Vlan segmentation
    • Traffic troughput
    • Port density
    • Cost effective
    • Port Isolation
    • Trunk, access and hybrid configurations
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • 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
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    MikroTik
    • L3 features like firewall IPsec NAT
    • LACP with more than 4 interfaces
    • Centralized Management platflorm
    • Limited Hardware offloading insight
    • Outdated web interface
    • CLI usability
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    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
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    MikroTik
    Powerful features at a low price: MikroTik Cloud Router Switch provides a good variety of features that are not present on more expensive brands. Flexible deployment options: SwOS for simple switching use cases and RouterOS for more advanced configurations. Winbox is a fast and responsive tool for configuring, maintain and monitoring the traffic or other variable. Why it doesn't score higher, we think that the learning curve for new users could be hard. Sometimes the logic configuration can be unintuitive example: bridge filtering, vlan interfaces. Inconsistent UX Across RouterOS versions, some features may change without clear documentation causing confusion missconfig or incompatibility between versions. Documentation and support are poor, official documentation is fragmented and depht in some cases, the active community should be your best friend.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    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
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    MikroTik
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    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
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    MikroTik
    We chose MikroTik Cloud Router Switch because it met our technical requirements without significantly affecting our budget. MikroTik Cloud Router Switch offers a performance reliable and scalable for access and aggregation roles and is easy to integrate with our existing infrastructure (Mikrotik CCR). While it doesn't offer enterprise-class UX, or automation frameworks out the box, its disruptive focus, control and granular configuration convert it in an attractive option for ISP operations.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • 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
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    MikroTik
    • Significant Cost Savings
    • Rapid deployment and flexibility
    • Bottlenecks in wrong scenario of use
    • Manual configuration overhead
    • Perception and vendor approval barriers
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots