Extreme Networks Wired Access - Switches vs. Juniper EX Series Switches

If you have a big environment with a lot of edge switch needs and department groups, then Extreme's fabric connect can save a lot of management time. If your environment is small then you may want to stick with the traditional model since fabric connect costs more. Also if you make lots of configuration changes all the time then fabric connect will be helpful. Otherwise, making an occasional change you don't need fabric connect.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

• Uptime has been fantastic. We have had no issues with our switches shutting down or crashing
• Policy, We have the ability to enforce Policy at the port

Incentivized

• Very stable.
• Cost efficient
• Easy management
• Great Juniper 24*7 TAC support
• Different variants available for different requirements.
• Easy to replace faulty hardware

Incentivized

• They are working on it, but a single console to manage the policies across all switches.
• For those with a Cisco background, the CLI commands are different with Extreme so you have to get used to that. Nothing necessarily wrong though.
• If you want a chassis core switch/router then those are becoming less available and won't find many options with Extreme.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

Great product, great support and very happy with the reliability.

Incentivized

Very easy to use, the CLI is a little different than competing products, but the GUI is very intuitive.

Incentivized

The Mist portal is extremely easy to use. I only have a few issues with it. The configuration between Mist and the CLI is not uniform. If you push some command line configurations to the switch, they won't be mirrored in Mist. You need to use the CLI portion on the switch config page to push some CLI only configurations. If you want to remove those lines, you need remember to do the inverse of the config. You need to make sure your juniper admins understand this as well. Simply removing the line from the CLI text box of the Mist page does not remove the config line from the switch itself.

Incentivized

There hasn't been a single problem with the code or hardware that hasn't been resolved in a timely fashion. You get technicians who know the product and who will work with you to get things fixed. That being said, I never ran into a problem with Cisco tech support either. I love that both groups were willing to teach me as they fixed things.

Incentivized

When you open ticket, normally a L2 support engineer request support file and give you a valid fast solution. They replace switch if no solution are available due to minimize downtime

Incentivized

We upgraded to Extreme Switches from Cisco SG500 and SG250 small business switches. Extreme Switches offer a much easier to use GUI management platform called Extreme CloudIQ, which makes visibility into our network much easier and user friendly. Performance wise these offered higher uplink speed as well.

Incentivized

Juniper EX Switches are far more reliable than NETGEAR Ethernet Switches. The Juniper EX Series Switches offer a wider scope of options for configuration. The EX switches can be deployed faster and easier to configure. The Juniper EX Series Switches offer more value for their price point than most switches on the market, in my opinion

Incentivized

• Extreme [Ethernet Switches] have a long-life. You can easily get 7 years in main production life depending on when you buy in the product life-cycle.
• Extreme [Ethernet Switches] are expensive, no doubt, but we also don't have "weird" network problems or other issues with the network randomly going down.
• If you use fabric connect switches then the ease of managing many switches is of no concern.

Incentivized

• The Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches have provided a life span beyond what our replacement cycle allots, which allows us to have more time to budget for replacements.
• The initial purchase price is very competitive with other enterprise network switching companies.

Incentivized