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Extreme Switches - Purple & Reliable
February 24, 2020

Extreme Switches - Purple & Reliable

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Extreme Ethernet Switches

The Extreme Ethernet Switches are being leveraged by the entire company. We use them in our core and our edge locations. This setup is advantageous since they leverage the same firmware, you don't need to know different commands to perform the work that you need. The firmware is true to its Linux roots and I love the fact that I can write scripts to be run within the firmware and it is supported.
  • Hardware reliability.
  • MLAG connections for redundancy.
  • Patch notifications.
  • Lower initial cost.
  • Lower failure rate.
Cisco switches and routers are good, but there is the "Cisco Tax" that you have to pay, along with the use of any non-Cisco branded SFPs blocking any tech support options until the non-Cisco device is removed. Extreme does not play that game. The switches also allow for two true power supplies (hot swappable and easy to swap) instead of the DC backup supply in Cisco. We had a single HPE switch stack in our environment and I found the commands to be clunky but the firmware was quite out of date.
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.

Do you think ExtremeSwitching delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with ExtremeSwitching's feature set?

Yes

Did ExtremeSwitching live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of ExtremeSwitching go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy ExtremeSwitching again?

Yes

The Extreme Switch lineup is robust and capable. The hardware reliability is really high (with around 50 switches in the environment, I've only had 2 PSU's fail in 3 years and that was due to a lightning strike on the building). The support is capable and skilled and ready to work with you to make sure everything is fixed. We have our switches in the data center as well as remote ATMs in non-HVAC controlled environments and everything works great.