Arista Networks Platform vs Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] comparison

Arista and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the Data Center Networking category. Additionally, 100% of Arista users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.

Arista Networks Platform

Read 27 Arista Networks Platform reviews

3,013 Views
2,186 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Dell PowerConnect Switches ...

Read 34 Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] reviews

90% willing to recommend

Arista Networks Platform

Dell PowerConnect Switches ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Arista Networks Platform and Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Arista, Dell Technologies and others in Data Center Networking.

To learn more, read our detailed Data Center Networking Report (Updated: May 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Data Center Networking

May 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 851,604 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Arista Networks Platform

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Ethernet Switches (10th), Data Center Networking (2nd)

Dell PowerConnect Switches ...

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

MarekSzafrański

Senior Core Network Engineer at Eurofins

Affordable for enterprise-sized companies

Speaking about whether the product enhanced our company's data center scalability, I would say that it was a solution that was used in a banking company, where it served as a replacement for Cisco. Though Arista Networks Platform is similar to Cisco IOS CLI, I feel that the former product offers better prices compared to the latter tool. Arista Networks Platform office is more efficient at a lower cost. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. The tool is stable and cheaper than Cisco. I would say that Arista Networks Platform is 100 percent compatible with the existing infrastructure in my company. The impact of the tool's network telemetry on our company's troubleshooting practices was just good for the scope for which I need the product. I rate the overall tool a nine out of ten.

Read full review

Hasan Haseeb

Senior Network Engineer at accrets

Excellent support, good pricing, and easy setup

I expect it to be a zero-touch or a plug-and-play device. To some extent, it is, but we need to know the architecture, and we need to know what exactly we are doing. It is not so easy to implement. It depends on what exactly we are doing and it is still not a plug-and-play or zero-touch device. In the upcoming version, they can make it zero-touch, where we can just power it on and start using it. They can have some templates for different scenarios, such as when you are using it for the data center or adding it to your existing infrastructure.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It provides telemetry and visibility for many metrics that are not supported by most of the other vendors. Out of the box, no third party solutions are needed."

"Arista's customer service is excellent."

"The most valuable features of Arista include low latency, scalability, and sustainability of the products."

"Arista Networks Platform offers straightforward deployment, and has good features. Support for the platform is also good."

"It is very stable. It has good hardware and very stable code. It provides good value for its price. They are a very lean type of organization, so they are very responsive, and they're able to focus more on their platform versus having multiple products out there."

"The most valuable feature is the Linux shell, which is useful for troubleshooting or capturing traffic."

"The most valuable features of the Arista Networks Platform are the EVPN and VXLAN. It has comprehensive features."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

More Arista Networks Platform pros

"The most valuable feature is its ability to multitask."

"The features I've found most valuable are that the product is very easy to configure and inexpensive."

"The solution’s technical support is good."

"The technology is good and the interface is simple. We haven't had any bugs, disconnections or delays."

"There is high reliability since we have used them for close to twenty years and only had possibly one failure."

"The setup is straightforward. It takes minimum time for deployment."

"The security is the most valuable aspect of this solution. It also has good storage and resource handling."

"The tool is very user-friendly, with features catering to beginners and advanced users. For beginners, there are models with interactive and easy-to-navigate GUIs that aid in initial deployment and updates. For advanced users, there is the option to use the CLI."

More Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] pros

Cons

"An area for improvement in Arista Networks Platform is its integration, e.g. it needs to have more integration with its new products. Incorporating more security and cloud is also another area for improvement in the platform."

"The product fails to offer functions related to cloud orchestration, making it in areas where improvements are required."

"I want the solution to include a unified controller."

"Its price can be better."

"The solution is quite expensive. One of the negative aspects of it is the pricing."

"A weakness would be that in our company, we don't have many people within our team who support the product because there are different vendors, and most of them are not tier-one vendors, so the skills required sometimes are just not there."

"The intent-based networking management, together with the provider of these solutions that are already free, would be beneficial."

"In my opinion, the solution for network monitoring is quite expensive."

More Arista Networks Platform cons

"Because of the stackings you lose some boards and switches."

"The configuration should be improved."

"It would be great to have modules that integrate with SDN solutions such as Cisco ACI, Arista SDN, Huawei Agile, and IBM."

"You have to build the stackable interface by yourself in Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL], making it an area that can be considered for improvement."

"I expect it to be a zero-touch or a plug-and-play device. To some extent, it is, but we need to know the architecture, and we need to know what exactly we are doing. It is not so easy to implement. It depends on what exactly we are doing and it is still not a plug-and-play or zero-touch device. In the upcoming version, they can make it zero-touch, where we can just power it on and start using it. They can have some templates for different scenarios, such as when you are using it for the data center or adding it to your existing infrastructure."

"The product price is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"We've only been using the solution for half a year. We haven't run into any issues, but maybe over time, that may change. It's too soon to tell. Offhand, there aren't any features that are lacking."

"I would like to see better scalability and more features on these switches in the future."

More Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten where ten is high price and one is low price."

"Network devices are generally expensive. However, during the evaluation, Arista was the most inexpensive vendor."

"Cost wise, Arista Networks Platform is more expensive than other networking solutions."

"There is an annual license required to use the Arista Networks Platform."

"It is pretty pricey for a networking platform. It is on par with Cisco."

"Arista Networks Platform was cheaper than Cisco. I have heard that the product is affordable for enterprise-sized companies."

"I remember that when our customers were offered the Arista Networks Platform, they used a checklist to compare the prices between Arista and Cisco for their requirements, and found that the prices were almost the same."

"The price of the Arista Networks Platform could be less expensive for the hardware and license."

More Arista Networks Platform pricing and cost advice

"In my opinion, it is a product that is priced somewhere in the middle, making it a well-priced solution in the middle. It is not a very cheap product."

"I would rate the pricing as a seven or eight."

"Inexpensive"

"This solution is much cheaper than comparable products by Cisco."

"Its price is okay. Sometimes, it is lower than a Cisco solution."

"Pricing for Dell PowerConnect Switches is quite competitive compared to Cisco and HP pricing. Dell has cheaper pricing and the company is trying to push for sales for its switching infrastructure because right now, the current market is dominated by Cisco. In the US market, there's Cisco, HP, Juniper, and Arista which you can buy for data center switching meant for different kinds of enterprises and ISPs. Dell PowerConnect Switches, on the other hand, is a product for people who need smaller setups or individual switches, especially those looking for a cheaper product and basic switching, though you can also buy a complete suite packaged with the switches."

"The initial cost was high but since they have lasted for over ten or twenty years they are worth it."

"The product is cheaper than Cisco and licensing is yearly. We have to pay additional costs for support."

More Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Center Networking solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

Educational Organization

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Arista Networks Platform?

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Arista Networks Platform?

Arista products are perceived as costly, especially compared to competitors like Cisco.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Arista Networks Platform?

Currently, Arista is too costly for its customers. Feature-wise, it addresses most customer requirements. However, we sometimes face challenges when integrating with proprietary protocols and solut...

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell PowerConnect Switches?

Dell PowerConnect Switches have a VTL feature similar to Cisco's VSS. With VTL, using this technology, you can cluster two switches together to increase redundancy in the environment.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerConnect Switches?

The solution is cheaper than Cisco.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell PowerConnect Switches?

Some proprietary commands available in Cisco are preferred by users accustomed to Cisco systems. These users might hesitate to switch because they want to continue using familiar commands and see t...

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Arista Networks Platform

Compared 19% of the time

Meraki MS Switches vs Arista Networks Platform

Compared 10% of the time

Cisco Nexus vs Arista Networks Platform

Compared 10% of the time

Aruba Switches vs Arista Networks Platform

Compared 9% of the time

Cisco Ethernet Switches vs Arista Networks Platform

Compared 8% of the time

More Arista Networks Platform Competitors

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL]

Compared 60% of the time

Cisco Nexus vs Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL]

Compared 12% of the time

NETGEAR Switches vs Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL]

Compared 8% of the time

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series vs Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL]

Compared 7% of the time

HPE ProCurve vs Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL]

Compared 5% of the time

More Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Arista Networks Platform

May 2025

Download Arista Networks Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL]

May 2025

Download Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] product report

Also Known As

7000 Series

PowerConnect Switches

Overview

Arista Networks Platform is a stable and reliable solution for data center features, specifically for non-blocking switches used for spine-leaf connectivity with servers hooked to these switches. It also provides multi-layer switches for client networks, particularly in the banking sector.

Arista products are preferred for their stability, good hardware, ease of adoption and configuration, responsive and helpful support, and high throughput ratings. The solution has helped prevent screen loss and business outages in the media industry and is designed for next-generation data centers.

Arista

PowerConnect Switches family offers a set of flexible, manageable and comprehensive switch solutions supporting up to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and optimized Internet iSCSI (iSCSI) performance with Dell Storage solutions, ideal for enterprise and campus LAN environments alike.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

American Internet Services

Amerijet Holdings Inc., CGD Securities, MavenWire, Tulane University

Buyer's Guide

Data Center Networking

May 2025

Download Free Report

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Arista, Dell Technologies and others in Data Center Networking. Updated: May 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our list of best Data Center Networking vendors.

We monitor all Data Center Networking reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.