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Aruba Instant On Switches vs Cisco Nexus comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.9
Aruba Instant On Switches are valued for affordability and ease of integration, appealing to startups and service providers.
Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Nexus offers strong ROI with cost savings, reliability, and ease of use, balancing initial costs with long-term benefits.
Speeding up our response times and reducing errors and incidents with automation and available APIs.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Aruba Instant On Switches support is reliable, with skilled staff, but users request better communication access and quicker resolutions.
Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Nexus boasts responsive, knowledgeable support with quick resolutions, though service quality sometimes varies between representatives or escalation steps.
It would be good to have our own account so we can access and deal directly with technical support, for example, in the community.
For us, we have a time advantage because we know the solution, and the technological refresh is easier.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Aruba Instant On Switches offer flexibility and ease for small businesses but have limitations for enterprise-level demands.
Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Nexus offers scalable solutions for enterprises, supporting numerous nodes with flexibility despite cost concerns.
I would rate the scalability of Aruba Instant On Switches as an eight regarding the ability of the product to adapt to our needs.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Aruba Instant On Switches are reliable, easy to install, and offer good performance at a competitive price, despite occasional issues.
Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco Nexus is highly stable, with minor bugs, improved reliability, and long uptime, enhancing user satisfaction significantly.
Initially, the stability of Cisco Nexus, particularly with the ACI, was problematic due to unstable codes, requiring replacements.
 

Room For Improvement

Aruba Instant On Switches need better pricing, scalability, feature set, user documentation, and improved management and configuration tools.
Cisco Nexus requires better GUI, programmability, multi-tenancy support, simplified licensing, improved tools, automation, integration, and competitive pricing.
It might be pretty expensive for other companies.
When I talk about data centers, which are critical infrastructure and centralized application hubs, the Nexus platforms should be highly stable.
The solution is on-premises and stable.
 

Setup Cost

Aruba Instant On Switches offer competitive pricing and inclusive licensing, praised for cost-effectiveness and compatibility with existing Aruba solutions.
Cisco Nexus pricing is high, with complex licensing and significant costs, though discounts are possible through negotiation.
Economically, its price is acceptable for us.
The price of Cisco Nexus is on the higher side due to the premium services Cisco offers.
All solutions are very expensive and not an economy solution.
 

Valuable Features

Aruba Instant On Switches offer easy setup, cost-effective scalability, and advanced network features for SMBs and SOHOs.
Cisco Nexus is praised for flexibility, scalability, strong security, and ease of use, making it ideal for data centers.
It provides visibility and configuration options, aiding significantly in network management initiatives.
For us, we have a time advantage because we know the solution, and the technological refresh is easier.
I would recommend Cisco Nexus for large enterprises and the government sector, as they can afford it.
 

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Instant On Switches
Ranking in LAN Switching
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Nexus
Ranking in LAN Switching
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Data Center Networking (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Aruba Instant On Switches is 9.4%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 9.0%, down from 10.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
LAN Switching Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Aruba Instant On Switches9.4%
Cisco Nexus9.0%
Other81.6%
LAN Switching
 

Featured Reviews

Nassif  Kaleny - PeerSpot reviewer
A very stable tool that needs to offer better startup speed
Speed is an area of the product with certain shortcomings where improvements are required. The product's startup speed is very bad, as it is very slow. It takes around eight minutes to start up the firmware. The tool has to be easy to configure, especially when compared with NETGEAR, Cisco, and HPE. There is an easy way to configure with vendors other than Aruba.
Mohammed Faisal Ikram - PeerSpot reviewer
Has experienced high costs in core deployments but continues to appreciate strong support and switching performance
Cisco Nexus may not be very popular because of the requirements that we come across, as it will go into the core data centers, whereas we work with most of the corporate sectors, so Cisco Nexus is not a frequent seller, and you'll find more edge switches selling in the market. It might be pretty expensive for other companies. I don't think there are any other particular disadvantages of Cisco Nexus besides their pricing.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
University
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise82
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Aruba Instant On Switches?
The solution has a simple deployment and zero border.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aruba Instant On Switches?
We mainly go for Aruba Instant On Switches since our network has Aruba switches, especially considering the compatibility and as previously explained, the familiarity and easy management. Economica...
What needs improvement with Aruba Instant On Switches?
I cannot say exactly whether I have employed the Quality of Service feature in this solution. Considering security at the switch level, we have not employed any kind of special security methods for...
What do you like most about Cisco Nexus?
The product's initial setup phase is very easy.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Nexus?
All solutions are very expensive and not an economy solution.
What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus?
All solutions are very expensive and not an economy solution. The solution is on-premises and stable. We haven't tried integration with the network software.
 

Also Known As

Aruba Instant On 1930 Switches
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

KEMET, Vestavia Hills City Schools, Dropbox
Advanced Medical Transport, Banco de Guayaquil, Baylor Scott & White Health, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, Calligaris, Children's Hospital Colorado, City of Biel, Del Papa Distributing, Department of Justice, Dimension Data, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS), Hertz, K&L Gates , LightEdge, Lone Star College System, Management Science Associates, Mindtree, NBC Olympics, Quest, Sony Corporation, The Department of Education in Western Australia, Valley Proteins
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Instant On Switches vs. Cisco Nexus and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.