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Aruba Instant On Switches vs Dell PowerSwitch N-Series 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:
 

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
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series
Ranking in LAN Switching
10th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is 3.9%, up from 2.0% 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%
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series3.9%
Other86.7%
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.
Al Vasek - PeerSpot reviewer
Performs well, but the support and stability could be improved
There is a lack of support because there is a lack of adoption. Because Cisco switches are so widely used, anyone in the world can support them. It was two Cisco engineers who released Arista's code. In terms of programming functionality, they essentially duplicated the Cisco iOS, so all Cisco commands work on the Arista commands. You can do an Arista if you can do a Cisco. Aruba isn't all that different. It's a little different, but they have all of HPE's money and stuff behind it and things like that. I would say the same thing about Extreme or some of the other switches where it's penny-wise, pound-foolish. You save some money if you are a small shop with only one or two guys, it's understandable. Fortinet is now in the switch business, and they have their FortiSwitch devices, which are controlled by the FortiGate firewalls to do all of the programs. There is a lot to choose from. But, in my opinion, a lot of it is dependent on the use case and the customer type. Meraki is a nice little Cisco product for the right kind of business, but I wouldn't use it in an enterprise setting.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I have enjoyed the switches. They are fairly easy to use."
"It is a very stable solution."
"The solution's pricing is slightly cheaper than that of Cisco."
"The online monitoring tool and the configuration of the application with the tool are valuable features."
"The simplicity of the tool's GUI is good."
"We use Aruba Instant On Switches for general communication, sending files, and going to the internet."
"It is quite easy to maintain from the software point of view."
"The dashboard for clients is very nice."
"Port density and port speed performance are both suitable. It has some appealing intangibles."
"The automated configuration management tools of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series help improve network traffic management."
"For a customer, it is easy to configure and to add ports through the LAN the GUI."
 

Cons

"The difficulty with the tool is in the area of troubleshooting."
"If Aruba can provide guidance on features through sessions or explanations, it would be helpful. We have to search and work online."
"In general, mostly in Instant On series, if we could have much more control on the switches, at least. We'd like a CLI access so that, when we want to do some advanced configurations we could."
"The pricing is competitive but could be improved."
"We would like to see more documentation."
"They could provide additional uplink ports, such as eight instead of four. It will be beneficial for our use case."
"Tracking with instant switches needs improvement."
"Its scalability needs improvement."
"Instead of competing at the enterprise level with that product, they should probably scale it. With all of the ports, they should develop a good mid-level business to truly scale it and gain adoption before attempting to go after the enterprise."
"Customers do not prefer this to connect to multiple cities."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay an annual licensing fee."
"The license for Instant On Switches is free."
"I give the price seven out of ten."
"The product is not cheaply priced, especially when compared to the other vendors in the market."
"Aruba Instant On Switches is slightly cheaper than Cisco."
"The pricing is cheap."
"If one is very bad, and ten is a very good price, I rate the tool's price as a six."
"Pricing is competitive, and there are no supplementary fees."
"You are selling it to larger customers and in larger environments, where it's a less expensive model than Cisco, which is attempting to use the same approach Arista did, but with a completely different programming language."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
University
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise6
No data available
 

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 needs improvement with Dell-Force10 Campus LAN Switches?
We don't leverage the open networking standards of this Dell PowerSwitch N-Series capability. In the high availability direction, better clustering or stack functionality to connect all Dell switch...
What is your primary use case for Dell-Force10 Campus LAN Switches?
The main use case for this product is network switch for all network, including management network, network for the user, and network for the SAN.
What advice do you have for others considering Dell-Force10 Campus LAN Switches?
We don't work with solutions such as Aruba or Cisco. There are routers in our infrastructure, but they are not our responsibility or accountability. We work with servers and storage, specifically s...
 

Also Known As

Aruba Instant On 1930 Switches
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

KEMET, Vestavia Hills City Schools, Dropbox
Norwich University of the Arts, Shelby American, City and Islington College
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Instant On Switches vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.