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Cisco FabricPath 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
8.1
Cisco FabricPath improved cost efficiency and ROI, offering straightforward installation, easy integration, and maintained network stability and resilience.
Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Nexus offers high ROI with stability, efficiency, and reliability, justifying higher costs with long-term productivity gains.
Speeding up our response times and reducing errors and incidents with automation and available APIs.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Cisco FabricPath support is praised for reliability and speed, despite occasional regional delays and staffing challenges.
Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Nexus technical support is efficient and knowledgeable, with mixed experiences but generally positive feedback on reliability and global reach.
Cisco provides excellent support.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Cisco FabricPath offers excellent scalability, easily expanding with added resources, and effectively supports both small and large environments.
Sentiment score
7.7
Cisco Nexus is highly scalable and adaptable, offering seamless expansion and integration despite cost concerns.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Cisco FabricPath is stable and reliable, maintaining high ratings despite minor maintenance and being replaced by newer technology.
Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco Nexus is highly reliable and stable, with minor bugs occasionally reported, maintaining a strong reputation for uptime.
Cisco FabricPath is stable.
Initially, the stability of Cisco Nexus, particularly with the ACI, was problematic due to unstable codes, requiring replacements.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco FabricPath needs better interoperability, support, security, integration, and management, with reduced costs and delivery times, plus AI enhancements.
Cisco Nexus needs enhancements in UI, integration, virtualization, automation, multi-tenancy, pricing, OS intuitiveness, stability, scalability, and AI integration.
Additionally, parts availability in these regions needs improvement to address hardware failure situations, such as the availability of parts like a power cable.
When I talk about data centers, which are critical infrastructure and centralized application hubs, the Nexus platforms should be highly stable.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco FabricPath pricing is high but offers various licenses, with mixed views on cost versus performance and scalability benefits.
Cisco Nexus is costly with complex licensing but valued for its premium features and long-term enterprise benefits.
While pricing is slightly on the higher side, the overall assessment, which includes cost and technical capabilities, often favors Cisco.
The price of Cisco Nexus is on the higher side due to the premium services Cisco offers.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco FabricPath enhances network reliability and performance with cloud management, security, VM migration, VLAN support, and protocol flexibility.
Cisco Nexus provides high performance and flexibility with features enhancing network efficiency, making it ideal for large-scale networks.
Cisco is the best choice in terms of cost, quality, and post-procurement services.
The VPC feature of Cisco Nexus is great because it provides an active-active way of forwarding the traffic and avoids blocking any of the links.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco FabricPath
Ranking in LAN Switching
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Nexus
Ranking in LAN Switching
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
105
Ranking in other categories
Data Center Networking (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Cisco FabricPath is 2.1%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 8.9%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
LAN Switching
 

Featured Reviews

SanjitAchary - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivers comprehensive assessments and superior post-procurement service
In Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, and in the Latin America region, delivery times can be quite lengthy. This is challenging in terms of logistics and customs. Additionally, parts availability in these regions needs improvement to address hardware failure situations, such as the availability of parts like a power cable.
Joe Benítez - PeerSpot reviewer
Offer high performance capabilities and enables efficient data transmission and processing
Before Nexus, I used to have Catalyst 6500 switches. Those 6500 series chassis gave us a lot of problems. Too many problems, actually. And we had a Cisco ASA firewall blade within those chassis. And they were running outdated software. So, in fact, it was the firewall blade that caused us too many problems instead of the chassis. The chassis itself was working well and performing fine, but the firewall card was not suitable for our needs. That was one aspect. Additionally, those chassis had been in operation for more than five years. As we are a local government, we have a policy to renew hardware every five years. That's because we need to maintain all the hardware and software in the latest versions and keep up with the technology lifecycle of the technology we use.
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which LAN Switching solutions are best for your needs.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
20%
Computer Software Company
19%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
23%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco FabricPath?
The tool makes it easy to manage multi-layer networking and increases network efficiency. I haven't faced any challenges in integrating it into our existing infrastructure.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco FabricPath?
Cisco solutions are expensive, and because of that, moving to new upgrades is challenging due to cost considerations. For licensing, I budget approximately $100 per user annually and project future...
What needs improvement with Cisco FabricPath?
We are phasing off Cisco FabricPath due to outdated protocols. The fault isolation mechanism in FabricPath is not as effective as the newer technology, Cisco ACI ( /products/cisco-aci-reviews ). He...
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?
The price of Cisco Nexus is on the higher side due to the premium services Cisco offers. Despite the cost, it offers valuable features and services.
What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus?
When I talk about data centers, which are critical infrastructure and centralized application hubs, the Nexus platforms should be highly stable. Initially, the codes I received through ACI were qui...
 

Also Known As

FabricPath
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bellevue, Calligaris, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Management Science Associates, Multi-Customer, Oediv, Roper St. Francis, SNAM
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 Cisco FabricPath vs. Cisco Nexus and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.