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Cisco Nexus vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 2026

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
7.1
Cisco Nexus offers stability and efficiency, with long-term cost savings and reliability justifying its initial expense for users.
Sentiment score
6.3
Dell PowerEdge R-Series offers reliability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, enhancing productivity and reducing operational costs compared to cloud solutions.
Speeding up our response times and reducing errors and incidents with automation and available APIs.
Global Head, Network Endpoint Connectivity at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
By not having to worry about it, I would estimate we save two to four hours a week, depending on what's happening, such as if we need to spin up a new server, which would contribute to more time if done the old way.
Manager, Systems & Desktop Support at Tilson Home Corporation
In my immediate case for antenna analysis, Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers offer a reduction from days of computing to half a day or hours.
Senior Radio Frequncy Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The value of uptime to us is critical.
VP IT Operations at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Nexus support is praised for expertise and responsiveness, despite high costs, being favored for reliability and assistance.
Sentiment score
7.5
Dell PowerEdge R-Series is praised for reliable customer service, though some users seek improved local support and communication speed.
For us, we have a time advantage because we know the solution, and the technological refresh is easier.
Systems Area References Specialist at Fondazione Poliambulanza
I would rate the support of Cisco an eight out of ten.
Sr. Network Administrator at i2c
I would give Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers a ten because they're always able to answer all the questions we have; they reach a solution no matter how long it takes, and they don't give up.
Manager, Systems Security at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
It has always been scheduled maintenance, which says a lot for a production environment, as we haven't had to call in a trouble ticket for the actual hardware during its entire run.
Manager, Systems & Desktop Support at Tilson Home Corporation
Typically, the contacts we have on-site are very knowledgeable, they come in within a day and usually have it fixed and taken care of if there are issues.
Senior Systems Engineer at Federal Data Systems
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Nexus provides robust scalability and versatility for enterprise networks, despite being costly and having some limitations.
Sentiment score
6.9
Dell PowerEdge R-Series offers scalable growth and flexibility but requires initial planning and investment for optimal cost-effectiveness.
The scalability of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is excellent.
Software Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Any outages or blackouts are limited to particular servers, not affecting the whole chassis or enclosures.
Senior Systems Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
We bought our product with scaling involved, and we've been scaling it up anytime we've needed more storage.
Director, Information Technology at TEXAS PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE GUARANTY ASSOCIATION
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco Nexus is reliable and high-performing, with minor issues, praised for data center use and stability with updates.
Sentiment score
7.9
Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers offer excellent reliability and performance, with minimal downtime and efficient support resolving rare issues.
Initially, the stability of Cisco Nexus, particularly with the ACI, was problematic due to unstable codes, requiring replacements.
Global Head, Network Endpoint Connectivity at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Over four years, we've had less than 1 percent downtime.
It support lead at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
There is a feature to update the server while it is running, so there is no need to restart.
Manager, Regions Information Technology Security at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
We have truly not had any downtime on the infrastructure at all.
Director, Information Technology at TEXAS PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE GUARANTY ASSOCIATION
 

Room For Improvement

Users want Cisco Nexus improvements in GUI, integration, scalability, programmability, cost-efficiency, compatibility, management, and training resources.
Dell PowerEdge R-Series requires enhancements in management, deployment, scalability, and compatibility, with concerns over support, noise, and pricing.
When I talk about data centers, which are critical infrastructure and centralized application hubs, the Nexus platforms should be highly stable.
Global Head, Network Endpoint Connectivity at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
The solution is on-premises and stable.
Systems Area References Specialist at Fondazione Poliambulanza
It might be pretty expensive for other companies.
Director at WAJDA GROUP
We need to know about any upcoming updates so that we can plan accordingly.
End User Manager at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
The beneficial aspect of that feature was that we could skip the PowerStore and just have the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers alone, as they also served as storage, which helped us save money.
Director Of IT at Star Kay White
This forces you to go up to a larger server to get the desired processor, which increases the cost.
Team Lead Infrastructure at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Nexus pricing is high but justified by features, with varied licensing options and favorable long-term ownership costs.
Dell PowerEdge R-Series offers competitive pricing due to its enterprise features, though some face challenges with supply chain price increases.
The price of Cisco Nexus is on the higher side due to the premium services Cisco offers.
Global Head, Network Endpoint Connectivity at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
All solutions are very expensive and not an economy solution.
Systems Area References Specialist at Fondazione Poliambulanza
They have been stable and running for years without performance downtime or significant disc failures.
Product manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Some customers find it cheaper due to contractual agreements, while others find it expensive, especially when scaling up.
System Administrator at Tigs
The software associated with servers, like VMware subscription licenses, drives costs.
Software Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Nexus is praised for its performance, scalability, advanced routing, integration, low latency, automation, security, and redundancy.
Dell PowerEdge R-Series offers reliable remote management, scalability, and efficiency, with strong support and adaptability for high-performance operations.
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.
Global Head, Network Endpoint Connectivity at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
For us, we have a time advantage because we know the solution, and the technological refresh is easier.
Systems Area References Specialist at Fondazione Poliambulanza
I encountered an issue where different models within the same series, the 95308 DC, do not support VPC between the EX series and FX3 series.
Sr. Network Administrator at i2c
They keep running for at least five to seven years without any issues.
IT Manger at Dubai precast LLc
With PowerEdge Servers, I don't need a one-to-one ratio redundancy, which leads to about eighty percent downtime reduction.
Product manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
One of the valuable features is Active Directory, which helps in managing the network.
IT Manager at Misrconsult
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Nexus
Ranking in Data Center Networking
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
LAN Switching (2nd)
Dell PowerEdge R-Series
Ranking in Data Center Networking
4th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
309
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (1st), Blade Servers (2nd), Rack Servers (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Data Center Networking category, the mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 11.0%, down from 18.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is 4.6%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Center Networking Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Nexus11.0%
Dell PowerEdge R-Series4.6%
Other84.4%
Data Center Networking
 

Featured Reviews

Fakhar Mahmood - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network Administrator at i2c
Migration between data centers has strengthened core connectivity and simplified segmentation
The biggest problems during migration were corporate issues, including dependencies on other devices such as F5, HSMs, and firewalls from Palo Alto. Everything was connected over the core switches, which made this a quite difficult part to manage and to onboard the teams and to understand the impact of the migration. We encountered an issue where we have two data centers, and unknowingly we were configuring the devices with the same VPC number on both devices. By doing that, we were not able to terminate the lease lines over those core switches. According to Cisco, we had to change the VPC number of one of the data center's core switches since they are in a VPC. We are still waiting, and it has been more than five to six years just to change the VPC number and migrate back the lease line. Now we are having cabin switches for the lease line and then the core switch. That VPC number issue was quite surprising for us. However, we have a very frequent issue with Cisco Nexus, particularly with the SFPs. Every time a port or the SFP heats up, it gets faulty. We have almost sixteen Nexus switches per data center. In a year, we experience one or two port issues per annum. We have standard Equinix data centers with standard installations, but somehow the temperature is always maintained and there is no ducting, yet the ports and the SFPs heat up or become faulty. This is a very frequent issue with the SFP-based port.
Tom van Mil - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Administrator at Lico Innovations B.v.
Supports flexible hosting needs through seamless upgradability and strong monitoring capabilities
The most valuable features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series for me are the feature richness and the upgradability. I really love the way that it is so dynamically applicable for every situation, and they manage to have an all-in-one solution for every single situation. Dell PowerEdge has supported the growth and operational success of my company through its great compute power and price-to-performance ratio. Every time Dell is at the top of its game for us, and there is just no other brand for us that is able to reach that kind of price-to-performance ratio. Dell PowerEdge R-Series has features that specifically cater to the needs of my small company, such as iDRAC. The iDRAC system is a complete feature set for managing servers and hardware technically and monitoring-wise. It really fits in our system and our ecosystem, and monitoring-wise, it is excellent. They have all these sensors available via different protocols and end points, which I love, and the ability to manage and control everything via the iDRAC interface is just a welcome bonus. In our use case, Dell PowerEdge R-Series is very flexible. It is another computer which helps a lot because of the durability over time. They keep running, making scalability for getting more of those resources in our environment so easy.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise83
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business112
Midsize Enterprise66
Large Enterprise129
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Nexus?
We are a reseller, and we sell products to our customers.
What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus?
The biggest problems during migration were corporate issues, including dependencies on other devices such as F5, HSMs, and firewalls from Palo Alto. Everything was connected over the core switches,...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Nexus?
Cisco Nexus is used in data centers with a simple Nexus OS deployment model. In our environment, we do not use programmability with Cisco Nexus. The switches are used very basically in our infrastr...
When shopping for a rack server, would you go with Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether the Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem rack servers were the better fit for us. We ultimately decided to go with Dell EMC Poweredge....
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
Regarding how Dell PowerEdge R-Series can be improved, something personal to me is the number of PCI Express slots in the back; however, that is an engineering choice. Otherwise, I am happy with th...
What is your primary use case for Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?
Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers serve as IO machines for talking to PCI Express devices. The use cases change over time, and I push data to the network for in-flight compute.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Nexus vs. Dell PowerEdge R-Series and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,858 professionals have used our research since 2012.