Cisco Nexus vs Dell PowerSwitch N-Series comparison

Cisco and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the LAN Switching category. Cisco is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5, while Dell Technologies is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.5. Cisco holds a 9.6% mindshare in LS, compared to Dell Technologies’s 5.6% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 75% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.

Cisco Nexus

Read 108 Cisco Nexus reviews

4,272 Views
1,965 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series

Read 4 Dell PowerSwitch N-Series reviews

716 Views
709 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

Cisco Nexus

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series and Cisco Nexus compete in the networking hardware sector. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series provides competitive pricing and reliable customer support, while Cisco Nexus offers advanced features, making each appealing based on user priorities.

Features: Dell PowerSwitch N-Series provides robust scalability, energy efficiency, and seamless integration with third-party products. Cisco Nexus offers high-performance capabilities, advanced security features, and extensive support for virtualization.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is noted for its straightforward deployment and responsive support team, ensuring a smoother installation process. Cisco Nexus, with its more complex setup, benefits from comprehensive documentation and advanced support, aiding large-scale deployments.

Pricing and ROI: Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is preferred for its lower initial setup costs and effective ROI, appealing to budget-conscious buyers. Cisco Nexus requires a larger upfront investment but delivers long-term value through high performance and innovative features.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Nexus vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Nexus vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series

April 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 893,244 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

Cisco Nexus

Ranking in LAN Switching

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

108

Ranking in other categories

Data Center Networking (1st)

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series

Ranking in LAN Switching

9th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

3.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 9.6%, up from 8.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is 5.6%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

LAN Switching Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco Nexus	9.6%
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series	5.6%
Other	84.8%

LAN Switching

Featured Reviews

Fakhar Mahmood

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.

Read full review

Mahendra Basera

Sr.Engineer at Akara Capital Advisor Pvt. Ltd.

Reliable switching has supported secure audits and simplified long-term data center operations

Deploying Dell PowerSwitch N-Series on HA is very simple and easy. If we face any problem, we have our Dell support team to help us during the installation. They provide L2 engineers for supporting us on configuring the basic level configuration, stacking, and peering with others on HA. They have helped us with any faults or hardware issues, and we have taken high level care packs with three hour response time and same day hardware replacement. When we talk about the deployment of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series, when we extended our data center from starting from scratch, we had at that time nearly 170 physical servers. Then we virtualized it from mixed hardware, as we were using HCL, HP, or old heavy servers. Dell came to us and gave us a good solution with VMware, storage of Dell, and network devices. During the deployment, there were three team members from Dell and two from myself on the networking side, and one or two members from OS and server side. Almost five to six team members were there during the deployment from a hardware to a virtualized environment. The best advantages of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is that it is very much similar to Cisco. There is a little bit of difference at the command level, and it is easy to handle. It is easy to handle whether it is a CLI base or a GUI base, and it is very easy to configure. It is also reliable. We had a low fault issue, and when we talk of switching level, in a time frame of 17 years, we faced a switching issue only one time, which was a hardware failure. That is it. It is as reliable as Cisco.

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

"The most valuable feature of the solution is network visibility; it touches all of the switches, becomes the core switch, and all of the devices connected to it route towards it so we are able to see all of the devices."

"Cisco Nexus has improved the way our organization functions through the troubleshooting. We had issues where we've seen our links saturated. We were able to determine what was being processed on the link."

"You can scale the product."

"It is tried and tested in our network, and it works well."

"Cisco Nexus has been very stable. No issues. It's been rock solid. We haven't had any issues with it in the last twelve months."

"This solution has allowed our organization to grow."

"The most valuable feature of Cisco Nexus is modularity. It's like the Swiss Army knife of switches."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is that it scales well. It supports a lot of servers. We don't have to come up with different designs for anything. That's the best part about it."

More Cisco Nexus pros

"Currently, I am using the Dell S4048; it's a nice switch and it gives you good results in terms of a broadcast station connection, with HSRP (Hot Standby Router Protocol) and bandwidth allocation that are very nice, and for a customer it is easy to configure and to add ports through the LAN GUI."

"For a customer, it is easy to configure and to add ports through the LAN the GUI."

"The best advantages of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is that it is very much similar to Cisco, it is easy to handle whether it is a CLI base or a GUI base, it is very easy to configure, and it is also reliable, as in a time frame of 17 years we faced a switching issue only one time, which was a hardware failure, and it is as reliable as Cisco."

"Port density and port speed performance are both suitable."

"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."

Cons

"We lag on the configuration. The changes make a difference in troubleshooting."

"There are limitations on some of the lower level 9K solutions where you can't do the same things that you would normally be able to do, like for instance the number of static maps that you can configure on it."

"Don't discard Cisco Nexus because of the price."

"The installation process lasted too long, taking 16 to 24 hours for full completion."

"There's been a little bit of bugginess in the code, but that happens."

"The additional features I would like to see included in the next release is the ability to integrate routing and switching features."

"The subscription model and price could be better."

"I would like to see some development into the SAE world where you can virtualize."

More Cisco Nexus cons

"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."

"The disadvantages of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is that only the booting time is a weak point."

"I would not recommend it to smaller businesses because they could not afford it."

"Some features need improvements with stability."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If you compare Cisco hardware to any other vendors, such as HPE, they are more expensive. There is a license to use the solution. If my customer's licenses are about to expire I receive notification from Cisco, this is very helpful."

"The Nexus 9000 is very competitively priced."

"We have a three-year subscription for our licensing fees."

"It is very expensive. Its licensing is on a yearly basis."

"All of our costs including subscription, licensing, and support services are bundled together, and the cost is approximately $100,000 USD per year."

"I don't like the Smart Licensing models that Cisco uses."

"The price of this solution is good when compared to others in the market."

"Our licensing fees are approximately $2,000 USD per year."

More Cisco Nexus pricing and cost advice

"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."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which LAN Switching solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Marketing Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

10%

Retailer

Construction Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	17
Large Enterprise	83

No data available

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus?

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell-Force10 Campus LAN Switches?

The disadvantages of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is that only the booting time is a weak point. When we reboot that switch, it takes time. As compared to Cisco, it takes almost three to five minutes,...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Dell-Force10 Campus LAN Switches?

We are using McAfee XDR solution rather than Cisco XDR. On Cisco products, we are using Cisco routers and Cisco switches. We work with Dell, specifically Dell switches, and we are using PowerEdge i...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Dell-Force10 Campus LAN Switches?

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is the one we have been working on. There was an advanced Layer 3 configuration on Dell PowerSwitch N-Series, and we have almost every security which can be configured on ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Juniper QFX Series Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 12% of the time

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 11% of the time

Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 10% of the time

Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 9% of the time

Juniper MX Series Universal Routing Platforms vs Cisco Nexus

Compared 3% of the time

More Cisco Nexus Competitors

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Dell PowerSwitch N-Series

Compared 34% of the time

Aruba Instant On Switches vs Dell PowerSwitch N-Series

Compared 15% of the time

Juniper QFabric vs Dell PowerSwitch N-Series

Compared 12% of the time

Arista Campus LAN Switches vs Dell PowerSwitch N-Series

Compared 11% of the time

ExtremeSwitching vs Dell PowerSwitch N-Series

Compared 9% of the time

More Dell PowerSwitch N-Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Nexus

May 2026

Download Cisco Nexus product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series

May 2026

Download Dell PowerSwitch N-Series product report

Overview

Cisco Nexus delivers flexibility, scalability, and performance for data centers, offering stability and ease of management. The integration with third-party security and high port density support are key features, making it ideal for core network infrastructures.

Cisco Nexus stands out in data centers for backbone switching and network management, known for its modularity and Virtual Port Channels. Organizations value its capacity for handling large data volumes and automation capabilities. The system's redundancy features enhance reliability in complex network environments. Despite its strengths, technical support, licensing complexity, and integration require improvement. Users benefit from features like Active/Active FEX connectivity and wish for enhancements in routing support, interface usability, and documentation. Cost concerns and port overheating issues are noted, with calls for better training and simplified configurations.

What are the key features of Cisco Nexus?

Modularity: Enables customization and upgradability.
Virtual Port Channels (VPCs): Offers resilience and high availability.
Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF): Supports routing domains within a network device.
High Port Density: Allows connection of multiple devices in a compact space.
Automation: Simplifies network management and operations.
Redundancy Features: Provides network reliability and uptime.

What benefits and ROI should users expect from Cisco Nexus?

Scalability: Supports growing network demands.
Stability: Offers a reliable operational environment.
Efficiency: Enhances data center connectivity and management.
Security Integration: Works seamlessly with third-party security solutions.
High Performance: Optimizes data handling and throughput.

In enterprise settings, Cisco Nexus is essential for switching, routing, and server connection aggregation. It's integral in spine-and-leaf architectures for scalability in multi-tenant environments, often integrated with hyper-converged technology to ensure reliable, secure server connectivity. Implementations span industries, each leveraging its strength for improved network efficiency.

Cisco

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series offers efficient and scalable networking solutions tailored for modern enterprises. Designed to enhance performance and streamline management, these switches support demanding business environments with seamless integration and advanced features.

With advanced Layer 2 and Layer 3 functionality, Dell PowerSwitch N-Series meets the high-speed connectivity requirements of dynamic network systems. Its flexible security options and energy-efficient performance make it ideal for supporting cloud connectivity and virtualization. The series ensures reliability and minimizes downtime with its robust architecture and efficient troubleshooting mechanisms.

What are the key features of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series?

High-Performance Switching: Delivers excellent throughput and latency characteristics for demanding applications.
Energy-Efficient Design: Reduces energy costs without sacrificing performance, catering to green data center initiatives.
Scalable Architecture: Supports network growth with modular uplinks and stacking capabilities, allowing adaptation to changing requirements.
Comprehensive Security: Protects network integrity with features like Access Control Lists and Secure Boot.

What benefits should you look for when evaluating Dell PowerSwitch N-Series?

Cost Savings: Competitive pricing combined with reduced energy consumption offers substantial long-term savings.
Easy Management: Simplified configuration and management enhance operational efficiency, saving time and resources.
Enhanced Network Performance: Delivers robust connectivity and reliability, optimizing overall network productivity.
Future-Proof Investments: Supports future growth while maintaining compatibility with existing infrastructure.

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is effectively implemented across industries such as education and retail, where reliable and flexible network infrastructure facilitates data-driven operations and customer engagement. Healthcare organizations utilize its secure and efficient features to enhance patient data management and telemedicine services, ensuring reliable connectivity in critical care environments.

Dell Technologies

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

Norwich University of the Arts, Shelby American, City and Islington College

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Nexus vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series

April 2026

Free Report: Cisco Nexus vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Nexus vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cisco Nexus vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series report.

See our list of best LAN Switching vendors.

We monitor all LAN Switching 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.