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Cisco Nexus vs Dell PowerSwitch N-Series comparison

Cisco and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the LAN Switching category. Cisco is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.2, while Dell Technologies is ranked #12. Cisco holds a 8.5% mindshare in LS, compared to Dell Technologies’s 3.6% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 66% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.
Cisco Nexus
Read 106 Cisco Nexus reviews
  • 1,347 Views
  • 491 Comparison Views
96% willing to recommend
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series
Read 3 Dell PowerSwitch N-Series reviews
  • 288 Views
  • 147 Comparison Views
66% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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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.

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To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Nexus vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series Report (Updated: June 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Nexus vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series
June 2025
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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
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
106
Ranking in other categories
Data Center Networking (5th)
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series
Ranking in LAN Switching
12th
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 July 2025, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 8.5%, down from 11.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is 3.6%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
LAN Switching
 

Featured Reviews

Vinayak Lokare - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhancing data center network efficiency with reliable security integrations and good switching
Cisco Nexus provides a reliable switching platform for our data centers. It allows us to run dynamic routing protocols and helps improve network efficiency with features like MPLS. Additionally, it supports integration with third-party security tools, which is advantageous for our network architecture. Security-wise, we utilize Cisco's solutions while exploring other vendor options too.
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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.
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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 this solution is stability. We have a pretty large campus."
"The most valuable features of this solution are scalability and throughput."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Nexus is the performance, flexibility, configuration, and cost. It's not a traditional pricing model from Cisco. They've offered our company a considerable reduction in price. That makes Cisco Nexus now very competitive with other vendors."
"It's easy to use, and the performance is great."
"The seamless integration of Nexus in the data center provides a scalable and stable solution."
"The most valuable feature is its reliability."
"When it comes to data centers, Cisco Nexus is the best."
"Its low latency is most valuable. Its performance is good, and it is also very stable."
More Cisco Nexus pros
"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."
"Port density and port speed performance are both suitable. It has some appealing intangibles."
 

Cons

"The scalability can be improved."
"As a device meant to lead the processes related to networking and troubleshooting, I feel both aspects can be described as areas with certain concerns where improvements are required."
"Areas in which the solution have room for improvement are the interface, management, and reporting."
"In the next release of this solution, I would like to see a focus on backplane deployment, so you can stack more."
"My only complaint is that not all of the ports on it are enabled from the start."
"In the Nexus 3500, you can't do per-port Jumbo frames, so you have to enable it as a global configuration."
"The additional features I would like to see included in the next release is the ability to integrate routing and switching features."
"They need to understand that when we call them and have an issue, it's our production and sometimes they want us to do repairs that would cause other issues. That's the biggest problem."
More Cisco Nexus cons
"Customers do not prefer this to connect to multiple cities."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Costs more than most, but the reliability pays for the difference."
"We have a virtual license."
"The license for Cisco Nexus is one year to three years, in this case for the SMARTnet. It is a price per unit, in terms of this specific appliance."
"We only have a yearly support contract, as we do not use any of the subscription-based functions at this time."
"The solution is relatively expensive when compared with Cisco Catalyst."
"We have three hundred to four hundred data centers of Nexus. So the coverage associated with Smart Net is 27 by 4, is basically what we spend each year. If the incentives get better, which I know they're working on, it would be great but right now we're buying year to year."
"We use a local distributor for support, which is very expensive."
"The Nexus 9000 is very competitively priced."
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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
21%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Educational Organization
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Nexus?
The product's initial setup phase is very easy.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Nexus?
All solutions are very expensive and not an economy solution.
See all answers
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.
See all answers
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Comparisons

Juniper QFX Series Switches vs Cisco Nexus Logo
Juniper QFX Series Switches vs Cisco Nexus
Compared 42% of the time
Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus Logo
Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus
Compared 18% of the time
Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Nexus Logo
Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Nexus
Compared 8% of the time
Juniper QFabric vs Cisco Nexus Logo
Juniper QFabric vs Cisco Nexus
Compared 5% of the time
VMware NSX vs Cisco Nexus Logo
VMware NSX vs Cisco Nexus
Compared 4% of the time
More Cisco Nexus Competitors
Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Dell PowerSwitch N-Series Logo
Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Dell PowerSwitch N-Series
Compared 66% of the time
More Dell PowerSwitch N-Series Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Cisco Nexus
June 2025
Cisco Nexus reportDownload Cisco Nexus product report
Buyer's Guide
LAN Switching
June 2025
Dell PowerSwitch N-Series reportDownload Dell PowerSwitch N-Series product report
 

Overview

The Cisco Nexus family of switches is designed to meet the stringent requirements of the next-generation data center. Not simply bigger or faster, these switches offer the following characteristics: infrastructure that can be scaled cost-effectively and that helps you increase energy, budget, and resource efficiency, transport that can navigate the transition to 10 Gigabit Ethernet and unified fabric and can also handle architectural changes such as virtualization, Web 2.0 applications, and cloud computing and operational continuity to meet your need for an environment where system availability is assumed and maintenance windows are rare if not totally extinct.
Cisco

Dell PowerSwitch N-Series bring users efficient connections to the network with highly functional access and aggregation switching. Products consist of: Dell EMC Networking N1100 Series, Dell Networking N1500 Switches, Dell Networking N2000 Series, Dell Networking N3000 Series and Dell Networking N4000 Series.

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
June 2025
Free Report: Cisco Nexus vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series
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