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Cisco Nexus 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

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 August 2025, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 8.5%, down from 11.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series is 3.5%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
LAN Switching
 

Featured Reviews

DeepakYadav1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good processing power to users
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a four to five out of ten. I rate the stability of the product as four to five out of ten based on the fact that I have checked the tool's features. I also know that there are many more options available in the market, like Palo Alto, Check Point, Fortinet, and other devices, which offer affordable, configurable, and scalable devices that I should plan to buy. Cisco is not providing tools for everything my company needs, but it is a good product. The market competition is high nowadays. Cisco is still handling some old parts. Cisco's old products make up approximately 67 percent of the devices offered in the networking industry. Despite the competition from products like Palo Alto, Check Point, and Fortinet, Cisco is not very scalable, but all its devices are updated regularly.
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

"Current flexibility and the opportunities for future planning and scaling make this product line an ultimate opportunity."
"The most valuable features are the access layer security, OpenConfig, and OpenFlow."
"This solution provides all of the routing and searching features that we need."
"The most valuable features of this solution are scalability and reliability."
"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."
"The most valuable features are that it is easy to use, provides stability, easy to configure, low latency, and it provides communication to the data center."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is its speed."
"We have found that logical tenant segregation to be the most useful feature."
"Port density and port speed performance are both suitable. It has some appealing intangibles."
"For a customer, it is easy to configure and to add ports through the LAN the GUI."
"The automated configuration management tools of Dell PowerSwitch N-Series help improve network traffic management."
 

Cons

"I would like to see better monitoring actions supported in the next release of this solution."
"It would be nice if the solution offered multiple types of port support."
"I am looking for a GUI that goes alongside them and more SD-WAN built to their core switches."
"I feel that this solution should be more flexible and scalable."
"They should make it easier to update the code on it."
"There are too many different model numbers and too much complexity."
"If we could get some more automation integrated into it, it would make it easier."
"The licensing is very complicated. They should work to simplify it."
"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

"The problem with Cisco, from what I see, is that their costs are much higher."
"The price of the product is reasonable."
"Cisco's licensing structures can be complex across different technologies, for example, unified communications."
"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 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."
"The Nexus 9000 is very competitively priced."
"I don't like the Smart Licensing models that Cisco uses."
"It's worth the money we're paying for Nexus."
"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
18%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
19%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Educational Organization
9%
University
9%
 

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Nexus?
All solutions are very expensive and not an economy solution.
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.
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...
 

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
Norwich University of the Arts, Shelby American, City and Islington College
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Nexus vs. Dell PowerSwitch N-Series and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.