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Cisco Nexus vs ExtremeSwitching comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 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
5.2
ExtremeSwitching provides ROI in 1-5 years, saving costs despite high licensing, with free maintenance and potential for capability expansion.
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
In the future, we can convince the customer to make use of 100G capability to suffice their requirement, but at the moment we are using 40G only.
Sr. Area Technical Manager at tata elxsi
The return on investment is high.
Engineer at NewLogics
 

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
6.6
ExtremeSwitching's customer service is valued for responsiveness and expertise, but faces challenges in availability and depth compared to competitors.
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
Requiring improvement in the technical support provided to customers.
Engineer at NewLogics
 

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
7.1
ExtremeSwitching is highly scalable, supporting growth and flexible infrastructure, making it ideal for businesses needing adaptable systems.
ExtremeSwitching is highly scalable, and I would rate it as nine out of ten.
Engineer at NewLogics
 

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
7.7
ExtremeSwitching is stable for small to medium businesses, with reliable support, but struggles with large-scale operation 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
The stability for ExtremeSwitching is excellent.
Assistnat Professor in Computer Science and Engineering Department at a educational organization with 201-500 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Users want Cisco Nexus improvements in GUI, integration, scalability, programmability, cost-efficiency, compatibility, management, and training resources.
ExtremeSwitching should enhance support, usability, integration, pricing, response time, reliability, and expand AI, security, and product offerings.
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.
Sr. Network Administrator at i2c
It might be pretty expensive for other companies.
Director at WAJDA GROUP
The solution is on-premises and stable.
Systems Area References Specialist at Fondazione Poliambulanza
ExtremeSwitching's software stability could be improved, as it sometimes crashes.
Engineer at NewLogics
Because I am not a networking specialist, I do not know much about the things in detail.
Sr. Area Technical Manager at tata elxsi
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Nexus pricing is high but justified by features, with varied licensing options and favorable long-term ownership costs.
ExtremeSwitching offers flexible pricing between Cisco and HP, with cost-effective options via bulk purchases and affordable licenses.
All solutions are very expensive and not an economy solution.
Systems Area References Specialist at Fondazione Poliambulanza
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
ExtremeSwitching is priced in the mid-range, not too expensive nor too cheap.
Engineer at NewLogics
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Nexus is praised for its performance, scalability, advanced routing, integration, low latency, automation, security, and redundancy.
ExtremeSwitching is valued for ease of use, performance, scalability, security, and affordability, appealing to small and medium-sized enterprises.
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
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
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
The most valuable feature of ExtremeSwitching is the Extreme Fabric, specifically the switching fabric.
Engineer at NewLogics
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Nexus
Ranking in LAN Switching
4th
Ranking in Data Center Networking
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ExtremeSwitching
Ranking in LAN Switching
7th
Ranking in Data Center Networking
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
AV Over IP Switching (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 8.7%, up from 8.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ExtremeSwitching is 8.3%, up from 6.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
LAN Switching Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Nexus8.7%
ExtremeSwitching8.3%
Other83.0%
LAN Switching
 

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.
Shrikant Teggi - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Area Technical Manager at tata elxsi
Excellent support and reliable performance drive positive experiences
We have been working with wireless for the last seven to eight years. At the moment, the customer has decided to go with a different brand. We are only dealing with the wired switches, not the wireless ones. We use ExtremeSwitching only, not Enterasys. Enterasys was the old one. I am not a networking person, so at this point in time I do not have much working experience on the switches. We have a separate team here who are working on these products. We have not reached that stage yet, but definitely in the near future we may use this kind of feature. Recently they have introduced platform one, which is an AI-based automation tool. That is definitely on the cards. Maybe in one year, we may start using that option as well. First of all, the product is robust and they are also coming up with new features. The second part is the support is excellent from ExtremeSwitching. They maintain delivery time and follow through on their commitments properly. The performance we expected, we are getting from ExtremeSwitching. All these requirements we have are being met with the product, features, and support. It is cost effective. I rate ExtremeSwitching a nine out of ten.
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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
No data available
Manufacturing Company
18%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
7%
Construction Company
6%
 

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 Business11
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise7
 

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?
We are a reseller, and we sell products to our customers.
What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus?
Cisco Nexus may not be very popular because of the requirements that we come across, as it will go into the core data centers, whereas we work with most of the corporate sectors, so Cisco Nexus is ...
What do you like most about ExtremeSwitching?
The product offers a single management platform for multiple models of switches. The tool also allows users to manage multiple sites from a single dashboard.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ExtremeSwitching?
I would rate the pricing for ExtremeSwitching six to seven out of ten.
What needs improvement with ExtremeSwitching?
Regarding what could be better with the product, I am not aware of how much AI functionality is provided in ExtremeSwitching. Everyone is talking about AI, so there should be AI facilities provided...
 

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
Blue Waters
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Nexus vs. ExtremeSwitching and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.