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Cisco Nexus vs ExtremeSwitching comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

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
7.3
Cisco Nexus offers strong ROI with cost savings, reliability, and ease of use, balancing initial costs with long-term benefits.
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.
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.
The return on investment is high.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Nexus boasts responsive, knowledgeable support with quick resolutions, though service quality sometimes varies between representatives or escalation steps.
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.
Requiring improvement in the technical support provided to customers.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Nexus offers scalable solutions for enterprises, supporting numerous nodes with flexibility despite cost concerns.
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.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco Nexus is highly stable, with minor bugs, improved reliability, and long uptime, enhancing user satisfaction significantly.
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.
The stability for ExtremeSwitching is excellent.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Nexus requires better GUI, programmability, multi-tenancy support, simplified licensing, improved tools, automation, integration, and competitive pricing.
ExtremeSwitching should enhance support, usability, integration, pricing, response time, reliability, and expand AI, security, and product offerings.
It might be pretty expensive for other companies.
The solution is on-premises and stable.
When I talk about data centers, which are critical infrastructure and centralized application hubs, the Nexus platforms should be highly stable.
ExtremeSwitching's software stability could be improved, as it sometimes crashes.
Because I am not a networking specialist, I do not know much about the things in detail.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Nexus pricing is high, with complex licensing and significant costs, though discounts are possible through negotiation.
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.
The price of Cisco Nexus is on the higher side due to the premium services Cisco offers.
ExtremeSwitching is priced in the mid-range, not too expensive nor too cheap.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Nexus is praised for flexibility, scalability, strong security, and ease of use, making it ideal for data centers.
ExtremeSwitching is valued for ease of use, performance, scalability, security, and affordability, appealing to small and medium-sized enterprises.
It has helped streamline network-related operations with its automation and API capabilities.
For us, we have a time advantage because we know the solution, and the technological refresh is easier.
I would recommend Cisco Nexus for large enterprises and the government sector, as they can afford it.
The most valuable feature of ExtremeSwitching is the Extreme Fabric, specifically the switching fabric.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Nexus
Ranking in LAN Switching
4th
Ranking in Data Center Networking
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
107
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 October 2025, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 9.0%, down from 10.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ExtremeSwitching is 7.7%, up from 5.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
LAN Switching Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Nexus9.0%
ExtremeSwitching7.7%
Other83.3%
LAN Switching
 

Featured Reviews

Mohammed Faisal Ikram - PeerSpot reviewer
Has experienced high costs in core deployments but continues to appreciate strong support and switching performance
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 not a frequent seller, and you'll find more edge switches selling in the market. It might be pretty expensive for other companies. I don't think there are any other particular disadvantages of Cisco Nexus besides their pricing.
Shrikant Teggi - PeerSpot reviewer
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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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
24%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise82
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?
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 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: September 2025.
868,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.