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Cisco Nexus vs Juniper QFabric comparison

Cisco and Juniper are both solutions in the LAN Switching category. Cisco is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.6, while Juniper is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.5. Cisco holds a 8.9% mindshare in LS, compared to Juniper’s 1.9% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Juniper users who would recommend it.
Cisco Nexus
Read 105 Cisco Nexus reviews
  • 1,494 Views
  • 1,045 Comparison Views
96% willing to recommend
Juniper QFabric
Read 10 Juniper QFabric reviews
  • 247 Views
  • 161 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Juniper QFabric and Cisco Nexus are competing products in data center networking. Cisco Nexus generally emerges as a more feature-rich solution due to its advanced network features and robust security options, although it is priced higher. Juniper QFabric, however, is often recognized for its cost-effective pricing and excellent support structure.

Features: QFabric is known for its simplicity, efficient scalability, and easy network architecture, which supports data traffic without complex configurations. Cisco Nexus offers advanced flexibility, high security, and integration capabilities, making it ideal for comprehensive data environments.

Room for Improvement: QFabric could enhance its advanced security features and integration capabilities to match its competitors. Network flexibility and automation can also be areas for growth. Cisco Nexus may improve in simplifying its deployment and configuration steps, offer more accessible support resources, and reducing complexity in integration processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Nexus offers comprehensive support materials for seamless implementation, though the deployment process involves significant initial configuration. It is balanced by extensive customer service. Juniper QFabric provides easier deployment with straightforward configuration, supported by reliable customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Juniper QFabric typically requires lower initial investment, offering favorable ROI from efficient resource usage. Cisco Nexus demands a higher upfront cost but delivers strong long-term ROI due to its extended functionality and adaptability, ideal for demanding network environments.

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To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Nexus vs. Juniper QFabric Report (Updated: April 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Nexus vs. Juniper QFabric
April 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
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
105
Ranking in other categories
Data Center Networking (3rd)
Juniper QFabric
Ranking in LAN Switching
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the LAN Switching category, the mindshare of Cisco Nexus is 8.9%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper QFabric is 1.9%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
LAN Switching
 

Featured Reviews

Joe Benítez - PeerSpot reviewer
Offer high performance capabilities and enables efficient data transmission and processing
Before Nexus, I used to have Catalyst 6500 switches. Those 6500 series chassis gave us a lot of problems. Too many problems, actually. And we had a Cisco ASA firewall blade within those chassis. And they were running outdated software. So, in fact, it was the firewall blade that caused us too many problems instead of the chassis. The chassis itself was working well and performing fine, but the firewall card was not suitable for our needs. That was one aspect. Additionally, those chassis had been in operation for more than five years. As we are a local government, we have a policy to renew hardware every five years. That's because we need to maintain all the hardware and software in the latest versions and keep up with the technology lifecycle of the technology we use.
Read full review
Suresh Pathipatti - PeerSpot reviewer
Performs well, is easy to set up, and the vendor maintains the product well
QFabric is the core switch. We also have two Brocade switches for the Fibre level The product works fine. It is an excellent product. There are different element systems and different options for each generation of the tool. We maintain the data center and analyze issues. I have no negative…
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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 product has a stable and strong server panel switch."
"From a data center implementation, with respect to competition from your data, there isn't really a product recovery for the different tests other than Cisco Nexus. For example, if you take Multi-tenancy for the data center, it's something which, I think, only Cisco has. There are some implementation from HP, but I think it's limited there."
"It's easy to use."
"We have continuity with Cisco, which provides a very high-end solution."
"Tech support is good."
"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."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Nexus is speed compared to what you would get from a Catalyst Series switch."
"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."
More Cisco Nexus pros
"The solution is stable."
"The most valuable feature of QFabric for network performance is its stability."
"The 40 gig backbone InterConneX was valuable for our use case. It is even faster now. QFabric has spine-leaf technology or topology, which basically makes every single hop only one hop away in terms of connecting from one device to another. It is a pretty good and robust solution. It works pretty well in terms of scalability, and their technical support is amazing."
"It's user-friendly."
"The solution is easy to use and has good performance."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the fabric backplane having upwards of 160 GB of communication. It is a top-of-the-rack solution where you have your directors sitting in the main area and then you have your nodes expanded out to your multiple cabinets. It has a very good design and could be your server backbone."
"Juniper QFabric has various advantages including scalability, simplicity, performance, and flexibility."
"QFabric supports redundancy and includes all of the enterprise and service provider features that customers would want in data center or service provider network."
More Juniper QFabric pros
 

Cons

"Data center access is stable and high speed but it is not compatible with Cisco's server hardware devices. The solution can be technically improved and can have features like automation, better visibility, better functionality, and cheap pricing."
"In the next release of the solution, I would like to see varying integration between VRF (Virtual Routing and Forwarding) instances so we can integrate BGB into different VRFs in a more organized way. We have some issues with tunnels and VRFs."
"The code quality for this solution has gotten worse and needs improvement."
"In the Nexus 3500, you can't do per-port Jumbo frames, so you have to enable it as a global configuration."
"There's a couple of really bad incidents lately. Probably luck of the draw."
"The product's high price is an area of concern where improvements are required. Cisco Nexus should lower its current prices."
"Nothing is perfect."
"Nexus is a costly solution."
More Cisco Nexus cons
"It would be nice if Juniper provided the system integrator with training, similar to that of Cisco."
"Having support for all OpenFlow versions would be beneficial."
"The disruptive upgrade was an issue for us."
"It works too much on rebooting and there is some memory leakage."
"Improvements could be made to QFabric's life cycle management, particularly in maintaining stable versions and extending product support."
"The pricing structure could be more budget-friendly."
"They are working on the virtualization of the actual fabric layer. They are moving away from the original spine-leaf design to a different infrastructure. Instead of having three tiers, which was the director of the interconnected nodes, they cut them back, and they still have that kind of structure."
"The stability needs to be improved."
More Juniper QFabric cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The subscription model and price could be better."
"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."
"Cisco's licensing structures can be complex across different technologies, for example, unified communications."
"It's around $160K a year for our license."
"The Nexus 9000 is very competitively priced."
"Cisco Nexus is not cheap compared to Fortinet, Palo Alto, and Check Point."
"It's worth the money we're paying for Nexus."
More Cisco Nexus pricing and cost advice
"In terms of price, the QFabric solution is going to be probably in the middle of the road for a fabric solution."
"The pricing is high."
"The price is relatively high, but it offers an advantage over its competitors by providing better performance and functionality."
"Juniper QFabric is a high-level solution but it could be less expensive."
"The pricing is high and it is possible to find better pricing option solutions on the market, but the licensing model is quite flexible."
"The price for Juniper QFabric could improve. There are subscription, maintenance, and add-on feature fees."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
23%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
The price of Cisco Nexus is on the higher side due to the premium services Cisco offers. Despite the cost, it offers valuable features and services.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Cisco Nexus?
When I talk about data centers, which are critical infrastructure and centralized application hubs, the Nexus platforms should be highly stable. Initially, the codes I received through ACI were qui...
See all answers
What do you like most about Juniper QFabric?
The most valuable feature of QFabric for network performance is its stability.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper QFabric?
Juniper QFabric is not overly expensive. Licensing is required for certain features like vRRP, but setting up a virtual chassis does not necessitate a separate license.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Juniper QFabric?
Improvements could be made to QFabric's lifecycle management, particularly in maintaining stable versions and extending product support. The rapid release cycle and short life span compared to comp...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Juniper QFX Series Switches vs Cisco Nexus Logo
Juniper QFX Series Switches vs Cisco Nexus
Compared 44% of the time
Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus Logo
Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus
Compared 20% of the time
Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Nexus Logo
Cisco Catalyst Switches vs Cisco Nexus
Compared 11% of the time
ExtremeSwitching vs Cisco Nexus Logo
ExtremeSwitching vs Cisco Nexus
Compared 4% of the time
VMware NSX vs Cisco Nexus Logo
VMware NSX vs Cisco Nexus
Compared 4% of the time
More Cisco Nexus Competitors
Cisco FabricPath vs Juniper QFabric Logo
Cisco FabricPath vs Juniper QFabric
Compared 35% of the time
More Juniper QFabric Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Cisco Nexus
May 2025
Cisco Nexus reportDownload Cisco Nexus product report
Buyer's Guide
LAN Switching
May 2025
Juniper QFabric reportDownload Juniper QFabric product report
 

Also Known As

No data available
QFabric
 

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
Juniper QFabric System is composed of multiple components working together as a single switch to provide high-performance, any-to-any connectivity and management simplicity in the data center. The QFabric System flattens the entire data center network to a single tier where all access points are equal, eliminating the effects of network locality and making it the ideal network foundation for cloud-ready, virtualized data centers.The highly scalable QFabric System improves application performance with low latency and converged services in a nonblocking, lossless architecture that supports Layer 2, Layer 3, and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) capabilities.
Juniper
 

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
MCB Bank
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Nexus vs. Juniper QFabric
April 2025
Free Report: Cisco Nexus vs. Juniper QFabric
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