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Dell PowerConnect Switches [EOL] vs Enterasys Campus LAN Switches comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Dell PowerConnect Switches ...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
8.2
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Enterasys Campus LAN Switches
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
LAN Switching (12th)
 

Featured Reviews

LarsEvans - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Technology Officer / Chief Information Security Officer at Lorton Data, Inc.
Reliable and useful for network segmentation
The solution's most valuable feature stands up well. The tool is reliable, and it stands up well. The solution works fine and lasts a long time. I think if you speak about the features that have a flow and you can measure, it is hard to say. I don't spend a lot of my time with the tool, but I know that Dell APEX is the solution's cloud. I would say the VLAN features are important. The VLAN features are really useful because network segmentation is important. I would say the tool is easy to program. I don't know if the tool has any security features that I am aware of other than the fact that the solution is for networking. The VLAN and the ability to segment your networks are easy, which is its security feature.
reviewer1319712 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Uniquely unified the hardware in a very smart way and led to improved performance
Security features do exist, and they're mostly common with other switches. What makes these switches unique is the ability to see application layers on the switch, but not directly through the switch. There are tools from Extreme Networks that allow visibility of such traffic, which other switches lack. Extreme CloudIQ analytics can analyze all the traffic on Extreme Switches up to layer seven, offering full visibility. However, this tool is necessary for such detailed analytics and might not be compatible with some third-party products. Improvements are always possible. One suggestion from a customer about Universal switches was to merge the two operating systems into one to create a new, unified OS, but that would take a lot of time and might affect stability. Juniper did that with their firmware and faced customer issues. So, creating a new OS is a tough call. From Enterasys Campus Compass, they're doing well, but the Data Center Switches aren't. Data Center switches, like Extreme Switching for data center networks. Those are separate categories from the Campus Switches.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Their support has been excellent, and it has been quite stable and easy to set up."
"We have these switches installed in an environment with hardware from many other vendors, and so far, so good."
"It has excellent technical support, is very scalable, stable, reliable, and the product is very affordable."
"For me, excellent, never had any issue."
"Dell PowerConnect Switches are very easy to configure with the GUI. Dell supports the solution even though it has been discontinued."
"The security is the most valuable aspect of this solution. It also has good storage and resource handling."
"There is high reliability since we have used them for close to twenty years and only had possibly one failure."
"We evaluated numerous options before choosing Dell including Fortinet, HP and Cisco, but really it was this solution that worked given our budget and for installation, it was a good solution in terms of technical support, scalability, availability and a lot of things, and it satisfied our requirements."
"Enterasys Campus LAN Switches is a trustable and powerful solution. The solution has good web management features. You can do whatever you want, like a CLI. The solution is easy to diagnose and manage. I like the Linux-based operating system. If any service crashes, you need to restart the system."
"Extreme Networks is the only one that has this kind of universal switch. It simplifies things greatly. Customers no longer have to worry about the price differences between traditional and fabric technology switches, which used to have their own pricing. This has made it easier for us as solution providers to tailor options for our customers with fewer but more suitable choices."
"The performance is good."
"The performance is good; I am satisfied with this product."
 

Cons

"The solution could provide more integration to focus on targeting the network as a whole rather than a unified environment. It is meant for a built environment, so integration with other third-party vendors will likely be necessary."
"The product needs to improve in terms of reports and backups."
"It would be great to have modules that integrate with SDN solutions such as Cisco ACI, Arista SDN, Huawei Agile, and IBM."
"I would rate it a seven out of ten. Not a ten because I have to do a lot of testing on it."
"I expect it to be a zero-touch or a plug-and-play device. To some extent, it is, but we need to know the architecture, and we need to know what exactly we are doing. It is not so easy to implement. It depends on what exactly we are doing and it is still not a plug-and-play or zero-touch device. In the upcoming version, they can make it zero-touch, where we can just power it on and start using it. They can have some templates for different scenarios, such as when you are using it for the data center or adding it to your existing infrastructure."
"A big issue with this product is that when our customer migrated the data center, one cluster blocked the whole network and because we had a new approach, some commands were not compatible with the new version."
"The IOS software that is used on the switches could be improved."
"Technical support tends to give conflicting advice on how to configure the product."
"Security features do exist, and they're mostly common with other switches. What makes these switches unique is the ability to see application layers on the switch, but not directly through the switch. There are tools from Extreme Networks that allow visibility of such traffic, which other switches lack. Extreme CloudIQ analytics can analyze all the traffic on Extreme Switches up to layer seven, offering full visibility. However, this tool is necessary for such detailed analytics and might not be compatible with some third-party products."
"While the support is good, it could be better, and the price could be reduced."
"The tool's price is high. We need a cost-effective service. It also needs to add wireless controller features like Huawei."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is cheaper than Cisco and licensing is yearly. We have to pay additional costs for support."
"On a scale of one to ten, if one means it is a cheap solution, and ten means it is a very expensive tool, I rate the product's price as seven. The tool is a bit pricey."
"Dell PowerConnect switches are cheaper than Cisco switches. Cisco's higher capacity switches (100 or 200 gigs) are super-expensive. With the higher capacity, the price of the switches and the price of the architecture go high. Dell is cheaper and modular. So, I don't need to invest 100% upfront. I can invest as I progress. That is an option because the chassis will not be populated with all the pluggables. I have a choice because it is modular. I can go for 25 gigs today, and after four months, I can go for 100 gigs, and after that, I can go for 200 gigs. I have a choice when it is not a fixed switch."
"The product has a low price for the features it provides."
"If you want to purchase a new Dell PowerConnect Switch, you will pay up to $1,600, but I bought them used. I bought the four Dell PowerConnect Switches that I used for $1,000."
"If one is the cheapest price and ten is the most expensive, I rate the product price as an eight or nine. The tool is not cheap."
"I would rate the pricing as a seven or eight."
"The price of these switches is okay."
"In general, the price could be improved."
"The price itself is good, but the economic crisis is causing them to raise prices occasionally."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
27%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise6
No data available
 

Also Known As

PowerConnect Switches
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Amerijet Holdings Inc., CGD Securities, MavenWire, Tulane University
Americatel Peru
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Extreme Networks and others in LAN Switching. Updated: August 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.