We use a lot of these switches because it's a university. We use a lot of access switches and wireless switches. They're excellent.
IT PM at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Reliable ethernet switches that come with excellent support
Pros and Cons
- "I like that these switches are reliable, and the support is good."
- "The installation of HPE Ethernet Switches is straightforward; we installed over 1500 switches, across eight different locations, in six weeks, and it went very smoothly."
- "It would be better if they improve the implementation of SD-WAN. There could be improved automation as well."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
I like that these switches are reliable, and the support is good.
What needs improvement?
It would be better if they improve the implementation of SD-WAN. There could be improved automation as well.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using HPE Ethernet Switches for seven or eight years.
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HPE Ethernet Switches
June 2026
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900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is excellent.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we used Cisco switches. We still use some, and they probably make up about 5% overall.
How was the initial setup?
The installation of HPE Ethernet Switches is straightforward. We installed over 1500 switches, across eight different locations, in six weeks, and it went very smoothly. At present, we have about 35,000 users, and integration with other platforms is fine.
What about the implementation team?
An in-house deployment team of five implemented these switches.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is fair.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend these ethernet switches to potential customers.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give HPE Ethernet Switches an eight.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Director at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Good initial setup and decent scalability, but is expensive
Pros and Cons
- "The scalability is very good."
- "The scalability is not an issue, as the solution expands well and companies can build it out and scale it pretty easily."
- "The solution is a bit expensive."
- "The solution should offer more automation; it's not good compared to Cisco or any other brand."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily sell the solution to our client base. The customers are typically telecom operators or enterprise-level companies. It's used primarily for data center applications and connectivity solutions.
What is most valuable?
The initial setup isn't too bad.
The scalability is very good.
What needs improvement?
The solution is a bit expensive.
The stability needs to be improved upon. It's not as good as it could be.
The solution should offer more automation. It's not good compared to Cisco, or any other brand.
The company needs to offer much better local support. Right now, it's not great in terms of technical support.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been dealing with the product for a long time. It's been over a decade. Likely, we've been selling HP for 12 years at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability isn't ideal. It could be much better. It's an aspect of the solution they could work on.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is not an issue. The solution expands well. If a company needs to build it ut and scale it, they should be able to do so pretty easily.
I'm not sure how many people within our company actually use the solution, or how many of our clients have it. I don't know that we have around 20 technical people that work with the solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
I don't find the technical support aspect of the solution very helpful. I'm not satisfied with the level of support provided.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We're also using Cisco switches. We also an Indian brand known as Edge Appeal.
This solution lacks the automation that Cisco, for example, offers.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty straightforward for the most part. It's not too complex.
I didn't personally handle the implementation myself, as I'm not very technical. I couldn't comment on how long the deployment takes as I wasn't directly involved.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
You do need to pay quite a bit for the license.
The pricing could be a little bit less, to be honest. As a product that's made in Taiwan, you would assume it would be cheaper than it is.
What other advice do I have?
We're resellers of the solution.
I'm not really on the technical side.
I'd recommend the solution for the most part. It's fine to use.
Overall, the solution is average, which is why I would rate it at a five out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
Buyer's Guide
HPE Ethernet Switches
June 2026
Learn what your peers think about HPE Ethernet Switches. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Project Manager, Special Projects at a media company with 51-200 employees
Stable, easy to use, has a good buffer and a suitable architecture
Pros and Cons
- "We have scaled it without any issues."
- "When we compared with Cisco, we chose HPE because of the buffer and the architecture is more suitable than Cisco."
- "There is a limitation of capability. To move to OpenFlow is very difficult."
What is our primary use case?
We are using the HPE Ethernet Switches in our office to stream and to join the internet.
What is most valuable?
The reason we are using this switch is for the buffer that we have.
It's easy to use.
What needs improvement?
There is a limitation of capability. To move to OpenFlow is very difficult.
Also, there is a limitation with the team protocols.
We had some issues with the dashboard. When we tried changing the PR or some parameters, it was not completely syncing.
We had two different values passing through the dashboard once you pass through the command line.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with HPE Ethernet Switches from 2012 to 2020.
We are using HP version 5830 and 5920.
The 5920 version is a 24 port gig, and the 5830 is a 48 port and a 24 port gig.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable. Since 2012 it has always been in production and it is used on a daily basis, 24 hours per day.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's scalable. We have scaled it without any issues.
We have 10 people in our organization who are using this product.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have a person that we contact through HPE when we have issues. Once they found a solution, we have not any problems.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is complex.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is very good.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend these two versions of switches that we have been using.
When we compared with Cisco, we chose HPE because of the buffer and the architecture is more suitable than Cisco.
I would rate the HPE Ethernet Switches an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Team Lead Networks at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Cost-effective and straightforward to set up
Pros and Cons
- "These are the basic access layer switches used for connectivity among users, and they are cost-effective."
- "If there is any fluctuation in power then we will face an outage with our POE switches, so this is something that should be improved."
What is our primary use case?
These access layer switches are used by our branches for user LAN connectivity.
What is most valuable?
These are the basic access layer switches used for connectivity among users, and they are cost-effective.
What needs improvement?
We sometimes have issues with the stability of our POE switches. If there is any fluctuation in power then we will face an outage with our POE switches, so this is something that should be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using these switches for between four and five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
These switches are partly stable but we do sometimes face issues with them. We do plan to continue using them in the future.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have these switches deployed in different branches and in many cities.
In our office, we have between 10 and 12 users.
How are customer service and technical support?
We are only using this product for basic purposes, so we do not require technical support from HPE.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using Cisco Ethernet switches before we switched to HPE. The HPE switches are almost the same and we switched because they are more cost-effective.
How was the initial setup?
The installation and initial setup are straightforward. The minimum time required is half an hour.
What about the implementation team?
Our in-house team is responsible for deployment. We have five or six team members who are engineers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There are no licensing costs for this solution.
What other advice do I have?
This is a product that I can recommend.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Head of Technical Support at a real estate/law firm with 51-200 employees
Stable and scalable; very dependable
Pros and Cons
- "Stable and scalable."
- "I think it's on par with other vendors like Dell."
- "I think this solution could be improved if the installation could be made more secure."
What is our primary use case?
These are units that are a two or three layer solution. Since it's from HP, we have a lifetime warranty for these switches, unless the product is already phased out. But in most cases it takes a long time before they're out of a cycle. Most of these are quite durable. We are customers of HPE Ethernet Switches and I'm head of technical support.
What needs improvement?
I think this solution could be improved if the installation could be made more secure. From our point of view, HP could have SNMP product softwares that would allow us to track all the assets, and then to connect, to identify our equipment. There are options which would allow us to secure the equipment. I think with the enterprise solution, if it's HP, then there is a need to integrate it with an HP product for it to work. The only way to simplify this is with VLANs and then routing, and then let the systems take over when it comes to firewalls and other things. Implementation of those things would allow us to have tighter security.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's an enterprise solution so it's stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's mostly quite scalable and quite straightforward.
How are customer service and technical support?
If we have problems, we tend to resolve it ourselves. Sometimes there are bugs but it gets sorted out after a while.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used IBM but they gave up on those products and sold the PC and printer business. We started using HP before that happened.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is quite straightforward. Once we have the manuals, and can enable the VLAN and routing functions, we can set the redundancy, our STP, so that from switch one to switch two, you can set four lines to be redundant. In the event that one line is cut, the others will take over. We can also do a link aggregate where you combine the different lines together to increase the bandwidth. These are mostly the straightforward functions that we use as far as the switches are concerned.
In terms of deployment time, we usually define the IP addresses for the switches so we can access it remotely. Then it's a straightforward thing. There's a plan for us to do some more straightforward definition in the coming months. We do the deployments ourselves. We currently have between 200 - 300 users. I use five or six people and then we can deploy in a week or two.
What other advice do I have?
There's the familiarity factor for us. It's something that we hold on to. If you know the product is stable, and it's not outdated then you'll continue to use it. I think it's on par with other vendors like Dell. I'm very satisfied with everything. I've been using HP for a long time already and I think it's quite reliable, even my printer is HP.
I would rate this solution a nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Head of System Engineers at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Very robust and reliable in both scalability and stability
Pros and Cons
- "A very robust solution."
- "This is an extremely robust product and that is valuable to us."
- "Configuration can be complex."
- "Configuration could be improved, it is sometimes quite complex."
What is our primary use case?
We use HPE switches for connecting to different sites and have LAN switches for local workstations. I'm head of system engineers and we're customers of HPE.
What is most valuable?
This is an extremely robust product and that is valuable to us.
What needs improvement?
It would be nice to be able to connect literally with firewall systems, that would be very helpful for us. Configuration could be improved, it is sometimes quite complex.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this product for nearly four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of this solution is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of the product is good.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have our own team for maintenance so haven't had to use technical support. There are four engineers in the company who help out with maintenance.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup can be complex depending on the situation.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this product.
There is always room for improvement so I would rate this product an eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
CIO at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Extremely stable with good technical support and relatively fair pricing
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is the backbone of our HPE network devices and is very, very stable."
- "The installation can be quite complex. However, that may not be the fault of HP and is rather more related to the way our infrastructure is arranged."
- "The installation can be quite complex."
What is our primary use case?
We're using all HPE network devices. All the core network infrastructure depends on this one solution.
What is most valuable?
The solution is the backbone of our HPE network devices.
The solution is very, very stable.
Technical support is quite good, although we haven't had any real problems with the solution and therefore do not really need to contact them.
What needs improvement?
We are satisfied with the set of features already on offer through HP. We don't want to improve anything and we don't need any other new features.
The pricing could be better.
The installation can be quite complex. However, that may not be the fault of HPE and is rather more related to the way our infrastructure is arranged.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for over a decade. It's been more than ten years at this point since I first started using it.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is extremely stable, and we haven't had any major issues to contend with. We like to be safe, so we do employ a failover solution. We buy it in pairs to ensure the stability of our infrastructure. It doesn't crash or freeze and there aren't bugs or glitches. It's very, very reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We've been satisfied with the scalability. We'll continue to use the solution as we haven't had any issues with it.
How are customer service and technical support?
We do have technical support access, however, we don't really ever use it as we don't need them. These are very stable products, so we don't have to change the hardware and we don't have any big issues with it. HPE is now providing a level three type of service, so we have a partner who provides us with any technical support we may need and they can solve any problems. That said, we haven't had a big one.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not straightforward at all. We had a project to install these devices, however, our infrastructure is quite difficult. We had to do a lot of customization.
We bought the latest solution in the past three years and we'll use it for three more. It took more than a month to install everything.
We used five team members to handle the deployment process.
What about the implementation team?
We're using integrators who are experts in HPE to assist us in installations due to the unique nature of our infrastructure.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is very reasonable. However, it could still be lower to make it more affordable to mid-range organizations.
What other advice do I have?
We're just a customer. We don't have a business relationship with HP.
I can recommend it to middle size companies due to the fact that it's stable and the prices are quite fair. It's also very popular as a product, so it's easy to find experts to manage it.
Overall, I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. It really isn't lacking, from our point of view, and has never given us any trouble.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Owner at ITL
Reliable and easy to scale
Pros and Cons
- "These switches are very stable, to date I have not experienced any issues."
- "Technical support needs improvement, as the response time could be better."
What is our primary use case?
I am a service provider for my customers.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is stability.
What needs improvement?
The UI on the web console needs improvement.
The routing settings could be made easier to deploy.
Technical support needs improvement, as the response time could be better.
I would like to see this solution support SDN. It should have more SDN compatibility.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using these switches for over ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
These switches are very stable, to date I have not experienced any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable product and we have 40 engineers using it.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is very slow to respond.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is a little bit complex.
Depending on the complexity, it can take up to three hours to deploy each switch.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, this is a good product except for the support.
I would recommend this product aside from the troubleshooting because the service is awful.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator
Operational Director at Capaccioli s.r.l.
Good management system, good support, and guaranteed for life
Pros and Cons
- "What I like the most is the management system integrated with the HP system."
- "The switches are guaranteed for life, it's a great solution."
- "When we have a lot of clients on the system, we lose signal and have to restart our antenna."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case of this solution is for the office network connection.
What is most valuable?
What I like the most is the management system integrated with the HP system. Our server is HPE and we have the management system to supervise. Now it is our system, but at the same time, it is the HPE because it is integrated into our system.
What needs improvement?
I am now using a new model because we had a problem with the speed, but the problem was with the network infrastructure, not with the HPE. We did not have the fiber backbone in our company.
We need more support to fix simple issues. For example, to find a problem in the LAN or why the systems speed is slow.
When we have a lot of clients on the system, we lose signal and have to restart our antenna.
It would be better to be able to provide my number and have the information needed in regards to the equipment when a change is proposed.
You will need the assistance of a technician because the implementation is not that easy.
If you change your old equipment then it will be replaced but you have the same issues in five years' time because HPE does not have the equipment to solve my issues.
In the next release, I would like to see technical support for simple issues and to simplify the implementation.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable.
The switches have been installed for a minimum of five years, and have never been switched off. The problem is the cable or the rack gripped the cable, not the switch.
The switches are old, but there are components available that are not too expensive.
We have fifty users. This includes a technical and IT office with three people, a mechanical office with ten engineers, and an electronic office with three engineers.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is scalable.
In our company, we want to change to a Fiber backbone and the switches we have are too old and only have STF ports with a maximum speed of one gigabit. The network needs ten gigabits to scale one gigabit for the client.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical is okay for our system. With the issue we have now, we contacted web support. We were satisfied with the support that we received.
We had a problem with the shipment being lost, and they had to ship another one, but that was a problem with the shipper and not HPE.
The support not only solves my problems but they try to solve future problems that may occur.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously we used Cisco Atlantis. We switched to HPE because we had a good impression of this solution and good experience with the switches. Our network system was also older, with older equipment.
I find the setup in Cisco to be more difficult than HPE, but I know HPE better than Cisco.
How was the initial setup?
If you use the web interface, the GUI interface, you need to have a basic knowledge to manage the network, it's easy. If you use the command line interface it's not as easy.
The time it takes to deploy really depends on the complexity of the network. If, for example, you have one HPE switch without a VLAN system, it's not easy. A network deployment can take a week with ten switches and to set up every port.
What about the implementation team?
To implement this solution to make a separate VLAN for the CMC or to deploy the VPN connection we used an external technician. The technician, in this case, was HPE certified.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
There were three options, but we prefer HPE, it was our first choice.
What other advice do I have?
My advice would be to draw the network system before calling a technician. It's necessary to do a good job.
The price is not the only thing to consider when making your decision.
The switches are guaranteed for life, it's a great solution.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Manager at Cobantur
Good manageability of the switches and has an easy setup
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is easy to set up and easy to use, unlike, for example, Cisco, which is more complex."
- "The manageability of the switches is the solution's most valuable feature."
- "The quality of the service needs improvement."
What is most valuable?
The manageability of the switches is the solution's most valuable feature.
The solution is easy to set up and easy to use, unlike, for example, Cisco, which is more complex.
What needs improvement?
The quality of the service needs improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for many years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the solution is good. Originally we had some power problems with the end devices. However, I upgraded and now it is very stable and we haven't had issues since then.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We've never run into any issues scaling the product. It's very good. Everyone in our company currently uses them.
How are customer service and technical support?
The setup of the switches is simple, so we don't need any outside technical support. Once, when we had a switch that was broken, we called HP and they sent us a new one, which was convenient. Other than that, we haven't had any contact with them.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of the solution is simple.
What about the implementation team?
I handle the implementation myself.
What other advice do I have?
We use the on-premises deployment model.
I know the devices very well, so I prefer HP. I'd recommend the solution.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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