HPE Ethernet Switches Reviews

I work in network operations and have experience as a user of HPE Ethernet Switches. We don't function as the customer, but as the customer's customer. 

The graphical user interface is very good and quite easy to run with. It's quite intuitive.

In terms of product improvement, it's possible that the VLAN tagging could be improved, it's not that straightforward. But I can't really think of other improvements I'd like to see. 

Additional features that could be included in the next release could be the inclusion of further monitoring facilities. 

It's very stable and that's one of the good things about the product. It basically comes with a lifetime guarantee and that was one of the main reasons why I purchased them in the first place.

I haven't had any reason to deal with the technical support people to date.

I would recommend the Hewlett Packard product. They are very, very stable, and for the money it's really good value.

I would rate the product a nine out of 10.

We primarily use the solution for data communication, the data center, and wireless. All of our switches are HP.

The switches offer simple management. I can control what I need using CLI. CLI commands are very simple and are somewhat similar to Cisco CLI. We can manage them, we can update them freely, and the warranty is unlimited. This is the solution's most valuable feature.

The solution uses a single interface and that interface contains everything.

The stability is very good on this solution. There have been no bugs, glitches or crashes.

Scalability on the solution is easy. It's not too difficult. Right now, we have about 150 users on the solution.

We've contacted technical support many times. They are quick to respond. We're satisfied with them.

I have used Cisco switches before. Cisco updates are more difficult on switches. Also, the initial setup is more difficult.

The initial setup is easy. Deployment only takes a few minutes.

I handled the installation myself.

The pricing is a bit lower than Cisco switches.

We use the 2500 PoE switches.

I have a lot of experience with HP switches. They're very reliable and are implemented easily. The features that they offer are more than enough for our hospital. There are other features on solutions like Cisco and Juniper, but for what we need, this solution is perfect.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

We use this solution for connecting users and desktop PCs together in our local network.

A lower price would be an improvement because we always want to reduce our costs.

We have had no problems with respect to stability.

It is no problem to scale this solution.

We have approximately one hundred users at our main site and thirty users at the other site.

The technical support for this solution is fine.

The initial setup of this solution is easy.

We called a specialist to assist us with the deployment.

This is not an expensive solution.

We only use the basic features in this solution. It is just a small configuration that we work with.

Perfection does not exist and it's always possible to do more.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We primarily use this solution for video surveillance.

The best part about this solution is the price.

This solution is easy to use.

The technical support for this solution has improved from what it was.

We have had some rare occasions with glitches, so the stability can be improved.

This solution is stable, but on the rare occasion, we have had glitches like dropped packets.

We do not tolerate serious issues in the backbone or infrastructure. We do not go for something cheap and hoping that it will work, especially when it comes to networking.

I cannot comment on the scalability because it is not something that we consider. When we decide on a solution, we go for it completely, from the beginning to the end. We start with the complete solution on day one, as opposed to starting small and then looking to scale it later on.

The number of users for each of our switches depends on the circumstances. In some sites, we have ten or twenty users. In other sites, depending on how big it is, like an industrial facility or a hotel, we do not know. Many of our solutions are used in retail or hospitality environments.

We do not speak with HPE technical support because everything has to go through the distributor.

Most of the time, we use solutions from Cisco. They are well supported in Egypt. However, new regulations in Egypt require that if we are buying a product from abroad then we have to be a partner, and have a letter from the vendor to indicate this. Is has to do with the ability to provide local support.

Because we are not a partner with Cisco, we need to purchase equipment from the local partner. This means that we have to work with their fees and time schedule. Paying in advance is not a problem, but you have to wait for an unspecified period of time to receive your equipment. They won't give you an estimate as to the duration.

We switched to HPE simply because they are easier to get than Cisco or Sophos.

Our deployment took a couple of days.

We have not had to maintain our switches, except for one time when we had a bad experience. It was a long time ago, and we had HPE switches from a system integrator. One had a problem and it was under warranty, but instead of replacing the switch, they started swapping pieces one at a time. This switch was in a very crucial data center and it was very difficult to get there.

Ultimately, we lost the customer and the system integrator lost their reputation. I think that HPE lost a lot because it was much easier to replace the entire unit instead of replacing one piece at a time. They ended up replacing entire modules. Since that time, we don't rely on local partners. We talk to HPE directly or we collect the whole unit and send it to HPE.

Our in-house team handled the implementation.

Licensing fees are on a yearly basis.

These switches are not as stable as those from Cisco.

We were looking at some switches from Alcatel-Lucent, but they are not popular in Egypt.

This is a solution that I recommend.

My advice to anybody researching this type of solution is to not go for the cheap solution. Go for the right one. You get what you pay for.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

The primary use case of this solution is for the customer's assurances in medium-size businesses.

The deployment model that we are using is on-premises, but it is going more and more in the cloud direction.

The most valuable feature is the IRF. It is very good, it has a multi-connection that you can do with multiple aggregation protocols to different chassis and this is a very valuable feature.

It's easy to stack more switches together if you need more ports.

Technical support needs improvement.

Customer awareness, as in the availability of the products, needs to be improved through marketing or other information.

Currently, we haven't seen any new switches and we don't know if there will be others.

In the next release, I would like to see them include more features like the Aruba solution, to have more possibilities concerning the software design.

This solution is very stable. It's a very good solution.

This is a scalable solution. With the IRF you can stack the switches willfully together locally or geographically. You can have the same switch even if you have a switch ten kilometers away from your location.

Technical support needs improvement.

The initial setup is straightforward and easy.

The time it takes to deploy depends on if the customer. An SD solution that will use management to configure the switches automatically will take minutes. If you have to configure a stand-alone switch it can take half an hour.

For ten customers there may be one person to deploy the switch and maintain it. You would rarely have to replace a switch.

There is no license for this solution.

We need a license for having a management solution, but the switch does not need a license. There are free software updates and there is a lifetime warranty for a few of the switch series.

If a customer has an issue with a switch and has to return to HPE, they can have it replaced within thirty days.

To our customers, we offer a contract service to have an exchange within the next day.

I would suggest not to invest in this switch. Aruba, which is also HPE, has a great switch. Aruba is taking over these types of switches because of the DLAN and WLAN. 

I agree that HPE provides good products but I would go with Aruba OS.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

We use this solution for our office network in an on-premises deployment.

It handles only our office traffic, and our main computers are on the cloud.

We use classical features such as trunking and VLAN. We don't really use the fancy stuff like SNMP.

The HPE Ethernet switches have very low latency.

The interface is old in appearance and needs to be modernized.

I would like to see better URL filters and security.

It would be helpful to have training available for this solution.

We have had no problem with respect to stability, and we are very happy.

We have not needed to scale this solution.

We had to contact technical support one time to update the software. It was not easy because this unit is very old. We could not find the current files on the HP support page.

Currently, we do not have a contract with technical support.

We had a NETGEAR solution and it was not stable. I did not like the interface because it was very slow. It was a pain to work with and maintain the configuration. It also had very high latency. After switching to HPE we have had no problem at all.

The initial setup of this solution is straightforward. It has been very easy to change the computers whenever we needed to.

Our deployment took approximately one day. It was easy to get working.

A single technician is enough for deployment and maintenance.

I have also been working with Cisco solutions, which are really great but there is a problem with integration. If everything is Cisco then it is very smooth, but if you mix vendors then it's a problem. This is the reason we did not choose Cisco here.

I have also worked with other kinds of switches like D-Link, but they are not for a business like ours.

I would recommend this product and also a support contract. I don't think that I would pay this price without getting the support.

We are happy with this solution but it is really an old model.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

Most of our switches are located within the local office.

The best feature of this solution is the lifetime warranty.

This solution is easy to use and to configure.

This solution needs to support software-defined networking.

The management needs to be more open so that they can be easily managed using external software.

I would like to see support for integration with hyper-converged solutions. For example, I would like to be able to manage these switches from VMware or from a Nutanix platform.

They need a new way to manage the access control system. They do have a solution for this, but it is very complicated and not suitable for the SMBs. It may be fine for large enterprises, but not for small companies.

This solution is very stable. We have rarely, perhaps one or two times, seen bugs, and they were not very serious. It's very stable compared to other routers.

In terms of scalability, I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We have not dealt with technical support for this solution.

We have reached out to our local partner, but it was just for clarification. Whenever we want to buy a new switch, we want to confirm the features like the stacking protocol. In terms of support, we have never had an issue that required we contact HPE.

The initial setup of this solution is easy. It is similar to Cisco and Huawei. There is not a big difference. They are all easy in terms of use and configuration.

The deployment takes between half a day and a day. There are advanced tools, and there is a template for configuration. You just have to change some parameters and that's it.

In some implementations that are large, people may need the right support from HPE or from local partners to do the configuration. It takes certain skills to do it properly.

We handled the deployment ourselves.

Whenever we purchase a new switch, we give everybody a chance. We have evaluated Cisco and Huawei hardware.

When it comes to HPE switches, as a recommendation, in the end it depends on the requirements. They have to know exactly what they need because HPE has all types and all levels of switches. They keep changing models, and sometimes we have challenges because we find out that two years later, the model is discontinued. Because of this, I say that it is important to purchase the latest model, and not one that is two or three years old because in another year it will be discontinued.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

These are core switches, so they handle the bulk of our network traffic from servers to the endpoints as well as SAN traffic.

They switch. They are capable of much more sophistication than we are able to support.  The addition of Aruba looks promising.

Simplicity and warranty. We are a small shop, and being simple is best. These are basic managed switches and the lifetime warranty is great.

It would be nice to have a common OS across models so that they could be managed together. But that is more in line with higher production equipment.

We're using the Converge series of switches, and we're quite happy with the easy-to-use common line. They're easy to administer and manage, and never have any major problems. They're stable and reliable.

We're able to offer every user very high-speed internet for both transferring data and downloading from the network. This is a solution that actually works best in a very high-speed environment.

All its features fit our needs right now. It's not too pricey and it's not a series that will end any time soon. We stick with what we know.

It's actually quite stable. We haven't had problems with performance, upgrades, updates, different versions, etc. We're quite happy with the stability.

Scalability is also quite nice because we're used to stacking the switches up to five or six units. It would be nice to be able to stack more than that, but we don't have the need for it right now, just in the future maybe.

The level of technical support depends on the topic. We've had some not-so-good experiences where our tickets were left open because they couldn't solve our problem.

The initial setup is quite complex.

I would not suggest implementing MSM controller solutions, but you can't make a mistake with HP Converge series switches.

They've had a commitment over the last five years to be amongst the most open out there. They are very easy to deploy and manage, and offer a lifetime warranty. Most other vendors who have tried this, have shied away from it. I think recently they have focused on building a highly programmable and open OS so you can create a very large ecosystem around it.

Building a bigger ecosystem around them, not just wired/wireless, but there's being able to bring other HP areas such as server and storage groups. At the moment, they operate as separate business areas, and they could clean that up a bit. Also, the technical support needs improvement,

They've been doing it for 15 years and have a very reliable product. The fact that they offer a lifetime warranty in some ways is a testament to the stability because if they were constantly failing and churning them out, it would be reflected in their financials.

Since the acquisition of 3COM they have data center equipment that can scale to the largest data centres out there. I think they were the first to offer 40GB and 100GB. This is some big iron stuff.

They've had their ups and downs. I think this is one area they can improve in. For a while, you used to get thrown into the queue with printers and all sorts of other stuff. So they've fixed that, and it's better, but still needs to be improved.

It's easy to get going. You can unbox it, plug it in and have it running quickly, but if you go into the advanced settings it can take longer.

They've got a good product, but there's still room for improvement. I would be insistent that they help you integrate it with the non-HP services you have through their professional services.