HPE Ethernet Switches Reviews

They're reliable -- very reliable, in fact -- and a have a good management interface. They're simple to use and quite easy to understand, and I like that they're not CLI. It's the proper GUI interface that makes them much easier to use rather than just having the CLI which makes some of them very difficult. Cisco, for example, is only CLI, but HP gives you a GUI. 

They're also very configurable and they're very good.

The main benefit is reliability. The switches don't go down and they tend to last for a long time. They just don't go down.

They also only rarely need rebooting. I can probably count on one hand the number of times we've had to reboot an HP switch.

They are very noisy, though, and the fans tend to get more and more noisy as they go along. The noise is actually a pain because sometimes where we've got multiple floors, we might put a switch on each floor rather than just put them in the comms room, and there the noise is an absolute pain. They are just very noisy.

That's why we like them, because they're stable. They're very reliable and they just last. The PO switches are also very good.

You can scale by adding fiber connections to the switches which makes it simpler to join switches together, but we haven't found the need for it because the switch is so configurable.

Yes, we have used competitors. We have used Dell, which is absolutely lousy. D-Link has some high-end switches, but they just don't come close.

They're not Cisco, and big companies want to see a name like Cisco. True, HP isn't Cisco, but that's a bit unfair. Having that said, we've got one very big company now with about 200 users who are getting rid of their Cisco switches and putting in HP's.

They're doing so because of HP's reliability and because they got fed up with paying Cisco prices to get their switches and to configure them when any network administrator can configure an HP switch. With Cisco, you need specialist knowledge and you don't really have to have specialist knowledge just for a switch.

From the low-end ProVisions up to the high-end Comware-based switches, their most valuable feature is that they actually work. Not all switches can do that, especially at a reasonable price. HP's switches offer price performance you can't find anywhere else.

These switches provide us with simplicity when we need. The ProVisions have fewer features and fewer functionality, but they're simpler. If we need, we can go with the Comware-based switches which have high-end features. So with these switches we can have both sides.

We had no issues with deployment.

They have been stable.

We've been able to scale with these switches.

Technical support is mostly good, but it's just like every other vendor. When you're at level 1 and you yourself are very knowledgable already, you just want to pass level 1. Level 2 is, normally, quite good, and level 1 is just a filter to take away all the stupid questions. If you're at level 3, you're probably in trouble because you have something that requires you to talk directly to the lab. So with the tiered structure for technical support, there are some inefficiencies. It would be an improvement to make technical support more efficient.

We evaluated Cisco and Juniper. They are considered high-end providers, but HP can more or less do it all. For small, medium, and enterprise businesses, HP has a very good product range.

Get some proper training.

I liked the scalability of the 5400 and 4200. It's ability to have different modules installed for different media types allowed for easy configuration.

Ease of configuration.

I found that the OS on these switches was a little difficult to manage at times. Configuration menus were not always user friendly even for someone with previous Nortel and Cisco experience. One Saving grace was the Procurve manager software. That made things a little easier to manage but I am still a command line person and would have preferred a more user intuitive command line.

I used the switches, HP Procurve 5400ZL and 4200VL as well as the 3500yl, for a little over a year.

I did not deploy these switches. They were in place when I started working with them.

No.

No. That is one thing I liked about them.

Never had to call HP - NA

Never had to call HP - NA

I had previously used Nortel and CIsco in a previous position. I switched due to a job change.

The initial set up of the switches was relatively easy. It has a list of questions that you answered similar to Cisco. The problem with this type of setup is it does not cover everything that should be set up on a switch when doing initial configuration.

All implementation and configuration was accomplished with in-house network engineers and administrators.

Unknown.

Unknown.

Make sure you are familiar with other vendors first. That will help give you the base knowledge on how to navigate and configure this equipment. When all else fails, use the Procurve manager software to manage the equipment.

We use HPE Ethernet Switches in hospitals and governments.

We have some problems with the performance of our HPE Ethernet Switches because they are old.

I have used HPE Ethernet Switches within the past 12 months.

The solution is highly stable.

We have one client using the solution.

The support of HPE Ethernet Switches is responsive and helpful.

HPE Ethernet Switches are more difficult to implement than other solutions, such as Aruba, because the configuration has to be done one by one, it's not saved centrally. You are not able to automatically configure them across the hardware.

I utilized a significant amount of HP technology in order to create a stacking configuration, incorporating various models as needed. This was because Aruba, which is a well-established brand, is frequently used for stacking purposes. However, in our particular scenario, I utilized HPE Ethernet Switches, despite it being an older technology, and decided to stack them. To provide a specific example, I utilized the HP 2930 model, which is stackable as per the guidelines provided by the model guide. Additionally, I integrated artificial intelligence to further optimize the process. However, for improved results, scaling up is necessary.

I did the implementation of the solution.

The price of the solution is expensive.

I rate the price of HPE Ethernet Switches a ten out of ten.

I would recommend this solution to others who have traditional environments.

I rate HPE Ethernet Switches a ten out of ten.

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.

I like that these switches are reliable, and the support is good.

It would be better if they improve the implementation of SD-WAN. There could be improved automation as well.

I've been using HPE Ethernet Switches for seven or eight years.

Technical support is excellent.

Previously, we used Cisco switches. We still use some, and they probably make up about 5% overall.

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.

An in-house deployment team of five implemented these switches. 

The price is fair. 

I would recommend these ethernet switches to potential customers.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give HPE Ethernet Switches an eight.

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.

Throughput is the most valuable feature for me, and penetration in the central data center. We use different modules and you can just configure on top of it. We have a fiber channel because my building is tethered with five, six floors. I need to get all this fiber to be connected to the switches. One switch solved the issue with high availability. The second connected all our server devices. We sliced it to our switch based on our requirement.

They need to improve the GUI interface for the switches, the access layer switch in particular, with complete details so we can track each and every port. This will make it easier to find the gaps in performance.

Also, on two or three occasions, heat distribution caused a problem because we penetrate this to a different floor and a fan got damaged, stopped, and emitted a lot of heat.

We've been using it for four years.

I've had no issues deploying it.

I haven't had any issues with instability.

The upgrades are all pretty easy. We do the frequent upgrades based on the release notes of HP and it's going well for us.

Technical support is very good from HP especially because they give a lifetime warranty for the hardware. It depends on the support of what you've taken, for example, if you've been highly response level of followers. Now in Saudi Arabia, you can say the after-sales support has improved a lot. It's not only HP switching part, to be frank, it's HP with servers and anytime we open a case we can order pretty quickly as consultants.

The initial setup was simple because initially I used to have a Cisco switches, which was four years ago, and an old model. Configuration and backups are easy. Backups we configure on the solar vents and they're very much pretty integrated with the solar vents.

We evaluated Cisco, but they were very expensive in terms of total cost of ownership.

You need to analyze and observe the performance.

Our primary use case is for layer three or four switches.

I have found the most valuable feature is stability.

I would like to see the initial setup become easier.

I have been using HPE Ethernet Switches for the past two or three years.

There is stability.

The management required we switch to HPE Ethernet Switches. There could be a variety of reasons why management makes the switch.

When you do the deployment you simply call and verify the device and serial number. Once this is done you can access the data.

The licensing cost is set up annually or every three years.

I would rate HPE Ethernet Switches an overall eight on a scale of one to ten.