Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches Reviews and Pricing

Engineer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Jan 29, 2014

Benefits of Juniper vs Cisco

Both are decent products. I prefer Juniper for the following reasons:

1) Cleaner separation of data plane from control plane. Higher end Cisco devices are better at this but most of the lower end products still seem to be more integrated than I like.

2) The Hierarchical config design means I can make changes only in areas that concern me without necessarily impacting other areas.

3) Easier rollback when one makes mistakes

4) I think there are less bugs/vulnerabilities in Junos vs IOS.

5) iOS has too many flavors leads to confusion with deployment.

One more advantage of junos over iOS. Juniper adheres closer to the standards than Cisco. Epigraph is nice, auto rp is cool, but with the less protocols in the standards it's much earlier to configure junos.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user111156Consultant

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May 6, 2014

Either vendor has a switch that will do the job. However I perferer Juniper due to

a. rollback is quick and easy in the event of issues arising from chnages
b. easier fault finding (once you get your head around how its implemented)
c. no need check the switch to find which OS feature set is installed and if memory / flash upgrade is required - its all in the OS with very few licenses (usually none) required to get full functionality if you have select the correct product in the first place
d. Hierarchical config is much easier to follow - great concept that most programmers can pickup quickly
e. don't need to learn different variants of the CLI as is required on IOS (even HP manage to stay relatively consistent there)
f. decent speed stacking interfaces on enterprise grade switches (particular 4x00 series)
g. more function for $ (at retail prices)
h. closer to standards than Cisco - easier interoperability in multi vendor environment
i. does not have legacy protocols that are not used or so rarely used that they don't matter in the day and age

Purchase and implementation of Cisco maintenance process is MUCH simpler to the end customer

Worked on both brands for a number of years.

it_user5700

Engineer with 501-1,000 employees

Apr 4, 2013

I found it to be difficult to make the transition from Cisco to Juniper as far as the CLI goes.

Overall, the equipment is pretty good and more affordable than some other solutions. I found it to be difficult to make the transition from CISCO to Juniper as far as the CLI goes, maybe thats just me. I also had more than one instance where a switch would just stop working and I would have to reload the firmware on it and reconfigure it to get it back up and running. This caused me to purchase backup devices to minimize downtime and really cut into the cost savings over CISCO.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user88422Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

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Feb 13, 2014

There's a learning curve for sure but it's definitely a better CLI and it appears Cisco agrees going by the changes in IOS-XR. Once you get your heard round using a tiered structure it just makes more sense. Config tools that JunOS offers like copy, replace and move are really handy if you learn how to use them. These can save you a lot of time. What else...

Commit check / confirm / comment
rollback
traceroute monitor
monitor interface
stacking of pipe "|" commands for example: show interface | match xe | match error
Show configuration | display set

I strongly advise you start looking at and backing up configs using the later format. Sometimes the standard hierarchical display can be easier to read and spot mistakes but for copy and pasting config it's much easier to use the "set" display format. Avoiding using "load merge terminal" will save you headaches IMHO.

Once you learn the power of all the show and config command options start looking at JunOS Scripts - then you'll be blown away.

Also if you have access Juniper offer a IOS to JunOS conversion tool... i2j.juniper.net/release/index.jsp

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it_user2589

IT Administrator at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Oct 27, 2012

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Impressive features but switches are facing tough competition

Pros and Cons

"From the technology point of view quality, design, and look-and-feel is good."

"I felt that on-site and telephone support is not satisfactory."

Valuable Features:

From the technology point of view quality, design, and look-and-feel is good. Network administrators can easily manage and configure these network switches. I have easily configured an L3 switch to create a network campus backbone. Low maintenance required. No certification (CCNA, CCIE) is required to become a network administrator to set up a Juniper network.

Room for Improvement:

During price negotiation we found that price is high compared to other switches. High price is obstructing sales in market. I felt that on-site and telephone support is not satisfactory.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.