We performed a comparison between Arista Networks Platform and Cisco Nexus based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: In this comparison, the two products received similar ratings across all categories. However, users of Arista Networks Platform reported seeing an ROI while users of Cisco Nexus did not.
"The most valuable aspect of Arista Networks products is their ease of configuration, especially when compared to Cisco products. When we implement advanced features for data centers such as BGP EVPN and VXLAN, Arista's configuration process is similar to that of Cisco's process, but at the same time it is simply much easier, clearer, and more understandable."
"It's an extremely reliable platform for the network switches we use."
"The best part is the single operating system that they have. Regardless of your model, it's the same operating system functioning across the board, which means you don't have to worry about backward compatibilities between your older switches and the new ones that you deploy."
"It is very stable. It has good hardware and very stable code. It provides good value for its price. They are a very lean type of organization, so they are very responsive, and they're able to focus more on their platform versus having multiple products out there."
"We find the CloudVision switching feature of this solution really useful."
"They support open standard features."
"The solution is very stable."
"The solution is scalable."
"We now have one box that does multiple services."
"The consolidation of all of the layer two ports into one rack is very valuable."
"The most valuable feature is its reliability."
"The most valuable features of this solution are scalability and reliability."
"Cisco Nexus has good overall reliability and configuration options. It is fairly straightforward to access the switching platforms."
"The solution has introduced VPC, Virtual Port Channel, which allows for more redundancy and flexibility."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Nexus is the performance, flexibility, configuration, and cost. It's not a traditional pricing model from Cisco. They've offered our company a considerable reduction in price. That makes Cisco Nexus now very competitive with other vendors."
"Cisco technical support is a good backup team when you have issues with anything. If you open a case they are very good at following up and making sure that the issue's resolved according to the needs of our network."
"I want the solution to include a unified controller."
"Its price can be better."
"They should have a more stable code."
"The overall price of the Arista Networks Platform is expensive. It should be reduced."
"The intent-based networking management, together with the provider of these solutions that are already free, would be beneficial."
"The solution is quite expensive. One of the negative aspects of it is the pricing."
"A smoother transition between ISPs during failover would improve the user experience by reducing unnecessary notifications and interruptions."
"The solution’s pricing could be better."
"The initial setup wasn't simple or user-friendly."
"One of the biggest challenges, which I see is that there's a constant evolution in the product. For example, our configuration is based on what is known as traditional data center implementation. Today there is the ACI deployment and to implement, to migrate from one technology to another, that's challenging both from a configuration perspective and also from a cost perspective."
"My only complaint is that not all of the ports on it are enabled from the start."
"For a very small subset, Cisco Nexus caused port flapping within the applications."
"Cisco Nexus is just a platform. You just set it up, give it an IP, and then start configuring it. But there are a million features to configure."
"There may be many bugs which remain unresolved."
"The solution is more expensive than other options on the market."
"Overall, I wish it was a more intuitive OS."
Arista Networks Platform is ranked 2nd in Data Center Networking with 21 reviews while Cisco Nexus is ranked 3rd in Data Center Networking with 99 reviews. Arista Networks Platform is rated 8.6, while Cisco Nexus is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Arista Networks Platform writes "Affordable for enterprise-sized companies". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Cisco Nexus writes " Offer high performance capabilities and enables efficient data transmission and processing". Arista Networks Platform is most compared with Cisco Catalyst Switches, Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches, Aruba Switches, Cisco Ethernet Switches and Meraki MS Switches, whereas Cisco Nexus is most compared with Cisco Catalyst Switches, Juniper QFX Series Switches, Dell PowerConnect Switches, VMware NSX and Juniper QFabric. See our Arista Networks Platform vs. Cisco Nexus report.
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We monitor all Data Center Networking reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.