We performed a comparison between Cisco Catalyst Switches and Dell PowerConnect Switches based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Users feel Cisco Catalyst Switches provide great stability, intuitive reliable analytics, seamless scalability, excellent PoE capabilities, and solid robust security. However, users are happier with the pricing of Dell PowerConnect Switches.
"Power over Ethernet (PoE) is one of the most valuable features. It eliminates the need for power supplies every time."
"I think it is a reliable and scalable solution."
"I never had downtime with Cisco Catalyst Switches in the last eight years, and I'm pretty impressed with its reliability."
"It can be expanded."
"The most valuable features are the Stacking and the capacity of the switches because they have more throughput. Layer 2 is also part of its rich feature set."
"We decreased budgets on the support corporate network and increased user satisfaction."
"There is a lot of improvement in the network segment after replacing the older switches. I have not seen any kind of issue with these switches since deployment. They are pretty much stable."
"The solution is durable."
"There is high reliability since we have used them for close to twenty years and only had possibly one failure."
"The most valuable feature of Dell PowerConnect Switches for me is the throughput. I also like that the product has more compatibility with Dell infrastructure, especially with EMC and new generation Dell servers. Dell PowerConnect Switches can also easily integrate with Dell servers, and this is another pro."
"PowerConnect Switches' stability is satisfactory."
"The most valuable feature is stability."
"The setup is straightforward. It takes minimum time for deployment."
"The product is cheap."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is simplicity."
"The functionality is very good."
"The product must provide a better central tool for management."
"Cisco is dedicated to providing their customers with the latest technology, but it comes with a price. It's expensive when compared to competitors' products."
"I think that the price should be cheaper and they should include at least one year of basic service for technical support for each product, and not just the 90 days from the time of purchase."
"An area for improvement would be the documentation and training on configuring this product."
"These switches should have better compatibility with software-defined technology."
"Cisco should focus more on this type of product instead of on data center switches. They stopped improving the software of these switches and they are focusing on the data center. They should focus on this type of product, more than any other thing."
"I would like to see better compatibility between Cisco and other vendors."
"The general price of the solution could be cheaper."
"The network features are not good."
"What's lacking in Dell PowerConnect Switches is SD-WAN integration, and this is what needs to be improved in it. All enterprises now move towards SD-WAN infrastructure, and because Dell PowerConnect Switches don't currently support SD-WAN, the product would be replaced, considered a secondary switch, or linked up to a different switch. Integration or support for SD-WAN is what I'd like to see in the next version of Dell PowerConnect Switches."
"A big issue with this product is that when our customer migrated the data center, one cluster blocked the whole network and because we had a new approach, some commands were not compatible with the new version."
"It would be great to have modules that integrate with SDN solutions such as Cisco ACI, Arista SDN, Huawei Agile, and IBM."
"A user can take care of the product's installation part, but it may not seem to be an easy process."
"I can't think of what we would want in the next release."
"Their hardware is not reliable, it's faulty."
"Dell is sometimes slow to provide updates to firmware."
Cisco Catalyst Switches is ranked 1st in LAN Switching with 170 reviews while Dell PowerConnect Switches is ranked 3rd in LAN Switching with 30 reviews. Cisco Catalyst Switches is rated 8.6, while Dell PowerConnect Switches is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Cisco Catalyst Switches writes "Reliable and stable catalyst switch; can be easily installed". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Dell PowerConnect Switches writes "Excellent support, good pricing, and easy setup". Cisco Catalyst Switches is most compared with Arista Networks Platform, Cisco Nexus, HPE ProCurve, ExtremeSwitching and Aruba Instant On Switches, whereas Dell PowerConnect Switches is most compared with Cisco Nexus, HPE ProCurve, NETGEAR Switches, Arista Networks Platform and Dell PowerSwitch N-Series. See our Cisco Catalyst Switches vs. Dell PowerConnect Switches report.
See our list of best LAN Switching vendors and best Data Center Networking vendors.
We monitor all LAN Switching 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.