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.
"It has the ability to create new services for users, such as IP phones and video conference."
"Overall top of the line solution."
"This is a feature-rich product and the newer models have improved features that allow for many new possibilities."
"We have dealt with Cisco's technical support in the past. They were especially helpful and very polite. They are always there if we need them and their insights are always excellent. I would say that we have been satisfied with the level of support we've gotten so far."
"The availability of resources for learning about the product and doing evaluation of any issues is excellent."
"Cisco offers DNS features over other vendors."
"It is an infrastructure tool, so it is just providing a backend service. Its most useful feature is that it operates on a regular basis. It is reliable."
"The 802.1X port security and other security features work well and help keep the network secure."
"The features I've found most valuable are that the product is very easy to configure and inexpensive."
"The most valuable feature is stability."
"We have these switches installed in an environment with hardware from many other vendors, and so far, so good."
"The product is cheap."
"Dell PowerConnect Switches are very easy to configure with the GUI. Dell supports the solution even though it has been discontinued."
"The functionality is very good."
"When the price is competitive the customers tend to choose the cheaper brand and then look at the features. So having a competitive price is a plus."
"The most valuable features are the jumbo frames and the stacking."
"This product could be improved with cheaper pricing."
"To make it a ten they should simplify the licensing, add the cloud-managed feature, and it should be more cost-effective."
"Cisco is a bit complex."
"Cisco forces end-users to accept billing for some capabilities or services that they may not want."
"The support is not the quickest."
"Compared to other switches, the Cisco products are expensive."
"The tool is not user-friendly."
"Cisco Catalyst Switches do not have an open architecture and you have to buy into the Cisco architecture to be able to use them."
"Because of the stackings you lose some boards and switches."
"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."
"I expect it to be a zero-touch or a plug-and-play device. To some extent, it is, but we need to know the architecture, and we need to know what exactly we are doing. It is not so easy to implement. It depends on what exactly we are doing and it is still not a plug-and-play or zero-touch device. In the upcoming version, they can make it zero-touch, where we can just power it on and start using it. They can have some templates for different scenarios, such as when you are using it for the data center or adding it to your existing infrastructure."
"I would like to see better scalability and more features on these switches in the future."
"The IOS software that is used on the switches could be improved."
"It would be great to have modules that integrate with SDN solutions such as Cisco ACI, Arista SDN, Huawei Agile, and IBM."
"Their hardware is not reliable, it's faulty."
"The pricing could always be a bit lower."
Cisco Catalyst Switches is ranked 1st in LAN Switching with 171 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.
