Dell PowerConnect Switches vs Juniper QFabric comparison

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Dell Technologies Logo
3,197 views|2,436 comparisons
88% willing to recommend
Juniper Logo
667 views|550 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell PowerConnect Switches and Juniper QFabric based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two LAN Switching solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerConnect Switches vs. Juniper QFabric Report (Updated: March 2024).
768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Its throughout and compatibility are the most valuable.""The most valuable feature is its ability to multitask.""Dell offers very good support.""The product is cheap.""The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it is a stable and reliable product covered with good warranties and prices that ensure deep discounts for partners.""Their support has been excellent, and it has been quite stable and easy to set up.""There is high reliability since we have used them for close to twenty years and only had possibly one failure.""The most valuable feature is stability."

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"The solution is easy to use and has good performance.""QFabric supports redundancy and includes all of the enterprise and service provider features that customers would want in data center or service provider network.""The solution is stable.""The most valuable features of this solution are the fabric backplane having upwards of 160 GB of communication. It is a top-of-the-rack solution where you have your directors sitting in the main area and then you have your nodes expanded out to your multiple cabinets. It has a very good design and could be your server backbone.""Juniper QFabric has various advantages including scalability, simplicity, performance, and flexibility.""It is known for being agile, flexible, and cost-effective when working with various vendors.""The 40 gig backbone InterConneX was valuable for our use case. It is even faster now. QFabric has spine-leaf technology or topology, which basically makes every single hop only one hop away in terms of connecting from one device to another. It is a pretty good and robust solution. It works pretty well in terms of scalability, and their technical support is amazing.""The vendor maintains the product well."

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Cons
"More stable firmware releases would be an improvement because we have had them randomly power on and off.""Dell is sometimes slow to provide updates to firmware.""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.""The pricing could always be a bit lower.""Their hardware is not reliable, it's faulty.""The IOS software that is used on the switches could be improved.""Because of the stackings you lose some boards and switches.""There should be more port options in this switch. Currently, it has 24 or 48 ports. However, some of our customers require only 8 ports, but I have to put a switch with 24 ports. They should provide smaller solutions and complimentary access point for companies like ours with a low quantity of work. The main issue with this product is branding. They should improve their branding and promote their brand more in Mexico. Customers are more aware of brands like Cisco as compared to Dell."

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"Improvements could be made to QFabric's life cycle management, particularly in maintaining stable versions and extending product support.""They are working on the virtualization of the actual fabric layer. They are moving away from the original spine-leaf design to a different infrastructure. Instead of having three tiers, which was the director of the interconnected nodes, they cut them back, and they still have that kind of structure.""It would be nice if Juniper provided the system integrator with training, similar to that of Cisco.""The disruptive upgrade was an issue for us.""The stability needs to be improved.""I do not use GUI's very much for switch stacks. I am always in the CLI. However, I do know that Juniper in the past has lacked on their GUI's, but they have been working on it.""It works too much on rebooting and there is some memory leakage.""Having support for all OpenFlow versions would be beneficial."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "This solution is much cheaper than comparable products by Cisco."
  • "The price of these switches is okay."
  • "Its price is okay. Sometimes, it is lower than a Cisco solution."
  • "Cheaper than its competitors"
  • "Inexpensive"
  • "If you want to purchase a new Dell PowerConnect Switch, you will pay up to $1,600, but I bought them used. I bought the four Dell PowerConnect Switches that I used for $1,000."
  • "Dell PowerConnect switches are cheaper than Cisco switches. Cisco's higher capacity switches (100 or 200 gigs) are super-expensive. With the higher capacity, the price of the switches and the price of the architecture go high. Dell is cheaper and modular. So, I don't need to invest 100% upfront. I can invest as I progress. That is an option because the chassis will not be populated with all the pluggables. I have a choice because it is modular. I can go for 25 gigs today, and after four months, I can go for 100 gigs, and after that, I can go for 200 gigs. I have a choice when it is not a fixed switch."
  • "Pricing for Dell PowerConnect Switches is quite competitive compared to Cisco and HP pricing. Dell has cheaper pricing and the company is trying to push for sales for its switching infrastructure because right now, the current market is dominated by Cisco. In the US market, there's Cisco, HP, Juniper, and Arista which you can buy for data center switching meant for different kinds of enterprises and ISPs. Dell PowerConnect Switches, on the other hand, is a product for people who need smaller setups or individual switches, especially those looking for a cheaper product and basic switching, though you can also buy a complete suite packaged with the switches."
  • More Dell PowerConnect Switches Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "In terms of price, the QFabric solution is going to be probably in the middle of the road for a fabric solution."
  • "The price for Juniper QFabric could improve. There are subscription, maintenance, and add-on feature fees."
  • "Juniper QFabric is a high-level solution but it could be less expensive."
  • "The pricing is high."
  • "The pricing is high and it is possible to find better pricing option solutions on the market, but the licensing model is quite flexible."
  • "The price is relatively high, but it offers an advantage over its competitors by providing better performance and functionality."
  • More Juniper QFabric Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Dell PowerConnect Switches have a VTL feature similar to Cisco's VSS. With VTL, using this technology, you can cluster two switches together to increase redundancy in the environment.
    Top Answer:The solution could provide more integration to focus on targeting the network as a whole rather than a unified environment. It is meant for a built environment, so integration with other third-party… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable feature of QFabric for network performance is its stability.
    Top Answer:Juniper QFabric is not overly expensive. Licensing is required for certain features like vRRP, but setting up a virtual chassis does not necessitate a separate license.
    Top Answer:Improvements could be made to QFabric's lifecycle management, particularly in maintaining stable versions and extending product support. The rapid release cycle and short life span compared to… more »
    Ranking
    3rd
    out of 16 in LAN Switching
    Views
    3,197
    Comparisons
    2,436
    Reviews
    10
    Average Words per Review
    372
    Rating
    8.2
    9th
    out of 16 in LAN Switching
    Views
    667
    Comparisons
    550
    Reviews
    3
    Average Words per Review
    240
    Rating
    9.0
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    PowerConnect Switches
    QFabric
    Learn More
    Overview
    PowerConnect Switches family offers a set of flexible, manageable and comprehensive switch solutions supporting up to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and optimized Internet iSCSI (iSCSI) performance with Dell Storage solutions, ideal for enterprise and campus LAN environments alike.
    Juniper QFabric System is composed of multiple components working together as a single switch to provide high-performance, any-to-any connectivity and management simplicity in the data center. The QFabric System flattens the entire data center network to a single tier where all access points are equal, eliminating the effects of network locality and making it the ideal network foundation for cloud-ready, virtualized data centers.The highly scalable QFabric System improves application performance with low latency and converged services in a nonblocking, lossless architecture that supports Layer 2, Layer 3, and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) capabilities.
    Sample Customers
    Amerijet Holdings Inc., CGD Securities, MavenWire, Tulane University
    MCB Bank
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Media Company19%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Local Government6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Government9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company13%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business63%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise17%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business30%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise53%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business40%
    Midsize Enterprise10%
    Large Enterprise50%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise64%
    Buyer's Guide
    Dell PowerConnect Switches vs. Juniper QFabric
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerConnect Switches vs. Juniper QFabric and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Dell PowerConnect Switches is ranked 3rd in LAN Switching with 30 reviews while Juniper QFabric is ranked 9th in LAN Switching with 10 reviews. Dell PowerConnect Switches is rated 8.0, while Juniper QFabric is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Dell PowerConnect Switches writes "Excellent support, good pricing, and easy setup". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Juniper QFabric writes "Performs well, is easy to set up, and the vendor maintains the product well". Dell PowerConnect Switches is most compared with Cisco Catalyst Switches, Cisco Nexus, HPE ProCurve, NETGEAR Switches and Arista Networks Platform, whereas Juniper QFabric is most compared with Cisco Nexus and Cisco FabricPath. See our Dell PowerConnect Switches vs. Juniper QFabric report.

    See our list of best LAN Switching 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.