Cisco FabricPath Reviews

We are a solution provider and Cisco FabricPath is one of the networking infrastructure products that we implement for our customers.

This product is well suited to the needs of telecom. We are currently working on a project involving multiple data centers that are spread across India. It is used by ISPs for switching servers to their internal connectivity at the branch level. Essentially, it is working as a layer of redundancy in terms of switching.

All of the features are really good.

The management features are in need of improvement.

I have been working with Cisco FabricPath for 26 years.

Stability-wise, we have not experienced any problems.

We have had no issues with scalability.

I also have experience with a similar product from Aruba. I find it to be really good, but Aruba is lacking a little bit on the marketing side. From a functionality standpoint, both are more or less the same. Feature-wise, nothing is superior for Aruba or Cisco.

There is a specific market share for each of these vendors and I don't think that either one is able to take it over completely. If a customer prefers Cisco then it's more of a personal choice. On the other hand, if they're passionate about HP then they'll take a serious look at Aruba.

If you look at the Wi-Fi solutions being used on campuses then Aruba is gaining an advantage because it is easier to manage. Another good thing about Aruba is that they have a lifetime warranty.

The initial setup is straightforward and we don't have any issues with it.

The pricing for this product is good.

Cisco is the market leader in this space and it is a product that I recommend.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We are a technical services company and this is one of the solutions that we use to support our clients. We provide a hybrid cloud for our customers, so we have four data centers and we have implemented Cisco FabricPath ourselves. We provide managed services for infrastructure, storage, Wi-Fi, etc.

FabricPath is used in the network infrastructure of our hybrid cloud.

The most valuable feature is the ability to migrate VMs between data centers.

I would like to see better interoperability with other IT solutions.

More support staff are required to support Cisco solutions in Italy.

I have been using this solution for about five years.

We have not had any issues with stability.

This is a scalable solution. We have approximately six hundred users who utilize the servers that are part of FabricPath in our company.

We have perhaps one hundred VMware servers, another hundred Hyper-V servers, and two hundred storage devices connected to FabricPath in our data centers.

I am not very happy with the technical support in Italy because they do not have enough people supporting this channel. There are only three of them. Vendors of other products are better represented in the area.

Five or six years ago we had a solution with Blade server. This used to be shared with the customer. We kept the structure and expanded our data center using FabricPath.

We have a complex network design, so our initial setup of FabricPath was complex.

It took approximately one year, starting with our first data center, to deploy this solution. We also enlarged our infrastructure about two years ago.

We implemented this solution using our own in-house team. We have approximately one hundred Cisco certified technicians.

Since 2019, I have been part of the pre-sales team. I have been certified by Cisco for twenty years. I am a CCNP Network Specialist for Routing and Switching, for Security, and I have certification for CCDP Design. I also have other minor certifications including Aruba ACSP.

FabricPath is a very good technology, but we can always do better.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We have around 3000 users. We've got to give them support about 300 points.

The best features of Cisco FabricPath is performance and reliability. Also, Cisco Support is better than other technical support.

We are using it to implement security sites. Currently, we are using Fortinet as a UTM, you can say an initial firewall. So we are repeating some issues in Fortinet. So we are looking at other products. If we get a better price then we can think about switching.

I have used Cisco FabricPath for ten years.

Cisco support is better than other technical support.

Initial setup with Cisco is easy.

We have a team for the implementation. We have a full-time member team. We do all that with it.

I would definately recommend Cisco FabricPath. I would rate it at an eight on a scale of ten.

The most valuable features are the:

• Security
• Web control
• Traffic control. 

I would like one management console to control the network. 

I have been using Cisco FabricPath for one year. 

It works well without any stops. 

It is scalable. We have around 100 to 200 users. 

Their technical support is fundamental. 

I haven't used a different solution previous to FabricPath. 

The initial setup is easy.

I would rate it an eight out of ten.

If clients want to avoid STP in their environment, which is usually the case with data center environments, and they want to use an active path, or have multiple paths going to the same resource. If they want to use them both, they use FabricPath. The solution is only supported on Nexus platforms, however. Users should aware of what they're using in the data center.

The ability to link simultaneously without user restrictions is the solution's most valuable aspect.

The solution offers very good documentation.

I personally haven't found anything that is lacking. However, it depends on the use case of the company. It's a good technology. It's only a small part of the complete DC architecture.

The pricing could be adjusted to make it easier to sell to clients.

I've been working with the solution for a couple of years.

The solution offers quite good stability.

In terms of scalability, we have not deployed it to huge data centers yet. We've only done small to medium-sized data centers and for this level of organization, scaling is fine. I can't speak to large deployments.

The technical support we get from Cisco is excellent. It's the best in the industry. We're more than satisfied with the level of service they provide.

The concept of the solution is easy to understand and Cisco does provide a lot of documentation to assist users. When it comes to deployment, our engineers have not run into any issues. I would describe the process as straightforward. It can be complex depending on the scenario.

Deployment typically takes two days if the prerequisites and everything else required is in place.

If the devices have been mounted, configuration takes no more than four to five hours.

The pricing could be lower, which would make it easier to sell to clients. Cisco has an entire product line and a setup team, which looks at the marketing and how to position the product, and I believe they do take this into consideration when launching and pricing their products. That said, it would be helpful if the product was more competitive in the pricing category.

We've used other solutions with OEMs. We've used, for example, Juniper and TRILL. Which we ultimately use boils down to the implementation and the OEM.

We're a reseller as well as a partner. We primarily deal with Cisco products at my organization. I have some knowledge of Aruba as well. FabricPath is Cisco's version of TRILL, an open-source version.

I work for a value-added reseller and we're also a system integrator. I work as a technical consultant and I'm more versed in the solution's details, rather than the implementation side of things.

Most of our customers range from SMBs to government sector organizations.

I'd advise others to do their due diligence and read up on the solution first. Everyone should go through the documentation and the tool before committing to the product. The implementation isn't too hard. It's more important to understand the underlying concepts and to design around that.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten overall. 

Our primary use case is for extremely large enterprise customers that have extensive data centers. 

The advantage of FabricPath is that it's a reliable product and you know that it will work in the enterprise environment.

It's possible that some improvements could be made on specific technical issues such as implementation. The user interface could be improved and perhaps the command line as well. It's nothing too serious.  

Deployment is on the Cisco site or on the customer's site so it's quite difficult to talk about additional features - each situation is different. Because it's an enterprise environment you can't go in there like an elephant in a glass house, you have to be very careful. It's quite reliable and you know it works in an enterprise environment. There is also quite good support from Cisco in order to resolve some of the issues.

I've been using the solution for a few years. 

The quality of technical support is generally very good but it really depends on the situation. Sometimes you get an engineer who is really experienced and will respond quickly, and sometimes it can take a while. Cisco is a big company so if you are not satisfied with the first engineer, you can request another. There are plenty of options but you have to be persistent.

Initial setup is not that easy, it needs to be carefully planned. 

We do the implementation for our customers. The time it takes varies depending on the company. It could take a month if you want to change the environment, you have to plan everything in advance for production and take it all into consideration. Most of our companies would have between 450 - 500 users. 

I would suggest to anyone interested in implementing this solution to carefully analyze their situation and then prepare the configuration accordingly. 

I would rate this product an eight out of 10.