Arista Networks Platform vs Cisco Nexus comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Oct 24, 2022

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.

  • Ease of Deployment: Users of both solutions say deployment is straightforward.
  • Features: Users of both products are happy with their stability and scalability.

    Arista Networks Platform users like the solution’s single operating system and say it is very reliable. Users say the solution should focus on improving its compatibility and integration with Cisco solutions.

    Cisco Nexus users like the solution’s performance, ease of use, GUI, and reporting. Reviewers mention its flexibility and integration could be better.
  • Pricing: Users of both solutions say they are expensive.
  • Service and Support: Users of both solutions are satisfied with the level of support they receive.
  • ROI: Arista Networks Platform users report an ROI. Users of Cisco Nexus do not mention it.

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.

To learn more, read our detailed Arista Networks Platform vs. Cisco Nexus Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 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
"Arista Networks Platform is comfortable, easy to deploy, and easy to manage, with non-blocking technology. Additionally, it has a useful CloudVision platform and automation capabilities.""The configuration capabilities were good.""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.""Arista Networks Platform offers straightforward deployment, and has good features. Support for the platform is also good.""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.""Arista Networks Platform has a feature that helps with monitoring and management.""The user-friendly policy manager lets us apply different controls for various user groups easily.""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."

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"The most valuable feature of Cisco Nexus is speed compared to what you would get from a Catalyst Series switch.""The integrations are valuable.""Cisco Nexus is very safe and stable. I've been here 8 months. We have some devices that have been out for 11 years.""From a data center implementation, with respect to competition from your data, there isn't really a product recovery for the different tests other than Cisco Nexus. For example, if you take Multi-tenancy for the data center, it's something which, I think, only Cisco has. There are some implementation from HP, but I think it's limited there.""The most valuable feature of Cisco Nexus is modularity. It's like the Swiss Army knife of switches.""The flexibility, how accurately the VPCs operate as well as the redundancy built into it with the VPCs are the most valuable features.""Cisco Nexus has been very stable. No issues. It's been rock solid. We haven't had any issues with it in the last twelve months.""Cisco Nexus has improved the way our organization functions through the troubleshooting. We had issues where we've seen our links saturated. We were able to determine what was being processed on the link."

More Cisco Nexus Pros →

Cons
"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 product fails to offer functions related to cloud orchestration, making it in areas where improvements are required.""The stability of this solution needs to be improved as part of the next upgrade.""The intent-based networking management, together with the provider of these solutions that are already free, would be beneficial.""An area for improvement in Arista Networks Platform is its integration, e.g. it needs to have more integration with its new products. Incorporating more security and cloud is also another area for improvement in the platform.""The solution needs to accommodate new features.""The solution needs to improve their product range."

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"Some of the DHCP features need improvement.""The implementation process could be easier, which is something that should be improved.""They could improve on having different technologies between product models.""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.""The software is not as mature as it could be and needs some integration improvements with other orchestrators.""The product could be updated more frequently for other phone model support.""I would like to see more automation and for it to be easier to use.""In terms of improvement, the stacking between the two switches in the higher availability model should be similar to Catalyst. It's better to have one interface for configuration."

More Cisco Nexus Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It is pretty pricey for a networking platform. It is on par with Cisco."
  • "Cost wise, Arista Networks Platform is more expensive than other networking solutions."
  • "Arista is very expensive. Not everybody is in a position to spend $70,000 to $80,000 for one switch."
  • "The price of the Arista Networks Platform could be less expensive for the hardware and license."
  • "There is an annual license required to use the Arista Networks Platform."
  • "Specific tools definitely require a license for the subscription. But we are not using these tools in our environment. In terms of licensing, you need to spend approximately $10,000 per month."
  • "I remember that when our customers were offered the Arista Networks Platform, they used a checklist to compare the prices between Arista and Cisco for their requirements, and found that the prices were almost the same."
  • "I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten where ten is high price and one is low price."
  • More Arista Networks Platform Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Costs more than most, but the reliability pays for the difference."
  • "The price of this solution is good when compared to others in the market."
  • "Our licensing fees are approximately $2,000 USD per year."
  • "Every Cisco product is more expensive than competitors on the market, which is just a fact, but from my perspective, it is worth it."
  • "All of our costs including subscription, licensing, and support services are bundled together, and the cost is approximately $100,000 USD per year."
  • "This is a very expensive product."
  • "The license for Cisco Nexus is one year to three years, in this case for the SMARTnet. It is a price per unit, in terms of this specific appliance."
  • "Our licensing costs for this solution are approximately $200 USD per month."
  • More Cisco Nexus Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
    Top Answer:Arista Networks Platform was cheaper than Cisco. I have heard that the product is affordable for enterprise-sized companies.
    Top Answer:The product fails to offer functions related to cloud orchestration, making it in areas where improvements are required.
    Ranking
    2nd
    Views
    6,525
    Comparisons
    5,034
    Reviews
    12
    Average Words per Review
    467
    Rating
    8.5
    3rd
    Views
    4,621
    Comparisons
    3,494
    Reviews
    8
    Average Words per Review
    344
    Rating
    8.8
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    7000 Series
    Learn More
    Overview

    Arista Networks Platform is a stable and reliable solution for data center features, specifically for non-blocking switches used for spine-leaf connectivity with servers hooked to these switches. It also provides multi-layer switches for client networks, particularly in the banking sector. 

    Arista products are preferred for their stability, good hardware, ease of adoption and configuration, responsive and helpful support, and high throughput ratings. The solution has helped prevent screen loss and business outages in the media industry and is designed for next-generation data centers.

    The Cisco Nexus family of switches is designed to meet the stringent requirements of the next-generation data center. Not simply bigger or faster, these switches offer the following characteristics: infrastructure that can be scaled cost-effectively and that helps you increase energy, budget, and resource efficiency, transport that can navigate the transition to 10 Gigabit Ethernet and unified fabric and can also handle architectural changes such as virtualization, Web 2.0 applications, and cloud computing and operational continuity to meet your need for an environment where system availability is assumed and maintenance windows are rare if not totally extinct.
    Sample Customers
    American Internet Services
    Advanced Medical Transport, Banco de Guayaquil, Baylor Scott & White Health, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, Calligaris, Children's Hospital Colorado, City of Biel, Del Papa Distributing, Department of Justice, Dimension Data, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS), Hertz, K&L Gates , LightEdge, Lone Star College System, Management Science Associates, Mindtree, NBC Olympics, Quest, Sony Corporation, The Department of Education in Western Australia, Valley Proteins
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Healthcare Company17%
    Consumer Goods Company17%
    Government17%
    Comms Service Provider17%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    University7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Government14%
    Comms Service Provider12%
    Manufacturing Company12%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company25%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Government8%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business43%
    Midsize Enterprise10%
    Large Enterprise48%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise64%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise72%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise60%
    Buyer's Guide
    Arista Networks Platform vs. Cisco Nexus
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Arista Networks Platform vs. Cisco Nexus and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    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.

    See our list of best Data Center Networking vendors.

    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.