We performed a comparison between Cisco Catalyst Switches and VMware NSX 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."Overall top of the line solution."
"Catalyst Switches perform very well, and the network is stable."
"I recently discovered the DHCP feature. There is a feature with which you can make the core act as a DHCP server, and it will distribute the IPs for every device. I discovered this feature recently, and it is very nice."
"If we are providing a switching solution, it's not just switching, it's a whole solution with DNA. That is where the whole concept of Network Management and Network Assurance comes in. So Catalyst plays a big role in putting everything together and providing a whole solution to the customer."
"I like the management of streaming both audio and video."
"The solution is durable."
"We find the product very easy to configure."
"The solution is stable."
"The organization of it is logical, useful, and intuitive."
"The stability is great. That's one of the things that we can quantify and leverage through NSX, because it's less complex. We have the availability to manage multiple things at the same time. You can identify problems before they manifest."
"This is a good firewall and overall it is rich in features."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The most valuable feature is the integration with the firewall."
"The most valuable features of VMware NSX are the tight integration with the VMware Hypervisor natively and the management console. We have a lot of other integrations where you are able to see the virtual machine's end-to-end visibility."
"We secured our organisation with Micro-segmentation."
"It operates on a logical level, providing a comprehensive and centralized way to manage your network resources."
"The solution could improve by having a video IP feature."
"The stability must be improved."
"First of all, there are some features that take a long time to get implemented, and other vendors have them for a long time before them. For example, it took a long time to have a way to commit change with the timer, so it gets undone if the user doesn't accept the change after it's done. Like, having to say the changes be done, and everything works fine. In the end, everything works fine, but it didn't exist. That's just an example of stuff that came late to Catalyst."
"One feature that I would like to add is for the following: At times, when I add an access-list for a hostname, it doesn't actually add the hostname, it adds the IP address. So in the back-end, if my server changes the IP address I have to go in manually and change the IP address. If the capability was there in Cisco to add a hostname instead of the IP address that would be really good."
"We would like the solution to be more stable."
"The solution’s licensing could be improved."
"Cisco switches are expensive."
"The technical response could be faster in the future."
"Some configuration maximums are limiting to the user, especially when it comes to the deployment of very, very large environments."
"The setup is complex and should be made easier."
"Lacks integration with other solutions."
"VMware NSX can improve the migration tools from the older environments to the new environment. For example, the NSX-V has become a legacy solution, it's out of support, but customers are able to keep using it. For migration purposes, it's better for them to provide a proper tool. It will be easy to migrate from an old environment to a new one."
"The network-extending capabilities for the physical environment need improvement."
"The tool's setup is complex and we need support to implement it."
"Quite a complex solution."
"The cost of the solution has room for improvement."
Cisco Catalyst Switches is ranked 1st in LAN Switching with 170 reviews while VMware NSX is ranked 2nd in Network Virtualization with 93 reviews. Cisco Catalyst Switches is rated 8.6, while VMware NSX 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 VMware NSX writes "Allows for seamless micro-segmentation and the support is exceptional". Cisco Catalyst Switches is most compared with Arista Networks Platform, Dell PowerConnect Switches, Cisco Nexus, HPE ProCurve and Dell PowerSwitch N-Series, whereas VMware NSX is most compared with Nutanix Flow Network Security, Illumio, Cisco ACI, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation and Cisco Secure Workload. See our Cisco Catalyst Switches vs. VMware NSX report.
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.
