HPE Ethernet Switches Room for Improvement

IftekharShaikh - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at Tech Geek logo Tech Geek

The price could be cheaper. There is room for improvement in pricing. One box shouldn't require additional installations. We need a package deal with licenses that are usable for different tasks. Right now, we need a license for every additional feature, which adds up. 

Ideally, some built-in licenses would be great. Because by buying extra HPE licenses, the product becomes expensive. The box itself is cheap, but the licenses become very expensive.

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BM
Systems Engineer at Corporate System Supply

The GUI still doesn't cover everything. The basic stuff can be done in the GUI, but you still need to use the CLI to implement the advanced features. That's the biggest complaint. Some things still need to be configured in the command line interface. I would rather not use the CLI for anything.

I would also like to see a more centralized private management console for the series of devices. Most solutions are adopting centralized cloud-based management, but my client base believes cloud solutions are too insecure. You've got a few dozen switches, so it would be nice to have the ability to manage them on a "single pane of glass." 

Everybody's doing that in the cloud. They want to charge you for the cloud, and you have no idea who has access to your network. That creates another attack vector because the switches are always phoning home. They can be hijacked, but everybody thinks that's what they want because they can manage it from anywhere. They like the convenience. However, I've been in the business for a long time, so I know it's going to come back to haunt them. It's just a matter of time before it happens.

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Reidar Lænø - PeerSpot reviewer
Area manager at Region Midtjylland

The management of the tool must be improved. The add-on tools and management of Cisco are better than those of HPE.

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Buyer's Guide
HPE Ethernet Switches
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about HPE Ethernet Switches. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Aruna Udawatte - PeerSpot reviewer
Director -Digital Transformation at Convergence Lanka

The solution's throughput should be increased because we often get stuck when it comes to IPTV streaming.

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AK
Manager at LAN TO WAN

The price could be lower. It's expensive.

The availability needs to be improved. We cannot get them right now. 

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Kelem Birhane - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise Solutions Manager at Ethio Telecom

It's not easy to find the devices. Companies often don't keep them in stock and only get them when there is a demand. 

It would be ideal if the product offered more security.

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Bharath Kumar Gajula - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Architect at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Some users might look for high-speed switching like Cisco or Nexus switches, which can handle larger volumes. HPE's current offerings aren't as robust in that area, but they could improve.

So, HPE could offer higher-end products for data center and LAN connectivity.

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Lutz Kirchner - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder & CEO / CIO at German Top Secure Data Processing GmbH

There is room for improvement in the update process, especially the web UI update process, is very, very slow. That should be improved.

In future releases, I would like to see zero downtime updates. Currently, when I do updates on a certain website, I have to restart the entire device, which makes it hard to keep network connectivity going.

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JP
System engineer at Colourtex Ind Ltd

We haven't had any issues as of yet.

The quality could be better. For example, I much prefer Cisco. However, they are both almost at the same level. 

The pricing could be lowered. 

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Andriejus Artamonovas - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Specialist at DataBank

In the past, I have encountered configuration problems with the Spanning Tree Protocol. The switches were only handling a single loop. There were quite a few looped switches that could not handle the board blocking, creating the need to manually fight each loop. I have not had the same problems with the newer models of HPE Ethernet Switches.

HPE Ethernet Switches tend to hang from time to time, but all switches do that.

The next release would benefit from adding central management that could be deployable on-premise and allow you to see the layout of topology.  

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DP
Consultant at Lifeline IT

The solution lacks certain protocols and has a limited warranty. You have to pay extra to get more warranty on it.

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SC
Regional IT at PMGL

The pricing could be better.

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GJ
Engineer at Bit 2 Bit Communication SRL

The security of the solution always has room for improvement.

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MS
Consultant and technical support at joudeh center for computer and modern software

The price could be more competitive, and the product needs to improve its stability. Also, the solution would be easier to set up if its GUI could improve or if it had a wizard. Similarly, it would be easier to set up if the user manual could be more straightforward.

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MM
IT Manager at GASCO

The technical support does not match up to the standard of Cisco.

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AhmmadMubarak - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at AZHD

Their support plan needs to be better. We have a basic plan, so support is always delayed for us. We'd like it if they were more responsive, no matter the plan. 

We'd like better support for situations where we need troubleshooting.

We find that a solution like Juniper offers more features. HPE should compare themselves and see if they can also add such features to their offering. 

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Kunle Oyetola - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Business at Zeta-Web Nigeria Limited

The product could always use better technical support. 

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CS
SOC at Airline Company

Some of the older versions have lower bandwidth. 

The scalability is limited. 

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Vivek Makhijani - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at JEDI SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED

The solution’s licensing could be improved.

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LS
Director of Information Technology at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees

They should have more control tools for controlling the bandwidth. They should also have more reporting and alerts for downtime.

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FN
Sr Engineer at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees

HPE Ethernet Switches must ensure that the updates and patching are done regularly. When we have new software updates, we can resolve issues quickly. 

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SherifHanna - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director - CEO at AINSystems

We have had some rare occasions with glitches, so the stability can be improved.

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JG
System Engineering Manager at pronet-engineering GmbH

Technical support needs improvement.

Customer awareness, as in the availability of the products, needs to be improved through marketing or other information.

Currently, we haven't seen any new switches and we don't know if there will be others.

In the next release, I would like to see them include more features like the Aruba solution, to have more possibilities concerning the software design.

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MR
IT Manager at a government with 51-200 employees

In general, the web GUI, or web interface, requires improvement.

Interface, and the ability to do things that are only possible through the command line, which seems pointless because there is no reason to have a command line for many of the functions.

The ability to stack, as well as a unified operating system, would be extremely beneficial. It isn't there. They are budget switches.

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SM
Network Telecommunications Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

I cannot say what areas need improvement. 

We would always be happier if the price were reduced. 

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it_user251244 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Data Center Eng at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

We’ve been getting fixes for things that were missing initially, but v6 support is there and has everything we need.

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AK
Network lead at SDGC

The tool should be more stable. 

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AB
CIO at a tech vendor with 1-10 employees

The interface is old in appearance and needs to be modernized.

I would like to see better URL filters and security.

It would be helpful to have training available for this solution.

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it_user285354 - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise Network Architect at a individual & family service with 10,001+ employees

I don't know about specifics, but so far all the switches that we deployed, it meets all of our needs. For what we require, it has all of features. It also varies on the switch by switch version, and it depends on what kind of switches you have. For me, right now it's meeting all my needs, so I don't have any complaints about it.

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KR
Senior Executive at a leisure / travel company with 201-500 employees

They should continue to work on new features.

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GC
IT Infrastructure at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

VLAN can be improved, but I have to check that with the company expert. 

I have different switch models, but they don't have all the same interface. I don't know whether lower-level switches don't have the same interface as the better quality ones. I might have two different model types.

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ML
Network Cooperations at STEVENSON ASTROSAT LIMITED

In terms of product improvement, it's possible that the VLAN tagging could be improved, it's not that straightforward. But I can't really think of other improvements I'd like to see. 

Additional features that could be included in the next release could be the inclusion of further monitoring facilities. 

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Mongezi Njaju - PeerSpot reviewer
Support Engineer and Helpdesk Administrator at Praxis Computing

They should release more updates for the solution.

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PJ
Managing Director at P & P Enterprise Solution Co.,Ltd.

We have some problems with the performance of our HPE Ethernet Switches because they are old.

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JF
IT Manager at a transportation company with 201-500 employees

We haven't had any issues with this switch in the past 10 years. That's the reason we're still keeping them alive.

The solution is deployed on-premise.

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MS
Head of Technical Support at a real estate/law firm with 51-200 employees

I think this solution could be improved if the installation could be made more secure. From our point of view, HP could have SNMP product softwares that would allow us to track all the assets, and then to connect, to identify our equipment. There are options which would allow us to secure the equipment. I think with the enterprise solution, if it's HP, then there is a need to integrate it with an HP product for it to work. The only way to simplify this is with VLANs and then routing, and then let the systems take over when it comes to firewalls and other things. Implementation of those things would allow us to have tighter security.

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SC
Owner at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Authentication and other security features are not easily satisfied using the lower-end switches. For better security, you need to implement enterprise-level hardware and software.

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it_user251229 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of IT Operations with 1,001-5,000 employees

I would like to see a POE ability added to the devices. We’ve used a lot of POE switches recently, HP and non-HP, and we want to standardize on HP. Our requirements are often that we need a very small 8-port switch and would like a version like this.

Also, I’d like to see the functionality of higher-end switches and some features of the 2900 series on the lower-end ones as well.

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Hoang Nguyen Pham Duc - PeerSpot reviewer
Presales Engineer at Elite Technologies Jsc

The solution could be more stable.

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MC
ICT Manager at a engineering company with 11-50 employees

I am now using a new model because we had a problem with the speed, but the problem was with the network infrastructure, not with the HPE. We did not have the fiber backbone in our company.

We need more support to fix simple issues. For example, to find a problem in the LAN or why the systems speed is slow.

When we have a lot of clients on the system, we lose signal and have to restart our antenna. 

It would be better to be able to provide my number and have the information needed in regards to the equipment when a change is proposed.

You will need the assistance of a technician because the implementation is not that easy.

If you change your old equipment then it will be replaced but you have the same issues in five years' time because HPE does not have the equipment to solve my issues.

In the next release, I would like to see technical support for simple issues and to simplify the implementation.

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BA
IT Manager at a maritime company with 51-200 employees

This solution needs to support software-defined networking.

The management needs to be more open so that they can be easily managed using external software.

I would like to see support for integration with hyper-converged solutions. For example, I would like to be able to manage these switches from VMware or from a Nutanix platform.

They need a new way to manage the access control system. They do have a solution for this, but it is very complicated and not suitable for the SMBs. It may be fine for large enterprises, but not for small companies.

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it_user567831 - PeerSpot reviewer
ICT Infrastructure Manager at a non-profit with 1,001-5,000 employees

The main one would be to have more basic parameters available on the web interface. There are too many basic parameters that you have to change in the command line. This means you need to train your people regarding the command line, even when it means having to change quite basic parameters. For example, changing the parameter to give priority to voice over data traffic.

The stability is an issue. We have features that lose their configurations, like a port that was configured for VLAN 5 suddenly becomes configured for VLAN 2. It's really very annoying. People lose the connectivity, and nobody knows why, including HPE support specialists.

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it_user567615 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of. Comm at a consultancy with 5,001-10,000 employees

I don't know all the products and all the background, but the issue is the single pane of management. Things like a single window to manage all the devices and better integration make a product or a company competitive. I guess having a competitive edge on that would be good. There is a little bit of routing from the HPE ProCurve switches. All the integration is there and moving it forward to a kind of stable, developed product is still progressing. There are lots of bits to the HPE network picture, so I think that needs to come together more clearly.

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it_user154293 - PeerSpot reviewer
Level 2 Network Security Engineer at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
Interface types, such as offering more of a mixture of 1Gb and 10Gb fiber/cooper interfaces. Faster backbone speeds when stacked. View full review »
RJ
Firewall Engineer at a marketing services firm with 1-10 employees

There is some improvement needed for the power supply of the solution.

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Ali Gursoy - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Cobantur

The quality of the service needs improvement.

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it_user147576 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Engineer at Planet Technologies

Additional Routing Protocols, such as OSPF could be implemented for larger scale Layer 3 capability.

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TX
IT at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees

The solution could always improve its stability. It's pretty stable already, however.

The solution is very comparable to Huawei, however, it could be more scalable. Huawei is easier to scale.

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NL
Senior Project Manager, Special Projects at a media company with 51-200 employees

There is a limitation of capability. To move to OpenFlow is very difficult.

Also, there is a limitation with the team protocols.

We had some issues with the dashboard. When we tried changing the PR or some parameters, it was not completely syncing.

We had two different values passing through the dashboard once you pass through the command line.

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RO
Team Lead Networks at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

We sometimes have issues with the stability of our POE switches. If there is any fluctuation in power then we will face an outage with our POE switches, so this is something that should be improved.

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PK
CIO at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

We are satisfied with the set of features already on offer through HP. We don't want to improve anything and we don't need any other new features.

The pricing could be better.

The installation can be quite complex. However, that may not be the fault of HPE and is rather more related to the way our infrastructure is arranged.

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MM
Gerente de Sistemas at a wholesaler/distributor with 201-500 employees

The solution could improve by having more integration options.

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it_user359700 - PeerSpot reviewer
Owner at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

They are very noisy, though, and the fans tend to get more and more noisy as they go along. The noise is actually a pain because sometimes where we've got multiple floors, we might put a switch on each floor rather than just put them in the comms room, and there the noise is an absolute pain. They are just very noisy.

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it_user362733 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Networks and Infrastructure at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

They need to improve the GUI interface for the switches, the access layer switch in particular, with complete details so we can track each and every port. This will make it easier to find the gaps in performance.

Also, on two or three occasions, heat distribution caused a problem because we penetrate this to a different floor and a fan got damaged, stopped, and emitted a lot of heat.

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Akshay Kharkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at Manschaft IT Pvt Ltd

I would like to see the initial setup become easier.

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it_user360837 - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Architect at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

We're quite basic users, but what I'd really like to see improvement on is the management. We've made an investment in the product and I'd like to better leverage it through improved management to work better for our company.

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it_user142143 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Information Assurance Analyst at a engineering company with 51-200 employees

I found that the OS on these switches was a little difficult to manage at times. Configuration menus were not always user friendly even for someone with previous Nortel and Cisco experience. One Saving grace was the Procurve manager software. That made things a little easier to manage but I am still a command line person and would have preferred a more user intuitive command line.

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US
Senior Manager, Information Technology at a university with 201-500 employees

The only improvement I can think of is that it could be better with less updates. 

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MR
IT Manager at a government with 51-200 employees

It would be nice to have a common OS across models so that they could be managed together. But that is more in line with higher production equipment.

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it_user361920 - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder & CTO at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

They should enable certain features on certain frequencies.

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it_user105492 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Analyst at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees
Products always have room for improvement but nothing specific. View full review »
TW
Owner at ITL

The UI on the web console needs improvement.

The routing settings could be made easier to deploy.

Technical support needs improvement, as the response time could be better.

I would like to see this solution support SDN. It should have more SDN compatibility.

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RR
System Network Administrator at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees

The stability could be improved, and the price could be cheaper as well.

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TJ
Director at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

The solution is a bit expensive.

The stability needs to be improved upon. It's not as good as it could be.

The solution should offer more automation. It's not good compared to Cisco, or any other brand.

The company needs to offer much better local support. Right now, it's not great in terms of technical support.

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it_user339819 - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder and Principal Analyst at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Building a bigger ecosystem around them, not just wired/wireless, but there's being able to bring other HP areas such as server and storage groups. At the moment, they operate as separate business areas, and they could clean that up a bit. Also, the technical support needs improvement,

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it_user363333 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Infrastructure/Applications at a educational organization with 51-200 employees

I think that Cisco's switches are more stable, so HP's switches could really be improved more with stability. HP switches are also more expensive than 3COM switches, as we've spent close to two $2 million. It would be great if it were less expensive.

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it_user338199 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software-defined Networking Developer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

I think that the HP Openflow switches should be improved in terms of the open-flow byte-count statistics.

I used SDN because my master thesis is about the visualization of traffic in the network per application with SDN, so I have worked with HP switches almost along all this year. In my thesis the byte count was very important for the conclusions, but I noticed that this feature had some problems and errors.

My little experience tells me that everything starts because the hardware table (table 100) doesn't have the byte count. So I had to install the flow rules in the software table (table 200) which has a limit-rate, that may be the reason for the relative errors that I found.

I used a host as an iPerf server and another one as an iPerf client and then I compared the open-flow byte count against the byte count provided by the iPerf console.

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it_user365949 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Administrator at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

All its features fit our needs right now. It's not too pricey and it's not a series that will end any time soon. We stick with what we know.

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it_user360441 - PeerSpot reviewer
Maintenance Engineer at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It needs better monitoring and alerting for issues. We use HP Intel Management Center, which is good, but there are a few extra things they can improve.

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it_user362211 - PeerSpot reviewer
System Consulent/Partner at IP Netpartner Aps

Free and unlimited access to software for the switches would be very nice.

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FA
CIO at a insurance company with 51-200 employees

A lower price would be an improvement because we always want to reduce our costs.

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it_user364623 - PeerSpot reviewer
Deputy Head of Department of Computer Science at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Although it connects to our BladeSystem, we still have problems with the overall integration with the switches, BladeSystem, and 3PAR. So it's important to us that that integration is improved so that our entire infrastructure of HP solutions works together.

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it_user283434 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Analyst at a media company with 501-1,000 employees

Graphical User Interface (GUI) needs enhancement. Also, using a controller to support multiple access points would help manage and monitor our wireless network. VoIP requires QoS and our switches can work with it. We just need time to really implement across the board.

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PT
IT PM at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

It would be better if they improve the implementation of SD-WAN. There could be improved automation as well.

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NC
Head of System Engineers at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

It would be nice to be able to connect literally with firewall systems, that would be very helpful for us. Configuration could be improved, it is sometimes quite complex. 

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it_user362238 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Administrator at AUTO GAMES PLUS, a.s.

Stacking of switches

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it_user364188 - PeerSpot reviewer
Program Manager at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees

There are RAM limitations on the VMs and I can't install certain apps on HP VMs.

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it_user268164 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Support Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Customer support needs to improve.

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it_user89217 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Security and routing handling - also they need to clean up the config files. View full review »
it_user362214 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

It needs more routing and more VPN ports. These are included with the Comware-based switches, but not yet in the ProVisions.

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it_user367791 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Architect, freelance VMware virtualization consultant at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The interoperability with LDAP could use some improvement.

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it_user143979 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network QA Engineer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Multi port types in signal switch, which is easy to use and configurable. View full review »
Buyer's Guide
HPE Ethernet Switches
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about HPE Ethernet Switches. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.