Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches Reviews

Juniper EX Series is part of the Junos operating system and has a candidate configuration feature, which means changes are not immediately applied. It has a consistent command structure across all platforms and can handle both layer-three routing and layer-two switching. Additionally, the Junos OS offers virtualization options and support for multi-chassis and fabric switching. Overall, the Juniper EX Series is a versatile and powerful solution.

One potential drawback of the Juniper EX Series has been that those without experience using a command-line interface (CLI) may find it intimidating. However, Junos is working on improving this by offering tools, such as Juniper Mist with Wired Assurance and Apstra. Additionally, the graphical user interface (GUI) could be improved as it has been considered lackluster across the board in Junos.

I have used Juniper EX Series within the last 12 months.

I rate the stability of the Juniper EX Series a ten out of ten.

I have not seen a Juniper EX Series massive failure. If there is a failure, it's going to be in their hardware itself, such as burned-out power. However, the OS, it's highly stable. I have customers that have been running these switches for 12 years without turning them off.

Juniper EX Series is highly scalable as switches. They have a high capacity for virtualization, supporting up to 64 or 128 nodes on a virtual chassis with a 48-port switch. They are well-suited for fabric and top-of-rack setups and can scale up exponentially. They are great solutions for connecting data centers.

I rate the support from the Juniper EX Series a nine out of ten.

Positive

The setup process of the Juniper EX Series can be relatively simple if you have the Juniper Mist with Wired Assurance tool. However, if you do not have this tool, it may take some additional research and familiarity with the platform to properly configure it.

The setup process for the Juniper EX series is entirely done through the command-line interface, there is no user-friendly setup wizard available. The configuration requires running specific commands to get it to function.

The solution has a long lifespan and the upfront investment cost may be high, but the return on investment is worth it in the long run as it reduces the need for frequent upgrades to the infrastructure.

The initial cost of the solution can be expensive.

I would recommend this switch over any other switch on the market today.

I rate the Juniper EX Series a nine out of ten.

I am using Juniper Ethernet Switches for connecting all of our nodes. Mostly for edge connections.

The most valuable features of Juniper Ethernet Switches are the simple configuration and ruggedness.

Juniper Ethernet Switches' operating systems get corrupted when the power fails. They have to improve this issue. I may have to use a newer version.

In the next release of Juniper Ethernet Switches, they could provide SD-WAN compatibility.

I have been using Juniper Ethernet Switches for approximately eight years.

Juniper Ethernet Switches are stable.

Juniper Ethernet Switches are at their end of life. The scalability could improve.

We have approximately 36 Juniper Ethernet Switches and the cost of all of the switches was approximately 200 million rupees.

The support of Juniper Ethernet Switches is very good.

I rate the support of Juniper Ethernet Switches five out of five.

I have used Cisco Ethernet Switches previously and they are very similar to Juniper Ethernet Switches. However, Cisco Ethernet Switches are more stable.

The initial setup of Juniper Ethernet Switches was very easy.

I rate the initial setup of Juniper Ethernet Switches a four out of five.

We used an integrator for Juniper Ethernet Switches.

Juniper Ethernet Switches are a less expensive solution than Cisco Ethernet Switches. There is only a one-time purchase for Juniper Ethernet Switches.

I rate the price of Juniper Ethernet Switches a three out of five.

The new Juniper Ethernet Switches have improved.

I rate Juniper Ethernet Switches an eight out of ten.

We use the layer three switches. We use it for routing, separating the VLANs, and for inter-VLAN routing. Also, we use the product's firewall filters.  

It gives us another, better option for clients in switching technology.  

In general, and when I am talking about the Juniper SRX switches that have the Junos operating systems, I find that the admin features are very flexible. For example, the rollbacks or commit confirmed work very well. Fifty configurations can be saved and restored easily. These things are very good for us because it helps us to troubleshoot or to maintain the system. When we have remote access to a device, we can be sure that a process does not get disconnected.  

When you want to change a lot of parameters in a configuration, you make your changes and then you can initiate a commit and all the changes will be saved and will be enforced when the device is activated. These features are available in the Juniper switches with the Junos OS. They are very wonderful and powerful capabilities that are unique to the Juniper switching solution. For example, Cisco or FortiGate do not have similar features or they are not very good with these capabilities.  

To make the product better, I think that the company needs to do more testing before releasing versions of the operating system. In many versions, there are bugs in the Junos OS. For example, with some versions of the Junos OS, a specific function or some functions do not work correctly and you have to then change to another version to get the functionality back or make the product stable. Some versions of the Junos OS can create problems in integrations with Citrix and of course in other platforms because the OS has some bugs that cause instability. When you are using or when you find a stable OS, everything works okay. But I have had many experiences with some versions of Junos OS that have bugs and I am forced to migrate to another version of the OS either as an upgrade or even a downgrade. It will work in the end, but it should not be necessary to discover if an OS version is good or not.  

Something that I might like to see added to Juniper switches is the opportunity to use some NAT (Network Address Translation) features with it. I am not sure if it is possible or not. But having some NAT features would be nice and offer some other kinds of flexibility.  

We have been using Juniper Ethernet Switches for a little less than two years.  

I think for the most part it is a really a very stable product. When I use a stable Junos OS the stability is okay. Some of the OS versions are not so good because they have some bugs, and this can cause some issues with stability. But these are only temporary issues that are resolved by choosing which OS version to use and which to avoid. We have some devices on Juniper that have been running for more than one or even two years without any downtime. We have not had stability issues and we have not had to restart. It really demonstrates stability when you have examples where we have uptime of more than two years without any problems.  

I think Juniper is scalable in some ways. Really as far as this capability, I would say it is good, but that scalability is in the middle in the category of switches.  

The number of users who are using this solution is harder to estimate for our clients than it is within our own company. If we are talking about Juniper Ethernet, one client project that we have has between 200 or 250 people. Nearly 40% of the users are going to be systems engineers.  

There are a variety of user and organizational types. Some of the users are office workers and some of them are engineers. Some of them work in financial jobs and some of them are more on the business end. There are a variety of people using the products.  

I have not personally really had a reason to contact Juniper's technical support directly. There has been no need because most of the time — it is really 95% of the time — I can say our problems are easily solved by the knowledgebases or forums or by just changing the Junos OS.  

In our company, someone had to contact support because we had some problems with some of the licenses. In that case, we did get support to help us to fix the problem. It was not really a problem with the product, it was about the license only. I do not know about the technical support services directly but I do know the issue was resolved.  

In our location, there are not so many companies using Juniper Switches. The use of this brand is somewhat limited here because Juniper is not so popular and is unfortunately not as well-known as other product brands. Cisco switches are much more popular and I have used Cisco switches a lot — more than any other brand — for our clients. I also have experience with Tricom Switches and also with Extreme Networks switches and some experience with Fortinet solutions. We could use any of these depending on the client and the situation. As far as switching from one product to another, that is not exactly what we do. Because we are a reseller we have to have various solutions available, so we keep them all as opportunities for our clients as long as we have tested them and they are good solutions.  

When it came to Juniper, while we had other options, we were really interested in checking out the product and examining how the Juniper switches worked in comparison to the other more popular brands. Because our tests and experience with the product confirmed that it was a good option, we have tried to convince our customers to buy the Juniper solution because it is a good solution and works well even if it was not so popular. We somehow have convinced a few clients to agree to buy the Juniper Switches to this point. But even though we are promoting Juniper, most of the time our clients are gravitating to what they are familiar with and that means purchasing Cisco because they think that the Cisco solution is better just because of the name.  

Another reason that the clients would think the Cisco products were better for them is not only because they do not know the Juniper brand name. One of the other main reasons is that a technical people who have experience in working with Juniper devices are much more scarce than technical people who know how to configure Cisco switches. The product and the name might not be the problem but finding technicians who could work with the solution is the problem instead.  

The initial setup is not complex. It is usually easy. It depends. If you understand the concepts of working with the product — if you already have some experience with it — it is easy to work with it. But if you do not have the experience and do not get the concept, it might seem to be unfriendly. If you can work with it a little and get the concept of how it works and how you should configure it, then it becomes a really friendly format.  

I think it took about one week to configure and deploy the switches. Of course, sometimes we were not working just on that for a whole day, so the number of hours working just on that deployment is something I can not say exactly. But in about one week the deployment was complete. It could have been done faster if it were the only thing that we were concentrating on.  

Most of the time, I do the deployments by myself. But when I have some problems, we have a team that can help out. I might ask them, or I might use the knowledgebases on the internet or search on Google to find solutions. Most of the time there are good, long articles on Juniper's site or in one of the forums that can help me to resolve any issues. There is a lot of knowledge that is readily available. Juniper takes care to publish many good articles. 95% of the time, it is not really hard to solve a problem. If I just go and do a little searching, I can find the information I need to resolve any problem.  

The exact licensing is not something I know about, but I do know that Juniper is a less expensive solution when compared to the competition.  

Because of some limitations as in regulations or client business requirements, we can not always work with cloud solutions or solutions that run on VMs. There are some solutions I might like to consider, but for the most part, our market will not accept certain solutions. Often we have to work with on-premises hardware and that makes a difference in availability.  

We are continuing to evaluate other solutions in order to be able to meet our clients' needs. The regulations and perception of products may change over time. We use Juniper in our company because we think it is the better solution and we do not have restrictions.  

My advice to people who are considering using Juniper switches is to try them out because the Juniper brand is very good. I myself really like the Juniper devices because, in comparison to other products in this category, they are a very good value and are worth much more than the cost. These switches are much more stable and you have better performance than the other guys, so long as you are aware of the potential issues with the OS. I think I can say this in one sentence: you can have better performance at a lower price if you choose Juniper.  

The biggest lesson I have learned from using Juniper Ethernet switches — besides the fact that the most popular name is not always the best product or the best solution — is that using the commit confirmed feature instead of just committing is very valuable. It can help you to be sure your commit is successful. If it is not for whatever reason, the product deals with the issue. After a certain amount of time, the product can roll back automatically if something did not commit successfully. Not all products have anything like this feature.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate Juniper Ethernet Switches as a nine overall. It is a nine and not a ten because there should always be room for product improvement.  

We use the solution to access insights for network activities.

The solution provides advanced switching features like voice VLAN and QoS. It has flexible functionalities compared to other vendors. Also, it delivers a good performance.

They should provide net features similar to Cisco switches. Also, they should integrate VPN functionality with the solution.

We have been the solution for more than five years.

The solution is relatively stable.

The solution is scalable.

The solution's technical support team is responsive.

The solution's initial setup is straightforward. The deployment process for a new switch includes connecting and configuring it to the management port and other VLANs. Also, it depends on the specific requirements, including integrating VLAN for users, IPs, servers, authentication, etc. When the configuration is simple, it takes 30 minutes to complete. But when it involves configuring advanced features like QoS switches, it consumes more time. Also, the duration depends on the team of executives as well. If they have prior experience working with Juniper, it takes less time.

We don't need to pay for the solution's features. We pay for its support service.

We use Cisco at one of the locations. Juniper is stable comparatively. It has the best hardware built quality.

The solution is easy to use. I recommend it to others and rate it as a nine.

I'm a manager and we're a user and customer of Juniper. The primary use case is for our network connectivity, for our wireless access. We use it as a POP port and through the radio-network connectivity, it's used for all purposes, like wireless data and e-mails, whatever it is. We use it for video conferencing, basic network switching, really for all purposes. We have about 100 staff using the solution and at any one time, there are around 700 to 800 network divisors connected to the network.

We like Juniper switches because it has some features that allow us to go back to previous configurations. For example, if we change the configuration and there are problems, it's very easy for us to go back to previous working configurations. The company's technical support is also a valuable aspect. 

We don't have any issues with the product and as long as they continue giving good service it's fine for us. The price is competitive, and we use our online interface only and don't go through a GUI.

We don't have any pain points. 

I've been using the solution for six years.  

It's a very stable product. 

It's scalable.

I'm very satisfied with the technical support. 

We previously used Norton but switched a while ago. 

The initial setup of switches is not that simple, but my team is made up of technical people so we understood it very fast.

We implemented it with an in-house team. We have a very big network, there were roughly around 80, 85 switches and firewall and core switches. In total, implementation took somewhere between six to eight weeks.

My advice is regarding switches. If someone is deploying switches in a critical environment, they should go for Juniper switches.

I would rate this product a nine out of 10. 

Juniper Ethernet Switches are used to connect other devices to a network, such as other switches.

The most valuable feature of Juniper Ethernet Switches is the public remote configuration option. If you make a mistake in the configuration you can roll it back to the previous configuration automatically after a set time frame increment, such as five or more minutes. In all the other competitors once you press to enter the new configuration is already written in. You cannot roll it back automatically.

Juniper Ethernet Switches provides free training on its website.

Juniper Ethernet Switches could improve in the EX 2300 model because it does not support IPsec VPN. Only the models at 3400 or higher support it. Additionally, there is a need for support for Mac which is lacking. Some of their competitors, such as Cisco, support Mac.

I have been using Juniper Ethernet Switches for approximately six years.

We have not had many issues with the solution.

I rate the stability of Juniper Ethernet Switches an eight out of ten.

We have approximately 500 users using the solution.

I rate the scalability of Juniper Ethernet Switches an eight out of ten.

The support from Juniper Ethernet Switches is good.

The initial setup of Juniper Ethernet Switches is straightforward if you have prior knowledge of the solution.

When we deployed 42 Juniper Ethernet Switches it took us five days with two engineers.

I rate the initial setup of Juniper Ethernet Switches a seven out of ten.

We do the implementation of the solution.

My clients have seen a return on investment because their network is more stable with fewer issues.

I rate the ROI of Juniper Ethernet Switches an eight out of ten.

The pricing of Juniper Ethernet Switches compared to equivalent switches from Aruba, Cisco, and others, Juniper Ethernet Switches are priced a little higher. They are approximately 20 to 50 percent higher. When we receive a new range of models, the prices can come down. The price can also vary by region.

I rate the price of Juniper Ethernet Switches a six out of ten.

If Juniper Ethernet Switches want to penetrate the market, they'll have to do something about their pricing. Cisco switches are more well-known and they are less expensive.

We chose Juniper Ethernet Switches over D-Link or others because it provides a higher connectivity speed, such as VLANs.

The physical maintenance of the solution is low. After you install the solution and have done the fine-tuning they run well by themself. The only time there is maintenance involved is if there is a critical security vulnerability we then upgrade the switch with the patch which we use one engineer.

My advice to others is many are afraid to tackle the Juniper Ethernet Switches EX switches because of the command line interface. It's can be a lot different from the other manufacturers. However,  once you get to know it, it's a lot faster to configure and set up.

I rate Juniper Ethernet Switches an eight out of ten.

We still use the solution as a legacy network just for a core switch. It's for the ISP.

The unselect feature is very useful.

The performance is very good. It is very reliable. 

It is scalable. 

We found the initial setup to be simple. 

The operating system could be better. Sometimes it's not stable enough or has some sort of critical block. 

Support could be a bit better in certain regions. 

I've used the solution since 2014.

The solution is reliable, and the performance is good. There are no glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze. That said, the operating system has its stability issues. There are some bugs there. 

The solution scales well. It's not a problem if you need to expand. 

You can upgrade or add more switches to this product.

We have six or seven people that use the solution. They are all engineers. 

We may increase usage, however, likely instead on an SD-WAN network.

They need some better support services in the Asia region. If I get support from America or Europe, the help they offer is good enough for me. 

Neutral

We did not previously use a different solution.

For the legacy network, it's not complex to implement the solution. It's just a simple setup.

A full deployment and configuration take about two to three hours. 

For regular maintenance, we only need two to three people.

We have a team that can handle the deployment.

It's a default service. The pricing is for the hardware. We don't need licensing. 

I'm not sure of the exact final price of the solution. 

I've also looked into Cisco solutions.

We're a Juniper partner. 

We are using the latest version of the solution. We're working with the 9200 series. 

I'd recommend the solution to others.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. The operating system does have some bugs that need to be worked out.

We are using the product as edge switches. We have a core switch in one of our branches also, a Juniper switch.

There's no specific benefit like I like this or I don't like it, however, it is just allowing us to have a multi-vendor environment. We have other switches also, like boundary switches which are Brocade switches. We are currently we are using a lot of Cisco switches. About 70% of our switches are Cisco.

The solution is stable and scalable.

It's a product that is simple to set up.

Of the current engineers that are working in Egypt, most of them are familiar with Cisco and not all of them used to work on Juniper switches. That's why those switches aren't very famous in Egypt.

The stability could be better. We find, for example, Cisco, to be more stable.

I've been using the solution for more than five years now.

The stability is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

The solution offers good scalability.

It is a multi-vendor environment, so the total environment itself has about 1,000 users. They use various switches, however.

I've never needed to contact technical support. I can't speak to how they are in terms of the level of service. 

We also use Brocade and Cisco. While Cisco is more stable, it is more expensive as well.

The initial setup is straightforward and doesn't take too much time. It's a pretty quick deployment. 

For deployment and maintenance, we have two people who handle everything. They handle networking, switching, and routing. 

It is less expensive than, for example, Cisco. We pay a yearly licensing fee. 

In our environment, we are using a different vendor approach as we don't want to depend on a single vendor.

I'd advise other companies, especially if they are an enterprise, to not deal with a single vendor.

I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.