Compare other vendors to Cisco for me

[Comblues]

Here's a report on Small Stackable Switches.

I was expecting to read some more favor for the others...

Umm...

This report discusses the findings of a recent test of web-manageable switch products for the SMB (Small and Medium Business) market space It specifically compares and contrasts the features and performance of the Cisco SF500, SG500, and SG500X series of switches with similar products offered by HP, D-Link, and Netgear..


Overall, we were impressed with the comprehensive set of features, performance, power efficiency, and ease-of-use of the Cisco switches. Specifically, we found that Cisco delivered the highest capacity and scalability of configuration parameters including VLANs, MACs, ACLs, and IP routes. The Cisco switches provided the best resiliency when subjected to a DoS attack. Cisco switches can also be seen as more economical when measured using normalized pricing based on Price per gigabit and Price per PoE Watt. In addition, they were the most efficient both in terms of overall energy consumption, and the energy saving capabilities provided. The Cisco switches included in this test were the easiest to configure and implement, forwarded line rate full mesh traffic at all frame sizes with zero packet loss, and provided the most extensive support for IPv6 transitions.


Here's the report:

http://www.miercom.com/pdf/reports/20120911.pdf

Now we all can see what we need to for a basis for comparison. They have plenty reports and the reports tend to favor the purchaser or sponsor.

However, all devices are usually submitted to Miercom by the respective vendor as I understand it.

Comblues

 

[theevilsharpie]

What I love about Miercom is they tell us exactly what they tested and under what conditions and every vendor from my understanding is given the opportunity to refute and challenge their findings before they publish.

It looks like the competition did not do so well in this report.

In general, I don't put a whole lot of faith into sponsored reports because they are invariably structured in a way that plays to the sponsor's strength. But even if they are technically accurate, it's still possible to lie.

Miercom's report pitted an ASA 5525-X (a firewall released in mid-2012) against a FortiGate 310B (a firewall released in mid-2008), despite the fact that at the time of the testing, the 310B had been end-of-sale'd and replaced with the more powerful 300C. Of course, Miercom never mentioned that little tidbit. The fact that Cisco has to test their products against obsolete firewalls to show a win speaks volumes about their competitive position in that market, and about Miercom's integrity as an impartial tester.

 

[Comblues]

Good points my friend.

I did mention that the reports are sponsored by a particular vendor and that other vendors are assumably allowed to refute the findings where warranted.

The other report was not Cisco sponsored but still did not favor any of the 4 vendors despite Miercom's attempt to be polite to each of the 4 vendors in question. All non-Cisco.

True knowledge is true power.


I once saw another vendor try to compete with Cisco on price using Cisco's list pricing and not an actual quote from a Cisco partner...

After true quoting we were able to compete based on features to be actually used and benefits to be derived. Cisco won.

Comblues

 

[pcunite]

The good news is that MikroTik and other offering are valid replacements for Cisco depending on the budget and political climate. Thank goodness we have choices and I don't have to spend $1,500 for an office of five people. Thank goodness I can spend $10,000 for an enterprise computer and get phone support. Thank goodness everyone here is so level headed.

 

[Harrod]

I work with Cisco's, Junipers, Brocades, Adtran gear and Alcatel Lucent gear.

The cisco gear works pretty well, when there are issues I can speak to an Engineer immediately and get parts shipped out on the same day. A+ Support.

Juniper is the same with Cisco although I don't work with them that much when the hardware breaks. A+

Brocade, is extremely Cisco like with it's CLI, I've only had one problem with the equipement and the first person I talked to spoke English and was based in Minnesota. A+

Adtran, the stuff is buggy, unless you are using it for something really basic. Support is fair, it seems to take a while to get help when needed. B-

Alcatel Lucent, the equipment works well until something breaks and you need support, calling support for this company is almost worthless, you will get someone who appears to be going down a checklist and will literally ask the most basic questions. I once had a problem that took 2 days for someone to call me back on. After the whole issue was resolved 2 weeks later. I filled out the survey with mostly 0-2's on a scale of 0-10. I was literally contacted 30 minutes later after submitting the survey, by the manager wondering why I had crapped on their survey. Apparently they have never had to call their support line for anything. Nothing about the cli for this stuff is like any other vendor listed.

 

[Demo24]

Been moving all our network switches to the Cisco sg200 lineup recently. Needs are basic, and these switches more than meet them. Been dead reliable so far and more than fast enough for our applications.

Been less thrilled with the netgear products we've had. Especially when someone connected two network jacks to each other, created a loop on one of the 'smart' switchs and the result brought down the whole building. Maybe just poorly configured, I dunno but I thought it strange that even on default it wouldn't detect that.

 

[freegeeks]

I work with Cisco's, Junipers, Brocades, Adtran gear and Alcatel Lucent gear.

The cisco gear works pretty well, when there are issues I can speak to an Engineer immediately and get parts shipped out on the same day. A+ Support.

Juniper is the same with Cisco although I don't work with them that much when the hardware breaks. A+

Brocade, is extremely Cisco like with it's CLI, I've only had one problem with the equipement and the first person I talked to spoke English and was based in Minnesota. A+

Adtran, the stuff is buggy, unless you are using it for something really basic. Support is fair, it seems to take a while to get help when needed. B-

Alcatel Lucent, the equipment works well until something breaks and you need support, calling support for this company is almost worthless, you will get someone who appears to be going down a checklist and will literally ask the most basic questions. I once had a problem that took 2 days for someone to call me back on. After the whole issue was resolved 2 weeks later. I filled out the survey with mostly 0-2's on a scale of 0-10. I was literally contacted 30 minutes later after submitting the survey, by the manager wondering why I had crapped on their survey. Apparently they have never had to call their support line for anything. Nothing about the cli for this stuff is like any other vendor listed.

depends what kind of Alcatel Lucent gear you are using, their SR 7750 platform beats every other MPLS platform in my book.

 

[Harrod]

depends what kind of Alcatel Lucent gear you are using, their SR 7750 platform beats every other MPLS platform in my book.

I work on those as well as a few of there older devices, I'm not saying that the equipment sucks, what I am talking about is when you call up for support.

One example that I had once was a 7750 running at 100% processor load one day, which ended up being a problem in a transport ring. The first thing support asked me to do was run the equivalent of a show tech on the box. Then wait 15 minutes and run another one. They didn't seem to understand that command wouldn't finish in 15 minutes let alone 7 hours. I'm hesitant to think that if you had a unit like this down and unable to power up they would probably ask you to do the same thing.

 

[alkemyst]

To be fair, Cisco routers are the industry standard.

However, Cisco firewalls, IPS, wireless and a few other technologies they sell are just mostly poo. I mean, they work, but features are limited and management is a headache, etc, etc.

and the short of it is no one has ever been fired for recommending Cisco.

Their router/switch market especially support is where it's at for mid to large business. Their firewall type products are insanely expensive and many new competitors are beating them hands down in price, features and support.

 

[Kaido]

So, I want to know a little bit about the other vendors that are out there. In school we have been using all Cisco devices. I have CCNA level knowledge, so compare the other vendors with this knowledge level for me.

Is any other vendor easier to use? Harder?
More tamperproof? provide better security?

I primarily use Cisco and Enterasys. So far the Enterasys has been rock solid & a lot easier to use than Cisco:

http://www.enterasys.com/

Like everyone else said, you can't go wrong with Cisco - but they're definitely not the only game in town anymore. If you just want a job that pays really well and where you'll be needed, you can hang your hat on Cisco. If you're working at a place that needs a more creative solution (more user-friendly, less expensive, etc.) there are a lot of options.

 

[alkemyst]

I primarily use Cisco and Enterasys. So far the Enterasys has been rock solid & a lot easier to use than Cisco:

http://www.enterasys.com/

Like everyone else said, you can't go wrong with Cisco - but they're definitely not the only game in town anymore. If you just want a job that pays really well and where you'll be needed, you can hang your hat on Cisco. If you're working at a place that needs a more creative solution (more user-friendly, less expensive, etc.) there are a lot of options.

I can agree. Cisco is not really a good solution for the small business anymore (measured by profits not people). In larger business you know Cisco delivers on their promises for both support (I will agree outside the main Route/Switch/Some VoIP&other bread and butter items they suck at times) and delivery of replacement parts. I have been at a site at 1am and had a new device in my hands by 3am. The issue though with that kind of support is getting their truck in the doors after hours not cisco's fault though.

 

[Emulex]

What about netgear. The XSM7224S for $1400 for 24 ports of 10gbps SFP+ ( 4 10gbase-T shared) on ebay is pretty k-rad.

 

[alkemyst]

What about netgear. The XSM7224S for $1400 for 24 ports of 10gbps SFP+ ( 4 10gbase-T shared) on ebay is pretty k-rad.

Problem with NetGear and the like is you will never see 24 ports of 10gbps.

Most don't need all 24 ports though so it works out.

 

[jersiq]

I work on those as well as a few of there older devices, I'm not saying that the equipment sucks, what I am talking about is when you call up for support.

One example that I had once was a 7750 running at 100% processor load one day, which ended up being a problem in a transport ring. The first thing support asked me to do was run the equivalent of a show tech on the box. Then wait 15 minutes and run another one. They didn't seem to understand that command wouldn't finish in 15 minutes let alone 7 hours. I'm hesitant to think that if you had a unit like this down and unable to power up they would probably ask you to do the same thing.

That's really more a feature of your service package. In my experience, you get what you pay for with ALU. I guess I have been fortunate to always work for Service Providers that get the "Gold" package from them. I've probably opened over 100 tickets with them, and never experienced what you describe. But anecdotal is anecdotal.