Network Switch

[drebo]

cmetz, I've spoken to the Dell product engineers about them.

I needed a switch which was compatible with Cisco's pre-standard PoE devices and so far, they're the only ones besides Cisco and Foundry switches that actually work with them. I did a lot of research about it, and that's what I came up with.

Whether or not it's actually true for ALL of their switches may be another story, but after using Dell's switches for some time, I'm still impressed. Besides...the software running on them is virtually identical to Cisco's switch software which makes management easy.

 

[jlazzaro]

Originally posted by: drebo
Besides...the software running on them is virtually identical to Cisco's switch software which makes management easy.

i can guarantee you, its nothing like IOS. the CLI may LOOK similar, but theres a lot more to a network operating system than text on a screen...

 

[cmetz]

ITJunkie, the "i" series Extreme switches were great boxen, but their newer boxen are (at the lower end) Dell/SMC guts with slightly better software, at a nearly-Cisco price. I can't really recommend their newer boxen. Unless, of course, you can get a sweetheart deal.

drebo, Dell does not do the hardware or software for their switches. Dell does not have real engineers (at least on the networking side). It's all OEMed. So I strongly doubt that the people you spoke with were real engineers - they were probably product managers with titles that said engineer. Guess what this means to their ability to diagnose and fix problems?

I think a few other vendors support the pre-standard PoE. For a long time, though, the mark-up for a PoE switch was pretty crazy, and Dell was a lot cheaper than everyone else for PoE. That has changed, but most new PoE switches only support the IEEE standard. If you have a big investment in the Cisco non-standard gear, I can see that as a big driver for you.

Dell's switches don't even remotely run IOS. Just because the commands in the CLI are kinda mostly like it does NOT make it IOS. Some of the bugs I've seen in the Dells (esp. the 34xx series) make it quite clear the level of engineers who wrote their software, and it's a whole different tier than the engineers who worked on IOS (well, before the CF that is 12.4...).