Cisco FabricPath vs. Juniper EX Series Switches

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco FabricPath
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Cisco's FabricPath is a brand of LAN switch.N/A
Juniper EX Series Switches
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Juniper Networks offers the EX Series Ethernet switches, as cloud-grade switches designed for the converged enterprise branch, campus, and data center, and for service providers. They address growing enterprise demands for high availability, unified communications, and virtualization.
$1,680
one-time fee approx
Pricing
Cisco FabricPathJuniper EX Series Switches
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
EX2300-C
$1680
one-time fee approx
EX4100-F-12P
$4,585.00
one-time fee approx
EX230
$5830
one-time fee approx
EX4100-24MP
$8,640.00
one-time fee approx
EX4100-F-48P
$8,665.00
one-time fee approx
EX4300-48P
$9,169.99
one-time fee approx
EX4400-24X-AFI
$9,824.99
one-time fee approx
EX3400-48P
$12,322.99
one-time fee approx
EX4400-24MP
$14,315.00
one-time fee approx
EX4400-48MP
$15,510.00
one-time fee approx
EX4600
$31,273.99
one-time fee approx
EX4650
$33,030.00
one-time fee approx
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco FabricPathJuniper EX Series Switches
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPricing is dependent on type of switches and the vendor selling them.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco FabricPathJuniper EX Series Switches
User Ratings
Cisco FabricPathJuniper EX Series Switches
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco FabricPathJuniper EX Series Switches
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco FabricPath seems to be well suited for larger datacenters where you need the scalability and flexibility that's provided. We've been able to provide our customers with much more bandwidth than they previously had throughout our datacenter and with applications generating much more east/west traffic now rather than large volumes of north/south traffic FabricPath and the nexus switches have given us the ability to provide our customers with the bandwidth that's needed to serve today's applications.
Read full review
Juniper EX Series Switches are great for all areas of the network. I use it for access layer, core, and top of rack. We are even buying some fanless EX4000s to use in mobile situations. If you have a switching need, an EX switch model has a solution. The only caveat to Juniper switches is, they are loud. If you keep them in a network closet then you'll have no problem. If they are in a cabinet by users, they may complain about the white noise.
Read full review
Pros
  • It scales fairly well.
  • It's been fairly easy for people to learn and work with.
  • It has simplified network administration by utilizing Fabric Extenders which are all configured from the same switch and treated as an extension of the switch rather than as a separate entity.
Read full review
  • Very stable.
  • Cost efficient
  • Easy management
  • Great Juniper 24*7 TAC support
  • Different variants available for different requirements.
  • Easy to replace faulty hardware
Read full review
Cons
  • We've had a few bugs that have caused random reloads of switches when modifying VLANS.
  • We've had a bug that reloaded an entire fabric at once.
Read full review
  • Virtual chassis new switch has overwritten existing config if not performed in a particular way.
  • Applying a configuration to a range of interfaces could be done in a better way.
  • Applying firewall rules to multiple security zones could be done a little more efficiently.
Read full review
Usability
No answers on this topic
Has a learning curve for the commands when coming from other products but once you learn the structure it is very easy to use. Easy to see what is going on and run diagnostics on the equipment when needed.
Read full review
Support Rating
No answers on this topic
Many times when contacting Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches support, it seems that it is easiest for support to recommend a straight replacement (RMA) instead of taking time to walk through a solution on the faulty system. We find we get better help from a third-party consulting firm that has Juniper certified technicians or professionals on staff. They take the time to explain processes and workflow, which Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches support seems to shy away from.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
In comparison to Cisco ACI, Cisco Catalyst, and Juniper EX Switches the Nexus switches have stood their ground and we've been fairly happy with them. I like that similar to Cisco's ACI and the Juniper EX switches that I've worked with I can manage multiple chassis from one place. ACI can do this on a much larger scale though. I think Juniper limited the number of devices in a single virtual chassis to 10 or less depending on the device type. ACI can do a few hundred leafs plus their fabric extenders so if you're looking for one place to manage all your devices it can scale well beyond either the Cisco FP or Juniper EX series switches, but it also has a much steeper learning curve and completely different interface. The loop prevention built into FP has been a great improvement vs our old Catalyst switches.
Read full review
Juniper switches are more flexible than Cisco, as I mentioned before. The commit confirmed feature helps a lot. At the time of the purchase, they offered a significantly lower price and more features for the price than Cisco. Avaya/Nortel switches have such terrible interface and support that they are not even worth mentioning.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • FabricPath is easy enough to learn that the adoption on the team has been fairly quick. This allows us to quickly troubleshoot and allows us to meet and beat SLAs that demand we maintain 99.99%+ uptime for our paying customers.
Read full review
  • Bought EX2200 in 2016 and we dismissed them after 8 years without issue to new models (just replacing switch)
  • They are bigger than other brands like HPe so we replaced some racks
Read full review
ScreenShots