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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco IOS

    Score10 out of 10
    N/ACisco IOS, presently in its 15th edition, is a network operating system for service providers and enterprises alike.N/A

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/ARed Hat Enterprise Linux is a Linux distribution mainly used in commercial data centers.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco IOSRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco IOSRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco IOSRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Red Hat
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    209 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    184 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    205 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    138 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    179 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco IOSRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    CentOS Linux
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    IBM AIX
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco NX-OS
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Ubuntu
    Score8.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco IOSRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.3
    (109 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (7 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco IOSRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    I've worked with several network device vendors in my 10+ years of being in the industry and my favorite continues to be Cisco IOS. Overall, Cisco IOS tends to be the most stable, the most intuitive, has the best TAC support, and has the best knowledge base articles and white papers.
    Incentivized
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    Red Hat
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is well suited for cloud environments, fast deployments and to run non-intensive apps/tools (with low memory and low cpu consumption).Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) might not be suited for really huge databases and intensive CPU processing.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Cisco
    • User friendly CLI.
    • Quick fixes for critical bugs.
    • Longer uptime.
    Incentivized
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    Red Hat
    • Virtualization, like the operating system level task. I see this product is very good and it blends very well with the middleware components like all the JBoss and other things. And other than that, either you install it or a virtual machine or physical servers, it works seamlessly anywhere. And if you want to go further, like Red Hat OpenShift or those things also work very nice with it.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cisco
    • By this point, there are several "flavors" of the Cisco IOS such as XE, XR, and the standard Cisco IOS. While they are all fairly similar, there does exist syntax differences between them. It would be ideal if at some point in the future, Cisco is able to unify all of them into one standard operating system which would use the same syntax across all platforms.
    • While overall Cisco does a great job of QA'ing their IOS, no matter the release, there's always some minor bugs. I think it's important that Cisco continue to pour resources into their QA team to test their software.
    • While I'm very familiar with the graphical readouts of "show processes cpu history" I would love for Cisco to eventually find a more intuitive way to display this data. I can't begin to count how many times I've had to teach more entry level (and even mid level) engineers how this graph is interpreted.
    • I do wish that Cisco had something similar to Juniper's "commit check" or "commit confirmed". This helps validate the changes you're about to apply, and catch errors, so that you have a better idea of the impact of the change.
    Incentivized
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    Red Hat
    • In the LEAP process. The upgrading process, which I'm hearing, like I said it before, prior that I was on rail seven, eight, and nine. Trying to get all of that to rail nine and stay current. The LEAP process from seven to eight is a little bit less than desired. I've talked to some people that from once you get on eight from eight to nine to nine to 10 is a breeze. So I'm looking forward to that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Red Hat
    We find RHEL to be a superior OS with stable operations and long life. It is also easier to use and fix then most other OS's.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cisco
    The data that Cisco IOS is able to provide is extremely relevant, it's fast, and it's intuitive. I also love that you're able to leverage things like macros or EEM scrips to run multiple commands at once. This is especially useful when you have more junior or entry level engineers in your environment and you want to provide them with a "shortcut" by having them type a single command to execute multiple commands.
    Incentivized
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    Red Hat
    The Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) distro is the simplest enterprise version of Red Hat that is enterprise supported and when you deploy as many VMs as we do, it is vital to have that enterprise support. On top of the enterprise support, having access to a commercially supported backbone for updates and upgrades is a huge plus.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Red Hat
    Product support and regular patches.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Red Hat
    As with any OS enhanced testing will need to be done prior to application integration.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Red Hat
    Red Hat support has really come a long way in the last 10 years, The general support is great, and the specialized product support teams are extremely knowledgeable about their specific products. Response time is good and you never need to escalate.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Red Hat
    Don't be afraid of it, its easy to install and configure for the tasks needed.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    We have found other Cisco software to be filled with added functionalities as compared to iOS. New NCS software has certain programmability features that are advantageous to legacy iOS software but are more complex to use for some users. Hence, we still have most areas of the network that functions using iOS software.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Red Hat
    So we in our company have used Ubuntu as well. Sometimes we have to use that because a certain application installer requires that we use that operating system, but we really don't prefer it just because it doesn't come with the same Add-on features that make Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) really great, like Red Hat Insights or Red Hat satellite, things like that. They come package with it. So that would be the main one. I've also used things like FreeBSD, but I think that's just too old at this point to care.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Red Hat
    Operational ease of use backed by support
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Great uptimes on proven availability/reliability.
    • Longevity of these switches ensures great ROI.
    • Easy to learn for new users.
    Incentivized
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    Red Hat
    • RHEL provides a good base OS and additional tool sets for various deployments.
    • We are able to use Satellite to manage hundreds of OS's behind our corporate firewall. No other OS provides the level that RHEL does.
    • It is a known good quantity. Their support for the OS is amazing.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots