Who’s The King Of The LAN? We Compare Six Switch Vendors
Given that, we imagined to gauge It’s preferences for LAN equipment vendors, delve into buying criteria which include performance and cost, and see who best provides on table-stakes features like port density and management software. Our InformationWeek LAN Equipment Vendor IT Pro Ranking Survey drew responses from 444 IT pros, all of whom use and evaluate LAN components.
While we asked about 14 vendors, only six–Brocade, Cisco, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Juniper, and Netgear–garnered enough responses to qualify for assessment in our full report, which is out there free along with other registration at informationweek.com/reports/ lanranking. For that select group, we asked respondents to rate the relative significance of 11 criteria on a scale of 1 to 5, with other 5 being the highest score; the result is an overall composite ranking. Cisco had an excellent showing, pulling a 4.4 out of 5 for product reliability. No other vendor scored as high, though HP and Juniper came close, every earning a 4. Cisco at the same time took the top spot for performance, having a 4.2. Only Cisco and Juniper broke the 4.0 mark in this area.
But respondents gave Cisco a raspberry Every time talking about acquisition costs: a 3.0, the lowest score of all the vendors rated. IT professionals can be prepared to pay more for significant attributes, but that does not mean they like it.
In comparison, acquisition cost was a bright spot for Netgear and Dell, And also this topped the rankings with other 4.2 and 4.1, respectively. but if we looked at respondent perceptions in locations like breadth of product line, innovation, and reliability, both appear to be in the bottom of these pack–Dell and Netgear switches seem to be seen as low-cost, commodity items. Dell is attempting to move out of those commodity switch industry by, for example, its acquisition in August of Force10 Networks, a switch maker nicely known in data center networking and high-performance computing circles. Expect Dell to utilize Force10’s Merchandise to fill out its campus LAN portfolio.
Although, Cisco’s high marks on almost everything but pricing illustrate the challenge facing rivals like Dell as they aim to move upscale. For example, we asked where in the network respondents use, have used, or have evaluated switch products. Cisco leads at the four main locations where IT deploys switches: the access, distribution, and core layers, and the remote office.
Cisco’s dominance of those network core is largely due in to the fact of those phenomenal success of its Catalyst 6500 chassis switch. although some competitors, including HP, haven’t offered a beautiful alternative in to the 6500, others are gaining mindshare. For instance, 58% of respondents have utilised or evaluated Brocade in the core. at the remote office category, Netgear and Cisco are neck and neck, separated by just a percentage point with regards to overall use. Small-office switches in one both vendors are inexpensive; Netgear’s devices are too really feature-rich and simple to use. Juniper lagged the pack here, with other 29% small-office usage vs. 52% and 51%, respectively, for Cisco and Netgear. We expect to find out a shake-up in this market, however, as Cisco and Juniper develop compact yet capable switches that, like their enterprise-class models, can be centrally managed.
This article was made on behalf of IT support London, Netstar. Suppliers of high standard server support, network support and IT support out sourcing in IT London.
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