Cisco vs Dell Switches
 

Anyone know the pros and cons?

I prefer cisco and haven't used the Dell switches, although I know people who have. They say it's very similiar to cisco although the front end is a little bulkier..

I prefer cisco which work great easy to setup and maintain. I haven't used Dell switches so really can't offer pros and cons of it.

Dell customer support are a bit dodgy so just from a support and information point of view Cisco would be the best bet.

And there are a lot of spare parts out there on the second hand market if you were on a tight budget.

Cisco is really doing great with its switches. Not sure about DELL, haven't worked on them..

Dell equipment is top notch. Their technical support is fair, but they tend to transfer you from technician to technician.

But they also have on-site support which is good.

I was with a group that did extensive testing on Dell switches, and even with the lower pricing they refused to use them over the Ciscos they had. There were several little issues, which I didn't understand as I'm not a network engineer, and then larger issues when they were put under high loads. This was over a year ago now though, things may have changed.

Sorry for the late reply.

NEVER BUY DELL SWITCHES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They just do NOT work.

We have had a customer with Dell PowerConnect switch. He was my nightmare. If power goes down for a reason, the switch forgets some of its settings (???!!!!), sudenlly without any reasons it stops working and has to rebooted. Stay away from it, for God sake!

I would go for Cisco because there switches have a bigger backplane.

But they are expensiver. If the guy is looking for a cheaper manageable switch, he can buy Dlink or HP Procurve. Both of them are very good at an affordable price.