Cisco Catalyst, Cisco Meraki, and Cisco Nexus switches with Cisco DNA Center controller

Network switch competitive comparison

Compare Cisco network switches to other brands

Compare Cisco enterprise network switches versus Arista, Huawei, and HPE. Take a deep dive into how Cisco switches help you adapt to whatever is next.

Switches competitive comparison

Feature
Cisco
HPE
Huawei
Arista
available
  • Investment protection
  • Feature robustness
  • Platform longevity
limited
  • Product lines inconsistent
  • Short life span
  • Merchant silicon with limited flexibility
limited
  • Merchant silicon with limited flexibility
  • ENP and Solar inferior to Cisco UADP capability
  • No high-speed stacking interface
  • Lacks in performance, packet processing, and full data flow visibility
limited
  • Merchant silicon with limited flexibility
available

Investment protection with line card and supervisor upgrades

Catalyst 9400X: 

  • 90W Cisco UPOE+
  • Multigigabit scale

Catalyst 9600X: 

  • Industry's first 400G campus switch
  • WAN MACsec
  • Enhanced queueing with VOQ architecture
limited
  • Single chassis with no supervisor upgrades possible
limited
  • Future supervisor upgrades possible
limited
  • Two-box solution using data center switches
Branch-in-a-box with 100G hardware-based IPsec

IPsec encryption on the hardware with no impact on performance

available

Catalyst 9300X models: 

  • 100G uplinks 
  • IKEv2 IPsec encryption on the hardware
  • Branch-to-cloud connectivity 
  • Site-to-site IPsec
  • Secure tunnels directly to multicloud service providers
  • Access onboard applications or workloads securely
not-available
  • No equivalent offering for campus switching
not-available
  • No equivalent offering for campus switching
not-available
  • No equivalent offering for campus switching
available

Cisco Multigigabit Technology:

  • Prepares access networks for future innovations by delivering speeds of 1G, 2.5G, 5G, and as much as 10G on existing Category 5e and 6 cables
  • PoE and Cisco UPOE+ across the same port, up to 90W Cisco UPOE
limited
  • Smart Rate multigigabit technology in some models
  • Limited number of multigigabit ports per chassis
limited
  • Multigigabit up to 2.5G in some switch models
limited
  • Multigigabit up to 2.5G and 5G in some switch models
available

Expands value for smart buildings:

  • No new license needed for Catalyst 9000 switches
  • Bundled into Cisco DNA Advantage
  • Includes cloud software, connector, and support
  • Full-stack offering: 
    • Cisco DNA Center zero-trust segmentation
    • PoE assurance
not-available
  • No 90W PoE platforms
  • No IoT gateways supported
limited
  • No smart buildings ecosystem partners
not-available
  • No 90W PoE platforms
  • No IoT gateways supported
available
  • Large partner ecosystem
  • Cisco Spaces IoT gateway and ThousandEyes technology onboard 
  • Third-party app hosting on Catalyst 9000 Switches
  • 90W PoE to power and connect expanded set of devices and sensors
not-available
not-available
not-available
available
  • Uses analytics to monitor behavior with Cisco Secure Network Analytics and NetFlow
  • Classifies traffic on the edge and inside the network with Cisco TrustSec technology
limited
  • Limited analytics functionality
  • Use of Tunnel Node limits scale
limited
  • iPCA option on S5720HI/S5730HI/S6729HI models only and limits visibility
limited
  • Network detection and response (NDR) capability only by 720XP switches' acting as sensors
available
  • Wired assurance using PoE analytics, including power supply starvation, power supply missing, power overdraw, and PoE insights
  • Cisco StackWise technology for redundancy
  • Improved application experience
  • AI/ML analytics and machine reasoning
limited
  • Limited functionality with AI Insights
limited
  • Reliance on different tools with limited wired assurance
limited
  • No advanced capabilities in guided remediation or root-cause analysis for wired infrastructure
available
  • Supports:
    • Flexible NetFlow
    • IPFIX with NBAR2-DPI Engine resident on Catalyst 9200, 9300, and 9400 Series switches
  • Provides line-rate and accurate application identification and analytics
limited
  • Aruba switches do not support DPI Engine
  • Supports sFlow
limited
  • No NetFlow support; uses proprietary NetStream protocol
limited
  • Supports sFlow and IPFIX
  • No DPI Engine
available
  • Common foundation for switching, wireless, and routing across Cisco Catalyst 9000 with Cisco IOS XE
  • Total system visibility and control
not-available
  • Separate campus switching, wireless, and routing OSS
not-available
  • Separate campus switching, wireless, and routing OSS
not-available
  • Separate campus switching, wireless, and routing OSS
Device-level programmability and automation

Essential for customization and easy management

available
  • Cisco IOS XE supports DevOps toolkit, NETCONF/YANG models, gNMI, gNOI, gRPC, OpenConfig, YANG
  • All programmatic access options are available
not-available
  • REST API-based automation only
limited
  • NETCONF support
available
available
  • Cisco ThousandEyes agents embedded
  • Provides immediate visibility with additional software
  • Can leverage existing switches
  • Included with all Cisco DNA Advantage licenses
not-available
not-available
not-available
available
  • Offers strategic capabilities with Catalyst 9000 switches
  • Enables a rich ecosystem partnership of 25+ certified apps, including Kibana, perfSONAR, TrapX Security, Cyber Vision, and CodiLime IPsec app
  • Over 200 active customers
not-available
not-available
limited
  • No resource protection
  • No centralized dashboard
available
  • Resiliency features: ISSU, GIR, Extended Fast Software Upgrade (xFSU)
  • Redundant hot-swappable power supplies and fans
  • N+1 chassis redundancy with Cisco StackWise-1T physical stacks
  • 1+1 virtual stack redundancy with Cisco StackWise Virtual technology
limited
  • No xFSU, stacking power aggregation, patching, or dedicated 1-Tbps stacking
  • No single-chassis ISSU, only unproven VSX Live Upgrade
  • No Quad-Sup RPR
limited
  • No xFSU, stacking power aggregation, or dedicated 1-Tbps stacking
  • No single-chassis ISSU
limited
  • No xFSU, stacking power aggregation, or dedicated 1-Tbps stacking
  • No single-chassis ISSU
  • MLAG ISSU currently not supported for complex MLAG provisioning
available
  • 90W Cisco UPOE+
  • Perpetual PoE
  • Fast PoE
  • Multiple-level redundancy: Cisco StackWise 480/1T technology and Cisco StackWise Virtual technology
limited
  • 30W/60W PoE support
  • 1:1 power redundancy through dual power supplies supported on some switches
  • No advanced power-resilience feature sets available
limited
  • PoE and 90W PoE+ PoH on S5700 switches
  • 1:1 90W PoH power redundancy (over HDMI) on a single platform
limited
  • 30W/60W PoE support
  • 1:1 power redundancy through dual power supplies
  • No advanced resiliency features like fast or perpetual PoE
available

Trustworthy solutions help ensure that software is authentic, unmodified, and operating correctly: 

  • Image signing
  • Secure boot
  • Cisco Trust Anchor module
  • Run-time defenses 
  • Hardware-level root of trust
  • Unique device identity
  • Software validation
available
limited
  • Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is supported
  • Secure Boot is disabled by default on a few platforms
limited
  • TPM is supported
  • Secure Boot is disabled by default on some platforms
available
  • 802.1AE MACsec encryption on switch-to-host and switch-to-switch links using TrustSec Network Device Admission Control, Security Association Protocol, and MKA-based key
  • Catalyst 9300X with 100G line-rate IPsec
  • WAN MACsec on Catalyst 9000X Core switches
not-available
limited
  • Switches do not support the MACsec encryption by default; an additional plug-in is required
  • Only point-to-point MACsec is supported
  • Just one enterprise switch supports MACsec-256, the CloudEngine S5732-H model
  • Only software-based IPsec is supported 
not-available
  • MACsec-256 is supported on only the Arista 722XP switch
available
  • ZTA security scans and flags weak credentials and open ports
  • Cisco AI Endpoint Analytics actively probes endpoints and detects unauthorized ports
not-available
not-available
limited
  • Only 720XP Series switches support NDR sensor capability
available

Advanced security features: 

  • Cisco TrustSec segmentation
  • Network as a service
  • Cisco Network Security Analytics
  • Cisco Identity Services Engine
  • Encrypted Traffic Analytics
  • Network as an enforcer
  • mDNS gateway
  • MACsec-256 link encryption
not-available
limited
  • Supports ECA
not-available
available
  • Centralized and automated network design, policy, and provisioning of all wired and wireless networks
limited
  • Dynamic segmentation with limited automation
  • Provisioning and group-based policy enforcement
limited
  • No turnkey support for automation capabilities for provisioning or group-based policy enforcement
limited
  • No turnkey support for automation capabilities for provisioning or group-based policy enforcement

Updated in March 2023 based on public information.

Cisco DNA Center controller, Catalyst 9300 Series and Catalyst 9200 Series Switches, and Catalyst 9100 Access Points

Buy a bundle, save a bundle

Save up to 25% when you bundle Cisco DNA Center automation and assurance capabilities with your switches and access points.

Offer expires on July 29, 2023.

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