My organization is going thru a switch refresh and I'm weighing three options. Cisco, Juniper, and Arista. We don't have a WAN so all switches are in one building and do nothing but layer 2. We are removing existing Cisco switch chassis in favor of a stacked solution. Total number of switches being purchased is north of 50. I have been putting together a list of pros and cons but would love some input from the community.
Cisco 9300: Market leader. Known reliability. Expensive but still within budget. If I want Cisco, I need to make a good case as to why the other two do not make the grade.
Juniper EX4400: Good price. I like config commit/rollback features. A former colleague at my last job informed me he had major problems with ex2200 switches randomly rebooting and config changes not saving. Is this a widespread problem in JUNOS? Juniper is my second favorite in the running, but reliability is a concern.
Arista: Good price. They are a Cisco clone, so configuration and rollout are easy. Problem with these guys is they are an unknown I only have the vendor and marketing material for information.
The access layer is easy. Anyone can do it. TCP/IP has been around forever, and we do not have any requirements above and beyond standard access layer switching. My main concern is reliability. I want a switch that will last the next 5-6 years and won't cause too many heart aches along the way.
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