Juniper EX series as an alternative to Cisco Catalyst?
Cisco vs Juniper
Does anyone has any real life experience with designing and especially working (=managing) with the Juniper EX switching series networks as an alternative to the typical Cisco core/distrubution/access layer model?
We're currently designing a completely new network at an existing +/- 2000 users university campus network in Peru and both Cisco and Juniper are still in the running. We know Cisco and we know what to expect and we know it's expensive. Juniper is able to deliver more (all Gigibit Ethernet ports) for the same price (or less) but is the technology reliable and ready for the future? What are the caveats? They say they step away from Spanning tree and go for a all L3 network. But do we really want that? Are the disadvantages of Spanning tree so big that you want to completely step away from it?
The network is very high demanding. No fancy and/or no high I/O intensive applications.
I'm not looking for an answer from Cisco veterans or die hard Cisco fans that want to give me a religious answer. I'm looking for someone that really knows both technologies in typical medium sized setups and want to tell something about the pros and cons to have a better answer for the sales people.
Also a link to a good and recent (up to date) article that talks about this would be helpful. I found a few but they were old or not relevant.
Thanks
Does anyone has any real life experience with designing and especially working (=managing) with the Juniper EX switching series networks as an alternative to the typical Cisco core/distrubution/access layer model?
We're currently designing a completely new network at an existing +/- 2000 users university campus network in Peru and both Cisco and Juniper are still in the running. We know Cisco and we know what to expect and we know it's expensive. Juniper is able to deliver more (all Gigibit Ethernet ports) for the same price (or less) but is the technology reliable and ready for the future? What are the caveats? They say they step away from Spanning tree and go for a all L3 network. But do we really want that? Are the disadvantages of Spanning tree so big that you want to completely step away from it?
The network is very high demanding. No fancy and/or no high I/O intensive applications.
I'm not looking for an answer from Cisco veterans or die hard Cisco fans that want to give me a religious answer. I'm looking for someone that really knows both technologies in typical medium sized setups and want to tell something about the pros and cons to have a better answer for the sales people.
Also a link to a good and recent (up to date) article that talks about this would be helpful. I found a few but they were old or not relevant.
Thanks
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More and more businesses are switching to Juniper and SonicWALL today. Some of the reasons are cost and support. Juniper Networks' firewalls, routers and switches are well comparable to Cisco's. And their J-Care support is awesome. You can find a lot of useful information here if you are deciding what systems you are going to implement:
http://shop.vds.com/manufacturer/1-juniper-networks.aspx
http://shop.vds.com/manufacturer/109-sonicwall.aspx
http://shop.vds.com/manufacturer/1-juniper-networks.aspx
http://shop.vds.com/manufacturer/109-sonicwall.aspx
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Is it true that in not too complex designs like this one RSTP is unsufficient? Are the traditional Cisco L2 networks with a 4500/6500 Core a dying thing? Would it be unwise to implement it to have a network that is ready for the next 5 years in a simple environment like this one?
Furthermore is Cisco FlexLinks a viable alternative and can it stand a comparison with Juniper's RTG? see: http://kb.juniper.net/InfoCenter/index?page=content&id=TN63&actp=RSS
Is there an important difference between an EX2200 (L2/L3 full GE switch) and a catalyst 3560/3570? I don't see any but maybe I'm wrong.