Cisco vs Dell Technologies
Who this is for
If you're weighing Cisco against Dell Technologies in Edge & IoT and Hybrid & Multicloud, this page is for you. It puts the facts from both Techarda profiles side by side, with each company's recent stories and any community threads that name them both. It doesn't pick a winner: the questions further down come from our evaluation guide, so you can put the same ones to both.
Stories and counts cover the last 90 days, counted on 23 Oct 2026. Profiles last updated 28 Sept 2026. Want a different line-up? The interactive compare tool takes up to four companies.
The facts side by side
From each company's Techarda profile. Categories they share are marked, with each company's position in the category's leader list.
| Cisco | Dell Technologies | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1984 | 1984 |
| Headquarters | San Jose, California, USA | Round Rock, Texas, USA |
| Categories |
|
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| What they do | Cisco is a US networking and security company founded in 1984 and headquartered in San Jose, California. It sells enterprise, data centre and service provider networking (Catalyst, Nexus, Meraki, Silicon One), security products including firewalls and Cisco Security Cloud, Splunk observability and security analytics… | Dell Technologies is an American technology company headquartered in Round Rock, Texas. It sells PCs, servers, storage, networking and data protection products and services, including PowerEdge servers, PowerStore, PowerScale and PowerMax storage, PowerProtect data protection and the Dell AI Factory. Dell was founded… |
| Official site | cisco.com | dell.com |
| Stories, last 90 days | 50 | 48 |
Recent stories from each
What each company has published in the last 90 days, newest first. Each story links to the original source.
How to choose between them
We don't score or rank these two. The questions below come from our Edge & IoT evaluation guide, and they work best when you put each one to both companies and compare the answers side by side.
Device security and updates over a long life
Devices stay in the field for years. A device that cannot be patched securely becomes a permanent weak point.
Ask both: How are devices identified and updated securely, for how long will you ship security updates for the models we buy, and how do you handle vulnerability reports?
Fleet management at scale
What works for ten devices fails at thousands. Provisioning, monitoring and updates have to run without site visits.
Ask both: How do we provision, monitor and update devices in bulk without visiting each site, and what happens to a device that misses an update?
Integration with operational technology
Industrial protocols, safety systems and older equipment are where edge projects stall.
Ask both: Which industrial protocols and control systems do you support today, and how do you make sure the platform cannot interfere with safety functions?
Connectivity and offline operation
Remote sites lose connectivity. Devices and edge applications need to keep working and catch up when the link returns.
Ask both: Which connectivity options do you support, what keeps working when a site is offline, and how is data synchronised afterwards?
Data ownership and access
Device and operational data can be valuable and sensitive. Who owns it and who may use it should be settled before deployment.
Ask both: Who owns the data our devices produce, can we route it directly to our own systems, and does the vendor use it for any purpose of its own?
Integration with your IT systems and clouds
Edge data is only useful once it reaches the systems where decisions are made.
Ask both: How does data reach our cloud, data platform and business applications, and which of those integrations do you maintain?
Total cost per device or site
Hardware is only part of the cost. Connectivity, subscriptions, installation, site visits and replacements add up over the life of a device.
Ask both: What is the total cost per device or site over its expected life in the field, including connectivity, subscriptions, support and replacement?
Product longevity and exit
If a platform is discontinued, devices tied to its cloud can stop working.
Ask both: What happens to our devices if the platform or product line is retired, can other software manage them, and how much notice will you give?
The guide also lists red flags to watch for in any Edge & IoT vendor, and how to build a shortlist.
Keep going
Each profile has the full detail, and the alternatives pages show who else sits in the same categories.
How this page is put together
Every fact comes from the two Techarda profiles, which our editors check against each company's own site and public records. Rows are left out when neither profile has the detail. Stories are the ones each company published in the last 90 days; review counts include published, moderated reviews only.
Something wrong or out of date? Email engage@techarda.com. Used one of them in production? A short review of Cisco or Dell Technologies helps the next team decide.