The 5000 Series switches support open networking, providing IT professionals with innovative third-party operating systems and software options. This lowers costs by separating software from hardware and increases network agility and flexibility. With support for standards-based tools and standards-based applications, open networking simplifies scalability and future-proofs the network.

Compared to traditional switches, the 5000 Series offer a more cost-efficient solution through a lower initial purchasing cost combined with a reduced long term Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). The 5000 Series switches feature front-to-back and back-to-front airflow which optimizes air circulation inside the rack and facilitates the building of energy-efficient data centers by separating the hot and cold aisles. The switches also feature built-in smart fans; internal heat sensors monitor and detect temperature changes, and react accordingly by utilizing different fan speeds for different temperatures, optimizing power consumption.

The 5000 Series switches feature a complete L2 and L3 feature set to meet the demands of data center applications. Layer 2 features include L2 switching, L2 multicast, advanced Quality of Service (QoS), and robust security features. Meanwhile, the 5000 Series offers advanced L3 routing for enterprise integration, including OSPF, BGP, Graceful Restart, Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD), and L3 multicast.