Procurve Vs. Cisco Vs. Juniper

I've been reading and searching on here as much as I can to try to help me in making a decision, unfortunately when I think I know what to do, I read something else and get confused again.

We are in the process of moving networks within our datacenter and will have 2 drops coming into our half-cabinet. We have about 7 servers in there, some for our own use and some for clients. In all cases, we manage the servers and are the only ones with root access (no need for VLANs for the purpose of protecting IPs etc).

We currently have a single drop and use an HP procurve 2524 layer2 switch that has been in there for over 6 years and never had a single hiccup. We also don't push much traffic at all though. Under 5mbps combined.

My question though is this: moving to the new network we will have 2 drops that are set up as HSRP on their end (upstream of me, I don't have to worry about having two switches). In order to use the dual feeds, we will need a Layer3 switch. One feed will be active, the other is not, both are connected to the switch via a VLAN and provide a gateway for VLAN2 to use. I have never used a layer3 switch, though I'm not *too* concerned since I don't expect we'll be doing anything too complex. My understanding is that one VLAN (VLAN1) will be set up with an IP address assigned to each drop and that VLAN1 will create a gateway for VLAN2. The second VLAN (VLAN2) will be all our "inside" client IPs that will then route through VLAN1.

I was briefly checking out the cisco 3750, but I think it's overkill...? I don't want to spend too much money, since I don't think we need any complex setups, at the same time, I don't want to waste money by buying something that won't work efficiently down the road.

My immediate short-list is now an HP procurve 2610, an HP procurve 3500 J9470A (not the YL), and a Cisco 3560 24-TS.

Of course, then someone mentioned Juniper (whom I have zero experience with either) and hence the title to my thread... I'm thoroughly confused. I was looking at the EX3200-24T.

Ok, so if I have to boil this down to some simple requirements/thoughts... here goes:

1. I only need 24 ports for now.

2. I use SNMP currently to monitor usage for clients (and overall)

3. I like HPs and have used them for layer2, I like their lifetime warranty and software availability

4. I don't have direct experience with Cisco at all.

5. Aside from routing from one VLAN (provider side) to another VLAN (my side), I don't think I need any other special features (hence the hp 2610 being ok I think, since it offers "lite layer3")

6. Some people say HP is great for layer2 but not for layer3? Now I dont' know what to think.

7. Currently use about 2mbps and might jump to 3 or 4mbps, but don't have major needs. I'd like for this switch to be able to last me a while though... so maybe 20~40mbps+? (but still not the hundreds of mbps that others here push

8. If possible, I'd LIKE to limit some servers to 1mbps or 2mbps on a per-port basis... but this is not a hard requirement. (I think this takes the 2610 out).

Budget: I like the $500 price tag of the 2610, but can spend the $1500~$2000 for the HP 3500, Cisco 3560, or Juniper. I would just rather not, if the price/features are not justifiable.

Hopefully I've provided enough information for someone to offer their insight? I think a few strategic key points or questions from someone with more experience might be what I need to help me bust through the "too many choices" fog and end up with the best switch for my situation...