Cisco Secure Workload vs Nutanix Flow Network Security comparison

Cisco Secure Workload vs. Nutanix Flow Network Security

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Secure Workload

Ranking in Microsegmentation Software

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud and Data Center Security (8th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (14th), Cisco Security Portfolio (7th)

Nutanix Flow Network Security

Ranking in Microsegmentation Software

5th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Microsegmentation Software category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Workload is 9.4%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nutanix Flow Network Security is 6.6%, down from 7.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsegmentation Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Secure Workload	9.4%
Nutanix Flow Network Security	6.6%
Other	84.0%

Microsegmentation Software

Featured Reviews

Raj Metkar

Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA

Discover internal application dependencies and create a dependency map

We actively seek improvements in integrating the Infoblox DDI platform with Cisco Secure Workload. This integration allows Cisco Secure Workload to learn about our networks and network tags, providing valuable insights into vulnerabilities related to the operating system and various applications installed on our servers. Recently, Cisco announced a new product called HyperShield, an AI-based autonomous micro-segmentation solution. While Cisco has not stated that HyperShield will replace Cisco Secure Workload, it represents a natural evolution for the company. HyperShield features dynamic policy discovery and enforcement; however, once policies are enforced, they do not change until a discovery occurs, requiring a re-enforcement process. This new platform operates autonomously, minimizing the need for user or security engineer intervention. I would have expected Cisco to incorporate more automatic discovery and enforcement features within the existing Cisco Secure Workload product. Instead of enhancing the current product, they have introduced a new solution. Cisco plans to honor existing Tetration licenses, allowing users to transition to HyperShield without additional costs, reflecting the investment enterprises have already made. From Cisco’s perspective, this represents a natural progression in their product line. While the product name changes, it seems more of a rebranding effort. The enhancements are greater autonomy, improved discovery, and automatic enforcement, which are now being introduced in HyperShield. Cisco Secure Workload offers automatic policy enforcement but cannot adjust policies dynamically as the application needs to change. Having used the platform for the past five years, the recent announcement has been reassuring. Cisco has confirmed that our investment in the platform will not go to waste. They will honor our existing licenses, providing a natural migration path to the new solution without any disruption

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Mohammad Jundiah

Solutions Architect at Qatar Datamation Systems

Has enabled consistent enforcement of zero-trust policies at the virtual layer

The micro-segmentation feature helps to manage network security effectively because it helps the virtual machines that are already on the cluster and the applications inside the cluster itself. It protects them and helps them communicate with each other without needing a complex external or internal firewall in this use case. Working with the zero-trust security model means never trust but always verify. Every VM, application, and service in your environment must explicitly prove it's allowed to communicate with others. An application would be able to talk to a VM and vice versa. This zero-trust means explicitly proving that they are allowed to talk to each other, with no implicit trust just because they are on the same VLAN, subnet, cluster, or environment. Nutanix Flow brings the zero-trust model natively to the virtual layer inside the Nutanix software itself, the AHV. The AHV software enforces strict communication rules between workloads. Integration between Nutanix Flow and other products natively benefits the infrastructure itself as this is a networking segmentation software coming from Nutanix itself. This provides ultimate compatibility. There is no need for extra firewall VMs such as Palo Alto or third-party switches. Security becomes established at the hypervisor level, which creates a new conglomeration of security segmentation. The network performance analysis that Nutanix Flow Network Security provides is very beneficial and effective.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Secure Workload's best feature is that it's an end-to-end offering from Cisco."

"The solution offers 100% telemetry coverage. The telemetry you collect is not sampled, it's not intermittent. It's complete. You see everything in it, including full visibility of all activities on your endpoints and in your network."

"It's stable."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is security."

"By using Tetration insight, we are able to get the latency on our level accounts and we can determine whatever the issue is with the application latency itself."

"The product offers great visibility into the network so we can enforce security measures."

"Generally speaking, Cisco support is considered one of the best in the networking products and stack."

"The only use case I can see that makes sense is micro-segmentation. I think there are other use cases for it. The main purpose of the product is to do micro-segmentation by collecting IP. That could be done by installing an agent, and then you have all the communication coming in and out. You could also use some flow sensors installed in the network that receive a copy of the traffic and then report that back to the system."

More Cisco Secure Workload pros

"Nutanix Flow is straightforward to install. You only need to select a checkmark that you want to enable Nutanix Flow."

"The micro-segmentation feature helps to manage network security effectively because it helps the virtual machines that are already on the cluster and the applications inside the cluster itself, protects them and helps them communicate with each other without needing a complex external or internal firewall in this use case."

"The network view was excellent as it allowed us to expand the server view and visualize all connections it made within the environment. This was particularly useful in identifying the path of our data and not just its location within the data center."

"Nutanix Flow Network Security is a simple solution that is usable, easy to understand, and easy to deploy."

"It is a very stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"We appreciate the fact that this solution allows us to segregate two virtual machines that are in the same cluster."

"They also introduced that they develop API first and the rest follows."

"It allows for policies that enable complete visibility and traffic control."

More Nutanix Flow Network Security pros

Cons

"The integration could be better, especially with different types of solutions."

"There was a controversy when Cisco reduced the amount of data they kept, and the solution became quite cost-intensive, which made its adoption challenging….Although they have modified it now, I preferred the previous version, and I wish all the functionality were back under the same product."

"There's room for improvement when it comes to Cisco Secure Workload. A couple of internal areas could be refined a little bit. They are trying to solve it, depending on where you suppose the agent is. Suppose you have the agent on both the server and the client, which could be the front-end server or web server connecting to the. In that case, if those two are communicating on RPC, the server can look into its configuration. It could go down and find the configuration file on the FTP server and then set the policies to it. But there are a lot of different FTP servers out there. It's also a complex case for the tool to support all FTP servers."

"The interface is really helpful for technical people, but it is not user-friendly."

"It has an uninviting interface."

"The multi-tenancy, redundancy, backup and restore functionalities, as well as the monitoring aspects of the solution, need improvement. The solution offers virtually no enterprise-grade possibility for monitoring."

"Secure Workload is a little complicated to use, and the dashboard isn't intuitive, so it takes a while to learn how to use it."

"The emailed notifications are either hard to find or they are not available. Search capabilities can be improved."

More Cisco Secure Workload cons

"The solution’s pricing could be improved."

"We would like the reporting functionality of this solution to be improved."

"Last time I used it, it was not handy to see or to analyze traffic logs."

"Nutanix Flow Network Security needs to improve threat hunting, compliance, and policy optimization - these things that security officers would use."

"I would rate Flow Network Security's stability seven out of ten - it could be improved."

"The most difficult part is the configuration of the initial blueprints."

"For customers who are running Nutanix Flow and AHV, the largest area for improvement is in the disaster recovery environments. To automate the populate of rules from one side to the other side in case of disaster you report everything on the disaster recovery site, and you have all the rules automatically applied. This was something that was being built when I left Nutanix. It might already be available. Additionally, the usability of the rules editor could improve."

"The documentation offered by the product is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."

More Nutanix Flow Network Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is outrageous. If you have money to throw at the product, then do it."

"Pricing depends on the scope of the application and the features. Larger installations save more."

"The cost for the hardware is around 300k."

"It is not cheap and pricing may limit scalability."

"The price is based on how many computers you're going to install it on."

"The pricing is a bit higher than we anticipated."

"Regarding price, Cisco Secure Workload can be expensive if you don't have a budget. If you're not doing micro-segmentation, every extra security measure or enforcement you're putting on top of your existing environment will be an extra cost. It's not a cheap solution at all. But from my point of view, if you need to do micro-segmentation, this is one of the best tools I've seen for it. I can't compare that to Microsoft's solution because I haven't looked into it. I've looked into VMware and Cisco. Those are the only two that I know of. I didn't know that Microsoft could do micro-segmentation at all. Maybe they can, but I haven't heard anything about it."

"Flow Network Security is available on a three-year license, with annual renewals of the maintenance fee."

"In comparison to other options available in the market, I would rate their pricing as very competitive, probably a two or three out of ten for cost."

"This model is very accessible to implement."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."

"There is an annual subscription to use this solution. There is a 60-day trial to use the solution, it gives you time to decide if you want to continue using the solution."

"The product is available for free use."

"There are different licensing models."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Healthcare Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Secure Workload?

The product provides multiple-device integration.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Workload?

CloudStrike offers antivirus capabilities and firewall features for servers and VDI but lacks automatic policy discovery. This raises questions about the resources required to discover and write po...

What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Workload?

What do you like most about Nutanix Flow?

Nutanix Flow Network Security is a simple solution that is usable, easy to understand, and easy to deploy.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nutanix Flow?

There are different models like Nutanix AOS Pro or Ultimate license. The prices are different, but it's not in the same price range as Cisco ACI, for example.

What needs improvement with Nutanix Flow?

Nutanix Flow Network Security needs to improve threat hunting, compliance, and policy optimization - these things that security officers would use. Making these aspects clearer would enable easier ...

Illumio vs Cisco Secure Workload

Comparisons

Compared 18% of the time

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 15% of the time

Cisco Hypershield vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 14% of the time

VMware NSX vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 11% of the time

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 2% of the time

More Cisco Secure Workload Competitors

VMware NSX vs Nutanix Flow Network Security

Compared 71% of the time

Illumio vs Nutanix Flow Network Security

Compared 13% of the time

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs Nutanix Flow Network Security

Compared 7% of the time

Hillstone CloudHive vs Nutanix Flow Network Security

Compared 3% of the time

More Nutanix Flow Network Security Competitors

Product Reports

Cisco Secure Workload

Download Cisco Secure Workload product report

Nutanix Flow Network Security

Download Nutanix Flow Network Security product report

Also Known As

Cisco Tetration

Nutanix Flow Microsegmentation

Overview

Cisco Secure Workload is a cloud and data security solution that offers a zero-trust policy of keeping an organization’s application workloads safe and secure throughout the entire on-premise and cloud data center ecosystems.

Cisco Secure Workload will consistently provide protection by discovering workload process anomalies, stopping threats immediately, minimizing the risk threat surface, and aborting any lateral movement.

Today’s ecosystems are very elastic, and in the application-focused dynamic of today’s aggressive marketplace, Cisco Secure Workload delivers a robust security solution that works effectively with today’s most popular applications. The solution uniquely surrounds each and every workload to ensure organizations are able to keep their data, network, and applications safe and secure at all times. Cisco Secure Workload ensures that enterprise organizations can maintain secure applications by consistently building firewalls around every workload level throughout the entire ecosystem. The solution can manage applications that are deployed on containers, virtual machines, or bare-metal servers.

Cisco Secure workload is able to meet an organization's busy needs and offers flexible options such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and on-premises options. Using the Secure Workload SaaS options, users receive all the benefits of Cisco Secure Workload protection without the hassle of having to deploy and maintain the platform on premises. Users are responsible for acquiring the necessary software licensing and deploying software agents. Using SaaS, Secure Workload runs in the cloud and is operated and maintained by Cisco. This option offers the ability to scale easily and is a popular choice for SaaS-first and SaaS-only clients. Many organizations find they get the best TCO and achieve the best productivity and profitability using the SaaS options.

When choosing on-premises options, organizations choose between hardware-based appliance models (large or small form factors). Platform selection is dependent on scalability goals, the desired fidelity level of flow telemetry, and the actual number of workloads. When a user chooses to configure Cisco Secure Workload for a conversation-only flow telemetry for all workloads, each platform has the capability to scale up vertically twice the default platform scale. Additionally, with Secure Workload, it is possible for the platform to be scaled horizontally in order to satisfy the demands of extra large widely distributed enterprise environments using federation capabilities.

Cisco Secure Workload also provides a robust disaster recovery (DR) tool, which helps to make it a complete, comprehensive solution. The DR allows for continuous restore and backup capabilities that enable users to quickly remediate operations and data to a standby cluster in the event of a drastic failure or disaster.

Reviews from Real Users

“The solution offers 100% telemetry coverage. The telemetry you collect is not sampled, it's not intermittent. It's complete. You see everything in it, including full visibility of all activities on your endpoints and in your network. Other valuable features include vast support for annotations, flexible user applications, machine learning, automatic classification, and hierarchical policies.” - CTO at a tech vendor

Cisco

Flow Network Security is a stateful, distributed, microsegmentation firewall. It is provided as part of NCI Ultimate or as part of the optional Security Add-On package for NCI Pro.

Nutanix

Sample Customers

ADP, University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC)

JetBlue, International Speedway Corporation, Volkswagen SAIC, Brighton and Hove City Council, Foresters Financial, Janus International Group, Cloud Comrade, Serco

Cisco Secure Workload vs. Nutanix Flow Network Security