We use Cisco Enterprise Routers for implementing properties and features.
Sr. Backbone Architect at NTT Global Networks Incorporated
Creates a responsive and intelligent integrated network
Pros and Cons
- "The routing platform is good."
- "I am happy with the price of Cisco Enterprise Routers, but they could offer more discounts to their customers."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The routing platform is good.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Enterprise Routers for roughly 15 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is both stable and scalable.
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Cisco Enterprise Routers
February 2025
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Learn what your peers think about Cisco Enterprise Routers. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is okay.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was quite straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am happy with the price of Cisco Enterprise Routers, but they could offer more discounts to their customers.
What other advice do I have?
On a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of eight.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
Lead Network Architect at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Satisfies our company's MPLS network requirements
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of this solution are MPLS, BGP, and VRF."
- "I would like to see the setup time reduced."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use for this solution is MPLS and Internet routing.
I am a network architect and this is one of the solutions that I have worked with.
How has it helped my organization?
We are required to build an MPLS network in our company, and this solution has been very useful.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of this solution are MPLS, BGP, and VRF.
What needs improvement?
The support for SD-WAN technology is not mature yet.
I would like to see the setup time reduced.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for twenty years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have no issues with respect to stability. It is ok.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is ok.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not recently been in contact with technical support because it is the operational team that would deal with opening tickets. However, when I dealt with them several years ago, I was satisfied most of the time.
How was the initial setup?
The setup of enterprise routers is primarily hardware and it takes a long time to set up.
What about the implementation team?
Our in-house team performed the deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of this solution is high.
What other advice do I have?
In one or two years, once SD-WAN is more mature, we may switch from our traditional routers and protocols to be completely integrated with SD-WAN.
My advice for anybody who is implementing this solution is to consider the routing that is needed because it can change the way you set up and deploy. There are differences between MPLS, internet routing, and office connectivity. SD-WAN will also be something to look into.
This is a good solution, but it's not perfect.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Enterprise Routers
February 2025
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Learn what your peers think about Cisco Enterprise Routers. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Co-founder and Consultant at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
A stable solution with an easy initial setup process
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is scalable."
- "The solution's cloud management capabilities could be better."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution to terminate connections at the edge of the network. It helps us handle tasks such as removing MPLS circuits and voice routing for unified communications.
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable feature is stability. Its hardware remains stable for a long time. We rarely encounter downtime issues. Also, it has the best operational features.
What needs improvement?
The solution's cloud management capabilities could be better. Its smart licensing process needs to be simplified as well.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution for 23 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the solution's scalability a nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support team is helpful and has a good response time.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We use FortiGate as well. It provides more efficient firewall functionality and is more inexpensive than Cisco.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's initial setup process is simple.
What about the implementation team?
We have some customers who implement the solution themselves. In some cases, we assist in its deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is costly for small businesses. I rate its pricing a five out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Network Administrator at OM Networks Pvt Ltd
Great hardware but needs better automation features and could scale easier
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is mostly stable."
- "The automation capabilities need improvement."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily deployed the solution in IP VPN configurations from the head office to branch offices and other centers.
Currently, in Nepal, there are no advanced Enterprise Routers. This is just for routing and VPN supports.
What is most valuable?
Cisco is a great product.
It is excellent hardware.
The agent support has been terrific.
There are no policy or hardware issues at all. The performance is great.
The solution is mostly stable.
If it's a standard setup, the initial implementation can be straightforward.
What needs improvement?
I want to get some advanced features. I want to use advanced features such as SD-WAN or Viptela and vManage or vBond. However, these are not available in Nepal just yet. The supports could be better in Nepal.
The automation capabilities need improvement. Right now, everything is too manual. We'd like to really see much more automation availability.
The scalability could be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have good experience with Cisco routers and switches. I've been dealing with the solution for about five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Mostly the solution is stable, however, there is no 100% certainty in any product. Some could be defective and some could be improved. Some could be weak. However, mostly by-in-large, there is no problem with Cisco products.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In the current device, the scalability is not so good. There are no SD-WAN features in Enterprise Routers. In Nepal, there are normal VPN and normal routing protocols and not many features in SD-WAN.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We also work with Sophos, Fortinet, Nutanix, Peplink, and F5 products. We're also Juniper partners.
How was the initial setup?
If we deploy normal routing just for routing purposes, it is very easy and convenient to configure. However, if you get something on IPC again, such as more robust security, there is a little bit of complexity. It's just a little bit more complicated than normal static routing and other routing protocols.
What other advice do I have?
We are Cisco partners. We are a full IT solutions-oriented company.
I'd rate the solution at a five out of ten. While the hardware is good, it doesn't offer very easy scalability and lacks decent automation capabilities.
I'd recommend the solution to other users, however, it depends on customer requirements. If the customer requirement is a very large network and a lot of brands and there are various data centers, I would recommend they install a different device. There are devices coming - such as SD-WAN. There are Viptela and other devices such as vBond. I would recommend those types of devices and suggest that automation and DNA should be installed.
That said if a customer's requirements are not that broad, and they just need routing, or the requirement is just routing and IPC VPN, I would recommend this product.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees
I find their user interface easy to use in getting simple to complex tasks completed, even after not using it for a while.
Pros and Cons
- "I extensively used site-to-site VPNs, access control, etc., linking remote sites to the central location to create a highly distributed organization."
- "Its routers are versatile, reliable, and capable."
- "Recently, there seems to be a lot of people who are leaning towards Juniper CLI, which is easier to pick up."
What is our primary use case?
Installed at many locations using a hub-and-spoke design to connect remote sites to central locations over GRE tunnels.
How has it helped my organization?
- Its routers are versatile, reliable, and capable.
- I find their user interface easy to use in getting simple to complex tasks completed, even after not using it for a while.
What is most valuable?
I extensively used site-to-site VPNs, access control, etc., linking remote sites to the central location to create a highly distributed organization.
What needs improvement?
Recently, there seems to be a lot of people who are leaning towards Juniper CLI, which is easier to pick up.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Network Engineer & Web Developer at OneTexh
Huawei is unable to achieve Cisco's level of quality
The wireless router is probably the most important part of our daily life for network configuration.
It is the main door to connect to the Internet, and then share the network or WI-Fi signal for all connected devices. Director for, as well as file sharing, voice over IP, remote access and other services, according to the VPN.
The router is functioning normally 24-7. There are thousands of data packets to pass through every day, and is expected to run smoothly. Paradoxically, it is also a unit of less interest to most people. In fact, it has been observed that when not working properly, Router which is not only fast but feature rich is also very important to have a reliable option.
In my opinion, Cisco’s enterprise products contains important features like WAN ports, LAN ports, Integrated Service Router (ISR) capability which perform multimedia streamlines, transforms service delivery for cloud and cell phone device connectivity. Another feature of the Cisco enterprise Router is that all the ISR routers have Cisco proprietary protocol IGRP , EIGRP (the popular Cisco’s protocols) and Cisco discovery protocol . Wireless enterprise Router provides security in four forms like WPA2, WPA2-Enterprise, WPA-Enterprise, WPA which ensures better security through 128 bit encryption (up to 256 bit encryption is possible). From an administration point of view, I feel that it's easy for the Admin. To configure a router through its CLI interface. Now a day all he latest version of Cisco handles IPV6 integration and usage.
Counterparts of Cisco are the juniper and Huawei which have no any specialized proprietary protocols which still cause them to lay down in front of Cisco’s routers. Huawei introduces many router rich in feature in low price but still it is unable to achieve that level of quality. The router is simple to install, setup and maintain , friendly and top notch GUI to configure through both web base or CLI base platforms.
Disadvantage
I didn’t find any disadvantage except the energy utilization and power consumption which has been compensated in new handy versions of Routers . Also the Cisco proprietary protocols (EIGRP, IGRP and CDP) can best be utilized with the Cisco’s router only.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Network Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Cisco 2811 Router provides rock solid performance for small to medium sized enterprise networks
Valuable Features:
Cisco 2811 has the capability of providing several high-quality simultaneous services at wire speeds up to multiple T1/E1/xDSL links.Four high-speed WAN Interface Card Slots provide excessive density.Security features consist of on-board encryption, Intrusion Prevention, as well as stateful inspection, and up to 1500 VPN tunnels with AIM-EPII-PLUS Module.Two Integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet ports with an option of layer 2 switching with POE support.Analog and digital voice call support is also available.
Room for Improvement:
Works great never had any problem.
Other Advice:
Cisco 2800 series provides fast excellent delivery of multiple simultaneous services. It is comprised of four new platforms: Cisco 2801, 2811, 2821, and 2851 Integrated Services Routers that are designed to meet the IP communication requirements of small to medium sized organizations and enterprise branch offices. The 2800 series also features secure network connectivity for data, voice, and video.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Cisco 2811 has an enhanced network module slot and support for over 90 existing and new modules.
System & Network Administrator at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
A consistent solution with a well-made operating system, but room for improvement in scalability and integration
Pros and Cons
- "The operating system is good and well-made."
- "The product would be more scalable if it could operate with other brands."
What is our primary use case?
I use this solution to design and build my network.
What is most valuable?
The operating system is good and well-made. We have found it to be solid and consistent.
What needs improvement?
The product would be more scalable if it could operate with other brands.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with this solution for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of this solution as a four out of five.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability as a three out of five.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy because we learned about Cisco routers and switches in school, so we are familiar with them and have certification on the equipment.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment didn't trouble us much. Our in-house IT team of two or three engineers handled it, and it took us about a week. We prepared in advance, and we implemented the configuration once the equipment was acquired. I think it might take two weeks to deploy on a large network.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We pay for our license annually. If it could be cheaper that would be good, but I would rate it as a four out of five for price, with one being very expensive and five being very affordable.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution as a seven out of ten. I would recommend this product to others.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Hi Dylan
Thanks for reaching out. As from your comment, it seems that you are asking and offering me at the same time:) right? So I have no new projects right now. And what I am getting from Cisco's router is the thing I observed during my usage of Cisco's router and if any other things come up, I will let you know.