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Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs Steelhead comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 10, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.7
Businesses see financial benefits from Cloudflare through improved uptime, security, and performance, enhancing returns despite measurement challenges.
Sentiment score
7.4
Organizations achieved 25% ROI from Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN by eliminating costly MPLS, enhancing efficiency, and reducing costs.
Sentiment score
8.5
Steelhead optimized bandwidth, achieving up to 10x improvement, saving costs and enhancing user experience without extra internet enhancements.
You would only lose money if you had an attack and you need to calculate the cost against the risks.
WordPress security can be tricky, and that's where Cloudflare can be absolutely helpful for small businesses.
We have had ROI with the tool's use since it never gave us downtime and made us lose millions.
Without Steelhead, we would have spent much more on bandwidth costs.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Customer service is highly rated, especially for Enterprise plans, but response times could improve for complex issues.
Sentiment score
7.4
Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN support is efficient and responsive, though post-acquisition agent knowledge needs improvement, especially on licensing.
Sentiment score
5.5
Steelhead's efficient support excels in prompt responses and technical accuracy, though local assistance could be improved.
This would help us address issues promptly, especially during unforeseen events like DDoS attacks.
We'd like a dedicated account manager.
You can get a support engineer with the best qualifications.
Aruba's technical support is very responsive.
I can harness the power of the teacher model without lowering my top and laser focus.
Steelhead's support is generally good for typical issues yet can be time-consuming during complex problem-solving across teams, particularly for Active Directory integration.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Cloudflare is highly regarded for its scalability, smoothly accommodating various user needs and handling significant traffic across business sizes.
Sentiment score
7.4
The Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform offers seamless scalability and performance for large enterprise implementations with extensive user support.
Sentiment score
8.4
Steelhead is scalable with efficient traffic management, though some faced hardware and licensing challenges during expansion to larger deployments.
I would rate the solution's scalability a ten out of ten since I didn't encounter any issues with it.
I rate its scalability a ten out of ten because I had no issues with it.
I rate the scalability a ten out of ten.
It allows us to maximize use from our MPLS providers by handling traffic efficiently across phased deployments.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cloudflare is generally praised for stability and reliability, despite occasional issues and past outages, requiring proper configuration for best performance.
Sentiment score
8.2
The Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform is stable with high user satisfaction, though custom deployments can present occasional issues.
Sentiment score
8.7
Steelhead is highly stable with minimal interruptions, efficient hardware support, and enhanced reliability despite minor issues.
For DDoS protection, I would not recommend Cloudflare.
I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.
I rate Cloudflare eight out of 10 for stability.
It is very stable, with no significant issues.
It's quite stable and provides all necessary alerts if something is wrong.
 

Room For Improvement

Users suggest Cloudflare improve analytics, CDN errors, support, DNS, APIs, pricing, server access, DDoS features, and documentation.
Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN needs better documentation, enhanced integration, improved tools, security features, and technical resources for optimal use.
Steelhead faces challenges with traffic handling, integration, RIOS updates, fail-open feature, and needs improvements in scalability and security.
There's a need for improvement in areas like AI-based DDoS attacks and Layer 7 WAF features.
Despite these challenges, overall, Cloudflare remains the preferred solution compared to Azure, AWS CloudFront, and Google Cloud Armor.
Compared to other vendors and Cloudflare, there will be more downtime.
I would also like the management of EdgeConnect appliances to be incorporated into Aruba Central Cloud Central.
The security could also improve.
It would help if Riverbed could prevent such drastic impacts during updates.
 

Setup Cost

Cloudflare provides free and paid plans from $20, with straightforward pricing catering to small, medium, and enterprise businesses.
Aruba EdgeConnect offers competitive pricing with flexible licenses, valued for affordability and ease of deployment, yet some licensing enhancements needed.
Steelhead's high costs and licensing complexities are offset by strong performance, valued support, and lower maintenance fees.
That's where Cloudflare shines for smaller businesses – it's ten times cheaper than Akamai.
It is cheaper than other options.
It's cost-effective, but I think they should have a custom pricing model for enterprise customers based on the features you use.
The licensing is not too expensive, however, it is also not cheap.
It is an affordable product and yet still a bit expensive.
Buying the hardware initially is costly, but yearly maintenance and licenses are not as expensive.
 

Valuable Features

Cloudflare provides speed enhancement, security, and ease of use with CDN, DDoS protection, SSL, and traffic analytics for website optimization.
Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform enhances connectivity and performance with advanced features, intuitive interface, and robust security.
Steelhead excels in WAN optimization, data compression, cloud migration, and enhancing application performance with features like data reduction and QoS.
Our scenario consisted of two web servers in different allocations to control access demands, and the load balancer did the job as expected, bringing security and stability to access points.
For me, the valuable feature is DDoS protection.
The most valuable features of the solution are performance and security.
Additionally, it integrates perfectly with Aruba ClearPass, offering a robust security solution, covering network admin, access control, authentication, and authorization.
Many features are valuable for automation, connectivity, and throughput.
Functions like acting as an NTP server, DNS, DHCP, and auto-optimization mode enhance efficiency.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cloudflare
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
CDN (1st), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (1st), Managed DNS (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (14th)
Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Pl...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
WAN Optimization (2nd), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (7th), WAN Edge (7th)
Steelhead
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
WAN Optimization (3rd), WAN Edge (13th)
 

Featured Reviews

Spencer Malmad - PeerSpot reviewer
It's easy to set up because you point the DNS to it, and it's working in under 15 minutes
Cloudflare is highly scalable. Cloudflare is a system with a web portal that the end users like me see. It's a console where we can adjust the DNS, caching, and security features all in that console. Cloudflare owns thousands of servers across the world that cache the data. It's a powerful solution. When clients sign up for Cloudflare, they're getting this monster content delivery network, security, and a web application firewall in one. It's all rolled into one, and it's massive. Unless you have your website hosted on a massive hosting provider, there's no way that you can deliver the amount of data that Cloudflare can provide to the end users. If you have static content, there's no way that you can ever match what Cloudflare can do. Obviously, there are competitors to Cloudflare that do the same, but I'm saying other types of solutions. Let's say you go with F5. Great, that's on-prem. That's in your colo. You can't deliver as much data to the internet as you can with a CDN. You don't have to spend $20,000 on a net scaler, F5, or whatever Cisco's selling now. You don't have to buy that. You pay them $50 a month or $150 a month. It's totally worth it because even in five years, you'll never get the performance value, not just the actual ROI. You have to consider how much throughput you can get with Cloudflare.
JOHN UNAMBA - PeerSpot reviewer
Integrated security features and robust support improve network management
The solution was installed across two branches for a financial institution. One location had a data center, and the other was a branch office. For SaaS applications, traffic broke out from EdgeConnect directly to the cloud. Applications using the data center were channeled through the MPLS link…
Raj Metkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Auto-optimization mode enhance efficiency & bandwidth saving, best layer 7 QoS shaping policy can be achieved with ease
There are several features specific to branches, like keeping data hot and active on Steelhead devices. These features prevent unnecessary data travel across the international MPLS. Additionally, functions like acting as an NTP server, DNS, DHCP for branches and auto-optimization mode enhance efficiency along with really good QoS for bandwidth shaping.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
24%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
5%
Computer Software Company
23%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GR...
Which would you choose - Cloudflare DNS or Quad9?
Cloudflare DNS is a very fast, very reliable public DNS resolver. It is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service...
What do you like most about Cloudflare?
Cloudflare offers CDN and DDoS protection. We have the front end, API, and database in how you structure applications.
What do you like most about Silver Peak NX?
The tool's most valuable feature is bandwidth optimization.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Silver Peak NX?
It is an affordable product and yet still a bit expensive.
What needs improvement with Silver Peak NX?
One area for improvement is the Intel support integration. The security could also improve.
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We just did an assessment for our 47 datacenters around North America. The top two enterprise-level network monitorin...
What do you like most about Riverbed Steelhead?
One of our most valuable features is Steelhead's cloud migration optimization. Moving to the cloud helped optimize ou...
What is your primary use case for Riverbed Steelhead?
We use Riverbed Steelhead devices for WAN optimization, which saves us considerable money on our international bandwi...
 

Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS
Silver Peak NX, Silver Peak VX, Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect
RIverbed Steelhead
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.
Group Dekko, Kingston Technology, American Student Assistance, Ares Management, Charlotte Metro Credit Union, Colonial Savings, Community Bank, Denali Credit Union, Bed Bath & Beyond, Breweries of Cameroon, Carnival Australia, Coastal Beverages, Toshiba Electronics, Tru Blu Beverages, WAXIE Sanitary Supply, Charleston Area Medical Center, Community Health Plan, Healthcare Company, Mercy Health, Linklaters, Miles & Stockbridge, Thomson Snell & Passmore
ElAraby, SFK Leblanc, Bobst Group, Northwest Pipe Company, Halkbank, Tradebridge, EFG Hermes
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs. Steelhead and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.