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Aruba Orchestrator vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

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

Aruba Orchestrator
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
12th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
92
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (6th), WAN Edge (2nd)
 

Featured Reviews

Aneesh K - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides complete internal visibility from LAN to Wi-Fi, resulting in higher stability and easier troubleshooting
Aruba has plenty of solutions showcased at this event. Perhaps they offer their firewall, which we are not currently utilizing—the LAN switching, ClearPass, and Wi-Fi. ClearPass is is still on-premises, but the switching, Wi-Fi, and security features are included. It has some capabilities, like automation intelligence, which they call AI operations. So it is helpful. Our time spent on troubleshooting will be significantly reduced with it. Another useful feature is that we can inquire about the health data from Aruba Central and receive the necessary answers. Aruba Central simplifies management. Yes, deployment will be much faster than on-premises setups, where you need many hardware gateways. With just an access point or minimal hardware, deployment will be quicker. Troubleshooting with it has also made it much more straightforward. A group of ten people should be more than sufficient to manage an extensive infrastructure. Aruba is providing better support. They are also improving their email services. They are up to market standards, so we choose to go with them. We were looking for a direct vendor, but they didn't meet our requirements. Aruba Orchestrator is meeting our current expectations and standards, so we are sticking with them. We don't have any issues because we have been with Aruba for many years. We don't mind moving from one vendor to another. We are simply transitioning from one rental type to another with Aruba. I prioritize enhancements in AI functionality over other features. There are several implementations, with AI being the primary focus. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Igor Van Den Ouden - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables secure and flexible branch connectivity with application-aware routing
The valuable features of Cisco SD-WAN include its security policies and zone-based firewall that are applied to every site, as well as application-aware routing. Security is standard compliant, eliminating config drift that was prevalent before manual configurations. Application-aware routing offers flexibility in using different lines for traffic, depending on the policy implemented.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We had to deal with separate management models for Wi-Fi and switches. With Aruba Orchestrator, it's now a unified solution, making things much easier for us. We log in and manage everything from a single console. It provides complete internal visibility from LAN to Wi-Fi, resulting in higher stability and easier troubleshooting. The management process is much quicker and more streamlined."
"The Business Intent Overlay is a great feature."
"Aruba Orchestrator has notably reduced enrollment setup times from several hours to within an hour if prepared and planned."
"The most valuable feature is optimization."
"The technical support services are excellent."
"The solution has a single pane of glass view that allows you to see everything happening in your SD-WAN world."
"The product has reduced OpEx expenditure."
"The most important feature is WAN optimization."
"The solution has great scalability."
"Using SD-WAN to combine services can result in better up time, higher speeds, and much lower costs."
"You get security, all of the service you need, and it's easy to deploy."
"The user experience is pretty good."
"This solution can scale from SMB to the enterprise level. It is very impressive."
"It is very simple to deploy. It's a point-and-click type of deployment, so it's fairly simple."
"It is really easy to deploy and use. It is also easy to use for failovers and designing solutions. The rollout is really quick. It is easy to adjust and roll out."
"The solution is great at aggregating the traffic and then sending it in one direction."
 

Cons

"The solution can be improved by lowering the cost and making it more user-friendly for first-time users."
"The solution lacks sufficient security features."
"Aruba Orchestrator should implement dynamic certificate changes for security."
"The management menu should be simplified."
"They could provide essential training to understand the product functionality."
"The initial setup is complex, depending on the overall planning for the entire environment."
"The solution could be a bit cheaper."
"It's an expensive solution."
"We have found that their SD-WAN has a lot of scope for improvement."
"The solution is expensive and could be cheaper."
"Since most user-data is going through the solution, we are concerned about security, as all the information is in the cloud and not on-premises. The user data authentification should be higher to better prevent malicious attacks."
"Some competitors are much faster in providing out-of-the-box solutions, more innovative solutions. In terms of innovation, in many cases, they're lagging behind."
"The main issue is that not in the technology, but it comes back comparison. When we do a comparison with other SD WAN solutions, they are priced better."
"The inexpensive Viptela hardware may be replaced with overpriced Cisco routers. This would be a tragic mistake for Cisco as the lightweight commodity platform built by Viptela is the reason to own this solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Aruba Orchestrator is free to use."
"The solution's licensing costs are yearly. It is not expensive, and I rate it around three to four out of ten."
"I rate the platform’s pricing a five out of ten."
"I think it is quite expensive compared to other vendors in the market because it depends on what kind of features you really want to acquire in the product."
"You can get subscriptions for three or five years."
"The cost of Cisco SD-WAN is high and has room for improvement compared to competitors such as Fortinet which has similar functionality."
"There is no license required for this solution."
"There is a monthly subscription to use this solution."
"80 percent reduction in WAN costs. There are no MPLS or P2P circuits left in the organization."
"The license model is too complex with too many flavors and options. You might not be able to see it from an end user's point of view, but from a telco point of view, their license model is too complex. They should have a flexible license model. If you want to have good pricing, you need to buy it for a two-year, four-year, or five-year license immediately. Some other vendors have much more flexible license models."
"The price of the solution is the only negative factor, it is much more expensive compared with the Cisco Meraki SD-WAN solution."
"You have to pay between 3000 and 10,000 euros, or something in that range. The core switches Nexus cost me between 10,000 and 20,000 euros."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Educational Organization
46%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco SD-WAN?
When considering the most valuable features of Cisco SD-WAN, the decoupling of self-monitoring stands out significantly.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco SD-WAN?
The pricing for Cisco SD-WAN is rated eight out of ten, with some variability depending on the reseller discounts and the size of the enterprise. It is also relatively cost-effective for smaller bu...
What needs improvement with Cisco SD-WAN?
The main area for improvement in Cisco SD-WAN is the lack of documentation, which often lags behind the software releases. This is especially notable since Cisco acquired the solution and is still ...
 

Also Known As

Silver Peak Unity Orchestrator, Unity Orchestrator
Cisco SD-WAN
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Doyle Research, Ashton Metzler & Associates
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Orchestrator vs. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,485 professionals have used our research since 2012.