Aruba Orchestrator vs Prisma SD-WAN comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Palo Alto Networks are both solutions in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.8, while Palo Alto Networks is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.7. Hewlett Packard Enterprise holds a 0.7% mindshare in SDW, compared to Palo Alto Networks’s 6.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Palo Alto Networks users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Prisma SD-WAN and Aruba Orchestrator compete in the SD-WAN solution category. Prisma SD-WAN appears to have the upper hand in handling complex networks due to its advanced analytics and integration capabilities.

Features: Prisma SD-WAN provides VPN tunnel creation, deep application visibility, and integration with various security vendors. It offers Zero Touch Provisioning, dynamic routing, and Layer 7 traffic manipulation for complex network environments. Aruba Orchestrator focuses on WAN optimization with a unified dashboard for simplified management, supports full REST API access, and integrates with ClearPass for network access control.

Room for Improvement: Prisma SD-WAN users report issues with technical documentation, alerting capabilities, and integration with monitoring software. Manual intervention in updates is also noted. Aruba Orchestrator could improve dynamic certificate changes, analytics, and management menus. Its on-premises deployments require significant effort, complicating hardware scenarios.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Prisma SD-WAN is widely deployed across hybrid environments with good support dynamics, though some users experience support delays. Under Palo Alto, support remains robust compared to its CloudGenix phase. Aruba Orchestrator offers competent support but lacks historical support efficiency, particularly during its competitive phase with CloudGenix.

Pricing and ROI: Prisma SD-WAN is a premium solution with higher costs than competitors like Zscaler or Fortinet, offering advanced features and integration benefits for existing Palo Alto users. Despite the cost, users report significant savings and improved performance leading to faster ROI. Aruba Orchestrator offers a mid-range pricing model with reasonable returns, acknowledged for its low-cost structure and free software aspect, though some feel its feature set may not justify the price compared to others.

To learn more, read our detailed Aruba Orchestrator vs. Prisma SD-WAN Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Aruba Orchestrator vs. Prisma SD-WAN

March 2025

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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

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 21.1%, up from 21.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Aruba Orchestrator is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Prisma SD-WAN is 6.0%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

Featured Reviews

EhabAli

Sr. Cybersecurity Solutions Architect at BMB

Efficient, user-friendly, and affordable

In the past, NSS Labs was utilized to test files and verify the numbers and datasheets. It would be beneficial to have an organization or testing lab that can verify the numbers in our datasheets since changes are frequently made, which can be inconvenient for review. For instance, when comparing different competitors such as Forcepoint, Palo Alto, and Check Point, the throughput or numbers in the datasheet may be lower than the actual numbers. Conversely, Fortinet typically reports very high numbers, but they cannot be replicated in the real world. Therefore, it would be advantageous for them to partner with a neutral testing organization such as NSS Labs to validate these numbers, thus providing more credibility and comfort to everyone regarding the accuracy of the datasheets. For the migration, everyone has a firewall in use and I am selling Fortinet. Typically, I am replacing another firewall. Previously, there was a tool available to convert configurations from one firewall, such as Palo Alto, to Fortinet, but this tool is no longer free. If it could be made free again, it would be very beneficial. This tool shows a lot of promise and is very good. Making it free would help many companies deliver their products in a more efficient and integrated way. It would also be more valuable to include the tool with the firewall package or license instead of having to pay extra for it. Paying extra puts more pressure on small companies to deliver the firewall and complete the configuration, especially if they have hundreds or thousands of policies. It's very painful to move through these policies line by line. The stability has room for improvement. When it comes to Secure SD-WAN, everything is fine. They are going the right way. SD-WAN is very promising. They can provide the SD-WAN solution separately, but they will not take this approach because even the smallest firewall can support the features, so there is no need to have a separate service or appliance. They are following the right steps, and there is nothing to be improved. Feature-wise, I'm really satisfied with the new release, and the features they have added. For now, it's fine.

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Aneesh K

IT Solution Analyst II at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

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.

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Engineerinfosec67

Senior Information Security Engineer at Westcon-Comstor

Centralized management streamlines global network traffic control

Prisma SD-WAN requires a more seamless integration with other Palo Alto solutions, like Prisma Access. Although there has been improvement, further steps can be taken. Additionally, it would be beneficial if the solution integrated the SD-WAN features of Prisma SD-WAN with the security features of Palo Alto's next-generation firewalls, as they currently do not align.

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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

"We use a southern institution that's audited for IT security and the reporting that automatically comes off the unit makes it much easier to meet compliance standards and makes it easier as far as the amount of time that has to be spent to compile that information. If you get your reporting set up correctly when you initially set it up, you just select the one you want and hit print. The auditing trail on it is the best feature."

"Fortinet FortiGate appears to be scalable."

"Fortinet FortiGate has a threat detection capacity compared to other vendors."

"Consolidated our network environment at all locations, but mainly at our datacenter."

"I appreciate FortiGate's flexibility, which allows for centralized management through FortiManager."

"We've found the solution to be pretty stable."

"It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well."

"FortiGate Secure SD-WAN includes best-of-breed next-generation firewall (NGFW) security, SD-WAN, advanced routing, and WAN optimization capabilities, delivering a security-driven networking WAN edge transformation in a unified offering."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The most important feature is WAN optimization."

"Aruba Orchestrator has notably reduced enrollment setup times from several hours to within an hour if prepared and planned."

"The solution has a single pane of glass view that allows you to see everything happening in your SD-WAN world."

"The Business Intent Overlay is a great feature."

"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 product has reduced OpEx expenditure."

"The technical support services are excellent."

"The most valuable feature is optimization."

"I like the link monitoring and analytics. These are the features that set Prisma apart from other products. Prisma works well with large, complex networks. One of my clients is a top bank in the United States, and Prisma has performed well for that customer."

"The dynamic routing in Prisma SD-WAN is high-speed and valuable because it quickly adjusts, so users do not realize the link is down."

"The implementation of the solution is easy."

"Prisma's analytics provide a lot of valuable data. I like the internet health chart that shows latency, dropped packets, MOS for data quality, etc. It also runs a continuous speed test in the background. I've used it multiple times to troubleshoot internet connections when the service provider has attempted to claim nothing is wrong with the circuit. It gives me data to send them showing we're not getting the speed we should, or there is constant packet loss."

"Prisma SD-WAN is an absolutely stable solution."

"The most valuable feature is the single pane of glass, especially since we have Palo Alto firewalls."

"If the MPLS goes down, there is a really smooth transition for a branch site to take traffic over the Internet. It will advertise the routes of that site in a jiffy."

"Prisma SD-WAN is recommended due to its comprehensive capabilities."

More Prisma SD-WAN pros

Cons

"The feedback that I have received is that the performance could be better, and the user experience is not as good compared to a previous solution we used. It could be more user-friendly. Of course, it still works fine for our operations."

"While FortiGate is cheaper than most other solutions, we're seeing increased license renewal costs. Most of our clients are asking for more significant discounts because the price is going up."

"Backup can be improved."

"It should have a better pricing plan. It is too expensive. It should also have a more granular view of the attack. I don't have FortiAnalyzer, and it is difficult for me to have a complete view when there is an attack on my server."

"The advanced models are expensive."

"I could not configure sFlow from the FortiGate graphical user interface. I realized that the sFlow configuration is available only from the CLI, and discovered that sFlow is not supported on virtual interfaces, such as VDOM links, IPsec, or GRE."

"The solution can have more features in a single box that can be multi-applied to integrate everything."

"The logs need to be better. They need to be more visible and easier to access."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"They could provide essential training to understand the product functionality."

"The management menu should be simplified."

"The solution lacks sufficient security features."

"The initial setup is complex, depending on the overall planning for the entire environment."

"The solution can be improved by lowering the cost and making it more user-friendly for first-time users."

"Aruba Orchestrator should implement dynamic certificate changes for security."

"I'd like to see them move more towards CASB."

"Accessibility could be improved. Any new person attempting to access Prisma will have difficulty. It doesn't have CLI available."

"The product could be a bit cheaper for the services it provides."

"There are two parallel things that we want Palo Alto to work on. First, customers want a unified appliance that does the work of all firewalls in addition to SD-WAN. Second, the cloud presence should be completely automated. If I purchase the SASE architecture, I shouldn't worry about deployments in Prisma Access or on Prisma SD-WAN. It should be deployed in one go."

"Prisma could be a little cheaper."

"Event correlation and analysis capabilities do not help minimize the number of alarms from a single event. That is the problem. We are getting a lot of incidents, and there is some issue with the correlation. That is still a drawback."

"The pricing for Prisma SD-WAN needs improvement."

"Prisma SD-WAN should provide more flexibility and scalability on the hardware."

More Prisma SD-WAN cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is highly competitive when compared to other brands that offer similar functionality."

"The product pricing is reasonable."

"Price-wise, it's at a good price point for our market."

"It is cost-effective, and provides a good value for your money. The pricing, and license renewal, is very reasonable for us."

"Its price is normal. If I compare it with other vendors, such as Palo Alto, it's normal. Palo Alto is expensive."

"For the price, I'd rate it a ten because it's very cost-effective."

"If the price of the license in Fortinet FortiGate was less expensive it would be better."

"For medium and enterprise organizations, FortiGate is more affordable."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"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."

"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."

"This solution stood out because it cost considerably less than the other SD-WAN solutions out there from Cisco."

"If you're already invested in a Palo Alto product, it would be logical to use this solution. If not, there might be some other solutions that are more viable in terms of pricing."

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

"Prisma SD-WAN is a pretty expensive solution."

"It is more expensive than Fortinet."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

22%

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

No data available

Educational Organization

24%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?

When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?

From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

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What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

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What do you like most about Silver Peak Unity Orchestrator?

The most important feature is WAN optimization.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Silver Peak Unity Orchestrator?

Aruba Orchestrator is free to use.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Silver Peak Unity Orchestrator?

The management menu should be simplified.

See all answers

What do you like most about Prisma SD-WAN?

The product's initial setup phase is straightforward.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Prisma SD-WAN?

The product could be a bit cheaper for the services it provides.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Prisma SD-WAN?

I think the product could be a bit cheaper, but otherwise, I am satisfied with it.

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 22% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 10% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

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VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs Aruba Orchestrator

Compared 63% of the time

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Aruba Orchestrator

Compared 38% of the time

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Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Prisma SD-WAN

Compared 23% of the time

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Prisma SD-WAN

Compared 21% of the time

Meraki SD-WAN vs Prisma SD-WAN

Compared 15% of the time

Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs Prisma SD-WAN

Compared 10% of the time

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs Prisma SD-WAN

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

April 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Aruba Orchestrator

April 2025

Download Aruba Orchestrator product report

Buyer's Guide

Prisma SD-WAN

March 2025

Download Prisma SD-WAN product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

Silver Peak Unity Orchestrator, Unity Orchestrator

CloudGenix

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Fortinet

Aruba Orchestrator has an intuitive interface that allows you to centrally define, assign, and enforce policies across the WAN. Network managers experience the highest quality of experience to:

Centrally define, assign and enforce policies based on business intent to secure and control all application traffic across the WAN.

Orchestrator dashboards provide real time visibility into SD-WAN health and performance in a single screen, monitoring traffic throughput along with loss, latency and jitter across overlays and underlays.

Maintain the highest levels of application performance by automatically assigning application and security policies across 100s or 1000s of sites, including automated orchestration with cloud security services.

Central orchestration of network functions including SD-WAN routing, firewall, segmentation, WAN optimization, application visibility and control, and automated orchestration with cloud security services.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Simplify management, enable app-defined SD-WAN policies and deliver a secure, cloud-delivered branch today with the Industry’s first next-generation SD-WAN.

Palo Alto Networks

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

Information Not Available

Open Networking User Group, Columbia Sportswear Company, Coca Cola

Buyer's Guide

Aruba Orchestrator vs. Prisma SD-WAN

March 2025

Free Report: Aruba Orchestrator vs. Prisma SD-WAN

Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Orchestrator vs. Prisma SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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