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Aruba Orchestrator vs VMware VeloCloud 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
11th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
WAN Edge (4th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Aruba Orchestrator is 0.8%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN is 10.3%, up from 8.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
 

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.
Sami-Isoaho - PeerSpot reviewer
To fully utilize cloud vendors' hardware networking, Microsoft and VMware support everything
To improve the product, the company, alone or with a good partner, should manufacture their own hardware brand with boxes to make the product more shippable. Implementing VMware is much more difficult, time-consuming, and expensive than implementing Fortinet or Check Point. With Fortinet, you pay a couple of hundred dollars for hosting and a low-cost firewall, there's only one box to ship to each site, and it's much easier to manage. Moreover, it would be easy for the large telecom operators and system integrators to sell the solution. It would also be a good fit for customers with multiple small offices, who I currently advise to choose hardware-vendor SD-WAN solutions over VMware.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most important feature is WAN optimization."
"The most valuable feature is optimization."
"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."
"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 solution has a single pane of glass view that allows you to see everything happening in your SD-WAN world."
"The technical support services are excellent."
"The product has reduced OpEx expenditure."
"VMware SD-WAN is a complete solution."
"It's scalable."
"Increases the performance of applications and is easy to deploy."
"I would absolutely recommend VeloCloud because it's user-friendly and because the integration is easier than with other solutions."
"It is fairly similar to other solutions. It has the capability for testing link connectivity, which is its unique feature from a control perspective."
"The service they provide is very stable and is the main influencer of why customers purchase this solution."
"SD-WAN is cloud-based and you can manage multiple sites within one single pane of glass."
"The most valuable feature of VMware SD-WAN is security. Additionally, the integration and configuration are easier to do than with other solutions, such as Cisco."
 

Cons

"The initial setup is complex, depending on the overall planning for the entire environment."
"Aruba Orchestrator should implement dynamic certificate changes for security."
"The solution lacks sufficient security features."
"The solution can be improved by lowering the cost and making it more user-friendly for first-time users."
"The management menu should be simplified."
"They could provide essential training to understand the product functionality."
"Security is a challenge. I would like to see VMware add things like IPS, IDS, and web filtering. These features are the future of security, and most competing firewalls have them."
"The firewall can be more advanced."
"VMware SD-WAN is harder than Cisco. It is complex, and we must take many steps to get the service. I think it would be beneficial if obtaining licenses could be simplified. Currently, numerous options and integrations are bundled together, which can make it quite complex."
"The prep time and understanding what you want to do and how much bandwidth you'll need and how you're going to configure it on the network, that's more of an issue than anything else."
"There is still room for improvement in support and security, especially in enhancing the SASE aspect of the platform."
"VeloCloud needs improvement in terms of its security features."
"If you don't have an Internet connection, you can’t control it."
"The initial setup could be simplified for beginners."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's licensing costs are yearly. It is not expensive, and I rate it around three to four out of ten."
"Aruba Orchestrator is free to use."
"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."
"I rate the platform’s pricing a five out of ten."
"The price is reasonable for this solution, but the only challenge for us is that the Rand currency fluctuates to the dollar and provides some complexities. The price might go up just because the Rand has actually lost value."
"Price would be a challenge for customers, because it is expensive."
"Overall pricing could be lower. It is much more expensive than traditional hardware vendor pricing."
"VMware SD-WAN provides competitive pricing."
"We pay about $500 USD, or 700,000 Korean won."
"The price of this solution is higher than that of other SD-WAN vendors."
"You need to pay for a license to use this product."
"The cost of VMware SD-WAN is high, but I think you can still get better pricing if your volume is high."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What are the biggest differences between Fortinet Fortigate and VMware SD-WAN?
One of our favorite things about Fortinet Fortigate is that you can deploy on the cloud or on premises. It is a very stable, reliable, and consistent solution. We like that we can manage the entire...
What do you like most about VMware SD-WAN?
One of the key use cases for VMware SD-WAN was assisting a customer in the industrial zone. They required virtualized servers and wanted to enable VMware SD-WAN to connect their sites in Japan or C...
 

Also Known As

Silver Peak Unity Orchestrator, Unity Orchestrator
VMware SD-WAN, VeloCloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Redmond, Coca Cola, Roka Bioscience, MetTel, Deutsche Telekom, Rockford Construction,  The Bay Club, tru Independence, Triton Management Services, DevCon, AXPM
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Orchestrator vs. VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.