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Cisco Catalyst Center vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

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
7.4
Cisco Catalyst Center simplifies network management and enhances efficiency, providing positive ROI and performance, despite high initial costs.
Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN reduces WAN costs, offering up to 80% savings, improved reliability, and 30% long-term cost reductions.
They have a long life.
The best feature is its availability, easy deployment, and good support for the solution.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
Cisco Catalyst Center's efficient, timely support is highly rated, though hardware replacement delays occur, especially in complex cases.
Sentiment score
7.4
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN support is praised for expertise and responsiveness, though some desire faster escalation and more local expertise.
I had a situation where they were present with us overnight to fix an issue for a customer, demonstrating their dedication.
I would rate technical support nine to nine and a half out of ten.
The software platform is very easy to use.
The principal third-level support is very good.
Cisco's ongoing reorganizations have affected the quality of technical support, which varies depending on the engineer handling cases.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Cisco Catalyst Center is lauded for scalability, flexibility, and efficient device management, with high ratings for its adaptability.
Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is praised for scalable integration with existing Cisco products, efficiently supporting large enterprises despite licensing limits.
They have a feature that allows stacking switches together.
Cisco Catalyst Center is scalable and quite flexible, allowing for specific model choices like the 9,000 or 2,000 series based on the clients' performance requirements and bottlenecks.
It effectively manages all the devices I have, demonstrating its capability to scale.
Cisco SD-WAN is highly scalable and can be expanded to more than 10,000 sites.
The ease of configuration and features like zero-touch provisioning enhance the scalability of Cisco SD-WAN, especially in disaster recovery situations.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco Catalyst Center is praised for its reliability in networking, boasting strong stability and robust security for critical workloads.
Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is stable, reliable, and robust, with minor bugs but improves with proper management and OS versions.
They are very stable, not power cycling, and basically maintaining their stability.
They provide a robust and secure solution for critical workloads.
Cisco Catalyst Center is stable, and I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability.
While some software-related issues and bugs were encountered, they did not cause the whole environment to crash.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Catalyst Center struggles with compatibility, setup complexity, cost-effectiveness, user interface, documentation, threat detection, and mixed vendor support.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN users seek better cost efficiency, integration, support, and security features to compete in the market.
My customers often complain about numerous software bugs requiring frequent software patches and updates to resolve these issues.
In the current setup, incidents are always reactionary, and it would be beneficial if Cisco Catalyst Center could proactively handle issues such as bandwidth crunches and packet drops.
Cisco Catalyst Center lacked intelligence in this area and required reliance on third-party appliances like firewalls or threat protection devices.
Now, they change frequently, making it difficult to obtain long-term support.
Including more features like integrating with Splunk for monitoring vulnerabilities would help eliminate the need for other SOC solutions.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Catalyst Center, while costly, offers value with high quality and ROI, positioned as a premium networking solution.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is considered expensive yet feature-rich, with subscription-based pricing and calls for simpler, flexible licensing.
They are also facing competitive pricing challenges from Huawei.
Cost is a major factor when any company is buying, and Cisco's products are pricier even compared to other US-based solutions.
The setup can be somewhat expensive.
Its pricing is justifiable due to the comprehensive solution it offers.
It is also relatively cost-effective for smaller businesses when using the Meraki version.
The pricing of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is rated between eight and nine out of ten, where ten is the most expensive.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Catalyst Center provides robust automation, management, and security for large networks, enhancing functionality and ease of use.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers easy deployment, centralized control, high reliability, scalability, security, and integrates well with cloud services.
There is a very wide user base providing support, so I almost never have to contact Cisco support due to the vast accessible knowledge base.
Their threat intelligence platform is excellent, including Talos Intelligence, which provides a good database and strong threat insights.
This dual functionality is crucial for monitoring large enterprises, providing a robust solution for IT teams.
It also provides robust security features, including port security, analysis, mirroring, and multiple other security solutions.
Integration capabilities provide comprehensive security.
Security is standard compliant, eliminating config drift that was prevalent before manual configurations.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Catalyst Center
Ranking in Network Management Applications
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Ranking in Network Management Applications
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
93
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (2nd), WAN Edge (2nd)
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmad Attal - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivers strong analytics and integration capabilities but requires regular updates and training
My customers often complain about numerous software bugs requiring frequent software patches and updates to resolve these issues. Furthermore, the complexity of the solution can be challenging for some customers as they often require extensive training to fully understand and utilize the product. They have concerns about the high number of software bugs and the need for regular updates to address these bugs.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
17%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Healthcare Company
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
Educational Organization
43%
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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Catalyst Center?
The cost is relative and depends on the market and one's budget provision. While Cisco provides a good return on investment, they are also facing competitive pricing challenges from Huawei.
What needs improvement with Cisco Catalyst Center?
If they can add a layer of portable hotspots with some licensing flexibility for 20 to 50 users, it would be a great feature.
What is your primary use case for Cisco Catalyst Center?
We use Cisco Catalyst Center ( /products/cisco-catalyst-center-reviews ) for managing switches in our IT infrastructure. Our primary focus has been on utilizing Catalyst ( /products/cisco-catalyst-...
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

No data available
Cisco SD-WAN
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Doyle Research, Ashton Metzler & Associates
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Catalyst Center vs. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.