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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 offers easy management and deployment, high initial costs offset by longevity, and strong ROI through effective resource use.
Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN reduces WAN expenses, improves efficiency, and enhances reliability, with ROI in three years for most users.
They have a long life.
The best feature is its availability, easy deployment, and good support for the solution.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco Catalyst Center's customer service is praised for efficiency, scoring high in satisfaction due to effective problem-solving and support.
Sentiment score
7.5
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN support is highly rated for expertise and responsiveness, despite occasional delays and redirection challenges.
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.
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 offers adaptable, scalable solutions with robust features, ideal for medium to large enterprises needing flexible device management.
Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is praised for its scalability, suitable for diverse industries and enterprises, despite some technical expansion 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 generally stable and reliable, with positive user ratings despite some varying opinions on software stability.
Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is stable and reliable, but complex setups and new deployments may face minor issues and bugs.
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 integration, complexity, bugs, high costs, and needs enhancements in usability, security, and documentation.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN needs cost efficiency, better interface, enhanced security, simplified licensing, and improved support and scalability.
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.
Including more features like integrating with Splunk for monitoring vulnerabilities would help eliminate the need for other SOC solutions.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Catalyst Center pricing is higher than competitors, offering value through quality and significant discounts for critical workloads.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is costly compared to competitors, with complex licensing but offers comprehensive solutions and performance benefits.
They are also facing competitive pricing challenges from Huawei.
The setup can be somewhat expensive.
The price is high, but they offer significant discounts, depending on the deal and the number of switches involved.
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.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Catalyst Center excels with its robust management, security, scalability, and seamless integration in complex network environments.
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers centralized management, security, scalability, cloud integration, and enhances network performance and cost savings.
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.
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
7.9
Number of Reviews
13
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
92
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
15%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Healthcare Company
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Educational Organization
45%
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?
I find Cisco Catalyst Center is priced normally compared to other solutions. The cost is reflective of their good hardware and the level of service provided. While there might be cheaper hardware, ...
What needs improvement with Cisco Catalyst Center?
Some documentation or use cases are not clear enough. However, when I contact their second-level support or product teams, they respond well. While documentation could be improved, it is not very r...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Catalyst Center?
I use Cisco Catalyst Center ( /products/cisco-catalyst-center-reviews ) in Uruguay where there are no large enterprises. I have worked in networks with about three hundred to four hundred devices. ...
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: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.