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Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Huawei Enterprise Routers comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

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

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Ranking in WAN Edge
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
92
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (5th), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (2nd)
Huawei Enterprise Routers
Ranking in WAN Edge
8th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Routers (4th)
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Udochi Ododo - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to configure and troubleshoot, but they need more visibility in the licensing model
Huawei needs to be a bit more open with their licensing model. What I find is that when you buy equipment, you expect that you have a particular feature. By the time you want to use that feature, you realize that you need to acquire a license for it. That is the one thing that I think they need to improve on. Essentially, they need to open their licensing model such that when a customer buys a device, they have a full view of all of the available licenses for it. It's not at the time of use that the customer will now be informed that they need to purchase an additional license.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution has great scalability."
"The deployment is quite simple and straightforward."
"When we have had power outages for a few hours we have had no issue with Cisco SD-WAN coming back online and functioning."
"Cisco is an industry leader, so customers have a high level of trust with the brand more-so than with some newcomers that might have some more revolutionary solutions, but no name recognition."
"Customizing SD-WAN is very easy because you can define two colors. You can define two different operators. You can deploy a partial mesh, a full mesh, or hub-and-spoke totally differently. If you want to do this on a DMVPN solution, that's really hard."
"Encryption, which is native to the solution, is a valuable feature. Also, central management, onboarding of devices, QS, and routing applications are all okay."
"This solution can scale from SMB to the enterprise level. It is very impressive."
"The most useful feature for our organization is the combination of on-prem and cloud-based deployments. We connect securely to our hybrid cloud using transit VPCs and cloud on-ramp for fast deployments."
"Overall we have found the solution to be satisfactory."
"It is a robust and efficient solution."
"It's simple to use and offers good connectivity."
"The setup is simple."
"The product is good, easy to manage , and works fine."
"The solution provides support for 5G connectivity."
"The routers have mainstream features that fulfill our needs."
"When we started, the connection was amazing for the 100G between the switches and the co-switch. What the students typically use for school is a maximum is 40 so they now have faster technology."
 

Cons

"Cisco SD-WAN is not as easy to deploy as the Meraki and FortiGate solutions. The zero-touch deployment could be a lot better. The deployment and initial setup are complicated and could be better."
"The solution could have a better web interface to simplify changing configurations."
"In the next release, Cisco should focus on simplifying the configuration of SD-WAN. SD-WAN has a lot of room to grow."
"The security features could be improved."
"The product's application delivery feature needs improvement."
"The product should improve its prices."
"The bandwidth limitations would be good to remove, but it is a policy and license situation for Cisco because the cost is very high. It would be good to have OTP implemented with VRF. It can have support for EIGRP Over the Top (OTP) VRF. I saw some limitations in regards to the VRF protocol and the advertisement between VRF configuration. EIGRP Over the Top basically was quite limited with the VRF configuration. If you wanted to do rollback in VRF by using the EIGRP OTP protocol, the formation was not populated across. Cisco got back and confirmed that it is a configuration that I need to wait for until the next release, which is going to happen in one year. Cisco documentation is not the way it used to be before. It just gives an easy way to configure, but it doesn't go into the details of the configuration. The information that you need is there, but sometimes you want to go further and get more information, but the information is quite limited. It would be good to cover a few business cases or configuration cases. They used to be there in the past."
"It is the best solution that I ever had, but there might be something better than this in the future."
"The product’s performance could be better."
"Essentially, they need to open their licensing model such that when a customer buys a device, they have a full view of all of the available licenses for it."
"There isn't really any scalability potential."
"There is not much of a technical team for Huawei available in Pakistan as compared to Cisco with respect to very complex networks."
"The documentation is somewhat lacking and not easy to navigate."
"They should include features like IPS for security and response."
"It would be better if local storage management was more flexible, so that unused data could be easily removed."
"We have encountered issues while integrating the product with Enterprise Management Systems. Huawei platform is good for Huawei but we face issues when we integrate it with other models."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license consists of an annual fee."
"Cost-wise, Cisco SD-WAN is comparatively high."
"For 600 links, the license for Cisco SD-WAN costs us US$250k a year."
"It is expensive."
"It is expensive. The license limitation is there in terms of bandwidth. Basically, Cisco is always good in terms of performance and related things. However, if you want to have a license, for example, for 100 Mbps, they charge you because of their 100 Mbps. If you want to go without the license of 300 Mbps, it is a bandwidth license as well. This is not happening with other vendors. That is the reason why we moved away from Cisco. The bill gets a little bit high. I do remember that one time we were trying to increase the bandwidth for at least five devices, and the license got as high as 20-grand for five devices, only for the license. It was expensive for us at the time. Our company is not a big company, but it is a solid company. The price was very high, and we moved away from Cisco because of the price."
"The product is not too expensive."
"The price of Cisco SD-WAN is expensive. We pay approximately $50 monthly for the use of the solution."
"I give the price a seven out of ten."
"The solution's price is reasonable."
"There are additional licensing costs. I am aware of additional licenses and which services are added to the router."
"The price is reasonable compared to Cisco's."
"The tool's licensing is yearly."
"The product is inexpensive, but there is an extra cost for replacement of the device."
"There is no licence for this solution, but the solution could be cheaper."
"The product is expensive."
"The price of the solution is fair."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
46%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
University
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

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 ...
What do you like most about Huawei Enterprise Routers?
The solution provides support for 5G connectivity.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Huawei Enterprise Routers?
The product is very cheap and offers a huge discount as they are trying to enter the market. However, you have to pay extra for some services and support.
What needs improvement with Huawei Enterprise Routers?
The documentation is somewhat lacking and not easy to navigate. There are some errors and misleading information. The general appearance of the company site is also not user-friendly for downloadin...
 

Also Known As

Cisco SD-WAN
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Doyle Research, Ashton Metzler & Associates
Bus Online, VisionChina Media Inc. (VisionChina), China Network Television (CNTV), Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, ABC, BovenIJ hospital
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs. Huawei Enterprise Routers and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
841,004 professionals have used our research since 2012.