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Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Prisma SD-WAN 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN reduces WAN expenses, improves efficiency, and enhances reliability, with ROI in three years for most users.
Sentiment score
8.5
Transitioning to Prisma SD-WAN halved costs, improved security, stability, and automation, eliminating VPN costs and enhancing ROI in 24 months.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.5
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN support is highly rated for expertise and responsiveness, despite occasional delays and redirection challenges.
Sentiment score
7.0
Prisma SD-WAN users find support knowledgeable but desire quicker responses and consistent engineer engagement post-Palo Alto acquisition.
Cisco's ongoing reorganizations have affected the quality of technical support, which varies depending on the engineer handling cases.
The support service is responsive.
Since we are at a premium level, customer service is rated at eight or 8.9 out of ten.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is praised for its scalability, suitable for diverse industries and enterprises, despite some technical expansion limits.
Sentiment score
7.8
Prisma SD-WAN efficiently scales diverse network architectures, supporting high traffic loads, with automated tunnel management enhancing user experience.
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.
Everything is managed by the service provider, Palo Alto Networks, allowing me to manage my infrastructure without overheads or extra costs to adapt the management infrastructure to the actual needs of the field.
I rate it a ten out of ten since we can easily scale by just paying for additional licenses as needed.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is stable and reliable, but complex setups and new deployments may face minor issues and bugs.
Sentiment score
8.3
Prisma SD-WAN offers high reliability, minimal downtime, and smooth routing transitions, with users rating its stability highly.
While some software-related issues and bugs were encountered, they did not cause the whole environment to crash.
Stability is high, I rate it 9.8 out of ten.
Prisma SD-WAN is an absolutely stable solution.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN needs cost efficiency, better interface, enhanced security, simplified licensing, and improved support and scalability.
Prisma SD-WAN users face routing issues, limited documentation, support challenges, and request better integration, security, and management features.
Including more features like integrating with Splunk for monitoring vulnerabilities would help eliminate the need for other SOC solutions.
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.
If there were an option to extend management to other firewalls, users could perform staggered migrations.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is costly compared to competitors, with complex licensing but offers comprehensive solutions and performance benefits.
Prisma SD-WAN is expensive but feature-rich, ideal for medium to large enterprises with potential discounts on bundled purchases.
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 solution is not cost-effective for smaller environments and is more suitable for medium to large companies.
The price for Prisma is a bit high.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers centralized management, security, scalability, cloud integration, and enhances network performance and cost savings.
Prisma SD-WAN offers efficient VPN, easy internet transitions, centralized management, and intuitive design for optimal network performance and visibility.
Security is standard compliant, eliminating config drift that was prevalent before manual configurations.
Integration with Cisco ISE, Cisco Firewalls, and other Cisco solutions is beneficial.
By reducing the need for expensive internet connections, Prisma SD-WAN allows customers to achieve cost savings.
Prisma is a mature platform in terms of security.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
2nd
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)
Prisma SD-WAN
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
6th
Ranking in WAN Edge
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (8th)
 

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.
Engineerinfosec67 - PeerSpot reviewer
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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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions solutions are best for your needs.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
46%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Educational Organization
27%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

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 Prisma SD-WAN?
The product's initial setup phase is straightforward.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Prisma SD-WAN?
The price for Prisma is a bit high, but it is a premium service. The higher tier provides flexibility and scalability benefits.
What needs improvement with Prisma SD-WAN?
If Palo Alto could open the platform to manage other SD-WANs, it would be beneficial. Currently, it only manages Palo Alto. Also, if there were an option to extend management to other firewalls, us...
 

Also Known As

Cisco SD-WAN
CloudGenix
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Doyle Research, Ashton Metzler & Associates
Open Networking User Group, Columbia Sportswear Company, Coca Cola
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs. Prisma SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.