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Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs VMware VeloCloud 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:
 

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 (6th)
VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
7th
Ranking in WAN Edge
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (11th)
 

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.
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

"Cisco SD-WAN is a stable solution."
"The solution is good to use and easy to handle and manage from the centralized location or from the cloud."
"The scalability is the most valuable feature."
"Using SD-WAN to combine services can result in better up time, higher speeds, and much lower costs."
"I would rate the overall solution as a ten out of ten."
"The integration of Layer 3 and application routing is great."
"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."
"Cisco SD-WAN is valued for its operational efficiency and ease of operation."
"It is very simple to configure. When you use the cloud to configure the equipment, it has zero-touch provisioning."
"Increases the performance of applications and is easy to deploy."
"When we upgrade to one of the edges, it goes very smoothly."
"VMware is the only SD-WAN solution that integrates with Azure Virtual WAN."
"The most valuable feature of VMware SD-WAN is the virtualization platform. You can use the software on any hardware. Additionally, the solution is easy to use."
"The most valuable feature is the dynamic multipath optimization."
"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 China. We assisted in building the system by integrating VMware servers and utilizing the Cisco suite."
"The most valuable features of VMware SD-WAN are the overall capabilities and ease of use."
 

Cons

"We have found that their SD-WAN has a lot of scope for improvement."
"This solution is expensive so pricing is a concern."
"It is the best solution that I ever had, but there might be something better than this in the future."
"We recently found some bugs."
"The solution is a bit complicated."
"Some competitors are much faster in providing out-of-the-box solutions, more innovative solutions. In terms of innovation, in many cases, they're lagging behind."
"The installation is not easy. If you have experience and it is not your first time doing the installation, it can be easier."
"The integration of Cisco SD-WAN with cloud solutions could improve. For example, if any of the applications are hosted in the Amazon AWS cloud we can use a virtual transit gateway for integrating Cisco SD-WAN."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing."
"Better price model would be appreciated."
"Implementing VMware is much more difficult, time-consuming, and expensive than implementing Fortinet or Check Point."
"The solution is pricey. It could be cheaper."
"There might be potential enhancements in better integration with other platforms, increased stability, and heightened security."
"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."
"VMware SD-WAN doesn't have the best built-in firewall."
"The cost is a little bit high."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"SD-WAN as a service is probably something in the neighborhood of $100 to $200 a month per location."
"The license model is too complex with too many flavors and options. You might not be able to see it from an end user's point of view, but from a telco point of view, their license model is too complex. They should have a flexible license model. If you want to have good pricing, you need to buy it for a two-year, four-year, or five-year license immediately. Some other vendors have much more flexible license models."
"On a scale of one to five, I would rate Cisco's pricing as a three."
"The license consists of an annual fee."
"The cost of Cisco SD-WAN is high and has room for improvement compared to competitors such as Fortinet which has similar functionality."
"The Cisco SD-WAN licensing model needs to be simplified. There are currently three types of licenses: enterprise agreements, individual licenses, and DNA subscriptions. This can confuse customers, requiring a dedicated person to determine which type of license is right for their organization."
"The pricing of this solution is very expensive."
"It is much cheaper than other solutions. Most of our clients are the top 500 companies, and they all have a corporate contract."
"The price of the solution could be reduced."
"I would rate the product’s pricing a six out of ten since the license is costly."
"The cost of VMware SD-WAN is high, but I think you can still get better pricing if your volume is high."
"We make monthly payments toward the licensing costs of the solution."
"VeloCloud performs as well as the Cisco SD-WAN but it is cheaper in price."
"The licensing model of VMware SD-WAN could be improved, it is not always that competitive. The biggest concern is to be competitive against other solutions. However, the way that the licensing model is designed is not corresponding to the real use cases of my customers."
"There is only a standard fee for the solution."
"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."
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Answers from the Community

SM
Aug 16, 2022
Aug 16, 2022
@Diyaspino,​ all three are overpriced. Depending on what are you looking for, you may look at Fortinet or even check the latest Sophos offering. There is a number of different postings on SD-WAN in the last few years. Once people learned that SD-WAN is an old VPN with a new user interface, they moved to a new buzzword.
See 2 answers
EB
Jul 25, 2022
Hi @Malith Chandrasekara, @TEDDY LLANO, @reviewer1657632, @Dániel Halmai, @Paul Woods, @Lipaz Hessel ​and @MohamedArshath, Can you please chime in and help @Diyaspino ​with this question? We appreciate your help.  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​
DI
Aug 16, 2022
@Diyaspino,​ all three are overpriced.  Depending on what are you looking for, you may look at Fortinet or even check the latest Sophos offering.  There is a number of different postings on SD-WAN in the last few years. Once people learned that SD-WAN is an old VPN with a new user interface, they moved to a new buzzword. 
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
45%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
4%
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 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 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

Cisco SD-WAN
VMware SD-WAN, VeloCloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Doyle Research, Ashton Metzler & Associates
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 Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs. VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.