We compared VMware SD-WAN and Cisco SD-WAN across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:
Features: VMware SD-WAN prioritizes network performance with features such as DMPO and seamless integration with virtual LAN and cloud providers. Cisco SD-WAN is praised for its service quality, real-time traffic visibility, and automation capabilities.
Room for Improvement: VMware SD-WAN could include a command line interface and offer a stronger routing Broadcom support, improved automation and integration, and smoother integration with other vendors. Cato Networks could enhance its security measures by incorporating a web application firewall feature and improving intrusion detection. Cisco SD-WAN should enhance its connectivity to prominent cloud providers and incorporate additional security features.
Ease of Deployment: Opinions on the setup process for VMware SD-WAN were mixed. Some said it was simple, but others noted it was time-consuming. Cisco SD-WAN can be more complicated and may require expert help. While some users found it to be easy, others encountered difficulties and uncertainty during the setup.
Service and Support: Some users praised VMware's prompt and efficient technical support, while others reported challenges contacting the support team. While some Cisco SD customers found the support to be outstanding, others encounter delays and challenges in connecting with the appropriate personnel.
Pricing: Users have varying opinions on the setup cost of VMware SD-WAN, with some finding it pricier compared to other brands. Cisco SD-WAN is perceived as pricier compared to its rivals.
ROI: Reviewers have reported a varied ROI for VMware SD-WAN, highlighting benefits such as improved productivity and faster time-to-market. Cisco SD-WAN offers flexibility and scalability, leading to long-term benefits and cost reduction.
Comparison Results: VMware SD-WAN is praised for its ability to optimize network performance and provide automation, stability, and good customer service. However, users suggest improvements in multitenant solutions, CLI, and security features. Cisco SD-WAN is a highly scalable solution with a comprehensive feature set and scalability, but it requires improvements in stability and native connectivity to cloud providers.
"The availability of services and combining different connections is most valuable."
"The product helps to aggregate network links. The tool increases security and makes it possible for you to have remote workers."
"The user experience is pretty good."
"Cisco SD-WAN has separate OMP routing."
"The most valuable features of Cisco SD-WAN are reliability and scalability."
"It is very simple to deploy. It's a point-and-click type of deployment, so it's fairly simple."
"Cisco SD-WAN's collaborative features are unique and sustainable. I also like the protocols, which use two SD-WAN."
"I have found the solution's main features are its ability to be customized, network traffic classification, and has a wide range of features that can be set."
"The cloud gateway is a very good feature for scaling purposes, etc."
"The most valuable feature for one of our customers is the ability to stage cloud workloads from the local network."
"Increases the performance of applications and is easy to deploy."
"The initial configuration and deployment are quite easy."
"It's scalable."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is manageability."
"VMware is the only SD-WAN solution that integrates with Azure Virtual WAN."
"The setup is very straightforward."
"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."
"I would like to see revision cycles to be more stable."
"When you buy the equipment, they should already put it into your cloud account. It should already be set up so that we can manage with vBond. We came across an issue where it wasn't resolved in the DNS. We are using Umbrella, so we need to create a VPN IPSec tunnel to Umbrella to enable the users to browse. I would really like to see an internal built-in firewall so that we don't have to go to Umbrella. This functionality might already be there. We are quite new to this solution, and we are still learning about it."
"The user interface needs improvement. Users should be able to find various features faster without much tweaking."
"The technical support is a bit slow."
"Cisco's router and voice gateway has not been available since the launch of SD-WAN."
"It's an expensive solution."
"The cost is too high for certain countries, for example, those in Africa. The solution needs to be more cost-effective."
"The only thing that I'm having issues with is on one of the sites, I can't see the location on the map."
"There might be potential enhancements in better integration with other platforms, increased stability, and heightened security."
"VMware SD-WAN could improve if the hardware could integrate the interface using ICP. Additionally, if VMware SD-WAN is used with SSE providers that use tunnels there are some issues prioritizing traffic because it cannot decrypt."
"There is still room for improvement in support and security, especially in enhancing the SASE aspect of the platform."
"In the future, we would like to have more capacity using this solution as there are limitations on the VCE. For example, only 50 tunnels can be supported currently but we would like to have 200 tunnels using the VeloCloud VCE device."
"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."
"Security is a challenge. I would like to see VMware add things like IPS, IDS, and web filtering. These features are the future of security, and most competing firewalls have them."
"The firewall can be more advanced."
Cisco SD-WAN is ranked 1st in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions with 86 reviews while VMware SD-WAN is ranked 4th in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions with 50 reviews. Cisco SD-WAN is rated 8.0, while VMware SD-WAN is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Cisco SD-WAN writes "A solution for integrating services to enhance up-time, performance and lower costs". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VMware SD-WAN writes "To fully utilize cloud vendors' hardware networking, Microsoft and VMware support everything". Cisco SD-WAN is most compared with Fortinet FortiGate, Meraki SD-WAN, Juniper Session Smart Router, Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform and Cato SASE Cloud Platform, whereas VMware SD-WAN is most compared with Fortinet FortiGate, Meraki SD-WAN, Cato SASE Cloud Platform, Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform and Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform. See our Cisco SD-WAN vs. VMware SD-WAN report.
See our list of best Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions vendors and best WAN Edge vendors.
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@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.