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Juniper Session Smart Router vs Prisma SD-WAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

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

Juniper Session Smart Router
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Routers (7th)
Prisma SD-WAN
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
WAN Edge (4th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Juniper Session Smart Router is 3.3%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Prisma SD-WAN is 6.1%, up from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
 

Featured Reviews

Sascha Bülow - PeerSpot reviewer
Tunnel-free and secure vector routing technology is its major USP, and as a partner, we get good support from them
The UI of the SSR conductor is the main part where improvements can be done. Today, for every configuration step, you have to do a series of clicks. What we are missing there are wizards. For example, I have two applications, and I want one application to be prioritized against the other. In such a case, a wizard for assigning policies to a service without configuring each step by hand would be very helpful. There should be an overhaul of the GUI of the conductor. The functionality they have got in the Mist portal should be baked into the conductor itself. It would be really great, but as we all know, that won't happen. Besides that, there are so many things we are discussing with the engineers and the product management of 128T or Juniper. I'm pretty sure that every feature that will come in the next half-year or three-quarters of a year would be influenced directly by us.
Libin Joseph - PeerSpot reviewer
Administration is very flexible for devices and policies; everything is in a single portal
In some areas, compared to other SD-WANs, Prisma SD-WAN has fewer features. First of all, sometimes, if one device is down, the other device will not come up. When there are two devices and we have created HA, that means one device gets a priority of 100 and the other is given 90. The 100 priority is active and the 90 is the backup. In some cases, the primary device is down, but the secondary device is not becoming active. In that case, we have to reboot the devices, causing an outage. I would also like to see improvement in the product training for customers. Palo Alto has not initiated very much training but they have to do so because this is a new product. If you have experience in a legacy environment, and you are moving to Prisma SD-WAN, you don't have a training framework. That is one of the disadvantages. Although they have a training portal, it is a read-only platform. They need training for engineers so that engineers can work very quickly and properly. And with software upgrades, sometimes the device does not come up and we have to do a manual restart. It doesn't happen every time, maybe one or two times out of 100. It's minimal but it does happen.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"As compared to the other major vendors in the SD-WAN market, such as VeloCloud, Cisco, and others, the tunnel-free and secure vector routing technology is its major USP, which gives plenty of room to discuss with the customer why IPSec from 1998 is a bit outdated."
"The solution is especially Session's smart, application-aware, AI-based."
"The most valuable feature of Juniper Session Smart Router is its unique SDR channel."
"It is flexible to use the internet connection via local breakouts without going to data centers."
"The implementation of the solution is easy."
"The dynamic routing in Prisma SD-WAN is high-speed and valuable because it quickly adjusts, so users do not realize the link is down."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the visibility of the logs."
"Prisma SD-WAN is intuitive. We have a better idea of the different tools we can use and jump between the menus quickly."
"The product provides efficient stability, security, and reliability features."
"I like the link monitoring and analytics. These are the features that set Prisma apart from other products. Prisma works well with large, complex networks. One of my clients is a top bank in the United States, and Prisma has performed well for that customer."
"The AI ops feature streamlines revisions and automates compliance."
 

Cons

"The UI of the SSR conductor is the main part where improvements can be done. Today, for every configuration step, you have to do a series of clicks. What we are missing there are wizards. For example, I have two applications, and I want one application to be prioritized against the other. In such a case, a wizard for assigning policies to a service without configuring each step by hand would be very helpful. There should be an overhaul of the GUI of the conductor. The functionality they have got in the Mist portal should be baked into the conductor itself. It would be really great, but as we all know, that won't happen."
"Juniper Session Smart Router could be better in terms of software performance."
"Juniper Session Smart Router can improve the integration for Wi-Fi devices and add additional Sassy deployments."
"The solution should include custom ports and group voice connections."
"Accessibility could be improved. Any new person attempting to access Prisma will have difficulty. It doesn't have CLI available."
"I'd like to see them move more towards CASB."
"If Palo Alto could open the platform to manage other SD-WANs, it would be beneficial."
"If Palo Alto could open the platform to manage other SD-WANs, it would be beneficial."
"Prisma SD-WAN's technical support should be improved."
"We are incorporating their zone-based firewalls. Prisma SD-WAN has limited documentation on how it manipulates traffic, e.g., how it is interacting with TCP and UDP. We recently had some traffic that was black holing. We literally had to do packet captures to see that the new zone-based firewall, which runs on top of Prisma SD-WAN, was causing issues."
"I would also like to see improvement in the product training for customers. Palo Alto has not initiated very much training but they have to do so because this is a new product. If you have experience in a legacy environment, and you are moving to Prisma SD-WAN, you don't have a training framework. That is one of the disadvantages."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We are currently renegotiating the offer for the licenses and the license bundle model. The license for an ISP has to be different from the license for an end customer. This is something we are currently renegotiating with Juniper, but, of course, the pricing for the licensing is always an issue when you want to get more customers."
"It is a simple bandwidth-based license and the orchestration comes bundled with the solution by default."
"This solution stood out because it cost considerably less than the other SD-WAN solutions out there from Cisco."
"Prisma SD-WAN is a pretty expensive solution."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"It is more expensive than Fortinet."
"If you're already invested in a Palo Alto product, it would be logical to use this solution. If not, there might be some other solutions that are more viable in terms of pricing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
27%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Juniper Session Smart Router?
The most valuable feature of Juniper Session Smart Router is its unique SDR channel.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper Session Smart Router?
Juniper Session Smart Router is not significantly cheaper than, for example, Cisco.
What needs improvement with Juniper Session Smart Router?
Juniper Session Smart Router could be better in terms of software performance. Sometimes, there are glitches, especially with MTU issues that affect application communication, although this seems t...
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

128T Networking Platform, 128 Technology SD-WAN, Juniper SSR Series
CloudGenix
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Revation Systems
Open Networking User Group, Columbia Sportswear Company, Coca Cola
Find out what your peers are saying about Juniper Session Smart Router vs. Prisma SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.