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Prisma SD-WAN vs Steelhead 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
8.5
Prisma SD-WAN reduces costs by 50%, enhances network stability, and simplifies management, providing ROI within two years.
Sentiment score
8.5
Steelhead enhanced bandwidth efficiency, resulting in substantial cost savings and improved user experience without additional tools or upgrades.
Without Steelhead, we would have spent much more on bandwidth costs.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Prisma SD-WAN support is knowledgeable but faces delays and slower resolution post-acquisition, despite a helpful portal.
Sentiment score
6.4
Steelhead's customer service and technical support are efficient, knowledgeable, and responsive, though complex issues may face slower resolution.
I rate the technical support from Palo Alto as nine out of ten.
The support service is responsive.
Since we are at a premium level, customer service is rated at eight or 8.9 out of ten.
Steelhead's support is generally good for typical issues yet can be time-consuming during complex problem-solving across teams, particularly for Active Directory integration.
Riverbed's customer service and technical support would be rated an eight.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Prisma SD-WAN offers seamless scalability for varied environments, managing vast traffic loads and supporting thousands of users effortlessly.
Sentiment score
8.4
Steelhead efficiently scales for SMBs and enterprises, managing up to 20,000 users with effective traffic handling and deployment support.
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.
It allows us to maximize use from our MPLS providers by handling traffic efficiently across phased deployments.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Prisma SD-WAN has improved stability, now offering reliable performance with minimal issues, easy management, and effective downtime handling.
Sentiment score
8.5
Steelhead offers stable, efficient network operations with minimal downtime, robust performance, and reliable support, ensuring continuous traffic flow.
Stability is high, I rate it 9.8 out of ten.
Prisma SD-WAN is an absolutely stable solution.
It's quite stable and provides all necessary alerts if something is wrong.
Steelhead helps significantly with large data transfers.
 

Room For Improvement

Prisma SD-WAN struggles with integration, support, pricing, and features, requiring improved automation, management, and compatibility with other tools.
Steelhead needs improved traffic handling, encryption optimization, enhanced response times, better integration, and user support with fewer scaling limitations.
If there were an option to extend management to other firewalls, users could perform staggered migrations.
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.
It could still be useful in places with satellite communications, such as the south of Chile, or in the mining industry.
It would help if Riverbed could prevent such drastic impacts during updates.
 

Setup Cost

Prisma SD-WAN is a premium, costlier service providing advanced network security, ideal for medium to large businesses.
Enterprise users find Steelhead costly yet valuable for TCP optimization, with complex licensing and comparable alternatives like SolarWinds.
The solution is not cost-effective for smaller environments and is more suitable for medium to large companies.
The product could be a bit cheaper for the services it provides.
The price for Prisma is a bit high.
Buying the hardware initially is costly, but yearly maintenance and licenses are not as expensive.
Steelhead is considered an expensive solution in our country.
 

Valuable Features

Prisma SD-WAN enhances network efficiency and security with seamless VPNs, analytics, and integration with Palo Alto for large-scale operations.
Steelhead optimizes WAN with compression and caching, enhancing network efficiency and reducing costs in bandwidth-limited environments.
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.
The most valuable feature is the single pane of glass, especially since we have Palo Alto firewalls.
Functions like acting as an NTP server, DNS, DHCP, and auto-optimization mode enhance efficiency.
Steelhead's most valuable feature is its ability to hash and send only the important parts of the information, avoiding the resending of data.
 

Categories and Ranking

Prisma SD-WAN
Ranking in WAN Edge
5th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (5th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (8th)
Steelhead
Ranking in WAN Edge
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
WAN Optimization (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the WAN Edge category, the mindshare of Prisma SD-WAN is 6.1%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Steelhead is 1.1%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
WAN Edge
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Raj Metkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Auto-optimization mode enhance efficiency & bandwidth saving, best layer 7 QoS shaping policy can be achieved with ease
There are several features specific to branches, like keeping data hot and active on Steelhead devices. These features prevent unnecessary data travel across the international MPLS. Additionally, functions like acting as an NTP server, DNS, DHCP for branches and auto-optimization mode enhance efficiency along with really good QoS for bandwidth shaping.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
25%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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?
Prisma SD-WAN uses a subscription-based licensing model. There is an annual fee for the bandwidth managed by the appliances after acquiring the hardware or virtual appliances. The solution is not c...
What needs improvement with Prisma SD-WAN?
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 ben...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We just did an assessment for our 47 datacenters around North America. The top two enterprise-level network monitoring solutions were ExtraHop first, Riverbed SteelCenter second. Their negotiated c...
What do you like most about Riverbed Steelhead?
One of our most valuable features is Steelhead's cloud migration optimization. Moving to the cloud helped optimize our workflow, improving performance for end-users.
What is your primary use case for Riverbed Steelhead?
In the past, we have sold a lot of Steelhead ( /products/steelhead-reviews ) for retail companies, insurance companies, some finance companies, and some engineering companies. Steelhead ( /products...
 

Also Known As

CloudGenix
RIverbed Steelhead
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Open Networking User Group, Columbia Sportswear Company, Coca Cola
ElAraby, SFK Leblanc, Bobst Group, Northwest Pipe Company, Halkbank, Tradebridge, EFG Hermes
Find out what your peers are saying about Prisma SD-WAN vs. Steelhead and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.