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SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN vs VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

SteelConnect EX Enterprise ...
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
26th
Ranking in WAN Edge
21st
Average Rating
7.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
5th
Ranking in WAN Edge
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN is 0.3%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN is 12.6%, down from 12.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
 

Featured Reviews

Jason Best - PeerSpot reviewer
May 14, 2020
Analytics feature is very granular and comprehensive, although complicated to use
It's like an SD-WAN project basically. You really need to make sure that the product matches the needs of what the customer's trying to achieve and their overall strategy to meet their core business requirements. I think a certain customer made a mistake in choosing this solution because a large part of their network was Cisco and they had firewalls that were from Fortinet. I think they would have been better off and it would have been better from a CAPEX, OPEX point of view. It would've been more advantageous for them to have maybe chosen a Cisco or Fortinet solution based on their existing environment. Make sure you understand your network correctly before you try to implement any SD-WAN solution. That was one of the good lessons I learned about SD-WANs with this specific product. I wouldn't say it was a fault of the product. I would say it's more a fault of the CTO who tries to do things quickly without taking into account the existing environment or give the internal faculties the time to provide real low-level design implementation. It was more of a management mistake than from their technical team. In the next release, I would like to see things like integrated security but with local internet breakout instead of using third party solutions like NetScaler or Palo Alto. I would also like to see the integration of things like a VPN so that if you have remote sites where you might have remote workers that need to access the site from home or something, there's a VPN solution. Those are two key features and hotspots in the sort of global crisis. I would rate Riverbed a seven out of ten. I could never give any solution a 10 cause they all have good and bad points. To get any solution to a ten is pretty much impossible. If I was to rate it against others like Fortinet, I would probably give Fortinet an eight or nine. Again, I think you have to be careful because it's very subjective. I think it really depends on the type of environment, the type of customer you're deploying the SD-WAN solution for, and from which perspective you're looking at like if you an operator, if you're a large enterprise, if you're looking for a plug and play type solution. If you're looking for more of a security solution, I would go for Fortinet. It's kind of tough to say. I'd probably put the clouds a little bit ahead of the game because it does what it's supposed to do and easily. It's a little more of a plug and play type solution. Fortinet, for example, is more complex. I put it in a close second place, it's better from a security perspective. It has integration with FortiGuard. After that, I would put Riverbed in third place.
Sami-Isoaho - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 29, 2022
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

"The analytics is the most valuable feature because it was very granular and very comprehensive, although a little complicated to use. If you're really interested in knowing what's happening on your network, it's a very good solution. That was the .NET Profiler part of the solution."
"VMware SD-WAN is a complete solution."
"It's scalable."
"The cloud gateway is a very good feature for scaling purposes, etc."
"Initially, we had a scattered environment, but VMware SD-WAN helped us achieve centralization, which was beneficial."
"One of the standout features is its ability to dynamically manage enterprise networks based on applications."
"It's easy to deploy and manage. Even a small group of people can manage a large environment. It's stable, easy to deploy, easy to install—all the stuff."
"VMware SD-WAN is easy-to-use."
"In my experience, the setup process has been fairly straightforward."
 

Cons

"The routing scalability needs improvement. We have run into a lot of limitations and also primarily from a routine perspective, things like RSPs line support. It was supportive but not really supportive."
"VMware SD-WAN is complicated to configure."
"There should be more automation and self-service features."
"The initial setup of VMware SD-WAN was simple. However, it took six days to complete."
"There are a number of customers we have that require a fully mashed SD-WAN on VeloCloud that is not available currently."
"The only thing that I'm having issues with is on one of the sites, I can't see the location on the map."
"VMware SD-WAN could improve by having more partnerships with other vendors."
"Technical support is in need of improvement."
"The solution needs improvement on security features and should include two firewalls. Cloud VPN can’t support any link. The solution needs to also improve the availability of centralized internal management. It needs to have debug detection and Deep Packet Detection features as well. The documentation for VMware is also hard to find."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The cost of VMware SD-WAN is high, but I think you can still get better pricing if your volume is high."
"My understanding is that the pricing is in the same range as other solutions."
"We make monthly payments toward the licensing costs of the solution."
"The price of VMware SD-WAN is less expensive than some solutions, such as Cisco."
"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."
"VMware SD-WAN provides competitive pricing."
"The pricing is very comparable to Fortinet."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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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

SteelConnect, Riverbed SteelConnect
VMware SD-WAN, VeloCloud
 

Learn More

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Roxtec, Software Solutions Company, Rignet
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 Fortinet, Cisco, Check Point Software Technologies and others in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions. Updated: November 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.