Bigleaf vs. Cisco 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers (ASR 1000)

Bigleaf is great for getting good performance out of two mediocre ISPs. Bigleaf is great for getting the combined bandwidth of two or more ISPs without having to subscribe to higher tiers with the ISP. I can't imagine Bigleaf would do much good for a business with only one ISP. Reporting with Bigleaf is helpful in documenting any issues with an ISP - I can show an ISP performance history if we experience a problem.

Incentivized

From my experience, I find that the ASR 1000s are excellent equipment to use in an MPLS network as a route reflector. ASR 1000s are also very good as a WAN aggregation router. WAN aggregation capable of supporting multiple Gigabit connections

Incentivized

• Does not add a security layer - We have our own security layer and did not want an additional one.
• Combines bandwidth from multiple ISPs to provide a bigger pipe.

Incentivized

• These routers are very good at performing 24x7! This is key to running an organization where employees are working 24x7.
• The ZBFW feature works especially well to help lockdown and protect your network.
• Having the ability to perform in-service upgrades is a key feature in keeping your network up at all times.

Incentivized

• I can't think of anything to add here. It perfectly meets our needs!

Incentivized

• The ASR 1000 series routers can, as with most devices, improve with additional memory capacity and upgraded chip sets for faster processing.
• There seems to be limitations on the number of routing sessions the smaller ASR devices can handle, which can be overcome with proper planning and placement within the network.

Incentivized

Only ASR get EOL we would like to upgrade our routers to recomended replacements.

Incentivized

All our modular contingency service exercises use this equipment, it allows us to perform this type of exercises very easily, in a controlled and effective way. It is used at least once a month for these types of events. It also allows configuration replication in computers that are under the same model.

Incentivized

Any time we've had a problem, Bigleaf support has been readily available in English. Support seems competent, and when one hardware device failed we were quickly provided with a replacement

Incentivized

We have received training on the equipment, which has made us add more networks on our own, we provide first level support, we validate the publication of the equipment and we can satisfy the needs of our internal clients in terms of the prompt recovery of the affected services

Incentivized

Implementation was as per design and all best practice configuration was followed.

Incentivized

Bigleaf doesn't add a security layer. Competitors we looked at all bundled in security from Cisco or Fortinet, and we didn't want to learn another product and have a competing security layer. With Bigleaf we are able to leverage our existing security solution.

Incentivized

Before standardizing on the Cisco ASR 1000 we had explored the idea of using Juniper routers. Ultimately we felt the Cisco ASR 1000 was a better fit at the time. We have been very happy with this decision, but it might not be the right decision for everyone. It fit our environment and our needs very well, Juniper is also a very good choice.

• Bigleaf has dramatically improved our internet uptime and provides metrics to track that.
• Bigleaf protects our internet performance by balancing ISPs so we don't experience poor performance when one ISP has a problem.

Incentivized

• It is a healthy return on investment with planned packed size data. Average unicast latency is low and consistent with small and large packets (barring mid-sized).
• Cisco devices last longer and also have a decent trade-in policy to recover some value when equipment is replaced.
• Higher concurrent IPSec tunnels are offered, we tested for 1500+, fielding both encrypted and a mix of encrypted and cleartext traffic.

Incentivized