Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 4000) vs. Cisco Small Business RV Series

Actually if we place it into the internet gateway, we do nothing in front of the firewall. Yes, it's working well also, if we put into the routing, it works well. But we should not use it instead of switch. Because some people tend to use the router instead of layer three suite. So yes, I try to use it.

Incentivized

It's best suited for small offices 10-25 users. Any more and its best to move away to a more higher tier. It will be less appropriate for a mid level company with a large staff. It's best for a small business with a limited budget and less strenuous security functionality.

Incentivized

• The ISR 4000 is an excellent router for our voice services. We purchased CUBE licensing in order to do this.
• The ISR 4000 is an excellent router for security purposes as well. We purchased the security license with the router and that allowed us to run a Zone-Based Firewall.
• The ISR 4000 is very simple and straight forward to configure.

Incentivized

• It has the typical firewall functions you'd expect in an all in one unit.
• GUI interface is easier to use by less technical users.
• The extra features such as VLANs are nice to have.

Incentivized

• A greater number of onboard WAN ports would be an improvement over the model we purchased, which only had two. [This] means we'll have to buy more expensive network cards to get more convenience.
• The small router was a plus in some branches, but it was a hindrance in others. Its width is about half the size of the rack, so we had to keep it on top of another device.
• When compared to its competitors, the rack mounting kit is unreliable and expensive to purchase.

Incentivized

• More switchports would be welcome, although this would increase cost and size
• Faster wireless would improve performance
• An SPF port would allow uplinking to more business-class switches

Incentivized

We renew Cisco end of life devices with current models.

Incentivized

Cisco Integrated Services 4000 series routers are very easy to use and manage. With the use of integrated management controllers, you can deploy new sites within minutes

Incentivized

There is always room for improvement with support, but Cisco support has been good to me over the years. Being able to call or submit online TAC cases makes it so I can get my issues or questions answered faster. They have even added the TAC bot for TAC cases to get to support even faster!

Incentivized

The features are good. The support is good. The resources to deploy, manage, and operate it are good. Customer's feedback and testimonials are good. The updates in terms of zero day vulnerabilities are good and timely. But, I still give an 8 out of 10 because I think the pricing, licensing, and GUI can be improved more.

Incentivized

If you planning on upgrading your network to software defined networks, Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers are the best. To successfully implement the project you need to plan and communicate with all your stake holders

Incentivized

We did not compare the Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers to other competitors as we used Cisco for a long period of time already. We selected this product as we used a lot of CISCO products in the past and with good support. Other products don't have the protocols that CISCO products have.

Incentivized

Cisco's power really stems from its brand reputation and honestly not much else. No one ever got fired for deploying Cisco, and that's why it stands out. The Cisco Small Business RV Series is no exception there; the unit is built well and does the job. However, much more powerful alternatives for routers are out there—the biggest competitor being Ubiquiti. The UniFi routers are significantly more powerful in all regards, including routing speed, IPS/IDS speeds, and VPN functionality. Support for those is admittedly rather lackluster though, so if your network is critical, you are effectively self-insuring your equipment. For some that may be fine, but for others, that risk of extended downtime is just not worth it.

Incentivized

• Can be used for ISE, Meraki access point, FTD firewall, works well, no worry about integration with any third party product. As this device can be multipurpose, ROI is faster and usable for longer period of time, as no EOL any time soon
• This is an integrated modular device so even if my small offices are closed over a period of time, this can be re-purposed for other requirements within organization
• This device supports WAN optimization within software. This reduces the requirement of that specific optimization device, which reduces my overall cost for a branch network

Incentivized

• Very good ROI
• Most products have a CLI that is easy to use and understand.
• Very large feature set. Cisco offers numerous open standard and proprietary protocols and options in their code that other vendors lack parity with.

Incentivized