Cisco Cloud Services Router 1000V Series (CSR 1000V) vs. Juniper Enterprise Routers

If you just need to do simple communication to Azure such as smb and rdp sessions then the Cisco Cloud Services Router 1000V Series is overkill. If you need to setup multiple mesh vpn connections to existing ISRs and have complicated routing with multiple protocols then Cisco Cloud Services Router makes that setup much easier and less work to maintain and troubleshoot.

Incentivized

As an edge/WAN router that contains internet BGP routes, it handles this work very well. And the devices are robust, able to manage a significant load. However, the interface cost can be somewhat of a hindrance when wanting to use it to interconnect many metro clients.

Incentivized

• Easy and available to download with a CCO account.
• Full-featured router platform.
• Can run as many instances as you have memory to handle.
• No issues so far running in VMWare player 14.0.

Incentivized

• Version tracking/rollback
• Logical configuration layout
• Verbose status/logs for troubleshooting purposes
• Flexible configuration styles (carrier vs enterprise)

Incentivized

• More integration with the switching
• A dynamic approach for software updates
• More automation features and APIs

Incentivized

• I would like to able to find more examples of configs. Given the multiple ways to configure the same setting, having a little more documentation would be helpful.
• I wish the FPCs and interfaces were cheaper.

Incentivized

Juniper support is friendly, easy to understand, widely knowledgeable, and easy to get ahold of. I did not give them a higher rating as some of my more complex issues, were solved by myself while under consultation from Juniper TAC.

Incentivized

Neither product supported all the protocols we needed to allow all of our locations to route. It does add some complications to the gateway and vnet setup though. Once we retired our ISRs we were able to go to Meraki vMX and the auto-vpn setup works rather well and is much simpler than IOS configs

Incentivized

The simplicity, elegance, and robustness of Juniper's solution make it much easier to troubleshoot and configure, when compared to Cisco Routers, especially considering Cisco's implementation of BGP (why are IPv4 and IPv6 linked in Cisco configuration?). Furthermore, the implementation of commit and rollback cannot be understated when compared to the Cisco solutions. This feature is a huge time saver when attempting to troubleshoot and remote configuration instances.

Incentivized

• I don't need to use outdated hardware for testing.
• Don't need a dedicated power feed to spin up a usably-sized network.

Incentivized

• The stability and robustness of this solution provide a rock-solid foundation for all of our internet traffic.
• The easy to use rollback and commit features simplifies remote administration and configuration, alleviating the need to travel to remote installation sites.

Incentivized