Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs. Riverbed SteelHead

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN gives users the ability to manage connectivity across their WAN from a single dashboard that simplifies day to day monitoring and operations. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN can be cloud-managed or deployed on premise offering comprehensive routing, security and policy control, along with advanced analytics with the flexibility to connect to multiple clouds with greater speed, reliability, and efficiency. According to the vendor, it can be deployed across a small number of…N/A
Riverbed SteelHead
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
San Francisco based Riverbed Technology offers Steelhead, a WAN optimization solution, which includes the SteelHead CX/GX delivering optimization for Hybrid WANs, accelerating the performance of applications to improve productivity and reduce costs, and SteelHead SD combining SD-WAN and WAN Optimization, providing a single, unified orchestration and connectivity fabric across the entire distributed enterprise network with embedded security, optimization, and visibility.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Catalyst SD-WANRiverbed SteelHead
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Catalyst SD-WANRiverbed SteelHead
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Catalyst SD-WANRiverbed SteelHead
Considered Both Products
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Chose Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
I chose Cisco SD-WAN since this technology is on trend nowadays. The trend now is going to this kind of setup, wherein it eliminates more manpower. I used Riverbed Steelconnect for our proof of concept. Compared to Riverbed, Cisco SD-WAN is more compatible with other devices.
Riverbed SteelHead

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Cisco Catalyst SD-WANRiverbed SteelHead
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Cisco Routers
Cisco Routers
Score 8.4 out of 10
Cisco Routers
Cisco Routers
Score 8.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Routers
Cisco Routers
Score 8.4 out of 10
Cisco Routers
Cisco Routers
Score 8.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Catalyst SD-WANRiverbed SteelHead
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(73 ratings)
10.0
(6 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.3
(15 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Catalyst SD-WANRiverbed SteelHead
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
It is a flexible tool for managing and optimizing WAN connections, but it does require some technical expertise to manage. It excels in its ability to integrate multiple WANs. It will however be a not-so-useful purchase if your company has few locations as it will be more expensive and complex for nothing.
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Riverbed Technology
If you are dealing with large CAD files on a daily basis "remotely", Riverbed Steelhead makes your home office feel just like the office
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Pros
Cisco
  • Enhancing network security by integrating with other security solutions and providing secure segmentation of the network.
  • Improving network visibility and control by providing detailed analytics and network-wide policy management.
  • Simplifying branch office networking by reducing the need for specialized hardware and simplifying network management.
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Riverbed Technology
  • Effectively improves data throughput over VPN WAN connections.
  • Seamless operation.
  • Optimizes a variety of applications. Including, HTTPS, Citrix, Netapp SM and SV, Exchange, etc.
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Cons
Cisco
  • It does appear to be a little glitchy when you go from template mode to CLI mode and try to do testing on certain areas. The configuration tends to get hung in that old session when you drop it from being controlled by the controller to making changes in CLI. I've had a lot of instances where you try to put it back into controller mode for review management and it holds on to your items you've had in CLI mode , it gets a little confused at which config it needs to use. You end up having to reset the whole number environment.
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Riverbed Technology
  • A reduction in price is always welcomed
  • Simplify and streamline advanced features and add-on pieces for more detailed traffic analysis
  • Getting granularity into traffic behavior becomes confusing and very expensive
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
highly recommended
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Riverbed Technology
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cisco
It is the best solution on the market.
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Riverbed Technology
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco
Al ser soluciones integradas del portafolio de soluciones de Cisco, el soporte es transversal a cada uno de los componentes implementados, teniendo el cliente la capacidad de resolver sus inconvenientes bajo una misma infraestructura que está totalmente homologada, satisfacciendo de esta manera, las necesidades del cliente asi como permitiendo, que este se concentre en su negocio. Since the Cisco SD-WAN tools are a part of Cisco’s broader portfolio of solutions, support cross-cuts to each of our deployed components, with our company as the customer having the ability to solve our problems through the same, approved infrastructure. Their support team easily satisfies the customer’s needs so that they continue to focus on business functions.
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Riverbed Technology
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cisco
The proof-of-concept setup that was done at a client site did provided a greater positive impression by Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN than Fortinet Secure SD-WAN for sure. It makes sense to use Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN while the major client is a Cisco house where more than 95% of network equipment used at their global networks are Cisco's.
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Riverbed Technology
We tested Cisco eleven years ago in parallel with Riverbed in a PoC. The Cisco configuration was very complex and sticky based on the location. The Riverbed configuration is flexible based on the whole storage. A software client for devices like laptops or tablets is not available for Cisco WAAS, therefore we selected Riverbed based on a PoC.
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Return on Investment
Cisco
  • It's definitely decreased the amount that we spend on really expensive circuits every year. We're moving to cheaper broadband circuits with much higher throughput, being able to leverage those and still get the performance that we want, the quality of service that we want.
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Riverbed Technology
  • Files now open a lot quicker, at near local speeds.
  • We are able to respond to customers quicker as we can get access quicker.
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ScreenShots