Cisco Wide Area Application Services vs. Riverbed SteelHead

WAAS works best for cookie cutter and some unique network design implementations. is best suited for an all Cisco network infrastructure. however, a number of 3rd party network devices can be used and supported when using this product. it's easier with all Cisco. It is priced pretty high to get into and medium to enterprise organizations is best suited to implement this in

Incentivized

If you are dealing with large CAD files on a daily basis "remotely", Riverbed Steelhead makes your home office feel just like the office

Incentivized

• Network file and application optimization
• VOIP telephony optimization
• Citrix application optimization
• Standardized user experience for networking usage

Incentivized

• Effectively improves data throughput over VPN WAN connections.
• Seamless operation.
• Optimizes a variety of applications. Including, HTTPS, Citrix, Netapp SM and SV, Exchange, etc.

Incentivized

• Administrator GUI user interface is archaic and very dated
• Admin GUI lacks a bunch of feature support options you have to do via CLI
• Some endpoint functionality needs to be done at each site instead of from the central admin tool. so redundant effort and can cause site config drift
• Admin GUI lacks some monitoring and reporting options that would be helpful for support and trouble resolution

Incentivized

• 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

Incentivized

We are already a Cisco organization for network and security products. Cisco provided us discounting competitors just couldn't get to. competitors required more hardware and more complex setup requirements over this product due to our network design. The end result when comparing WAAS to others were going to be the same speed, experience, and pretty much the same administration requirements from IT. The added cost savings won us over.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• saves monthly internet service costs
• seamless network experience for all users at all sites
• ok troubleshooting admin portal so some IT skills are required to manage this
• is costly to purchase
• somewhat complex to set up but easy to administer once working

Incentivized

• Files now open a lot quicker, at near local speeds.
• We are able to respond to customers quicker as we can get access quicker.

Incentivized