We performed a comparison between Steelhead and Symantec Proxy based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two WAN Optimization solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The compression of Riverbed is very powerful. It can also handle large quantities of traffic."
"TCP optimization... caches a particular TCP connection and the next time a user uses that connection he will reach the destination easily."
"The most valuable feature of Steelhead is its optimization capabilities."
"Scalable data referencing is a great feature."
"SteelHead works from the application. I use it to optimize traffic from Amazon. It is mainly used for customers who need to increase the traffic to 33K. For other users, it has been more of an operation."
"One of our most valuable features is Steelhead's cloud migration optimization. Moving to the cloud helped optimize our workflow, improving performance for end-users."
"It is very easy to install the solution."
"The connectivity to speed is the valuable feature."
"The developer's assistance is valuable, enabling seamless integration which allows for a comprehensive view of categories, even if not certified by the link."
"It enables us to manage bandwidth for users based on their privilege levels. For example, if a user wants to use a certain application or resource, we can provide access based on their privileges."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the URL database, malicious URLs, policies, and policy creation."
"The most valuable feature is the caching."
"Global Intelligence Network is the best feature of the product."
"What I found most valuable in Symantec Proxy is that it doesn't have any limitations. It also has a simple configuration, with only one window pane, unlike Zscaler, which has multiple window panes. Deploying the agent is also more straightforward in Symantec Proxy."
"The tool's most valuable features are content-to-content filtration and SCCM protection."
"The content that we are getting is very good. Content caching is also supported."
"One area for improvement is related to monitoring and visibility."
"The product should offer more integration capabilities."
"The solution needs to have alert notifications."
"Steelhead's handling of encrypted traffic could be improved because it requires some complex configuration to optimize encrypted traffic, especially when working with Microsoft protocols for mail servers and VPN services"
"The application response time of the solution can be improved."
"They should include a network switch in a future release."
"If we load a primary firewall, the secondary firewall usually handles all the active connections, but in Riverbed, this isn't the case. We lose all the active connections at the moment of failure."
"I would like to see improvement in the solution’s configuration and protocol aspects. We have got some configurations that are not set. I would also like to simplify the call detection of some protocols."
"The initial setup is actually quite complex to install because our users don't have admin rights on the boxes and there's no remote install option by an administrator."
"The traffic filtering could improve. Our firewall traffic is limited. Additionally, it would be helpful if there was a dashboard and reporting feature."
"The user interface could be improved, and the price could be lower as well."
"The solution is quite complex."
"Support response time and case resolution could be improved."
"The deployment is quite difficult."
"Prior to the Broadcom purchase, every appliance was application based, but now they have one ISG device and on top of it multiple applications are running. It has a single point of failure. If your device goes down, all of the applications would be down."
"The tool’s reporting features must be improved."
Steelhead is ranked 3rd in WAN Optimization with 23 reviews while Symantec Proxy is ranked 14th in Secure Web Gateways (SWG) with 18 reviews. Steelhead is rated 8.2, while Symantec Proxy is rated 7.2. The top reviewer of Steelhead writes "Exceptionally stable and reliable but costly". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Symantec Proxy writes "A user-friendly solution with good technical support". Steelhead is most compared with Fortinet FortiGate, Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform, Citrix SD-WAN, Noction IRP and WAAS, whereas Symantec Proxy is most compared with Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway, Skyhigh Security, Netskope Next Gen Secure Web Gateway, Zscaler Internet Access and McAfee Web Gateway Cloud Service. See our Steelhead vs. Symantec Proxy report.
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