Compare Cisco SD-WAN vs. Citrix SD-WAN
 | Malith Chandrasekara Head of Enterprise Business at a tech services company |
| Anonymous User Chief Technology Officer at a wholesaler/distributor |
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco SD-WAN vs. Citrix SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: March 2021.
475,208 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
"This solution can scale from SMB to the enterprise level. It is very impressive."
"So far, the feature that I like best is the policy configuration manager."
"The segmented traffic it provides is the best in the industry right now."
"The solution's application control and application traffic steering tool are its most valuable aspects in terms of how we utilize the product."
"Cisco is an industry leader, so customers have a high level of trust with the brand more-so than with some newcomers that might have some more revolutionary solutions, but no name recognition."
"There is minimum blind space in this solution."
"It's very easy to manage and monitor the network's health and security using the solution."
"The product's brand recognition is one of the most valuable aspects of the solution."
"The scalability and stability are quite good in general."
"The most valuable feature is security, as it gives me the port bindings that cannot be accomplished using other solutions."
"Downtime for branch offices is now almost zero. We have 100% real-time visibility into all of our lines. MPLS links have been replaced with lower-cost links, saving a larger percentage of line costs. Overall, I see SD-WAN as a must. And the Citrix SD-WAN product has delivered on expectations and exceeded them. (With later firmware updates we now have good firewall capabilities in the product too)."
"The most valuable feature is its reliability."
"The best feature is the backup capability, where all of the users' computers are tied into a central data repository."
Cons
"This solution is expensive so pricing is a concern."
"It would be very helpful if we had better access to a knowledge base, or online documentation, to help both us and our customers learn to use this solution."
"Cisco's router and voice gateway has not been available since the launch of SD-WAN."
"The whole solution needs to be re-imagined. It's quite complex right now and really needs to be simplified to make it easier for those of us using it. It should offer more simplified management as well."
"The client portal needs to be improved in order to make the solution much better."
"The main issue is that not in the technology, but it comes back comparison. When we do a comparison with other SD WAN solutions, they are priced better."
"Since most user-data is going through the solution, we are concerned about security, as all the information is in the cloud and not on-premises. The user data authentification should be higher to better prevent malicious attacks."
"The initial setup could be a bit less complex."
"The initial setup could be a bit easier."
"I would like to either see the price reduced or have it packaged with other products to give better value for the money."
"The firewall reporting could be easier to use and filter. (It works well enough, but if I need to give an area for improvement, I think this would be it.). The built-in reporting on the product in this regard is not great."
"I would like to see support for additional reporting."
"Citrix should continue to offer a perpetual licensing model because it is very important to us."
"We pay for the Cisco Customer Care support, which is a couple of hundred dollars."
"80 percent reduction in WAN costs. There are no MPLS or P2P circuits left in the organization."
"Cisco is more expensive than some competing products."
"SD-WAN as a service is probably something in the neighborhood of $100 to $200 a month per location."
"The costs are a bit on the high side."
"It is much cheaper than other solutions. Most of our clients are the top 500 companies, and they all have a corporate contract."
"The license model is too complex with too many flavors and options. You might not be able to see it from an end user's point of view, but from a telco point of view, their license model is too complex. They should have a flexible license model. If you want to have good pricing, you need to buy it for a two-year, four-year, or five-year license immediately. Some other vendors have much more flexible license models."
"It is going to be on a yearly basis. There are no additional costs."
"As NetScaler is now, I find it quite pricey."
"The price of the subscription should be cheaper."
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 | Omkar Tomar Assistant Vice President - IT at Au small finance bank |
See all 1 answer »
Top Answer:
Cisco is a traditional networking play and has successfully transformed from pure hardware to now software defined products.
Many network engineers already use the product and makes a lot of… more »
Top Answer: The deployment is quite simple and straightforward.
Top Answer: The pricing is quite high. Cisco is not cheap.
Top Answer: The best feature is the backup capability, where all of the users' computers are tied into a central data repository.
Top Answer: We have a perpetual license, which is very important because it allows us to manage our costs, rather than having a monthly or yearly subscription. A yearly license is okay except that we consider… more »
Top Answer: Citrix should continue to offer a perpetual licensing model because it is very important to us.
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Viptela, Cisco vEdge Cloud Router
Citrix CloudBridge, WOC, NetScaler SD-WAN
Deploy software-defined WAN without compromising the application experience.
Citrix SD-WAN (formerly NetScaler SD-WAN) is a next- generation WAN Edge solution that simplifies digital transformation for enterprises. It offers the best application experience for SaaS, cloud, and virtual apps & desktops; comprehensive security; and cloud choice with automation to ensure an always-on workspace.
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Comms Service Provider36%
Transportation Company14%
Real Estate/Law Firm14%
Consumer Goods Company7%
Comms Service Provider40%
Computer Software Company22%
Manufacturing Company4%
Government3%
Comms Service Provider33%
Computer Software Company28%
Government4%
Insurance Company3%
Small Business45%
Midsize Enterprise16%
Large Enterprise39%
Small Business22%
Midsize Enterprise11%
Large Enterprise67%
Small Business13%
Midsize Enterprise50%
Large Enterprise38%
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco SD-WAN vs. Citrix SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: March 2021.
475,208 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Cisco SD-WAN is ranked 2nd in SD-WAN with 28 reviews while Citrix SD-WAN is ranked 7th in SD-WAN with 5 reviews. Cisco SD-WAN is rated 7.8, while Citrix SD-WAN is rated 9.0. The top reviewer of Cisco SD-WAN writes "A solution for integrating services to enhance up-time, performance and lower costs". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Citrix SD-WAN writes "Lines run Active-Active so we get better bandwidth usage and we don't have backup lines sitting idle". Cisco SD-WAN is most compared with VMware SD-WAN, Fortinet FortiGate, Versa FlexVNF, Meraki SD-WAN and 128 Technology SD-WAN, whereas Citrix SD-WAN is most compared with F5 Traffic Management Operating System, VMware SD-WAN, Riverbed Steelhead, Meraki SD-WAN and WAAS. See our Cisco SD-WAN vs. Citrix SD-WAN report.
See our list of best SD-WAN vendors and best WAN Edge vendors.
We monitor all SD-WAN reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
Cisco is a traditional networking play and has successfully transformed from pure hardware to now software defined products.
Many network engineers already use the product and makes a lot of sense for a company with Cisco history to go towards Cisco just like a company which uses citrix desktops will go for the Citrix ADC.
Therefore, configuration of Cisco, while not being difficult, is more "formatted" for Engineers who have used the solution and already have deep understanding of the protocols
As a relatively new comer, Citrix seems to have put more effort to make the implementation process easier in terms of GUI
Now, citrix has one fourth the market share of cisco and this is crucial in terms of competency - as it is 4 times easier to get Cisco competency
However, in terms of costs, I like Citrix Netscaler pooled licensing arrangement,
It is a flexible licensing framework whereby there is a common pool of license regardless whether the customer performs the deployment as a physical hardware, virtual device or even a containerized solution already use the product.
Therefore, Cisco has higher costs
As for used cases, I have seen NetScalers used for Load Balancing, for external users to internal services and resources like XenDesktop and XenApp
Finally, both Cisco and Citrix have resilient solutions and provide good support - also some dependency where you are located.
As for recommendation, it depends on your specific scenario in light of above points.