We compared VMware NSX and Cisco Secure Workload based on our users' reviews in six categories. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:
Comparison Results: VMware NSX provides advanced virtual networking capabilities, a distributed firewall, and seamless integration with VMware Hypervisor. Nevertheless, it has areas that could be enhanced such as licensing clarity, compatibility with non-Windows operating systems, and user-friendliness. Conversely, Cisco Secure Workload is commended for its user-friendly interface, stability, and comprehensive solution. However, it faces challenges in terms of integration, a complex dashboard, and controversy surrounding data reduction. Cisco Secure Workload does excel in providing excellent technical support, particularly for networking products.
"The most valuable feature is micro-segmentation, which is the most important with respect to visibility."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is security."
"The solution offers 100% telemetry coverage. The telemetry you collect is not sampled, it's not intermittent. It's complete. You see everything in it, including full visibility of all activities on your endpoints and in your network."
"Secure Workload's best feature is that it's an end-to-end offering from Cisco."
"The product provides multiple-device integration."
"Instead of proving that all the access control lists are in place and all the EPGs are correct, we can just point the auditor to a dashboard and point out that there aren't any escaped conversations. It saves an enormous, enormous amount of time."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that we don't have to do packet captures on the network."
"Generally speaking, Cisco support is considered one of the best in the networking products and stack."
"NSX extends Layer-2 scalability on Layer 3, covering the vRO and extending the capability on Layer 3 by decapsulating using a new mechanism. NSX-V was designed to use with VMware products and Success 360, providing more flexibility toward different levels of cloud, containers, and components. NSX-T gives you the ability to stretch your network across different view locations. If you have multiple sites, you can connect them using NSX-T."
"NSX's stand-out function is the distributed firewall. The firewall system is just top-notch, and I haven't seen another solution like it."
"Technically, VMware NSX is more advanced technology-wise when compared to others. We have been studying it and so far, so good. We know that the NSX product is superior when it comes to software virtualized networks. </p> <p>If you are looking to work with new and future technologies, then NSX is one of the best options. It costs less for power consumption since it will be a virtual network and not a pure physical network that consumes more energy."
"NSX has excellent security features like virtual firewalls. I also like the micro-segmentation features, which are useful for the virtual machines inside the servers."
"I have found VMware NSX to be easy to use."
"Some of the key features I find most valuable are the highly graphical user interface, virtualization of networks, and Microsoft application compatibility. It has all the functionality that we require."
"Any administrator with basic networking knowledge, in a couple of days, can be in full control of their networking without going through a networking engineer."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"It is not so easy to use and configure. It needs a bunch of further resources to work, which is mainly the biggest downside of it. The deployment is huge."
"It is highly scalable, but there is a limitation that it is only available on Cisco devices."
"It has an uninviting interface."
"There is some overlap between Cisco Tetration and AppDynamics and I need to have a single pane of glass, rather than have to jump between different tools."
"The emailed notifications are either hard to find or they are not available. Search capabilities can be improved."
"The integration could be better, especially with different types of solutions."
"The multi-tenancy, redundancy, backup and restore functionalities, as well as the monitoring aspects of the solution, need improvement. The solution offers virtually no enterprise-grade possibility for monitoring."
"Secure Workload is a little complicated to use, and the dashboard isn't intuitive, so it takes a while to learn how to use it."
"In the future, the solution should be compliant with internet NIC."
"The solution can improve by making it more straightforward, easier to install and maintain in the environment."
"We had some complexities implementing into the other parts of a network."
"One drawback is this solution requires a lot of other products in the VMware ecosystem to have a full end-to-end operation orchestration monitoring. You have to buy a lot of add-ons to fully utilize the functionality."
"The first time setting it up was difficult."
"Their licensing model should make it easier to purchase licenses."
"Since most people are very much used to physical networking, they find it difficult to use VMware NSX in the initial stage."
"The support from VMware NSX could improve."
Cisco Secure Workload is ranked 9th in Cloud and Data Center Security with 13 reviews while VMware NSX is ranked 1st in Cloud and Data Center Security with 93 reviews. Cisco Secure Workload is rated 8.4, while VMware NSX is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Cisco Secure Workload writes "A solution that provides good technical support but its high cost makes it challenging for users to adopt it". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VMware NSX writes "Allows for seamless micro-segmentation and the support is exceptional". Cisco Secure Workload is most compared with Illumio, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation, Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks, Cisco ACI and Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine), whereas VMware NSX is most compared with Nutanix Flow Network Security, Illumio, Cisco ACI, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation and Cisco DNA Center. See our Cisco Secure Workload vs. VMware NSX report.
See our list of best Cloud and Data Center Security vendors and best Microsegmentation Software vendors.
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