We use Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN primarily for centralized management and to enforce standardized configurations across all sites. The solution helps address challenges with operational consistency, simplifies change management, and ensures that our global network can be managed efficiently from a single platform
Pros
Centralized Management & Policy Control
Security Integration
Cons
Complexity of Initial Setup and Design
Learning Curve for vManage
Likelihood to Recommend
Well-suited scenarios:
Global branch rollouts: When you need to deploy and manage dozens or hundreds of branches across multiple countries, the centralized management and zero-touch provisioning save enormous time and reduce errors.
Less appropriate scenarios
Very small networks: For organizations with only one or two sites, the complexity and cost of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN may outweigh the benefits compared to simpler VPN or firewall solutions.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (Utilities company, 10,001+ employees)
The product is used for relaying remote site information to the head office. As far as the use case, I would say there are some minor problems when it comes to the complexity of uplinks when it comes to sharing dual routers that still need to be addressed. A little more ease of configuration could be used. when it comes to nesting the configs into the V-managed system, I believe it may be easier if you could push certain certificates down outside of the product. For instance, an RMA, if you need an RMA, you get an RMA, it may not have a license. It's not really easy to get that license back on if it's an SD-WAN design that's meant to be shipped and plug and play can't really do plug and play if you don't have a license. That's one of the issues I see. You have the which come first, the chicken or the egg type scenario how do you get it on if you can't ship it out and your product line first.
Pros
There is that ease of configuration, having that one pane for everything, beautiful, which is the intent of it. So that works as expected.
Cons
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.
Likelihood to Recommend
It is ideal for the small remote office where you need to have dual redundant connections out and you have a limited support staff.
