Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Score8.8 out of 10

248 Reviews and Ratings

What is Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN?

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is a software-defined wide area network solution designed to simplify and optimize enterprise network connectivity in complex digital landscapes. It enables organizations to connect any user to any application, whether on-premises, in data centers, or across multiple clouds, with integrated capabilities for multicloud support, security, predictive automation, and enhanced network visibility—all built on a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)-enabled architecture.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is presented as ideal for enterprises undergoing digital transformation, especially those adopting hybrid and multicloud strategies. It addresses challenges such as fragmented IT environments, complex WAN architectures, and the need for secure access to business-critical applications.

In summary, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN aims to empower organizations to thrive in a cloud-first, distributed work environment by delivering a secure, high-performance, and easy-to-manage network foundation. It accelerates digital transformation by simplifying WAN operations, enhancing security, optimizing cloud connectivity, and providing actionable insights to ensure superior application experiences for users.

Categories & Use Cases

Software-Defined WAN

Verified User

Contributor in Information Technology (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN to centralise configuration and to optimise specific applications across our WAN. It helps us roll out new sites with speed and agility and to perform hardware replacements easily.

Pros

Optimisation of applications
Centralised provisioning
Load balancing

Cons

VAnaytics is great but the interface lacks

Return on Investment

Measurable transport of data
Monitoring of transport interfaces
Configuration consistency

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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

Return on Investment

Reduced operational costs
Improved application performance

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Cisco Catalyst Center

Robert Falconer

Network Architect in Information Technology at Littler (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Used for connectivity between all of our locations, branches, data centers and cloud environments.

We were able to remove expensive private line circuits, provide more bandwidth to our locations and reduce outages.

We use this product at 60 offices, 2 data centers and 4 cloud environments.

Pros

Reduces cost
Improve reliability
Ease of use
Increased flexibility

Cons

GUI slowness, failures, formatting
Licensing
Lack of CLI

Return on Investment

Over $1M saved anually
50X increase in bandwidth
Fewer mistakes due to automation

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN

Other Software Used

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), Citrix Gateway, Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series

Jeff Garden

AVP Network Engineering in Engineering at Dollar Bank (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

we use Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN for branch connectivity. solves issues with multiple transports and load balancing, adds resiliency.

Pros

user experience
branch redundancy
ease of configuration

Return on Investment

reduced telecom costs

Usability

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I guess for the intent of it was just to centralize the management as the network scales. Like we used to just send out templates for things and now it's just an easier way to standardize everything across the board, whether they're local or remote.

Pros

I think it does pretty well of tying in multiple transports, allowing you to build a template and baseline for multiple, I guess lack of better term sites, so simplified deployments, stuff like that.

Cons

We're still trying to figure out how to make it work. Some issues that we were running into is just like the user interface. A good example is your configuration templates and deployment groups. Making a group for a specific thing. I'm not trying to get too much into specifics, but you would have a group for remote sites say that one remote site has some sort of requirement that a site, another site may not have a requirement, but if I make a CLI configuration change in that template, it applies to all the templates. So maybe something that didn't apply to that certain site. I don't need it deployed across all sites. So I think a really cool thing would be, if you have multiple devices in one group, maybe it would be good to, if I were able to select which sites would receive the change versus hey, I'm going to make a site that applies, make a change that applies to one site. I don't want to deploy to all sites or have that become part of the template. It was just the one case scenario.

Return on Investment

I can't really comment on ROI because I'm not really the ROI kind of guy. It was just the more technical guy.

Usability

HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect, duplic

Juniper Mist WAN Assurance

Fortinet Secure SD-WAN

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

What is Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN?

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

Cisco SD-WAN - Clearly a Leader

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Usability

Alternatives Considered