Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform and Steelhead are competing products in the SD-WAN market. Based on user reviews, Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform takes the lead in pricing and support, while Steelhead is considered superior in features.
Features: Users highlight Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform’s robust path conditioning, simplified WAN architecture, and flexible deployment options. Steelhead stands out for WAN optimization, application acceleration, and advanced performance optimization.
Room for Improvement: Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform needs better reporting tools, improved scalability options, and enhanced security features. Steelhead should focus on enhancing integration capabilities, reducing complexity, and improving user interface design.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform is easier to deploy and has consistently higher-rated customer service. Steelhead's deployment process is seen as more complex, and while its customer service receives praise, it is not as uniformly well-reviewed as Aruba’s.
Pricing and ROI: Users find Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform cost-efficient, delivering good ROI with competitive pricing. Steelhead, despite a higher setup cost, provides valuable ROI through its performance benefits. Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform offers better initial pricing, making it more attractive for budget-conscious users.
The SMB market is always price competitive. To penetrate the SMB market or middle segment, we definitely need to work on the pricing aspect.
Without Steelhead, we would have spent much more on bandwidth costs.
Aruba's technical support is very responsive.
Technical support from Aruba currently rates at nine on a scale from 1 to 10.
I can harness the power of the teacher model without lowering my top and laser focus.
Steelhead's support is generally good for typical issues yet can be time-consuming during complex problem-solving across teams, particularly for Active Directory integration.
I have no issues with technical support from Riverbed.
Riverbed's customer service and technical support would be rated an eight.
If a customer has 1 GB traffic, they will only be able to utilize 600 MB of traffic with Steelhead.
It allows us to maximize use from our MPLS providers by handling traffic efficiently across phased deployments.
It is very stable, with no significant issues.
I have not observed any vulnerabilities in one year.
It's quite stable and provides all necessary alerts if something is wrong.
For instance, even if there is a power failure, Riverbed still works.
Steelhead helps significantly with large data transfers.
I would also like the management of EdgeConnect appliances to be incorporated into Aruba Central Cloud Central.
The security could also improve.
In the Indian market, we need to design a solution with built-in security when considering areas of improvement for the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform.
Steelhead is very expensive, and the vendor should work on handling Oracle type of traffic better.
It would help if Riverbed could prevent such drastic impacts during updates.
It could still be useful in places with satellite communications, such as the south of Chile, or in the mining industry.
The licensing is not too expensive, however, it is also not cheap.
The pricing is on the higher side compared to the competition when discussing experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing of the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform.
It is an affordable product and yet still a bit expensive.
Buying the hardware initially is costly, but yearly maintenance and licenses are not as expensive.
Steelhead is considered an expensive solution in our country.
Additionally, it integrates perfectly with Aruba ClearPass, offering a robust security solution, covering network admin, access control, authentication, and authorization.
The Zero-Touch Provisioning feature is one of the best features I have seen so far.
Many features are valuable for automation, connectivity, and throughput.
Functions like acting as an NTP server, DNS, DHCP, and auto-optimization mode enhance efficiency.
My actual traffic is around 2 GB, but I purchased a link from the ISP for only around 700 to 800 MB. All the prices that need to be paid monthly to the ISP are saved, which is a significant saving for my company after using Riverbed.
Steelhead's most valuable feature is its ability to hash and send only the important parts of the information, avoiding the resending of data.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Steelhead | 13.5% |
| Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform | 16.0% |
| Other | 70.5% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 8 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 7 |
| Large Enterprise | 10 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 5 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 7 |
| Large Enterprise | 14 |
The EdgeConnect SD-WAN platform secures and powers a self-driving wide area network for cloud-first enterprises.
In today’s edge-to-cloud enterprise, user experience and security are not optional
Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN provides a secure network foundation for Zero Trust and SASE. It includes a first-class SD-WAN paired with a next-generation firewall delivering unmatched quality of experience and advanced security.
Best-of-breed SASE with no compromise
EdgeConnect SD-WAN enables a best-of-breed SASE architecture that meets the security requirements of today’s digital organizations. It provides comprehensive SD-WAN and security services including next-generation firewall, fine-grained segmentation, IDS/IPS, and tightly integrates with many SSE (Security Service Edge) solutions.
Steelhead is the leading network optimization and application performance solution chosen by over 30,000 organizations worldwide. The performance of networks and applications directly impacts business productivity. Riverbed draws from nearly two decades of experience in driving network and application performance over Wide Area Networks with its flagship offering, SteelHead. SteelHead delivers the underlying technology that helps enterprises of all sizes maximize the efficiency and performance of the networks and applications used to run modern business.
SteelHead is proven to dramatically speed up the performance of applications anywhere in the organization while delivering the best end-user experience even under sub optimal network conditions. Reduce bandwidth utilization by up to 95%, deferring costly network bandwidth upgrades. Increase performance by up to 100x for on-premises applications.
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