Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Citrix SD-WAN [EOL] comparison

Cato Networks and Citrix are both solutions in the WAN Optimization category. Additionally, 100% of Cato Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Citrix users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 6, 2025

Citrix SD-WAN and Cato SASE Cloud Platform compete in the network solutions category, offering SD-WAN capabilities. Cato SASE Cloud Platform appears to have an upper hand with comprehensive security features and seamless integration.

Features: Citrix SD-WAN offers load balancing, Active-Active lines for reliability, and zero downtime features. It is also highly customizable, benefiting diverse applications and environments. Cato SASE Cloud Platform provides robust security features, global SD-WAN capability, and centralized management. Its integration, VPN functionality, and ease of deployment are valued features.

Room for Improvement: Citrix SD-WAN could enhance configuration processes, reporting features, and provide better technical support responsiveness. Pricing adjustments could aid broader adoption. Cato SASE Cloud Platform might benefit from adding advanced security layers and expanding language support. Customers also suggest improvements in intrusion detection and web application firewall features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Citrix SD-WAN is known for smooth deployments but faces challenges with support variability, often requiring external consultants. Cato SASE Cloud Platform provides flexible deployment across cloud environments, requiring skilled resources. Cato’s technical support is well-received, though users desire speed and expertise improvements.

Pricing and ROI: Citrix SD-WAN is considered expensive, with perpetual or annual licenses, though it offers good ROI through reduced MPLS costs. Cato SASE Cloud Platform has competitive bandwidth-driven pricing with flexible security add-ons, resulting in satisfactory ROI and operational savings.

To learn more, read our detailed WAN Optimization Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

WAN Optimization

September 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

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Alexander Azikov

It Manager at Diamond Braces

Provide a seamless experience for end users with internet duplication feature

The setup and onboarding process is very straightforward - I'd rate it a ten out of ten for ease. We use CatoCloud as our cloud provider. They have points of presence, and we connect to the nearest one to our physical location. All the routing, inspection, and logic for what to route, block, or allow happens in the cloud, not on the local device. Our deployment took a couple of weeks because we installed the sites manually. If we had a team to help switch locally, it could have been done in a week. The deployment process is straightforward. We set up all the sites in their cloud system; then, they ship the sockets directly to the location or our main office. We connect the device to the internet, it gets activated, we assign it to a specific site inside the cloud, and it's online and ready to use. It's very easy.

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Sammy Mukuna

Network Admin at Naivas Ltd

Seamlessly combines Internet and MPLS

Citrix has made my work easier and more cost-effective. It lowered our Internet costs and gave me the flexibility to choose providers based on each location's connectivity. Unlike before, I'm not tied to a specific provider. The central deployment feature allows easy configuration updates for all boxes from the head office, streamlining network management. This simplification has been a big plus for our operations.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Virtual Domains (VDOMs) are a feature that we found valuable."

"The solution is scalable."

"We purchased Fortinet because of the pricing, its functionality, because it met our requirements, and the total cost of ownership over five years was quite reasonable. In the market, Fortinet is rated quite well."

"It increases security posture and is helpful for firewall reporting, intrusion protection, web filtering, and SD-WAN implementation."

"There is an easy process for configuring it, and it is straightforward to implement the device from scratch."

"It's easy to manage. The GUI is very simple, and what is very good is that every product, regardless of size, has the same interface."

"You can create multiple Virtual Domains (VDOMs), which are treated as separate firewall instances."

"The security features are valuable, particularly the ransomware attack protection features. Fortinet FortiGate provides excellent security against ransomware attacks."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"I haven't had any trouble, and practically forget that I'm using it."

"The most valuable feature is that it also works as a next-gen firewall because it has security features."

"When I first encountered Cato, I didn't know how to use it, but after a week of training, I could onboard our systems to it, so the solution was easy to learn and navigate."

"The feature that I find to be the most valuable is the bandwidth aggregation."

"Additionally, Cato has a global point of presence, which means instead of using other technologies to connect branches and provide access for a retail organization or any organization with branches, we can utilize Cato's backbone. Furthermore, by consolidating different technologies into one solution, there are additional cost savings from that perspective."

"I would definitely recommend Cato Networks to other users."

"It's a cloud-based solution that integrates well with everything."

"The solution is a simple WAN solution. We've onboarded the socket on the Cato platform, and it provides connectivity. There is no complex routing."

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform pros

"The solution's most valuable feature is load balancing."

"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 main advantage of Citrix SD-WAN is that it enables fast communication between our branches and data centers. And, with its cloud management features, it also makes the process of adding new branches into our company network much easier."

"The most valuable feature is its reliability."

"The VPN and the load balancing are the most valuable features."

"It allows us to use additional VPNs, offering more options compared to other VPN solutions."

"It allows you to combine two asymmetrical connections."

"The zero-touch deployment is most valuable for us."

More Citrix SD-WAN [EOL] pros

Cons

"Some of the features in the graphical user interface do not work, which requires that we used the command-line-interface."

"The user interface of the Fortinet FortiGate management console could be more intuitive and user-friendly, and the log analysis and reporting features could be enhanced to provide more flexibility and customizable insights."

"We sometimes have issues with FortiGate's routing table in the latest firmware update. We had to downgrade the device because our customers complained about bugs."

"The configuration part was challenging, especially converting configurations from another OEM to FortiGate."

"FortiGate can only retain logs for 24 hours or 7 days. I'm not sure if it holds them for a longer period, such as for a month."

"We called them for a geolocation issue and we didn't get any proper assistance."

"The logging details need to be improved."

"The feature which gives us a lot of pain is ASIC architecture."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The tool should improve its interface."

"They should include a web application firewall feature in the solution."

"The tool needs to be more granular. Its reports are not very in-depth."

"They should add more sophisticated security features. It should also be integrated into the cloud."

"For a packaged solution, needing external intervention or a system integrator to get other features not offered by Cato Networks could be an area for improvement. Cato Networks does what it's meant to do and is even overstretching capabilities when introducing new features. The product can only have very few features added on top of what its currently doing. Managed service providers can deliver the extra features you'd need. It's a set of managed services, and what Cato Networks does is very comprehensive. So, for the time being, when the actual incarnation of the SASE solution is deployed, Cato Networks is a very effective product. Naturally, technology will evolve, so everybody knows that in three, four, or five years, there will be a new kid on the block, a new game. Still, at the moment, Cato Networks only needs to improve a little regarding SASE delivery. The product is doing very well, but one feature the Cato Networks team is doing right is preparing for the future through deploying the SSE 360, so the security service is at that edge. It's an excellent strategy to prepare for the future. SSE 360 is what Cato Networks should invest in the most to keep prospering."

"The solution could be made more user friendly for the administrator to use the portal. It is difficult to use it for people who are not experienced with Cato Networks."

"The price could be better."

"The product may be complex for users with few years of experience."

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform cons

"The price could be improved, it's an expensive solution."

"The initial setup could be a bit easier."

"Citrix SD-WAN's knowledge base has a few missing things, so you may need to seek help from support."

"The reports need to be improved. We need to have them customized but they don't have that right now. I would like for them to have better system predictions. We don't have that right now. My system may be working fine right now but after making some changes, that can change."

"I would like to see support for additional reporting."

"I am happy with this product. If anything, its price can be reduced. It is a bit expensive."

"Given that Citrix SD-WAN solved all our problems by providing us with everything we needed to unify communications with our branches and data centers, I cannot suggest anything further in terms of improvements."

"Enhancements are needed to improve the stability."

More Citrix SD-WAN [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is highly competitive when compared to other brands that offer similar functionality."

"It has a competitive price."

"The pricing for the product is alright."

"It has been two years. I don't remember the actual price, but it was affordable. We buy the boxes and then use the license for three years."

"Licensing is usually on a three-year period."

"This is not a cheap solution but it isn't expensive, either. It's a good solution for the right price."

"They need to be competitive with other solutions."

"It was probably about $2,500 per firewall. It was all included. It included support, services, threat management software, and 24/7 FortiCare on it. Cisco products are more expensive."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"Cato Networks is an expensive product, but it works out of the box, so that's the usual trade-off, make versus buy. If you decide to buy a product that doesn't require much programming, then you'd want to go for Cato Networks, which will work naturally, and immediately without any complex setup. However, the product is a little bit more expensive than the competitors. On a scale of one to five, I'd rate the pricing for Cato Networks as four."

"If you compare with VeloCloud, the price is the same or even cheaper."

"The platform is expensive."

"The price is not an issue for us, as it is priced more competitively than some other vendors."

"You pay yearly based on the speed of your network. If you increase the speed of your network, you increase the cost for your throughput. It is by bandwidth for the most part and then licenses for VPN. There is some per-seat licensing for VPN access, but the majority of it is minimal. It is like $30 a year per client. The rest is based on how much bandwidth you'll use. You pay for that upfront for the year, and if you have to increase it, you increase it, and then they let you send more data through. There are no additional costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"The solution has reasonable pricing. It has a yearly subscription. The pricing depends on the permit to code. Sometimes, we need to increase the permit, and the cost will automatically change. There's no fixed cost. Unless we request additional modules such as DNS security, ELP, and decent features, there will be no additional cost."

"The solution is reasonably priced since Cato Networks provides features like SASE and monitoring, which I am very happy with currently."

"I'd rate Cato SASE Cloud Platform's pricing as about five or six out of ten. It's not the cheapest solution, but it is cheaper than Palo Alto and even VeloCloud. We've been working with them for a while and have significant discounts. Our licensing costs vary because we keep adding sites, but it's about 280 per month per site. This includes additional features beyond the base product, starting at around 200."

More Cato SASE Cloud Platform pricing and cost advice

"As NetScaler is now, I find it quite pricey."

"It depends on the scale. In our case, it would have been better if we had known about the life cycling steps, but otherwise, it is worth the money."

"The price is relatively expensive."

"Citrix SD-WAN is quite an affordable product."

"It's a little bit on the high side compared to the other products."

"I'm not quite sure of the price ranges. Roughly, the hidden devices can scale up to $20K for one appliance. However, the branch CPs are USD $1,000 to $2,500."

"It is a bit expensive. A cheaper product would be good, but everybody likes things to be cheaper. We bought the devices up front, and then we pay for the annual support."

"It would be helpful to have a demo license available for customers who want to prove the concept and conduct a proof of concept (POC) before committing to the solution. This is particularly important for customers in Egypt who often require a demonstration of the solution's features and compatibility with their needs before making any investment or incurring costs. Providing a demo license would allow customers to assess whether the solution would meet their needs or not."

More Citrix SD-WAN [EOL] pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

20%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

28%

Government

Educational Organization

Legal Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	261
Midsize Enterprise	99
Large Enterprise	143

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	9

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?

When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?

From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

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What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

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What do you like most about Cato Networks?

The solution is a simple WAN solution. We've onboarded the socket on the Cato platform, and it provides connectivity....

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cato Networks?

In construction, we have a company in the steel industries, where we are doing the POCs currently, and we have one ex...

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What advice do you have for others considering Cato Networks?

I am also a partner with Cato SASE Cloud Platform. Mentioning the bypassing feature and traffic engineering would be ...

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What do you like most about Citrix SD-WAN?

It lowered our Internet costs and gave me the flexibility to choose providers based on each location's connectivity.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix SD-WAN?

It is on the expensive side. I would give it an eight out of ten in terms of costliness. In my region, the approximat...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Citrix SD-WAN?

The solution's licensing model could be improved. Citrix SD-WAN is a good product from a technical point of view. How...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 19% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 12% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 10% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

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Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 15% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 12% of the time

Netskope vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 10% of the time

Cloudflare One vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 7% of the time

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs Cato SASE Cloud Platform

Compared 4% of the time

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FatPipe WAN Optimization vs Citrix SD-WAN [EOL]

Compared 100% of the time

More Citrix SD-WAN [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

September 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Cato SASE Cloud Platform

September 2025

Download Cato SASE Cloud Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

Citrix SD-WAN [EOL]

September 2025

Download Citrix SD-WAN [EOL] product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

Cato Networks

Citrix CloudBridge, WOC, NetScaler SD-WAN

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Fortinet

Cato Networks is a leading SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) platform, combining SD-WAN and network security to obtain a cloud-native service. Cato Networks optimizes and secures application access for users and identities. The platform delivers a next-generation secure networking architecture that minimizes legacy IT infrastructures’ complexity, costs, and risks. The goal of Cato Suite is to connect any user to any application securely and optimally.

Cato Suite runs on a private global network of more than 65 PoPs (points of presence) connected via SLA-backed network providers. The service can connect branches, data centers, users, and clouds. Cato can be deployed in stages to augment legacy network services.

Cato Suite delivers end-to-end route optimization for WAN and cloud traffic. The architecture is self-healing, enabling a high service uptime.

Cato Features

Cato Cloud has a global backbone to deliver a reliable, global network. Here are some key SD-WAN features of Cato Cloud.

Optimizes traffic flows: The Cato Suite can individually optimize traffic flows in the last mile - from the customer’s location to the point of presence, and also between PoPs. This feature eliminates the need for internet providers to hand off traffic to each other, avoiding the resulting latency and congestion.
Controls and manages bandwidth: The software-defined overlay is encrypted across the entire cloud infrastructure. This overlay uses application-aware routing, analyzing latency and loss data to choose the best route according to network conditions. These features, like protocol priority marking, enable the system to ensure the performance of real-time applications.
Delivers redundancy and failover: By connecting the points of presence with multiple Tier-1 IPs, Cato builds the redundancy needed to ensure security and highly available service.
Cloud-native: Cato is built as a scalable, resilient, and elastic cloud service.
Converged: The platform converges SD-WAN and network security into a single infrastructure framework.
Secures all edges: Cato Network can secure and optimize traffic from all users, locations, applications, and clouds.

What challenges does Cato Network solve?

Migration to SD-WAN

MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) networks are usually expensive and limited in their capacity. Cato simplifies migrating to a faster, higher-capacity internet and SASE cloud. Cato SD-WAN appliances enable customers to improve usable capacity and resiliency.

Global connectivity optimization

Customers who suffer from the challenge of high latency and network inconsistency can use Cato to deliver a consistent connection and user experience to access on-premises and cloud applications.

Securing branch internet access

Cato’s complete network security stack connects all branch locations to the Cato cloud, therefore protecting all traffic, both internet-bound and WAN, with enterprise-grade, cloud-based security services. This capability avoids having to backhaul internet traffic to a data center or hub or having to implement stand-alone cloud security solutions.

Cloud acceleration and control

Organizations using Cato notice an acceleration of cloud traffic. Cato achieves this by routing all traffic from the edges to the PoP closest to the data center. Because of the close distance between the two, the latency is near zero.

Reviews from Real Users

An IT manager/project coordinator at a healthcare company says that “[Cato is] a cloud-based solution that integrates well with everything. They are the classic SaaS solution.”

Yeong-Gi L., a network engineer at Snetsystems, notes that “The solution is very stable. The scalability is quite good. Technical support was always helpful and responsive. The integration capabilities are not a problem at all.”

"The most valuable feature is that it also works as a next-gen firewall because it has security features," says Lorenzo S., senior solutions consultant Lead at MDI.

Cato Networks

Citrix SD-WAN [EOL] enhances network stability, redundancy, and reliability, supporting connectivity between branches, optimizing internet access, and enabling secure, redundant networks, both on-premises and cloud-based.

Corporations utilize Citrix SD-WAN [EOL] to improve network performance, minimize downtime, and ensure high availability. Combining communication methods and supporting interbranch internet routing, it assists businesses in transitioning from MPLS, centralizing monitoring, and optimizing bandwidth use. Its functionality includes secure connections, cost reductions, and effective management of internet access. The support for multiple communication methods, application reliability, and ease of implementation make it a valuable tool for modern network management.

What key features does Citrix SD-WAN [EOL] offer?

Security: Enhanced protection to safeguard network data
IPv6 layering over IPv4: Ensures compatibility and future-proofing
Active-Active bandwidth use: Maximizes bandwidth utilization
Zero downtime failover: Maintains continuous operation during failures
Zero-touch deployment: Simplifies the installation process
Application reliability: Ensures high performance for critical applications
Cost-effectiveness: Reduces overall networking expenses
Central deployment: Facilitates easy configuration updates and management

What benefits should users look for in Citrix SD-WAN [EOL] reviews?

Enhanced performance: Improved application and connectivity speed
Increased reliability: Minimized network downtime and interruptions
Centralized monitoring: Streamlined network oversight and control
Scalable security: Adaptable protection for evolving network needs
Cost savings: Lower operational costs compared to traditional MPLS
Flexibility: Ability to handle multiple network functions effectively

Industries implement Citrix SD-WAN [EOL] to replace costly MPLS setups with more flexible VPN and NetScaler options, benefiting sectors like finance, healthcare, and retail that require robust, secure, and scalable network solutions. Organizations achieve better device management and efficient connectivity across multiple branches, enhancing their operational effectiveness.

Citrix

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

Paysafe, AdRoll, Pet Lovers Centre, Arlington Orthopedics, Humphreys & Partners Architects

AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Cornerstone Home Lending Inc., Dallara, ecVision, Essar, Eurofred, Groupe Promutuel, HMSHost Corporation, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines Ltd, Royal Caribbean International

Find out what your peers are saying about Cato Networks, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Riverbed and others in WAN Optimization. Updated: September 2025.

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