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Cisco ACI vs Cradlepoint NetCloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.7
Cisco ACI enhances efficiency with cost savings and stable performance, though some face challenges and unutilized features.
Sentiment score
7.0
Cradlepoint NetCloud improved uptime, reduced costs, enhanced security, and boosted productivity through better remote management and scalability.
Efficient utilization leads to cost savings and efficiency gains.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Cisco ACI's customer support is mixed, with responsive staff but inconsistent expertise and room for improvement in newer versions.
Sentiment score
7.6
Cradlepoint NetCloud support is effective and highly rated, with swift issue resolution despite occasional response delays.
The technical support from Cisco is satisfactory.
When issues occur, the TAC is not able to provide much support, leading to difficulties in finding RCAs.
I have worked very closely with Cradlepoint for several years and would rate their customer service as being among the best.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Cisco ACI excels in scalability and flexibility, supporting integration across environments with strong automation and plug-and-play features.
Sentiment score
7.5
Cradlepoint NetCloud effectively replaces routers and firewalls, supporting scalable network and security management for large enterprises via the cloud.
The solution offers high performance and scalability with connectivity options up to 100 GS.
You can use the multi-site and multi-pod features, which help you scale the data center over the WAN and create large sites.
The scalability of Cisco ACI supports our organization's growth effectively.
Cradlepoint products support scalability very well in medium to large enterprise environments.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cisco ACI is now stable and reliable, with high availability, effective support, and improvements enhancing performance for data centers.
Sentiment score
8.3
Cradlepoint NetCloud is praised for stable performance, robustness in traffic handling, minimal downtime, and seamless, dependable connectivity.
For stability, Cisco ACI rates a nine or 9.5 because I've seen three customers using Cisco ACI and once deployed, the solution is very stable.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco ACI users seek improved usability, integration, documentation, deployment, automation, security, and support for a more efficient experience.
Cradlepoint NetCloud needs better usability, SD-WAN enhancements, and affordable options for medium enterprises seeking cloud performance improvements.
Their lack of on-ground offices can result in business losses.
The company realizes that there's a need for affordable connectivity products, especially for lower-end medium enterprises or larger small enterprises.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco ACI's high costs are justified by its quality and capabilities, making it a valued investment for large enterprises.
Enterprise users find Cradlepoint NetCloud pricing competitive, considering it a worthwhile investment for its efficiency and functionality.
In general, Cisco ACI is on the higher side; it's not a cheap solution.
Cisco's pricing tends to be on the higher end compared to other vendors.
Cradlepoint's pricing is viewed as market competitive, offering good value for the money invested.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco ACI centralizes management, enhances security, scalability, and automation, simplifying network operations, improving efficiency, and integrating with VMware.
Cradlepoint NetCloud optimizes wireless WAN with 5G readiness, enhancing VPN, automated failover, and network monitoring for primary connectivity.
Cisco ACI provides substantial capability; you can design your network accordingly and it's part of the SDN family, providing many benefits to the organization, especially when moving from traditional network infrastructure.
Its features, like easy application deployment, short deployment time for new applications or software, and eliminating the hassle of STP, are appreciated.
It is essential for growing our data center connectivity and enablement for our customers.
Cradlepoint supports the option for wireless to be a primary means of connectivity, rather than just a backup.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco ACI
Ranking in Software Defined Networking (SDN)
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
102
Ranking in other categories
Network Virtualization (1st), Cloud and Data Center Security (5th)
Cradlepoint NetCloud
Ranking in Software Defined Networking (SDN)
6th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (14th), WAN Edge (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Software Defined Networking (SDN) category, the mindshare of Cisco ACI is 15.3%, up from 8.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cradlepoint NetCloud is 4.7%, down from 8.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
 

Featured Reviews

Rahul Khandelwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables streamlined data center management with automation and application-centric design
The main features of Cisco ACI that I really appreciate are the application-centric and network-centric designs, allowing you to create your network according to your application. That's helpful, and it's good for one-time implementation. The automation capabilities are really helpful. We deployed one data center using Terraform, and after deployment, many automation features are available, which can be very helpful. Based on my experience, Cisco ACI provides substantial capability; you can design your network accordingly and it's part of the SDN family, providing many benefits to the organization, especially when moving from traditional network infrastructure. Many organizations are actually using the old traditional Nexus infrastructure or some old data center devices. It gives you significant control and one-time implementation capabilities, and it also provides better performance and security. Functionality-wise, Cisco ACI provides integration using automation. We implemented it through Terraform, which was easy. Those features are available, so I don't think any new features are needed right now; something new could come up, but they have implemented many improvements over the years.
Robert-Gardner - PeerSpot reviewer
An easy to setup solution, but it is missing useful configuration options
I use this solution to manage Cradlepoint wireless routers It lets us know whether it is online or not, and lets us do a speed test to see how quick the speed is. These are valuable features. They should change some of the configuration settings to enable it to act more as an SD-WAN box to view…
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
22%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Government
9%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
There are some very major differences between both the Products and to name a few. -Cisco ACI have physical network gear (9K Switches) where the Code runs in ACI Policy Mode & the UCS server wh...
What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
Once you know your way around the Cisco ecosystem, using Cisco ACI is not so difficult. It is a global product, so when you change one interface, changes are automatically reflected on every switch...
What do you like most about Cisco ACI?
The flexibility of adding new components with minimal impact on existing services running in the data center is a key benefit of this ACI-based solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cradlepoint NetCloud?
Cradlepoint's pricing is viewed as market competitive, offering good value for the money invested. While some customers are price sensitive, others recognize the efficiency and smooth operation as ...
What needs improvement with Cradlepoint NetCloud?
There are areas for improvement, particularly at the lower end of the medium enterprise market. Cradlepoint's portfolio is lacking budget-friendly options. The company realizes that there's a need ...
What is your primary use case for Cradlepoint NetCloud?
I use Ericsson, the parent company of Cradlepoint, to provide solutions for wireless WAN technology. Customers are seeking connectivity in nontraditional places or mobile applications. Ericsson's p...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bowling Green State University, du, Qatar University
City of San Antonio, Statue Cruises, Tour Dubai, St. David's Foundation, JBT, DSC Dredge
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco ACI vs. Cradlepoint NetCloud and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
859,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.