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Cisco ACI vs Omada Cloud SDN comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Cisco ACI
Ranking in Software Defined Networking (SDN)
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
105
Ranking in other categories
Network Virtualization (1st), Cloud and Data Center Security (7th)
Omada Cloud SDN
Ranking in Software Defined Networking (SDN)
6th
Average Rating
0.0
Reviews Sentiment
9.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Software Defined Networking (SDN) category, the mindshare of Cisco ACI is 9.1%, down from 13.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Omada Cloud SDN is 4.2%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined Networking (SDN) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco ACI9.1%
Omada Cloud SDN4.2%
Other86.7%
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
 

Featured Reviews

Sulaiman Olubiyi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Automation Engineer at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Network automation has simplified secure multi-site connectivity and reduced daily operational effort
I believe Cisco ACI could improve by incorporating something related to agentic AI, where it can execute tasks based on particular evaluations or loop engineering, enhancing fault identification or suggestions based on each tenant's configuration. Additionally, I think they should ensure that the documentation is comprehensive. I appreciate that Cisco provides documentation, and their support engineers are helpful in case of any issues. In terms of governance and security regarding Cisco ACI's AI capabilities, I think what we call evals or evaluations is important, whereby the engineer can evaluate the functionalities of the AI in Cisco ACI, preventing it from making deletions or modifications on its own. Therefore, there should be evaluations or guardrails incorporated into the development capabilities. Regarding accuracy and reliability of output for Cisco ACI's AI capabilities, it hasn't met my expectations. What we need is something called RAG, or retrieval-augmented generation. If Cisco can implement that to utilize customer-specific data instead of general knowledge, while ensuring data privacy under GDPR laws, I think that will result in very good, reliable output.
Gavin Cotton - PeerSpot reviewer
Partner at Attune
Reasonably priced, easy to deploy, and enables remote monitoring
The implementation is quite straightforward. It works every time. The setup is very easy. I rate the ease of setup a ten out of ten. The deployment can be done very quickly. The time taken for deployment depends on the setup. Generally, it can be up and running in a few hours.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Cisco ACI is that it is easy to manage; we can automate and it can be scripted, and Virtual ACI is very good."
"You can integrate Cisco ACI well with VMware."
"With its programmability, you can do stuff to policies to make them more flexible, allowing you to connect devices in new ways."
"The basic functionality that is the most useful is creating a virtual network on a physical device."
"Having a lot of racks and switches with a single point of configuration which can be done with automation on one platform using one API. This makes everything work faster."
"Before we started using Cisco ACI, everything was essentially flat open access, and by using ACI, we're able to segment out everything and get more visibility into our virtual environment."
"We work with Cisco because they have many possibilities to work with very good support."
"The routing of traffic is one of our main focuses when utilizing Cisco ACI."
"The solution enables us to monitor and help our customer with their connectivity remotely."
 

Cons

"Cisco ACI is difficult both technically to build it out and then operationally to manage."
"I wish that if I had to open up an additional tab, I wouldn't have to log in every single time."
"Cisco ACI would benefit by providing the option to integrate easily with DNAC in their next release."
"I would like Cisco to simplify the interaction of the controller. I would also like them to simplify the way you configure the Fabric."
"The initial set up was complex. We had to deploy 120 leads. Migrating from Legacy Cisco network to ACI was complex."
"The areas for improvement are automation and user-friendliness."
"The ACI user interface is complex and Cisco should improve it."
"Security and isolation based on the type of traffic"
"The product must provide access points that can be plastered into the ceiling."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We don't use all of the features but it's still worth the money."
"It's expensive but the product is very good. I have never found another partner like Cisco with a solution like this and with great support."
"The good thing about Cisco is that you can trade in your old products to replace them with ACI."
"Cisco's pricing is very expensive."
"Price is always an issue."
"I don't believe there is any licensing required."
"It is quite expensive. It is not at all on the cheap or medium side."
"We used Cisco Professional Services for the deployment. They were outstanding, but very expensive."
"The tool is reasonably priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Educational Organization
12%
Construction Company
10%
Retailer
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise89
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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco ACI?
Cost is one thing that could be improved, as it is heavy for an emerging market like ours.
What advice do you have for others considering Omada Cloud SDN?
As a current user at home and a pro reseller, I can highly recommend Omada Cloud SDN. For usage at home, it maybe a little bit technical but you can forget many issues like unnecessary add-ons you ...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bowling Green State University, du, Qatar University
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Aviatrix, Megaport and others in Software Defined Networking (SDN). Updated: September 2026.
914,109 professionals have used our research since 2012.