Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs FireMon Asset Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

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 Catalyst SD-WAN
Ranking in Network Management Applications
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
94
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (2nd), WAN Edge (2nd)
FireMon Asset Manager
Ranking in Network Management Applications
17th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (13th), Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) (7th)
 

Featured Reviews

Igor Van Den Ouden - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables secure and flexible branch connectivity with application-aware routing
The valuable features of Cisco SD-WAN include its security policies and zone-based firewall that are applied to every site, as well as application-aware routing. Security is standard compliant, eliminating config drift that was prevalent before manual configurations. Application-aware routing offers flexibility in using different lines for traffic, depending on the policy implemented.
Chan Lung - PeerSpot reviewer
Works very well as a single platform for policy management and audit compliance
The dashboard clearly shows the policies of a network environment. We can see which policies are critical or are always being used. We can also see which ones are not being used or have not been modified in a long time. We can see all the ports that the applications are using. We have all this information in the dashboard. After deployment, FireMon Asset Manager automatically shows the network topology. However, the dashboard is pretty fixed. It is not flexible. If I need to modify the dashboard, I need the help of their customer support. FireMon has streamlined policy deployment across multiple firewalls, making it easier to quickly implement changes. It has also improved our ability to comply with audits and be compliant with PCI DSS and ISO 27001 standards. The efficiency of deploying policies has increased significantly. The information provided by FireMon Asset Manager is helpful in making an organization's environment secure. It makes customers look into their policies and see if they need to be modified.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"When considering the most valuable features of Cisco SD-WAN, the decoupling of self-monitoring stands out significantly."
"Overall, I rate Cisco SD-WAN as nine out of ten."
"Installation is easy."
"The most valuable feature is the application-level routing."
"I have found the performance and the Zero-Touch provisioning helpful which makes it easier for us to develop."
"It is very simple to deploy. It's a point-and-click type of deployment, so it's fairly simple."
"Customizing SD-WAN is very easy because you can define two colors. You can define two different operators. You can deploy a partial mesh, a full mesh, or hub-and-spoke totally differently. If you want to do this on a DMVPN solution, that's really hard."
"When we have had power outages for a few hours we have had no issue with Cisco SD-WAN coming back online and functioning."
"The most valuable aspects of FireMon Asset Manager are its integrations and its ability to passively monitor the network for unknown assets."
"It offers a single platform for managing firewalls of different brands and simplifies policy deployment and auditing. It helps push policies to different firewalls, and it also helps with policy auditing."
"The most valuable feature is the change modules. Whenever there is a change in the firewall, it automatically reflects on FireMon."
 

Cons

"We recently found some bugs."
"Since Cisco acquired Viptela, the stability of this solution has given problems since it is quite new."
"The process of onboarding the vSmart, vBond, and vManage should be improved to make it easier to manage in general."
"Some configurations or procedures could be more user-friendly. Adding a bandwidth management feature would make Cisco SD-WAN more scalable and less resource-intensive."
"It would be very helpful if we had better access to a knowledge base, or online documentation, to help both us and our customers learn to use this solution."
"Compresson deduplication should be added."
"The security features could be improved."
"The solution should be more user-friendly."
"It is not very good at monitoring the Check Point firewall, but it works very well with other firewalls such as Palo Alto, Fortinet, and Cisco ASA."
"The discovery process could be improved. If incorrect credentials are entered, it should give an error message. That would make our work easy rather than having to troubleshoot why the issue is occurring."
"While passive discovery remains important, active retrieval of asset details would be valuable, and this functionality is starting to be implemented, as I've observed in recent updates but it is not fully there yet."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license consists of an annual fee."
"The price of Cisco SD-WAN is expensive. We pay approximately $50 monthly for the use of the solution."
"On a scale of one to five, I would rate Cisco's pricing as a three."
"The initial cost is quite significant, but the investment is worthwhile."
"There is no license required for this solution."
"The cost of Cisco SD-WAN is high and has room for improvement compared to competitors such as Fortinet which has similar functionality."
"You have to pay between 3000 and 10,000 euros, or something in that range. The core switches Nexus cost me between 10,000 and 20,000 euros."
"It is expensive."
"FireMon Asset Manager's pricing has been reasonable and has worked well for us from a licensing standpoint."
"FireMon is more expensive than other brands but justified by its comprehensive feature set. It includes several functions that might require additional subscriptions in other solutions."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Management Applications solutions are best for your needs.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
43%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
4%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco SD-WAN?
When considering the most valuable features of Cisco SD-WAN, the decoupling of self-monitoring stands out significantly.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco SD-WAN?
The pricing of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is rated between eight and nine out of ten, where ten is the most expensive.
What needs improvement with Cisco SD-WAN?
The durability of the switches could be improved. In the past, Cisco devices had a longer lifespan. Now, they change frequently, making it difficult to obtain long-term support.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FireMon Asset Manager?
FireMon is more expensive than other brands but justified by its comprehensive feature set. It includes several functions that might require additional subscriptions in other solutions.
What needs improvement with FireMon Asset Manager?
We used FireMon Asset Manager only for the firewalls. It could not always discover, so we had to go in and add it manually. The discovery was not always consistent. At times it worked, and at times...
What is your primary use case for FireMon Asset Manager?
We used FireMon Asset Manager for 12 clients. We used it for firewall audits and rule changes.
 

Also Known As

Cisco SD-WAN
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Doyle Research, Ashton Metzler & Associates
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs. FireMon Asset Manager and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.