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Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs FatPipe SD-WAN 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

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
1st
Ranking in WAN Edge
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
379
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (2nd)
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
2nd
Ranking in WAN Edge
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
96
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (6th)
FatPipe SD-WAN
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
18th
Ranking in WAN Edge
19th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Henry Rosenstiehl - PeerSpot reviewer
Comprehensive support and ease of implementation enhance operational efficiency
With Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, I have centralized orchestration and management. The transport independence of MPLS or connectivity and internet connectivity is another excellent feature. End-to-end segmentation is also provided. I use the application-aware routing feature. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN supports dynamic police-based routing decisions based on application type or different performance metrics such as jitter or latency. The benefit of that feature is that it improves user experience. The principal benefit of application-aware routing is that critical applications are prioritized or routed over the best performing paths to reduce outages and service degradation. There is full visibility of applications. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN has integrated security features which include base firewall, URL filtering, IPS, and secure segmentation, and it supports integration with other Cisco products such as Umbrella or Snort. This feature is beneficial for the client because the information is secure. It is important that Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN supports cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments for my organization because it allows for scalability and faster deployment in the cloud. It reduces operational needs because I don't need to manage physical controller hardware, and updates and maintenance can be centralized and automated. The zero-touch provisioning feature is very important for the speed of deploying new branch locations. I can deliver the device to the branch, and it is important because simplified deployment makes the implementation start more easily since devices are auto-configured and authenticate without manual intervention.
Akshay Kharkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Beneficial technology, reliable, and simple deployment
Our client has a data center and all the applications servers and servers are in their data center. We design a solution, for all their branches. If they wanted to access the internet or the applications, they route traffic to their data center and then can access these applications with FatPipe…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The user interface (UI) is very, very good."
"Fortinet FortiGate positively provides my clients' organizations with a high return on investment."
"The CLI is robust and powerful, enabling rapid, consistent changes via SSH."
"Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly and affordable."
"We use a lot of function on the IPS and it works well for us."
"One of the nice things about FortiGate is that it can be deployed on the cloud or on-premises. You can actually do both. That's the biggest reason why I stick with this solution as opposed to something like Cisco Meraki. Another nice thing is that I can log directly into a FortiGate or get to it through their FortiCloud access products. They're pretty reliable and consistent. One of the reasons why I started using the product was their single pane of management. I can deploy their line of firewalls in conjunction with their switching and access points, and I can manage the entire network from one interface. I don't have to log into one interface for the firewall, another one for the access points, and another one for the switches. These firewalls have access point controller functionality built right into the system, so I don't even have to purchase additional devices to manage them."
"I think that the UTM features are the most value, as it truly protects my infrastructure."
"The key features include SD-WAN, firewall use, intrusion prevention, intrusion detection, and application control."
"The primary advantage we've observed is the simplification of deployment, leading to decreased IT costs and enhanced operational efficiency."
"The most useful feature for our organization is the combination of on-prem and cloud-based deployments. We connect securely to our hybrid cloud using transit VPCs and cloud on-ramp for fast deployments."
"It is very stable with very good firmware."
"The integration of Layer 3 and application routing is great."
"I would rate the overall solution as a ten out of ten."
"There is minimum blind space in this solution."
"The solution provides good consolidation, centralization, and manageability for edge routers."
"The solution's application control and application traffic steering tool are its most valuable aspects in terms of how we utilize the product."
"The most valuable feature of FatPipe SD-WAN is it's based on SD-WAN technology."
 

Cons

"They should do a better job in testing when they put out a new release because when a new software version is released, it is not always stable or does not always have all the previous features working correctly."
"I mostly do administration, and I found Cisco to be the hardest major firewall manufacturer to deal with, with Fortinet FortiGate being the second hardest for me."
"Vulnerability scanning could be improved."
"The licensing could be improved as it is a little confusing and too granular for Fortinet FortiGate."
"We have an issue with hotel guest vouchers."
"There aren't really any negative aspects to discuss."
"In an incident, after a restart, Fortinet FortiGate did not connect to FortiGuard servers. Due to that reason, on the customer end, all websites got blocked. I don't know why this happened. The firewall of a bank in Sri Lanka rebooted yesterday, and after that, FortiGuard servers did not connect properly, blocking all customer environment websites."
"Some of the filtering is not robust, you can escape it with a VPN. Some of the users bypass some of the filters. It catches some but it also misses some, that area could be improved. It's functioning reasonably but there's room for improvement in that area."
"Customers require features that are secure for endpoints, on-premises, and for the cloud."
"The user interface needs to be more friendly."
"The main area for improvement in Cisco SD-WAN is the lack of documentation, which often lags behind the software releases."
"We don't have any issues with this solution other than the price."
"The solution should be more user-friendly."
"The tool is very expensive."
"The user interface needs improvement. Users should be able to find various features faster without much tweaking."
"The durability of the switches could be improved. In the past, Cisco devices had a longer lifespan."
"FatPipe SD-WAN can improve the price to scale the solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing and licensing is a little bit complicated in FortiGate. They are always on the higher side. This is one issue that we always raise with the company that they should reduce the price according to Indian market requirements. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"It's a very full-featured and it's priced well solution."
"As far as I'm aware, in our case, it's just a yearly pricing arrangement with no additional licensing costs."
"If you compare Fortinet FortiGate with Sophos and other firewall products available in the market, this solution is affordable."
"I do not have first-hand experience with the rice of Fortinet FortiGate, but I have heard the price was reasonable."
"The pricing is very reasonable."
"It's expensive, but compared to the competition it's okay."
"The price for the Fortinet FortiGate is reasonable. Secure SD-WAN is free of charge. If you have their firewall, it's free of charge. It's very tempting."
"For 600 links, the license for Cisco SD-WAN costs us US$250k a year."
"The license consists of an annual fee."
"Cloud subscription management must be paid for, although this does not incur a perpetual fee."
"We can only buy three-year licenses, not monthly. The cost seems high for us, especially since we're in Vietnam, which isn't a rich country. But we still like the product because it is good."
"It is expensive. The license limitation is there in terms of bandwidth. Basically, Cisco is always good in terms of performance and related things. However, if you want to have a license, for example, for 100 Mbps, they charge you because of their 100 Mbps. If you want to go without the license of 300 Mbps, it is a bandwidth license as well. This is not happening with other vendors. That is the reason why we moved away from Cisco. The bill gets a little bit high. I do remember that one time we were trying to increase the bandwidth for at least five devices, and the license got as high as 20-grand for five devices, only for the license. It was expensive for us at the time. Our company is not a big company, but it is a solid company. The price was very high, and we moved away from Cisco because of the price."
"Licensing is on a subscription basis."
"The cost is reasonable. I would rate the price as seven out of ten."
"On a scale of one to five, I would rate Cisco's pricing as a three."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
17%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
28%
Media Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

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...
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...
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 ...
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 significant...
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?
There's nothing I could put my finger on right away for improvements in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN. There is definitely no...
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Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
Cisco SD-WAN
FatPipe Symphony, Symphony, FatPipe Symphony SD-WAN, Symphony SD-WAN
 

Overview

 

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
Doyle Research, Ashton Metzler & Associates
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