Cisco Secure Workload vs VMware NSX comparison

Cisco and Broadcom are both solutions in the Cloud and Data Center Security category. Cisco is ranked #9 with an average rating of 9.5, while Broadcom is ranked #3 with an average rating of 7.9. Cisco holds a 13.2% mindshare in CDCS, compared to Broadcom’s 11.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

Cisco Secure Workload

Read 15 Cisco Secure Workload reviews

4,428 Views
3,055 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

VMware NSX

Read 106 VMware NSX reviews

6,667 Views
3,334 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Cisco Secure Workload

VMware NSX

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

VMware NSX and Cisco Secure Workload compete in network virtualization and security. VMware NSX is superior in integration and network segmentation, while Cisco Secure Workload excels in analytics-driven threat detection and monitoring.

Features: VMware NSX provides advanced network virtualization, micro-segmentation, and policy-driven automation, ideal for complex environments. Cisco Secure Workload offers comprehensive workload protection, compliance tracking, and advanced threat detection powered by analytics.

Room for Improvement: VMware NSX could enhance its user interface for better usability, expand integration options with third-party tools, and provide more extensive threat analytics. Cisco Secure Workload could improve its integration with non-Cisco products, streamline its setup process, and offer more detailed documentation for complex configurations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMware NSX offers robust deployment models with extensive support, creating a smoother setup experience. Cisco Secure Workload emphasizes intuitive design for quick configuration and easy integration, and provides personalized consultations for security alignment. VMware's flexibility and Cisco's rapid integration are key differentiators.

Pricing and ROI: VMware NSX requires a significant initial investment but provides long-term value with network benefits. Cisco Secure Workload features competitive pricing, offering an attractive mid-term ROI with efficient security enhancements suitable for cost-conscious firms emphasizing security optimization.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Secure Workload vs. VMware NSX Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Workload vs. VMware NSX

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

Cisco Secure Workload

Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security

9th

Ranking in Microsegmentation Software

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (14th), Cisco Security Portfolio (8th)

VMware NSX

Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security

3rd

Ranking in Microsegmentation Software

1st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

106

Ranking in other categories

Network Virtualization (2nd), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (7th), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (9th), Network Automation (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Cloud and Data Center Security category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Workload is 13.2%, up from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware NSX is 11.5%, down from 16.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud and Data Center Security Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
VMware NSX	11.5%
Cisco Secure Workload	13.2%
Other	75.3%

Cloud and Data Center Security

Featured Reviews

Raj Metkar

Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA

Discover internal application dependencies and create a dependency map

We actively seek improvements in integrating the Infoblox DDI platform with Cisco Secure Workload. This integration allows Cisco Secure Workload to learn about our networks and network tags, providing valuable insights into vulnerabilities related to the operating system and various applications installed on our servers. Recently, Cisco announced a new product called HyperShield, an AI-based autonomous micro-segmentation solution. While Cisco has not stated that HyperShield will replace Cisco Secure Workload, it represents a natural evolution for the company. HyperShield features dynamic policy discovery and enforcement; however, once policies are enforced, they do not change until a discovery occurs, requiring a re-enforcement process. This new platform operates autonomously, minimizing the need for user or security engineer intervention. I would have expected Cisco to incorporate more automatic discovery and enforcement features within the existing Cisco Secure Workload product. Instead of enhancing the current product, they have introduced a new solution. Cisco plans to honor existing Tetration licenses, allowing users to transition to HyperShield without additional costs, reflecting the investment enterprises have already made. From Cisco’s perspective, this represents a natural progression in their product line. While the product name changes, it seems more of a rebranding effort. The enhancements are greater autonomy, improved discovery, and automatic enforcement, which are now being introduced in HyperShield. Cisco Secure Workload offers automatic policy enforcement but cannot adjust policies dynamically as the application needs to change. Having used the platform for the past five years, the recent announcement has been reassuring. Cisco has confirmed that our investment in the platform will not go to waste. They will honor our existing licenses, providing a natural migration path to the new solution without any disruption

Read full review

TAIYAB HASAN

Windows Redhat Linux Vmware & Azure & Cloud & Nutanix Ahv-Vmware & Backup Senior System Administrator at Al Dawaa Medical Services

Has improved network visibility and security through micro-segmentation and SDN capabilities

This feature gives us flexibility and allows us to manage everything under one pane. We can see everything on one console, including network operations and behavior. Monitoring and security are among the best features for VMware NSX. For micro-segmentation, it's integrated with our endpoint security. If there are any issues with servers or VMs, it notifies us so we can isolate the servers and investigate. It provides distributed security features such as firewall and intrusion, IDS, IPS. The security level with IPS and IDS in VMware NSX is excellent. It also provides logical switching and routing which gives an extra layer for Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching requirements. The solution provides flexibility, automation, and self-service capabilities, resulting in cost savings as extensive expertise isn't required. Once automation and self-service are implemented, many tasks can be completed automatically. Load balancing is another excellent feature. Multiple servers can run on load balancing features, which is particularly useful since we have many application servers running. Sharing loads between servers provides the best performance.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's stable."

"The product offers great visibility into the network so we can enforce security measures."

"Scalability is its most valuable feature."

"Generally speaking, Cisco support is considered one of the best in the networking products and stack."

"The only use case I can see that makes sense is micro-segmentation. I think there are other use cases for it. The main purpose of the product is to do micro-segmentation by collecting IP. That could be done by installing an agent, and then you have all the communication coming in and out. You could also use some flow sensors installed in the network that receive a copy of the traffic and then report that back to the system."

"A complete and powerful micro-segmentation solution."

"The most valuable feature is micro-segmentation, which is the most important with respect to visibility."

"The solution offers 100% telemetry coverage. The telemetry you collect is not sampled, it's not intermittent. It's complete. You see everything in it, including full visibility of all activities on your endpoints and in your network."

More Cisco Secure Workload pros

"It does have capabilities of micro-segmenting a network, being able to create smaller segments of various types of applications separated by various tiers."

"It's what we use the CIS Benchmarks for. It's for employing hardening rules and keeping them up to date when things happen on our systems. So it's really configurations and stuff that harden and report back."

"The best part is the blueprint creation where I can create their things and then move on to the target environment."

"The Distributed firewall is simple to add to the network and rules are easy to implement."

"Though I haven't been working a lot on VMware NSX, it's good to have. What I like the most about it is that its console is good, and it doesn't take a lot of effort in terms of doing my daily tasks on it or what it's meant for. VMware NSX is still a preferred product in the market."

"Has a great firewall."

"Overall, for me, it's a good solution and has been working well."

"To be able to do the DR and SRM migrations from datacenter to datacenter, we're able to do them with SRM with VXLAN, with the NSX product."

More VMware NSX pros

Cons

"There was a controversy when Cisco reduced the amount of data they kept, and the solution became quite cost-intensive, which made its adoption challenging….Although they have modified it now, I preferred the previous version, and I wish all the functionality were back under the same product."

"Secure Workload is a little complicated to use, and the dashboard isn't intuitive, so it takes a while to learn how to use it."

"It has an uninviting interface."

"They should scale down the hardware a bit. The initial hardware investment is two million dollars so it's a price point problem. The issue with the price comes from the fact that you have to have it with enormous storage and enormous computes."

"It is highly scalable, but there is a limitation that it is only available on Cisco devices."

"The integration could be better, especially with different types of solutions."

"There is some overlap between Cisco Tetration and AppDynamics and I need to have a single pane of glass, rather than have to jump between different tools."

"The emailed notifications are either hard to find or they are not available. Search capabilities can be improved."

More Cisco Secure Workload cons

"Lacks integration with other solutions."

"It could be more user-friendly, but it's manageable. When we add a specific node to this particular NSX and the configuration changes, it won't push through the errors where required, but it'll accept it. However, while using it, we will have issues. It can also be more stable."

"The setup of the solution could be simplified."

"The first time setting it up was difficult."

"The licensing model is expensive and could be more flexible, especially after Broadcom bought VMware. It made it an expensive licensing model with no other options to take something specific from the license itself."

"I think that one of the more important things to see better integrated into the NSX product would be an IDS/IPS type solution."

"The initial establishment can be complex."

"Going through and getting more features sets from the routing protocols is definitely necessary for the future."

More VMware NSX cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is outrageous. If you have money to throw at the product, then do it."

"Pricing depends on the scope of the application and the features. Larger installations save more."

"The cost for the hardware is around 300k."

"The price is based on how many computers you're going to install it on."

"It is not cheap and pricing may limit scalability."

"The pricing is a bit higher than we anticipated."

"Regarding price, Cisco Secure Workload can be expensive if you don't have a budget. If you're not doing micro-segmentation, every extra security measure or enforcement you're putting on top of your existing environment will be an extra cost. It's not a cheap solution at all. But from my point of view, if you need to do micro-segmentation, this is one of the best tools I've seen for it. I can't compare that to Microsoft's solution because I haven't looked into it. I've looked into VMware and Cisco. Those are the only two that I know of. I didn't know that Microsoft could do micro-segmentation at all. Maybe they can, but I haven't heard anything about it."

"VMware has a subscription and perpetual license. In the New Year, they're changing many things about the licensing model. Previously, NSX was licensed according to the number of sockets inside the appliance, so we bought VMware licenses based on that. However, that may have changed this year. We are still contacting the vendors to understand the new licensing strategy."

"The solution is reasonable at the local level."

"The price is pretty high."

"VMware NSX is a cheaper product compared to its competitor, Cisco."

"This solution requires a licence."

"We are using a perpetual license to use the solution and we have support."

"The pricing model for VMware NSX is good."

"I would rate the pricing of VMware NSX as seven out of ten"

More VMware NSX pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	33
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	69

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Secure Workload?

The product provides multiple-device integration.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Workload?

CloudStrike offers antivirus capabilities and firewall features for servers and VDI but lacks automatic policy discovery. This raises questions about the resources required to discover and write po...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Workload?

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about VMware NSX?

The product has valuable features for security and network extension.

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Hypershield vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 22% of the time

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 16% of the time

Illumio vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 15% of the time

Cisco ACI vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 10% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 6% of the time

More Cisco Secure Workload Competitors

Illumio vs VMware NSX

Compared 18% of the time

Nutanix Flow Network Security vs VMware NSX

Compared 16% of the time

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs VMware NSX

Compared 14% of the time

Cisco ACI vs VMware NSX

Compared 6% of the time

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs VMware NSX

Compared 3% of the time

More VMware NSX Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Workload

October 2025

Download Cisco Secure Workload product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware NSX

September 2025

Download VMware NSX product report

Also Known As

Cisco Tetration

VMware Nicira, Lastline Defender

Overview

Cisco Secure Workload is a cloud and data security solution that offers a zero-trust policy of keeping an organization’s application workloads safe and secure throughout the entire on-premise and cloud data center ecosystems.

Cisco Secure Workload will consistently provide protection by discovering workload process anomalies, stopping threats immediately, minimizing the risk threat surface, and aborting any lateral movement.

Today’s ecosystems are very elastic, and in the application-focused dynamic of today’s aggressive marketplace, Cisco Secure Workload delivers a robust security solution that works effectively with today’s most popular applications. The solution uniquely surrounds each and every workload to ensure organizations are able to keep their data, network, and applications safe and secure at all times. Cisco Secure Workload ensures that enterprise organizations can maintain secure applications by consistently building firewalls around every workload level throughout the entire ecosystem. The solution can manage applications that are deployed on containers, virtual machines, or bare-metal servers.

Cisco Secure workload is able to meet an organization's busy needs and offers flexible options such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and on-premises options. Using the Secure Workload SaaS options, users receive all the benefits of Cisco Secure Workload protection without the hassle of having to deploy and maintain the platform on premises. Users are responsible for acquiring the necessary software licensing and deploying software agents. Using SaaS, Secure Workload runs in the cloud and is operated and maintained by Cisco. This option offers the ability to scale easily and is a popular choice for SaaS-first and SaaS-only clients. Many organizations find they get the best TCO and achieve the best productivity and profitability using the SaaS options.

When choosing on-premises options, organizations choose between hardware-based appliance models (large or small form factors). Platform selection is dependent on scalability goals, the desired fidelity level of flow telemetry, and the actual number of workloads. When a user chooses to configure Cisco Secure Workload for a conversation-only flow telemetry for all workloads, each platform has the capability to scale up vertically twice the default platform scale. Additionally, with Secure Workload, it is possible for the platform to be scaled horizontally in order to satisfy the demands of extra large widely distributed enterprise environments using federation capabilities.

Cisco Secure Workload also provides a robust disaster recovery (DR) tool, which helps to make it a complete, comprehensive solution. The DR allows for continuous restore and backup capabilities that enable users to quickly remediate operations and data to a standby cluster in the event of a drastic failure or disaster.

Reviews from Real Users

“The solution offers 100% telemetry coverage. The telemetry you collect is not sampled, it's not intermittent. It's complete. You see everything in it, including full visibility of all activities on your endpoints and in your network. Other valuable features include vast support for annotations, flexible user applications, machine learning, automatic classification, and hierarchical policies.” - CTO at a tech vendor

Cisco

VMware NSX is a comprehensive tool for network virtualization and security, offering advanced features like micro-segmentation and multi-cloud networking to enhance scalability and management efficiency within enterprises.

VMware NSX revolutionizes enterprise networking by integrating security and scalability into one streamlined platform. With capabilities like dynamic policy updates and automation, it simplifies complex configurations and provides robust API integration. Its support for Layer 4 and 7 load balancing, along with its seamless integration in multi-cloud environments, makes it a preferred choice among companies. Although deployment speed and management console features require refinement, NSX is an effective solution for private cloud and hybrid environments, enabling centralized orchestration and management of complex networks.

What are the key features of VMware NSX?

Micro-segmentation: Provides secure, granular network segmentation for enhanced security.
Distributed Firewall: Offers policy-driven firewall capabilities across all network endpoints.
Automation: Enables dynamic policy updates and simplifies network configurations.
API Integration: Facilitates seamless third-party integrations and improves configuration processes.
Multi-Cloud Networking: Supports seamless integration across various cloud environments.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Scalability: Offers significant improvements in network scalability and management efficiency.
Security: Ensures enhanced security through advanced features like micro-segmentation.
Cost-Effectiveness: Potential to reduce costs through network automation and efficiency improvements.
Flexibility: Supports various enterprise requirements with its comprehensive feature set.

In the tech industry, VMware NSX is instrumental in managing private and hybrid cloud environments, allowing companies to replace traditional networking with software-defined networks. In finance, it helps secure transactional data through micro-segmentation. Healthcare organizations leverage its flexibility for managing sensitive patient information securely and integrating cloud services.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

ADP, University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC)

City of Avondale, Lumeta, Kroll Ontrack, Heartland Payment Systems, Baystate Heallth, Exostar, Tribune Media, iGATE, NTT Communications, Synergent, California Natural Resources Agency, Bloomington Public Schools, Columbia Sportswear, Join Experience S.A, Schuberg Philis

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Workload vs. VMware NSX

September 2025

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