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Huawei Enterprise Routers vs Steelhead comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

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
8.5
Huawei Enterprise Routers provide reliable performance, excellent security, reduced maintenance costs, and enhanced connectivity, leading to improved productivity.
Sentiment score
8.5
Steelhead enhanced bandwidth efficiency, resulting in substantial cost savings and improved user experience without additional tools or upgrades.
Without Steelhead, we would have spent much more on bandwidth costs.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
4.0
Huawei Enterprise Routers support is efficient and 24/7, with local intermediaries aiding despite regional language barriers and connectivity issues.
Sentiment score
6.4
Steelhead's customer service and technical support are efficient, knowledgeable, and responsive, though complex issues may face slower resolution.
Steelhead's support is generally good for typical issues yet can be time-consuming during complex problem-solving across teams, particularly for Active Directory integration.
Riverbed's customer service and technical support would be rated an eight.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.8
Huawei Enterprise Routers offer effective scalability but may require additional equipment and face challenges during large-scale expansions.
Sentiment score
8.4
Steelhead efficiently scales for SMBs and enterprises, managing up to 20,000 users with effective traffic handling and deployment support.
It allows us to maximize use from our MPLS providers by handling traffic efficiently across phased deployments.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Huawei Enterprise Routers are generally stable and reliable, receiving high ratings, though occasional stability issues and patching concerns exist.
Sentiment score
8.5
Steelhead offers stable, efficient network operations with minimal downtime, robust performance, and reliable support, ensuring continuous traffic flow.
It's quite stable and provides all necessary alerts if something is wrong.
Steelhead helps significantly with large data transfers.
 

Room For Improvement

Huawei Enterprise Routers require enhanced security, stability, support, integration, affordability, and flexibility compared to competitors like Cisco.
Steelhead needs improved traffic handling, encryption optimization, enhanced response times, better integration, and user support with fewer scaling limitations.
It could still be useful in places with satellite communications, such as the south of Chile, or in the mining industry.
It would help if Riverbed could prevent such drastic impacts during updates.
 

Setup Cost

Huawei Enterprise Routers offer cost-effective solutions with competitive pricing, though some services and support incur additional charges.
Enterprise users find Steelhead costly yet valuable for TCP optimization, with complex licensing and comparable alternatives like SolarWinds.
Buying the hardware initially is costly, but yearly maintenance and licenses are not as expensive.
Steelhead is considered an expensive solution in our country.
 

Valuable Features

Huawei Enterprise Routers provide cost-effective, easy setup, platform compatibility, and advanced connectivity with efficient GUI and strong support.
Steelhead optimizes WAN with compression and caching, enhancing network efficiency and reducing costs in bandwidth-limited environments.
Functions like acting as an NTP server, DNS, DHCP, and auto-optimization mode enhance efficiency.
Steelhead's most valuable feature is its ability to hash and send only the important parts of the information, avoiding the resending of data.
 

Categories and Ranking

Huawei Enterprise Routers
Ranking in WAN Edge
11th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Routers (4th)
Steelhead
Ranking in WAN Edge
14th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
WAN Optimization (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the WAN Edge category, the mindshare of Huawei Enterprise Routers is 2.2%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Steelhead is 1.3%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
WAN Edge
 

Featured Reviews

ChimeremezeNwabueze - PeerSpot reviewer
Beneficial cloud connected networking, knowledgeable support, and reliable
Huawei Enterprise Routers can improve by enhancing their security. The software architecture and the operating system that runs on their router and the security capability are not as strong when compared to Cisco. In an upcoming release, they should add more integration for mobile applications with the capability of management monitoring the network remotely.
Raj Metkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Auto-optimization mode enhance efficiency & bandwidth saving, best layer 7 QoS shaping policy can be achieved with ease
There are several features specific to branches, like keeping data hot and active on Steelhead devices. These features prevent unnecessary data travel across the international MPLS. Additionally, functions like acting as an NTP server, DNS, DHCP for branches and auto-optimization mode enhance efficiency along with really good QoS for bandwidth shaping.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
University
8%
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
17%
Government
11%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Huawei Enterprise Routers?
The solution provides support for 5G connectivity.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Huawei Enterprise Routers?
The product is very cheap and offers a huge discount as they are trying to enter the market. However, you have to pay extra for some services and support.
What needs improvement with Huawei Enterprise Routers?
The documentation is somewhat lacking and not easy to navigate. There are some errors and misleading information. The general appearance of the company site is also not user-friendly for downloadin...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We just did an assessment for our 47 datacenters around North America. The top two enterprise-level network monitoring solutions were ExtraHop first, Riverbed SteelCenter second. Their negotiated c...
What do you like most about Riverbed Steelhead?
One of our most valuable features is Steelhead's cloud migration optimization. Moving to the cloud helped optimize our workflow, improving performance for end-users.
What is your primary use case for Riverbed Steelhead?
In the past, we have sold a lot of Steelhead ( /products/steelhead-reviews ) for retail companies, insurance companies, some finance companies, and some engineering companies. Steelhead ( /products...
 

Also Known As

No data available
RIverbed Steelhead
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bus Online, VisionChina Media Inc. (VisionChina), China Network Television (CNTV), Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, ABC, BovenIJ hospital
ElAraby, SFK Leblanc, Bobst Group, Northwest Pipe Company, Halkbank, Tradebridge, EFG Hermes
Find out what your peers are saying about Huawei Enterprise Routers vs. Steelhead and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,484 professionals have used our research since 2012.