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Juniper Contrail Networking vs VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN comparison

 

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

Juniper Contrail Networking
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Networking (SDN) (5th)
VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (3rd), WAN Edge (4th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Networking solutions, they serve different purposes. Juniper Contrail Networking is designed for Software Defined Networking (SDN) and holds a mindshare of 6.1%, down 6.5% compared to last year.
VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, on the other hand, focuses on Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions, holds 10.3% mindshare, up 8.8% since last year.
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
 

Featured Reviews

TA
Smart configuration management eliminates the need to worry about managing the network's configurations
Based on my experience in the Indian market, there are four to five areas that need improvement. First, there is a lack of marketing and awareness about Juniper, making it difficult to reach end-users and deliver solutions. Second, Juniper's education and awareness centers are costly and not easily accessible like Cisco's resources and their understanding of users' requirements. The information is not easily available on online channels like Youtube. Third, Juniper needs to promote its Mist integration better, and pricing is also a significant factor. Finally, Juniper needs to address the market's specific requirements, such as the SME sector, and offer more lower-priced products like a lower-end segment switch. In summary, improving marketing and sales, education and awareness, Mist integration, pricing, and catering to specific market requirements are areas that need improvement. I just want a good feature in the SD-WAN. Juniper should consider integrating its firewall experience with its SD-WAN devices to create a complete package. With everything moving to the cloud, companies require intelligence and security solutions for their on-prem infrastructure. Moreover, Juniper should integrate its SOC solution into its Mist portal and SD-WAN devices, including IPs, IDS, web and content filters, and messaging. This would provide a complete product and give Juniper an advantage over competitors such as Cisco. I believe that with a bundle that includes SOC and UTM flavors in their Mist portal, Juniper can make a significant impact in the market.
Sami-Isoaho - PeerSpot reviewer
To fully utilize cloud vendors' hardware networking, Microsoft and VMware support everything
To improve the product, the company, alone or with a good partner, should manufacture their own hardware brand with boxes to make the product more shippable. Implementing VMware is much more difficult, time-consuming, and expensive than implementing Fortinet or Check Point. With Fortinet, you pay a couple of hundred dollars for hosting and a low-cost firewall, there's only one box to ship to each site, and it's much easier to manage. Moreover, it would be easy for the large telecom operators and system integrators to sell the solution. It would also be a good fit for customers with multiple small offices, who I currently advise to choose hardware-vendor SD-WAN solutions over VMware.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"After we finished setting Contrail up, it seemed stable enough. Still, we never tested it in a real environment, so we don't have enough information to say whether it's stable with a given number of users and appliances. We have tested it in a lab environment, but we haven't tested enough to say that the platform is stable."
"It provides proactive alerting in a single dashboard solution."
"Juniper Contrail Networking is a stable solution."
"Contrail automates the excellent communication between virtual appliances."
"The most valuable features are the orchestration layer, plug and play capabilities, and also the fact that you can either configure it as a full mesh or hard install."
"VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN has truly transformed our environment, providing significantly more bandwidth at lower costs, which is essential for tasks like Teams calls."
"The product is consistent and is one of the best despite the competition."
"Feature-wise, VMware SD-WAN is a really strong cloud web security product."
"I have found the dynamic multipoint protocol(DNPO) most useful because it can tell you which is the best circuit to use for different types of traffic."
"When we upgrade to one of the edges, it goes very smoothly."
"VMware SD-WAN is a complete solution."
"VMware SD-WAN is easy-to-use."
 

Cons

"Concerns were raised about the complexity of involving networking components like MX routers, which often required expertise beyond the scope of software engineers. As a result, users encountered challenges in achieving comprehensive understanding and troubleshooting of networking issues within the Contrail environment."
"Juniper Contrail Networking is difficult if you do not have a certificate for Juniper. Juniper is a different type of configuration or operation than Cisco."
"Visibility, especially for the top of the platform, is a nightmare. The top was documented incorrectly and really complex to complete. In the end, it worked but only after several weeks of work with the support of a Juniper solution engineer in Holland."
"Juniper needs to address the market's specific requirements, such as the SME sector, and offer more lower-priced products like a lower-end segment switch."
"VMware SD-WAN could improve if the hardware could integrate the interface using ICP. Additionally, if VMware SD-WAN is used with SSE providers that use tunnels there are some issues prioritizing traffic because it cannot decrypt."
"They need to start focusing on the security functionality. They should find a way to embed the next-generation firewall functionality within the architecture. They should move more into applying SASE tenants to what they're doing."
"There is one feature that would set VMware SD-WAN apart from others solutions, and that is what I call inter-cloud connectivity. All the solutions regarding VMware are good because for example, If I go from my workplace to a retail office and I want to use my applications in the Cloud, that is possible. Perhaps we have customers who have their IT partial environments hosted in different cloud locations, such as Amazon and Azure, and the interconnection between the clouds, this is not possible. If it was possible it would be a market game-changer. Having the SD-WAN solution that is good at optimizing and facilitating traffic between different cloud providers would be great."
"The initial setup of VMware SD-WAN was simple. However, it took six days to complete."
"In the future, we would like to have more capacity using this solution as there are limitations on the VCE. For example, only 50 tunnels can be supported currently but we would like to have 200 tunnels using the VeloCloud VCE device."
"There is no security included, which is something that should be improved."
"Reporting is an area that can be improved, as there are some features that are lacking with the reporting aspect."
"VeloCloud could improve its integration capabilities with other solutions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are many vendors in the wireless market that offer better pricing, solutions, and management skills compared to Juniper."
"Juniper Contrail Networking is low-cost for small and medium-sized businesses. Cisco and Palo Alto solutions are more expensive."
"The solution's price combines the license and the bandwidth you used."
"We pay about $500 USD, or 700,000 Korean won."
"VMware SD-WAN provides competitive pricing."
"The minimum cost is $10,000 a month to have a monitoring station set up."
"The price of this solution should be lower."
"The price is reasonable for this solution, but the only challenge for us is that the Rand currency fluctuates to the dollar and provides some complexities. The price might go up just because the Rand has actually lost value."
"Price would be a challenge for customers, because it is expensive."
"You need to pay for a license to use this product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Retailer
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Juniper Contrail Networking?
Juniper Contrail Networking enables the utilization of tier-two appliances and the creation of virtual networks or appliances. This is facilitated through the use of filtering devices. Additionally...
What is your primary use case for Juniper Contrail Networking?
We use the solution to host many services for multiple clients. We aim to transition from hosting Cisco clients to utilizing virtual appliances. Therefore, we intend to virtualize their infrastruct...
What advice do you have for others considering Juniper Contrail Networking?
Juniper Contrail Networking presents a distinct alternative for those encountering issues with vendor solutions. Consequently, individuals who may have previously hesitated to explore OpenStack sol...
What are the biggest differences between Fortinet Fortigate and VMware SD-WAN?
One of our favorite things about Fortinet Fortigate is that you can deploy on the cloud or on premises. It is a very stable, reliable, and consistent solution. We like that we can manage the entire...
What do you like most about VMware SD-WAN?
One of the key use cases for VMware SD-WAN was assisting a customer in the industrial zone. They required virtualized servers and wanted to enable VMware SD-WAN to connect their sites in Japan or C...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware SD-WAN?
The pricing is high, making the margin thin, which limits mark-up opportunities from the wholesale price.
 

Also Known As

Contrail Networking
VMware SD-WAN, VeloCloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Lithium Technologies, Orange Business Services, Cloudwatt, Symantec, Cloud Dynamics, CloudSeeds
Redmond, Coca Cola, Roka Bioscience, MetTel, Deutsche Telekom, Rockford Construction,  The Bay Club, tru Independence, Triton Management Services, DevCon, AXPM
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Aviatrix, TP-Link and others in Software Defined Networking (SDN). Updated: April 2025.
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