Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs Steelhead comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform and Steelhead based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two WAN Optimization solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs. Steelhead Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The file and data reduction capabilities are very good. Without it, we have a great deal of network congestion.""The most valuable feature of Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect is the boost.""The platform is valuable for bandwidth reduction.""Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect has high availability.""At the moment, for us, it is a very good solution because it has all the features we need and it is not so expensive.""I really love the auto-tunnel creation feature.""The tool is easy to configure due to the existing pre-configured templates. It is easy to manage compared to legacy systems, which takes time. We can complete a site within 30 minutes. The tool's best feature is outdoor onboarding. You need to bring the box to the site with the internet. It is a simple plug-and-play. The solution offers a zero-touch procedure.""The most valuable feature of Silver Peak VX is the overall performance."

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"SteelHead works from the application. I use it to optimize traffic from Amazon. It is mainly used for customers who need to increase the traffic to 33K. For other users, it has been more of an operation.""I find the most valuable to be the compression and exchange replication.""Scalable data referencing is a great feature.""TCP optimization... caches a particular TCP connection and the next time a user uses that connection he will reach the destination easily.""The connectivity to speed is the valuable feature.""The most valuable feature of Steelhead is its optimization capabilities.""The compression of Riverbed is very powerful. It can also handle large quantities of traffic.""Steelhead is stable, and it can even help you avoid service interruption in the event of a power outage. If your hardware fails, technical support will replace your device quickly."

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Cons
"More technical sessions should be offered for deploying the solution.""The support from Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect has declined since Aruba acquired them. The knowledge and speed of the agents could improve.""They have to implement more security with it. The security, mainly their firewall functions, have to be included in the firewall features.""Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform’s stability and technical features need improvement.""Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform needs to improve integrations with other vendors.""There are some functional limitations that could improve.""The license features should improve in the solution. For example, when you purchase VMware, it starts at a low level that has some functionality. When you want to expand, the difference in the price is substantial. I purchased the lower functional version for $4,000, and now if I want to upgrade, they ask me for $80,000. This is a $76,000 difference, there's no logic, but this is VMware.""If compared with Cisco, then Aruba's pricing is very aggressive."

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"The application response time of the solution can be improved.""The product should offer more integration capabilities.""I would like to see improvement in the solution’s configuration and protocol aspects. We have got some configurations that are not set. I would also like to simplify the call detection of some protocols.""One area for improvement is related to monitoring and visibility.""They should include a network switch in a future release.""Steelhead's handling of encrypted traffic could be improved because it requires some complex configuration to optimize encrypted traffic, especially when working with Microsoft protocols for mail servers and VPN services""Application response time and network performance could be improved.""If we load a primary firewall, the secondary firewall usually handles all the active connections, but in Riverbed, this isn't the case. We lose all the active connections at the moment of failure."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "You have to negotiate when it comes to pricing and licensing."
  • "You typically will license the hardware and you license the software to access the hardware capabilities. The price will range anywhere from a hundred to $300 a month. There are no additional costs."
  • "The licensing fees depend on the bandwidth. As an example of what we charge our customers, for 100MB without Boost, the price is approximately $2,000. That includes the licensing and the unit."
  • "The pricing for this product is good."
  • "The license could improve for Silver Peak VX."
  • "The price of Silver Peak VX is expensive compared to competitors. There are licenses, renewals, and support that need to be paid."
  • "There is an annual license required to use Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect."
  • "The license for Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect is paid annually."
  • More Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The solution is expensive and the service contacts are costly too. The cost of the device makes the value proposition borderline acceptable for us. The service contract fees we pay is approximately $30,000 annually."
  • More Steelhead Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The tool's most valuable feature is bandwidth optimization.
    Top Answer:You can get both yearly and monthly options in licensing. It is not expensive.
    Top Answer:There were issues, but now it is improving.
    Top Answer: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 cost… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable feature of Steelhead is its optimization capabilities.
    Top Answer:The application response time of the solution can be improved.
    Ranking
    1st
    out of 15 in WAN Optimization
    Views
    842
    Comparisons
    577
    Reviews
    10
    Average Words per Review
    376
    Rating
    8.3
    4th
    out of 15 in WAN Optimization
    Views
    1,148
    Comparisons
    625
    Reviews
    1
    Average Words per Review
    337
    Rating
    7.0
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Silver Peak NX, Silver Peak VX, Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect
    RIverbed Steelhead
    Learn More
    Riverbed
    Video Not Available
    Overview

    The EdgeConnect SD-WAN platform secures and powers a self-driving wide area network for cloud-first enterprises.

    In today’s edge-to-cloud enterprise, user experience and security are not optional

    Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN provides a secure network foundation for Zero Trust and SASE. It includes a first-class SD-WAN paired with a next-generation firewall delivering unmatched quality of experience and advanced security.

    Best-of-breed SASE with no compromise

    EdgeConnect SD-WAN enables a best-of-breed SASE architecture that meets the security requirements of today’s digital organizations. It provides comprehensive SD-WAN and security services including next-generation firewall, fine-grained segmentation, IDS/IPS, and tightly integrates with many SSE (Security Service Edge) solutions.

    Steelhead is the leading network optimization and application performance solution chosen by over 30,000 organizations worldwide. The performance of networks and applications directly impacts business productivity. Riverbed draws from nearly two decades of experience in driving network and application performance over Wide Area Networks with its flagship offering, SteelHead. SteelHead delivers the underlying technology that helps enterprises of all sizes maximize the efficiency and performance of the networks and applications used to run modern business. 

    SteelHead is proven to dramatically speed up the performance of applications anywhere in the organization while delivering the best end-user experience even under sub optimal network conditions. Reduce bandwidth utilization by up to 95%, deferring costly network bandwidth upgrades. Increase performance by up to 100x for on-premises applications.

    Sample Customers
    Group Dekko, Kingston Technology, American Student Assistance, Ares Management, Charlotte Metro Credit Union, Colonial Savings, Community Bank, Denali Credit Union, Bed Bath & Beyond, Breweries of Cameroon, Carnival Australia, Coastal Beverages, Toshiba Electronics, Tru Blu Beverages, WAXIE Sanitary Supply, Charleston Area Medical Center, Community Health Plan, Healthcare Company, Mercy Health, Linklaters, Miles & Stockbridge, Thomson Snell & Passmore
    ElAraby, SFK Leblanc, Bobst Group, Northwest Pipe Company, Halkbank, Tradebridge, EFG Hermes
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider36%
    Insurance Company14%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm14%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Retailer6%
    REVIEWERS
    Government25%
    Energy/Utilities Company19%
    Construction Company6%
    Media Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Government12%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business35%
    Midsize Enterprise25%
    Large Enterprise40%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise63%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise33%
    Large Enterprise52%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise62%
    Buyer's Guide
    Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs. Steelhead
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs. Steelhead and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform is ranked 1st in WAN Optimization with 19 reviews while Steelhead is ranked 4th in WAN Optimization with 22 reviews. Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform is rated 8.6, while Steelhead is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform writes "Flexible, efficient, and responsive support". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Steelhead writes "Exceptionally stable and reliable but costly". Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform is most compared with Cisco SD-WAN, Fortinet FortiGate, VMware SD-WAN, Prisma SD-WAN and Juniper Session Smart Router, whereas Steelhead is most compared with Fortinet FortiGate, WAAS, Citrix SD-WAN, Noction IRP and Cisco SD-WAN. See our Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs. Steelhead report.

    See our list of best WAN Optimization vendors and best WAN Edge vendors.

    We monitor all WAN Optimization reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.