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Steelhead vs Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform comparison

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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
4.8
Steelhead optimized WAN usage, saving £50,000 in costs, improving bandwidth efficiency, and enhancing user experience without extra investments.
Sentiment score
3.7
Users find Versa SASE enhances experience with better speed and reliability, but financial savings remain uncertain due to costs.
Without Steelhead, we would have spent much more on bandwidth costs.
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Steelhead's customer service is efficient and knowledgeable, but local support and handling complex issues need improvement.
Sentiment score
6.7
Versa SASE's customer service is praised for responsiveness and expertise, though improvement is needed in escalation and response speed.
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.
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
I have no issues with technical support from Riverbed.
Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Riverbed's customer service and technical support would be rated an eight.
Commercial Manager at IT-Experience
The customer support is excellent because there is 24/7 customer support.
Network engineer at Inniti Network Solutions
I work with a partner, not directly with the OEM, which makes getting technical support on call very challenging.
Assistant Vice President at icici lombard
I would rate Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform's technical support around eight out of ten.
Senior Client Partner at NTT DATA
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Feedback on Steelhead scaling varies, with easy deployment praised, but licensing and bandwidth limitations noted by some users.
Sentiment score
7.3
The Versa Unified SASE Platform offers scalable, flexible deployment for various business sizes, efficiently managing users and high throughput needs.
If a customer has 1 GB traffic, they will only be able to utilize 600 MB of traffic with Steelhead.
Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
It allows us to maximize use from our MPLS providers by handling traffic efficiently across phased deployments.
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
The scalability from a performance point of view is good, but from a commercial perspective, it is low.
Assistant Vice President at icici lombard
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.6
Steelhead offers reliable network optimization with stability, smooth upgrades, and effective technical support for seamless traffic flow and high availability.
Sentiment score
7.4
Versa SASE Platform is praised for stability, reliability, and adaptability, despite occasional issues in complex deployments.
It's quite stable and provides all necessary alerts if something is wrong.
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
For instance, even if there is a power failure, Riverbed still works.
Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Steelhead helps significantly with large data transfers.
Commercial Manager at IT-Experience
I have not observed any challenges in Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform since I am working on it.
Network engineer at Inniti Network Solutions
 

Room For Improvement

Steelhead users desire improved traffic handling, integration, scalability, security features, intuitive setup, and comprehensive monitoring amid cost concerns.
Versa Unified faces UI, cost, and stability issues, needing better integration, support, firewall, SD-WAN, and UTM features.
Steelhead is very expensive, and the vendor should work on handling Oracle type of traffic better.
Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
It would help if Riverbed could prevent such drastic impacts during updates.
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
It could still be useful in places with satellite communications, such as the south of Chile, or in the mining industry.
Commercial Manager at IT-Experience
There should be more technical materials and certifications available to improve awareness and skills in the industry.
Assistant Vice President at icici lombard
Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform could possibly be improved if they can integrate it with their own SD-WAN.
Senior Client Partner at NTT DATA
They could promote Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform more because when we talk of SASE, it's Prisma that comes to the customer's mind, and if they can position it in a more aggressive manner, it will certainly help them.
Senior Client Partner at NTT DATA
 

Setup Cost

Steelhead is costly but valued for performance and support, with complex licensing and varied pricing by usage.
Versa SASE is cost-effective and competitive, offering integrated features that reduce long-term expenses compared to other brands.
Buying the hardware initially is costly, but yearly maintenance and licenses are not as expensive.
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
Steelhead is considered an expensive solution in our country.
Commercial Manager at IT-Experience
The solution is very expensive, costing above one crore Indian rupees for our setup, which spans around twenty five branches.
Assistant Vice President at icici lombard
As a reseller, I see their pricing as competitive.
Senior Client Partner at NTT DATA
Pricing for Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform is competitive.
Senior Client Partner at NTT DATA
 

Valuable Features

Steelhead enhances WAN efficiency with data compression, TCP optimization, and caching, benefiting performance, bandwidth, and cloud migration cost savings.
Versa Unified SASE Platform offers advanced security, SD-WAN, multi-tenancy, and scalability for enhanced network performance and remote access.
Functions like acting as an NTP server, DNS, DHCP, and auto-optimization mode enhance efficiency.
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
My actual traffic is around 2 GB, but I purchased a link from the ISP for only around 700 to 800 MB. All the prices that need to be paid monthly to the ISP are saved, which is a significant saving for my company after using Riverbed.
Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Steelhead's most valuable feature is its ability to hash and send only the important parts of the information, avoiding the resending of data.
Commercial Manager at IT-Experience
SD-WAN has further enhanced the aspect of security on the open internet link, which has helped my customers in protecting sensitive data.
Senior Client Partner at NTT DATA
Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform Cloud provides the network capability to all pan-India locations, and in this product, it also provides advanced security features.
Network engineer at Inniti Network Solutions
The most valuable features of Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) are application prioritization, advanced routing features, and network gateway firewall capabilities.
Assistant Vice President at icici lombard
 

Categories and Ranking

Steelhead
Ranking in WAN Edge
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
WAN Optimization (1st)
Versa Unified Secure Access...
Ranking in WAN Edge
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (8th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the WAN Edge category, the mindshare of Steelhead is 2.4%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform is 5.4%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
WAN Edge Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform5.4%
Steelhead2.4%
Other92.2%
WAN Edge
 

Featured Reviews

Chaudhary Muhammad Moez Manzar - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Reduces operational costs through bandwidth optimization but struggles with high traffic licensing and complex deployments
The logs in Steelhead are fantastic. There is a deep level of logs such as top 10 docker and top 50 docker. I can check from the top 50 docker which type of application is optimizing well and which type of traffic is not optimized. Steelhead provides logs and percentage levels, which is good. I can see any type of log report, report security, different types of report availability, but it is not customizable. Overall, this is a good feature. Steelhead provides real-time optimization with graphs and tables on real-time optimization, informing us packet by packet including port, source IP, destination IP, and destination port number. This reporting and real-time monitoring is fantastic, although I faced a problem in Oracle. Steelhead mainly saves the money that needs to be paid to ISPs. My actual traffic is around 2 GB, but I purchased a link from the ISP for only around 700 to 800 MB. All the prices that need to be paid monthly to the ISP are saved, which is a significant saving for my company after using Riverbed.
Vishnu Jadhav - PeerSpot reviewer
Network engineer at Inniti Network Solutions
Unified network access has provided secure connectivity and has managed users across locations
The best feature is that Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform provides both networking plus security features. Both features are provided by one product. That is the best feature. I can tell you one feature in day-to-day work. The client securely accesses the internet without disrupting the network or any problem. In Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform, there is the Versa Client and Versa Gateway. The Versa Client is directly connected to the Versa Gateway, and the Versa Gateway is routing through the internet. The client is securely accessing the internet, which is a good feature because there is a direct tunnel forming from Versa client to Versa Gateway. Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform Cloud provides the network capability to all pan-India locations, and in this product, it also provides advanced security features. It also provides the enforcement information such as the user's Windows operating system, the user's laptop, and the laptop serial number, among many other things we have to provide to the user.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Construction Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
21%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

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 is your primary use case for Riverbed Steelhead?
I am currently working with Riverbed for replication between PR to DR for synchronization purposes, and for WAN optimization between replication from one data center to another data center. The mai...
What advice do you have for others considering Riverbed Steelhead?
Application performance may improve with Steelhead, but it varies application to application. Some applications, such as Oracle traffic, are not working well, but other traffic performs fine. The t...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Versa Titan?
I do not have an idea about the license, but I have an idea about the cost. The cost and setup of this product is in the customer's hands.
What needs improvement with Versa Titan?
Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform recently came into our organization. I have recently been working on this product for the last six months. This product is very smooth and e...
What is your primary use case for Versa Titan?
I have been working on secure access service for the last one year on Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform. This product provides the security and networking capability to enhan...
 

Also Known As

RIverbed Steelhead
Versa FlexVNF, FlexVNF, Versa Titan
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ElAraby, SFK Leblanc, Bobst Group, Northwest Pipe Company, Halkbank, Tradebridge, EFG Hermes
CenturyLink, RCN Business, Colt Technology Services
Find out what your peers are saying about Steelhead vs. Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
914,322 professionals have used our research since 2012.