Cisco Catalyst 8000V SD-WAN & Router - PAYG - DNA Advantage

My main use case for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is hub-to-spoke branch to data center connectivity.

For branch-to-data center connectivity using Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, I have a specific scenario where we got an edge at the branch and another edge at the data center connected through the orchestrator.

Regarding my main use case for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, we also had a split tunneling setup where we send internet traffic to the local breakout and data center traffic to the MPLS link.

Currently, our network operations teams use a centralized template for all branches and make any changes with it. They have all policies configured on that centralized template, and if any particular policy is required for a specific branch, they override those policies.

For operational trade-offs when configuring dual-homed edge connectivity, we generally have one connection through the internet and another through MPLS. From the internet perspective, we use Zscaler connectivity and send all internet traffic to Zscaler while sending all data center traffic through the MPLS link.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN has positively impacted my organization because I am using it for the client, and it is really stable and very easy to deploy compared to the traditional way of networking, making it quite easy to deploy new branches and add new branches.

The positive impact of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN includes that it is very easy to set up a new branch, which is very less time-consuming compared to the older way where we needed an MPLS link to be ready to deploy any network. In SD-WAN, we can use 4G, 5G, or an internet link to start deploying the branch.

In my opinion, the best feature Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers is the next-generation firewall, which allows me to manage everything from one place.

The next-generation firewall management makes things easier for me because we can locally ensure that unwanted traffic will be denied at the local level instead of going through the centralized firewall and getting blocked from there.

Beyond the firewall, I find that Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is easy to manage, which I truly appreciate.

Regarding Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN's AI capabilities, I think its security is very good, as through AI we can make the network more secure, which is helpful for SD-WAN.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN could be improved in terms of configuring policy, as it is a little bit complicated and requires going through many different steps. If that part could become more user-friendly, that would be the best.

I have been using Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN for one year.

When managing hybrid WAN transport links like MPLS alongside broadband and cellular through a unified overlay, I observe that we always get connectivity because all three links are up and running, so we do not lose connectivity.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is stable.

In terms of scalability, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is really good, as we can easily add a new branch, and it is just a matter of time before it gets onboarded.

The customer support for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is great.

I would rate the customer support of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN a nine on a scale of one to ten.

Previously, we used a traditional hub-and-spoke setup through MPLS, where all internet traffic would go through the data center, leading to very inefficient outcomes. We chose Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN because it offers a local breakout for internet traffic, resulting in efficient outcomes for customers while sending data center traffic through MPLS.

I can see the return on investment with Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN as it saves time and is very cost-effective, requiring very little overhead to manage, which is what I recognize as the return on investment.

Before choosing Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, we evaluated Fortinet solutions, specifically FortiSD-WAN, which can be found on PeerSpot, but it did not provide as much flexibility as Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN.

I would rate Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN an eight out of ten.

I choose eight out of ten because, as I mentioned, the policy configuration is a little bit complicated, and there is room for improvement, which is why I give it an eight.

For its accuracy and reliability of output, I would rate Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN a seven out of ten, as there is still scope for improvement.

My advice to others is that Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is a really stable product, easily scalable, and compared to traditional MPLS networking, it offers quite good performance.

My main use case for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN involves remote sites, administration, and connectivity. I connect our remote sites back into our call center and all of our data centers, and then also to the other sites.

The best features Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers are the ease of use. The interface is what makes it easy for me. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN has positively impacted my organization, as it allows us to connect easily and provides us a view of how the connectivity is working.

The visibility that Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN gives me mainly comes from the dashboards, which helps us confirm our systems and sites are running as expected, and if there are any alerts for us to be aware of.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN can be improved with better data and more in-depth information on the traffic that traverses our SD-WAN network, and the ability to delve into what could be causing high usage, along with probably better deep packet inspection information. I rate it a seven because of the additional visibility into the traffic that is going through the network, additional information on what is using the bandwidth, and additional metrics that will help us troubleshoot.

I have been using Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN for six years.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is mostly stable in my experience.

The scalability of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN for my organization is sufficient for now.

The customer support for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is managed through a managed service provider, so I do not normally get involved with that side of it.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is currently deployed in my organization through a managed service provider, which is on-premises for them.

Before choosing Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, an evaluation was done, but I was not involved in the process.

I rate Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN a seven.

My advice for others looking into using Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is to fully understand the features that it provides, look into what your costs will be, and confirm what information you need out of it, and conduct the research before deployment.

My main use case for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is deploying a multi-tenancy solution for one of the banks, which has 2,700 remote sites.

For that bank and its remote sites, we were using a hardened device with two links, MPLS and a 4G link, where MPLS fiber acts as primary and the backup 4G link as a backup link. The challenge was that we were going in a single cluster, but due to synchronization issues from data centers being far apart, it required 6 milliseconds between two controllers to work as a single cluster. Since the latency was more than 20 milliseconds, we opted for two different clusters, active backup.

In managing hybrid WAN transport links, such as MPLS alongside broadband and cellular through a unified overlay, we observe that our operations treat both the links the same because we monitor the overlay. For MPLS, it is a service provider requirement, and they manage the underlay. The service provider also takes responsibility for the cellular, which results in us only taking care of the overlay, such as the IPsec tunnel.

The operational tradeoffs in configuring dual-homed edge connectivity and automated failover mechanisms across heterogeneous transport types highlight that MPLS provides high bandwidth, and the cellular interface offers less bandwidth. Thus, we prefer MPLS as a primary link and cellular as a backup, facing no significant challenges. However, when the MPLS link is down, we experience limitations due to the cellular link's reduced bandwidth.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN has positively impacted our organization by providing centralized management, easy deployment, and allowing for plug-and-play setup for some sites, minimizing the workload for our NOC engineers.

The workload for our engineers has decreased significantly as we do not need to send an engineer to the site for configurations; everything is deployed from the controller. Additionally, new sites can simply have a day-zero configuration applied, where we send the device with a technician to plug and play, saving a lot of time.

When migrating routing protocols and performing active traffic cutovers from legacy BGP or DMVPN WAN topologies to Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN overlay, this approach is good for security as we have critical services over the MPLS link. We still use manual IPsec tunnels to secure our data, but the secure tunnels provided by default save a lot of time and meet our requirements.

The best features Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers include real-time latency and on-demand tunnels, with application-aware routing being one of the strongest options that customers and many of our organizations appreciate.

Application-aware routing has helped our teams and customers as we sometimes have live conferencing, which requires specific IPs to avoid disruption and maintain low latency. We place them on a higher bandwidth link on a free link, applying a policy that immediately switches to the backup link in case there is latency in the main link to avoid disruption during the live conference.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN can improve in terms of security, which currently includes basic features such as URL filtering, but we require more security for major branches. The licensing is another concern, as it is strict and based on bandwidth utilization, and Cisco should consider providing more linear and flexible licensing packages.

When considering improvements for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, I focus on licensing and security.

I have been using Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN for the last seven years and have deployed many SD-WAN solutions.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is stable.

The scalability of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is impressive; it is easy to deploy and scale. The controller provides many options, allowing a large number of edge devices, making it highly scalable.

Customer support for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is good; we have a dedicated team from Cisco that supports us in every aspect.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give customer support a 10 as they are always available to assist us.

We did not use any different solution previously.

Our network operations teams approach day-to-day policy and template changes across Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager and vManage with all changes initiated by the design team. If there are any requirements for traffic shaping or security, these come from the design team. Cisco Advanced Services assists in the deployment, which is done by the design and project teams, not the operations team.

We have seen a return on investment; for instance, we previously used two MPLS links as an active backup and incurred high costs for both. Now, one of the MPLS backup links has been shifted to a cellular internet connection, significantly lowering our billing, resulting in substantial savings.

I am not satisfied with the licensing structure. My recommendation is for Cisco to rethink their licensing model to provide packages rather than charging based on bandwidth, as that approach is not effective.

Before choosing Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, we did not evaluate any other options.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN a 10.

I chose a rating of 10 because it is easy to configure, scalable, reliable, and, most importantly, stable.

Regarding Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN's AI capabilities, I think its governance and security are satisfactory since we currently do not install controllers in the cloud. All solutions are on-premises, allowing us to maintain control with our own strict regulations preventing cloud deployment, making security not a primary concern as it is secure by default; it provides IPsec tunnels that are inherently secure.

Concerning Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN's AI capabilities, I find its accuracy and reliability of output satisfying as it currently works properly, and for our requirements, it performs very well.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is deployed in our organization as an on-premises solution.

At the moment, our network operations teams are not using any AI-driven network analytics or automated event correlation tools; they only utilize the default policies provided by the SD manager for link convergence.

I advise others looking into using Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN that it is easy to deploy and manage, with the exception of licensing, making it a viable option for any customer.

My main use case for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is to facilitate communication with our partner. A specific example is that we need end-to-end connectivity from our site to the partner site, which provides secure communication between these two endpoints.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN has impacted my organization positively because it is a centralized management system, which is very helpful as we want simpler management from a BAU perspective.

The main outcome that highlights how Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN has made things simpler for my team is time-saving, as we can reuse all the templates, making it very structured and useful.

The differences I have observed in operational overhead when managing hybrid WAN transport links, such as MPLS alongside broadband and cellular through a unified overlay, are mainly a reduced dependency on different service providers and a very structured and centralized management system that enables troubleshooting and monitoring from one dashboard.

The best features that Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers are that it is more structured and centralizes the control plane, which is very helpful with the underlay and overlay.

My network operations teams find it excellent using VManage as it is a centralized management system that simplifies change management and administration, allowing easy automation and guardrails monitoring.

Recently, the user interface of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN was changed, and I feel it would be better if it were made more user-friendly, as the current one is somewhat challenging to work with and while compatibility exists, I need more knowledge base documentation for the new GUI interface to be truly helpful.

I found a few restrictions about the routers in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, such as character restrictions for certain passwords, and overcoming those would be very helpful.

The character restrictions for different types of passwords need improvement, and there should be more knowledge base documentation for the new GUI interface to be more user-friendly.

I have been using Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN for the last two to three years.

Regarding the failover mechanism, I have tried a few, and those were very successful, achieving my expected results. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is very stable in my experience.

I feel that Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN's scalability is good, but it can be made better.

Customer support is good, and I receive support whenever needed as I have just implemented it.

I approach migrating routing protocols and active traffic cutovers from legacy BGP or DMVPN WAN topologies to Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN overlay by using route redistribution with my legacy BGP and all other routing protocols that SD-WAN supports.

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is good; the centralized management system for all licenses makes it easy to manage and renew when any license is expiring.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN an eight. I chose an eight out of ten because all the suggestions I have made could help it become more mature and definitely improve it to a ten.

Regarding Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN's AI capabilities, I have not used them yet, so I will not be able to comment on that; however, I hope Cisco will implement appropriate guardrails and governance to overcome security concerns and maintain security standards for large enterprises from a data center perspective.

Even though I have not used Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN's AI capabilities directly, I feel that if we can build trust with AI and keep guardrails in place, people can use it with trust without fear of data loss or attacks.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is deployed in my organization using hybrid clouds. For my hybrid cloud deployment, I use Cisco only.

I would recommend everyone to use Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN because it represents a significant improvement for Cisco's routing system with its centralized control plane, making the processing centralized and logically managing data traffic.

My main use case for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN involves managing IPsec tunnels for partners, with secure traffic and payment traffic routing through our SD-WAN devices. We are supported by two data centers with redundant networks and two devices in each data center, providing a high-level overview of our operations.

Our other team manages a larger infrastructure across different branches while my team focuses on payment traffic, which has led to significantly decreased delays and improved traffic flow.

We are using Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN for IPsec tunnels, which highlights its governance and security capabilities.

My network operations teams utilize an event-driven system with Splunk and Elastic to investigate network anomalies by diverting logs and aligning strategies for troubleshooting with the necessary configurations.

My network operations teams push configurations through the Bitbucket platform to ensure our repository serves as the source of truth, minimizing misconfiguration and ensuring alignment.

Compared to traditional IPsec tunnels, the use of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is more beneficial as we experience significantly reduced outage times.

The reduction in outage time when using Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN compared to traditional IPsec tunnels has more to do with the advanced technology that decreases delays and jitters in both incoming and outbound traffic, especially for payment traffic relying on the XPnet stack.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN has positively impacted my organization by decreasing delays and outages, which has improved efficiency and reduced the resources needed for troubleshooting.

I estimate we see about 20% fewer incidents with smoother traffic flow on a technical level.

The best features Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN offers include configuration capabilities and automation through APIs, which I find very beneficial to work with.

I use the automation and API features to configure IPsec tunnels by creating preset modules for automation, pushing changes through Jenkins and AAP, ensuring integration works well with our SD-WAN.

I appreciate the API automation, reduced delays, and the overall technological improvements.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is already improved, but we would appreciate a more user-friendly graphical user interface for better interaction.

I have been using Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN for two years.

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is definitely stable, contributing to decreased delays.

From a scalability perspective, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is pretty flexible and performs well.

The customer support I receive has been very good, working with Cisco TAC and other support options. I would rate customer support a nine out of ten.

We previously had MPLS, but I find Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN to be a more improved version. We have consistently used the SD-WAN solution without switching to a different one.

Pricing is good, but it is handled at the management level.

My team specifically chose Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN for the implementation without evaluating other options.

I would rate Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN a nine out of ten because I think it is a very good product.

Regarding Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN's AI capabilities and its accuracy and reliability of output, we are still exploring the automation and AI aspects of the platform.

When migrating routing protocols and active traffic cutovers from traditional BGP or DMVPN WAN topologies to Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN overlay, I feel this is a significantly improved approach compared to the traditional methods.

I would advise others looking into using Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN to go for it, as it is a really nice product.