The titans of enterprise-level networking technology, Cisco and VMware, have been locked in a battle for supremacy for quite some time. With the recent purchase of Viptela and VMware’s acquisition of Velocloud, they are setting themselves up for yet another round of toe-to-toe competition.
For those of you that are new to the game, let’s explain what SD-WAN is.
SD-WAN stands for Software-Defined Wide Area Network.
A wide area network would be similar to the internet for a particular company. All the computers and all the locations of that company are connected to each other through their WAN.
Until the advent of WAN, each router in the company’s system had to be managed and controlled separately. This was a costly, cumbersome, and time-consuming task.
Today, SD-WAN enables companies to implement network-wide applications and rule changes from a central control panel rather than changing the software in each router at each location.
Another key advantage of the SD-WAN is its ability to automatically switch traffic between the company’s private MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching), and various internet and redundant connectivity options. This switching is done on the basis of signal availability, type of traffic, and traffic rules that have bee pre-established.
Using commercially available internet access allows companies to save money while augmenting or entirely replacing their private WAN.
SD-Wan provides smart management of priority traffic and a better end-user experience as employees leverage cloud services, applications in the cloud, big data, and IOT. The result is connectivity that is high performing and has low latency.
Advantages of SD-WAN
- Cost Savings
- Agility
- Network Automation
- Traffic Programming
- Network Supervision via Policies
To put it simply, SD-WAN provides a way for a company’s IT to work smarter, faster, and at a lower cost.
The use of SD-WAN is quickly becoming more common.
In fact, a leading research firm, Gartner, stated in 2015 that by 2020 a full 30% of companies would be using SD-WAN Technology.1
So now that everyone has a working understanding of what SD-WAN is and does, let’s move on to…
The differences between Cisco SD-Wan and VMware’s VeloCloud.
As with any products, it’s difficult to sort the hype of advertisement from what they can accomplish in the field. Having said that, these two products tick many of the boxes for an individual looking for SD-WAN functionality and benefits.
This helpful chart will help you see the differences between the two options at a glance.
| Cisco – Viptela | VMware – Velocloud |
| An open solution is known for its flexibility and ease of deployment | Fast deployment |
| Functions on-premises or in the cloud | Three versions: internet only, hybrid SD-WAN, and on-premises |
| “zero touch” deployment | “zero touch” deployment |
| Policy provisioning via vSmart controller | Policy provisioning via VeloCloud Orchestrator |
| Number of applications supported: 3,000 | Number of applications supported: 2,200 |
| Unidirectional measurement and steering – No | Unidirectional measurement and steering – Yes |
| Network Performance Measurement: (passive) Proprietary | Network Performance Measurement: (active) BFD |
| Forward Error Control (for packet loss): No | Forward Error Control (for packet loss): Yes |
| Packet Duplication: No | Packet Duplication: Yes |
| Data Encryption: Yes | Data Encryption: Yes |
What else do you need to know about VMware’s VeloCloud?
VeloCloud allows a company to leverage wireless broadband internet or wired broadband internet whether they use MPLS or not. This solution has a performance indicator called the VeloCloud Quality Score that was designed to give IT managers a picture of how the solution is functioning. In regard to security, VeloCloud utilizes a smart firewall that makes room for central control of BYOD rules.
What else do you need to know about Cisco’s Viptela?
Viptela operates in a “zero-trust” environment. What is meant by “zero-trust” is that each piece of hardware must be authenticated and all data packets must meet encryption standards. IT admins will be impressed that they can implement and manage this SD-WAN solution completely within the cloud. Viptela’s open architecture makes it ideal to be used in conjunction with IPFIX interfaces, Syslog, Netconf, SNMP, and REST APIs. SD-WAN forwarders work in sync with Viptela’s central policy controller.
Are You Confused About The Right SD-WAN Solution For Your Corporation?
As with many things in business growth and development, there is no cookie-cutter answer in the debate between Cisco and VMware’s unique SD-WAN offerings. Because there are so many variables, it’s important for a company to retain the services of a company that specializes in consulting with companies concerning complex networking for enterprise-level operations.
The LA Networks team of IT professionals have the experience and skill set to advise your company and internal IT employees on the right SD-WAN solution for your situation and for the implementation and management of that solution.
The fact that the LA Networks staff understands infrastructure technology well enough to adapt it to your needs, implement new infrastructure, and scale existing infrastructure to meet growing needs, sets our LA Networks team head and shoulders above the competition.
We would be glad to have a talk with you about your enterprise-level SD-WAN requirements.
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1 https://blogs.gartner.com/andrew-lerner/2015/12/15/predicting-sd-wan-adoption/