Notifications
Notifications
CDW Logo

VMWARE VELOCLOUD EDGE 510

Mfg # AA128771 CDW # 5184768

Know your gear

This item was discontinued on October 06, 2022

Enhance your purchase

VMWARE VELOCLOUD EDGE 510 is rated 4.40 out of 5 by 42.
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Easy to use and the Dynamic Multipath Optimization is useful What is our primary use case? We are a solution provider and this is one of the products that we implement for our customers. Our customers use VeloCloud to create their own SD-WAN. What is most valuable? The most valuable feature is the Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO), which allows the customer to maintain and monitor their link quality in real-time. It will tell them whether the performance is good, bad, or degrading. This solution is quite easy to use. They have their own gateway offering where they have sensors in front of the applications like Office 365 and G Cloud. It is a unique advantage compared to other SD-WAN vendors. What needs improvement? VeloCloud needs improvement in terms of its security features. It needs to work with third-party vendors such as Fortinet, Check Point, or Palo Alto because at an increasing rate, and because of new rules for compliance, organizations require security features that are not offered by VeloCloud. For how long have I used the solution? We have been using VeloCloud for one and a half years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? With respect to stability, we have had some issues in the past that are related to the performance of the equipment. I would rate the stability an eight out of ten because there are some features that are currently unstable, like the link select and the path selection between the gateway and the devices. The result is a loss in performance. How are customer service and technical support? We have been in contact with technical support and I would rate them a seven or eight out of ten. Their response time is typically fast but in terms of resolution, sometimes it takes a long time for us to get the patch for the system. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? We also work with Forcepoint SD-WAN and we have tried other solutions as well. Some of these include Riverbed and Fortinet. One of the big differences between VeloCloud and the other vendors is the speed and ease of deployment. VeloCloud is fast and quite easy to deploy. The second difference is that they have their own VeloCloud gateway. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is straightforward. In my experience, VeloCloud is one of the easiest SD-WAN vendors when it comes to initial setup and deployment. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The price of this solution is higher than that of other SD-WAN vendors. What other advice do I have? We have been using multiple versions of this solution. We have been using the software as well as different Edge devices including the Edge 510 series and the Edge 520 series. The 510 series is the most common one. Most of the deployments are cloud-based. Our customers prefer the cloud from a business point of view because it is less expensive. To deploy on-premise, the cost of using VeloCloud is quite high and it becomes an obstacle for some customers. My advice for anybody who is considering this solution is to first think about their SD-WAN needs. VeloCloud is a very good product as long as you don't have any concerns about security. If the main concern is about the link performance and bridge connectivity then it is a very good product. Overall, it is a good product that is friendly, integrates well, and has good performance. It is only lacking in the security perspective. I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Private Cloud Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2020-03-06T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Proactively detects potential issues; excellent for enterprise size companies What is our primary use case? Our primary use case for this solution is in companies that have multiple office locations, say a minimum of 10. They are connected to the internet using line or broadband internet connectivity. There can be a lot of fluctuations and connectivity issues so bandwidth is our current focus. VeloCloud is a software layer which helps customers manage the connectivity in the console. In the event that there is any downtime coming up into the secondary line of the bandwidth, the language will be correct. The solution proactively detects where the problem could happen or could arise. Users who are using the applications would not even know whether there was a downtime. What needs improvement? The product could be improved if the reports were modified making them easier to use and easier to understand from the customer's point of view. Also, from a cost perspectives, although ValorCloud is the number one product in its field in Gartner's Magic Quadrant, it's very expensive for the Indian market. For how long have I used the solution? I've been working with this solution for about 18 months. How are customer service and technical support? No problem with technical support. How was the initial setup? Deployment is okay and not a major issue. It requires engineering capacity and depends on the customer environment. What other advice do I have? I would rate this product a nine out of 10. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:partner
Date published: 2020-04-14T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from User-friendly and is easier to integrate than other solutions What is our primary use case? I use VeloCloud for software for reports SD-WAN solutions and WAN connectivity. What needs improvement? They should help our customers reduce the cost of the implementation from a local user cloud to the user using a standard cloud. They should improve the time and the cost of the implementation. I would like for them to upgrade to 5G integration. Our customers have 4G now and the connectivity isn't good. It should be much faster. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using VeloCloud for ten years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The stability depends on the network connectivity. If the Internet connection isn't stale, it will affect it. How are customer service and technical support? We contact our partners to get local support. How was the initial setup? The initial setup was very simple. It's user-friendly. It only takes a few hours, not days, to deploy for somebody who is experienced. We use it on a daily basis. What about the implementation team? We used a system integrator for the deployment. From the second year onwards, the maintenance is done by our local partners. There are up to 100 users. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? It's not cheap but it's affordable. What other advice do I have? I would absolutely recommend VeloCloud because it's user-friendly and because the integration is easier than with other solutions. I would rate VeloCloud a nine out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2020-10-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Great QOE, good stability and pretty straightforward to set up What is our primary use case? I work for a supply chain and we have a site where we want to offload the internet traffic and get to the application, etc. Some of the cloud applications go out directly and automatically through the SD-WAN device to the internet, so it is local and does not go to the MPLS. We can load balance those applications. What is most valuable? Their QOE, or Quality Of Experience, is the most valuable feature. Basically, VeloCloud measures the latency and the chatter and everything on a voice application, and it just routes the traffic or duplicates the packets according to that chatter. They have a lot of built-ins. There are so many applications defined inside the solution. It makes it so that we don't have to create some policies. Each and every application is already defined in it. What needs improvement? The solution doesn't offer failover between their own devices. If I want to, I should be able to put the two devices together, so there can be a failover. They need to come out with a new device, such as a 510 LTE which would have LTE capabilities. On the 610 devices, they're saying they're going to have LTE in it. They don't have it. They don't even have a POE feature inside the VeloCloud devices. Therefore, if I want to set up a POE, just the one device with everything in it, I actually don't have a POE support on it. For how long have I used the solution? I've been using the solution for about six months now. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Stability-wise the solution is quite good. It's reliable. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's not buggy at all. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The scalability is giving us problems at the moment. We want to put this as, for example, a primary MPLS, with internet secondary, and cellular tertiary. The LTE device doesn't even failover between them, however. Therefore, there is no scalability there. How are customer service and technical support? We don't deal with technical support, due to the fact that we have AT&T. Since we deal with AT&T, we don't deal with them directly. Therefore, I can't speak to their level of knowledge or responsiveness. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? Our company is actually many companies. At another subsidiary, they are doing a POC with Cisco. Cisco is providing them with better pricing. On top of that, they have good availability and failover capabilities on LTE. The Cisco router can do the secondary subnet on the same VLAN, which VeloCloud cannot do. They have a lot of features we technically need to have but don't on VeloCloud. How was the initial setup? The initial setup isn't too complex. It's pretty straightforward. In terms of the deployment, we designed everything properly, and due to the fact that we took the time to design it correctly, it didn't take a long time. Strategy-wise, we have AT&T as our provider. That said, we have set up a reference architecture in such a way that it just copies every site, according to our site size and the requirements. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? If you compare VeloCloud to, for example, Cisco, the pricing is almost the same. However, Cisco offers more features that are integral to the way we need the solution to operate. In that sense, it's better value for money. For example, now we need to have an extra LTE modem outside of VeloCloud, and it's going to add to the cost, which ultimately makes it more expensive. What other advice do I have? We're just customers. We don't have a business relationship with the company. We are not using the newest version of the solution. They already have a newer version, however, we have everything outsourced to AT&T, and they have not upgraded the new version on it yet. The version we have on the VeloCloud is 3.4.3, and the newest version, which, from my understanding, is four, and is already out there. The greatest advice I have for potential new users is this: when you do deploy the VeloCloud, it's pretty straightforward. However, the only thing you have to remember is to make sure that you have the site requirements in terms of the primary and secondary circuits. For us, the last mile circuit is always a requirement, so we have a tertiary as a cellular. That way, even if the primary and secondary go down, you are okay. Also, you need to make sure to size your VeloCloud equipment or VeloCloud model according to the size of your needs. Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I'd rate the solution at a nine. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2020-10-19T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Offers dynamic multipath optimization and it is easy to set up with zero-touch provisioning What is our primary use case? We use VeloCloud as our SD-WAN solution. What is most valuable? The most valuable feature is the dynamic multipath optimization. This is something that other competing products do not have. Zero-touch provisioning makes it very easy to set up. The single path optimization features are useful. What needs improvement? There is no security included, which is something that should be improved. For example, they should at least include basic firewall capabilities. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using VeloCloud for six months. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The stability of VeloCloud is good. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? Scalability-wise, this is a good solution. We have a large company but our group makes up just a small part of the network, with perhaps 50 users. This includes regular business owners and home users. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? Prior to VeloCloud, we used Fortinet. However, the SD-WAN is not as good, which is why we switched over. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is really easy. Once you connect the appliance to the internet, you manage the policies and that enables SD-WAN. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The pricing is very comparable to Fortinet. What other advice do I have? This is a product that I like. For anybody looking for an SD-WAN, this is a really good option, and probably one of the best. My only real complaint is about the lack of security. If security is their primary goal, then I would suggest implementing Fortinet instead. On the other hand, if SD-WAN is the primary concern then choose VeloCloud. I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2020-07-19T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Good load balancing features and it scales well What is our primary use case? We primarily use VeloCloud for SD-WAN. What is most valuable? The most valuable feature is load balancing. What needs improvement? The cost of VeloCloud could be lowered. For how long have I used the solution? I have been working with VeloCloud for about two years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? We have had no issues in terms of stability. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? We are satisfied with the scalability. We have approximately 100 branches and we plan to increase usage in the future. How are customer service and technical support? There are few vendors who offer support in our country. However, if we need support then we can get it directly from VMware. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? I have also worked with Citrix SD-WAN and they are both good products. How was the initial setup? The initial setup was straightforward. What other advice do I have? At this time, I feel that just about everything is there in the product and it supports the requirements. My only complaint is about the pricing. Citrix is another good product but I recommend VeloCloud. I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2020-05-27T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from A comprehensive dashboard that is easy to use, but the security should be enhanced What is our primary use case? I am a consultant with a solution provider and this is one of the products that we advise our clients on. We do not implement solutions as part of our offering. What is most valuable? The dashboard is very comprehensive, where you can see all of the sites with a map. You can click through using the map, which is easy to do. They make use of a combination of different internet lines, which improves quality. What needs improvement? There is room for improvement with respect to security. The price of this solution should be lower. For how long have I used the solution? I have been working with VeloCloud for about two years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? I think that it is a stable product. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? It is a scalable system, similar to other SD-WAN solutions. Our customers are typically multinational, on the bigger side. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? As consultants, we have worked with several vendors simultaneously. We are independent and we do not propose a particular technology. Rather, we conduct and exercise with our clients and determine the best vendor based on that. How was the initial setup? I have not completed the setup myself, but my understanding is that it is okay. What other advice do I have? Overall, this is a good product but there is always room for improvement. I would rate this solution a seven out of ten. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2020-05-29T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Scalable, has DMPO to ensure data integrity, good technical support, and zero-touch set up What is our primary use case? The biggest benefit to SD-WAN is with VoIP. Any real-time data transfer where you cannot have any latency and packet delivery. What VeloCloud provides is a solution that maintains data integrity. The biggest challenge for voice over IP telephone systems, are real-time and also video, and any kind of video conferencing. That type of thing, if there are any latencies, you're going to get trashy voice calls and also a lot of intermittent ghosting on conference calls. That's where VeloCloud comes in. They provide a resilient connectivity points system. Your connectivity is pretty much preserved. How has it helped my organization? A lot of companies are moving over to VoIP because they're cheaper. It's a cheaper telephony system than regular phone PBX systems. So, any major company is moving towards a hosted or internal VoIP solution. Again, the biggest challenge is point-to-point latency. What is most valuable? The biggest feature is called D.M.P.O., or Dynamic Multipath Optimization, which is one of the technologies that they use to deliver or ensure data integrity. One of the things they've done is they've made it user-friendly. If you're a multi-national company and you've got company in France, England, United States, and also in the Southern hemisphere like Australia, and you've got a manufacturing plant, you can see how your plants are performing. You can see the kind of connectivity, as well as the resiliency between each manufacturing plant. You know whether your internet provider is performing to their service level agreements. What needs improvement? The challenge right now is the customers understanding that it's a subscription-based service. The price is a sticker shock to clients because most clients are used to buying a product and not a subscription service. What VeloCloud requires is a combination of a subscription service, which is the cloud orchestration, and the devices, which can be purchased independently. Clients think that they can just buy the product for their endpoint usage and that's it. But, they don't realize they've got to pay for a monthly subscription because the technology that ties the two edge devices together is up in the cloud and you need to have that. That intelligence, you have to pay for monthly. It helps to understand this when people are using Microsoft 365, a subscription-based service. People except the fact that, oh if I need Word or Excel, I can buy it from Microsoft for a monthly subscription rate. Services similar to that are now more and more being accepted. Whereas back a year ago, people were saying, "No, I just want to buy a hardware device." That's where the Cisco Meraki comes in. They don't really have much of a cloud orchestration solution. They have devices that provide SD-WAN solutions. You're dependent on each device to do their functionality, whereas VeloCloud puts it into the cloud. It's not like you buy a router, install it, and you're good to go. It's the service, and what they call orchestration of maintaining data integrity, delivering point-to-point. If you're in China and you're trying to ascend data across the United States or whatever country you're in, you can imagine the path that it's going through from any world destination from the US. There's going to be thousands and thousands of hops, and by the time you get to your endpoint, any of those hops can introduce some sort of problem. High latency. With the SD-WAN solution, it determines the optimal path because they have gateways that help reduce the number of hops. If you didn't use VeloCloud and you wanted to set up a telephone call using VoIP from the United States, here in California, to China or wherever, your chances of having good, solid connectivity is going to be slim because you've got no protection. Whereas the SD-WAN VeloCloud solution provides number one, reducing the linkage between the two points and then it also provides some resiliency and ability to recover from data packet losses. Depending on the clients and how critical the data is for them, it will determine how expensive the solution is. If you are a real estate office and you have ten offices, it may be too pricey for that type of industry, but if you're a manufacturer or a software developer, or a company that makes games, and you provide the gaming service, then the cost of the solution is not going to be a major concern. If you are in the medical industry and you need to keep your hospitals connected and especially with COVID 19 and sharing of data, then the cost is not the biggest issue. It's really delivering resilient service. They need to increase their gateways. When I staring with this solution, they only had 600 to 700. I say only, but that's a lot still, but they're now over 1000 gateways. It's like Elon Musk's new satellite service. Their Starlink. It's the same with Gateway. For Elon Musk to have to launch 2,400 satellites, and in order to provide satellite internet services and to provide just enough, when they're touting one to two-gigabit transfer rates, in order to do that, where it's ubiquitous, it doesn't matter whether you're out to sea or whether you're in the office, or you're by the shoreline in California, you have access to the internet. It performance is mediocre but as more and more satellites are added, the performance and the capabilities are that much more. They need more gateways. It comes down to access; if for example, you have a gateway in LA, it probably covers San Diego and parts of Sacramento, but if you have two gateways it will cover more traffic that is in that area. The more gateways you have the more connectivity access for clients to use to get to the cloud. Because of the buyout, it has to integrate with VMware's distribution channels, with their support channels. They have to basically GRAT the development of their solution, and fit right inside with VMware's. It's like Dell buying a small company, and then that small company needs to conform to Dell practices. Right now there, they're in flux. Right now I have to manually manage the SD-WAN dashboard for the connectivity to the internet and routing from point-to-point. The routing from point-to-point and all of that stuff are separate from the internal local area network. So, right now, software-defined WAN and software-defined LAN are two separate controlling systems. If they can integrate that, such that they are on one dashboard, I can see what's going on with my China manufacturing plant from the US and I can see from the China plant what devices are failing from the US then that would make it even better. So far, it's certainly a step in the right direction, but there's of course, like in time there's going to be continued improvements. It provides a solution that all companies need and that's connectivity, resiliency. I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. For how long have I used the solution? I've been involved with VeloCloud for over a year. They recently were purchased by VMware. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? If I were to stand up a cloud service like Microsoft Office 365, I'm going to install it into a data center that can provide service anywhere in the world. I would have a server that's providing this service. You can't put all your eggs in one installation location, you're going to have the same technology repeated in multiple data centers around the world. To provide that one service, you're going to have that service, and Office 365 virtualized so that you can run it up in Seattle and Redmond. Then you can add, you can run the same service in China, in Australia, and in the Southern hemisphere. All running the same software service so that if one drops out the other one picks up. The resiliency is there for cloud-based services. That's why everything has gone cloud. Everybody's doing virtualization. You can scale it such that, okay. You know, China's growing, they need their own data center that covers that whole market, maybe you need two or three and then you're done. Because virtualization is basically copying your server. You just take an image of your server's operating system and you just reinstall it on another server and you've got the same services on a different server. Our client size varies from small to large enterprise companies. It varies, but it can scale. The thing can provide scalability and I can solve a multinational company without actually having to fly to every location. I can just say, Hey, VMware VeloCloud, if you want resiliency, you want to connect your companies. We have Chinese manufacturing, food manufacturing companies in LA, Texas. They've got 13 locations and they're complaining about their phone services. The phone just keeps dropping out on them. I always said, well, you need a VeloCloud SD-WAN. So, it's now rolling it all out. I deal primarily with the IT staff and obviously, it's helping them with the technology to sell the upper management with it. How are customer service and technical support? Technical support is really good, they are there to help out. I would rate technical support an eight out of ten. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? SD-WAN has been out for the last nine or ten years, but it really hasn't grabbed on until the last five years. As an IT engineer, I had to come up with my own solutions, such that if I'm standing up a data center and I've got 10 to 15 switches, and each of those switches needs to be managed and controlled, each one of those switches has its own management console, so I'm managing 10 different man... Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2020-09-30T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Easy to deploy and increases the performance of applications What is our primary use case? We use VMware SD-WAN primarily to connect branch offices to our data center and to connect users to the application. Users could be in any place, working from home, in remote locations, and branch offices. Applications can be anywhere in the cloud in IaaS, in the platform as a service, on-premise, and at private data centers. The deployment process of SD-WAN is to connect securely so users with the application can perform well. What is most valuable? There is a feature called DMPO (Dynamic Multipath Optimization) which is good. Here in Latin America, the quality of the internet is very poor. So what DMPO does, well, in a branch office or in a work from home environment, we can have bad quality internet links, but with the IT team, SD-WAN or VeloCloud, the DMPO makes the link a Smartlink. For example, if the link is presenting packet loss, the VMware solution applies a remediation algorithm. For packet loss, DMPO introduces packet cloning so we send the packet twice. We recover all the packets despite the link having packet loss. If we have two or three internet links, we can also summarize all the links together so, this basically increases the packet capacity. It also decreases the timing of the VeloCloud Gateway. VeloCloud Gateways are instant and deployed globally so we can create a DMPO tunnel on-premise to a VeloCloud Gateway and then serve SaaS applications. At corporate headquarters, there are three internet links, but employees were experiencing poor quality of Microsoft Teams. So all the Microsoft Office 365 traffic was sent from the location to a VeloCloud Gateway. The VeloCloud Gateway tunnel is protected by the DMPO, so users have a better experience. With Office 365 applications like Microsoft Teams, OneDrive and Azure, the DMPO features increase the performance of the applications because it can remediate bad quality links. What needs improvement? The solution doesn't have CLI (command line interface), but it's not needed because the graphic user interface is very nice. You can do everything, but when we are troubleshooting, we can't execute commands as fast as we'd like because the graphic user interface is very slow. So although the solution has a CLI, VeloCloud doesn't. I'd like for VMware to introduce CLI. The solution also needs stronger routing Broadcom support because we cannot deploy VeloCloud in bigger enterprises that have that kind of complex browsing protocol. VMware does not work well if the enterprise has a very complex routing environment. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using VMare for 2 years. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? VMware works perfectly for most small and medium businesses with simple and basic routing, but not for large enterprises that have complex routing environments. What other advice do I have? I would give VMware SD-WAN a nine out of ten. Deploying SD-WAN is very easy. When we deploy it on-premise, we need to get SD-WAN or VeloCloud X. When VeloCloud X affects any kind of form factor, it needs to to be a hardware box, it could be a server or it can virtualize in any Hypervisor like Hyper-V or IBM in order to support any kind of form factor. To deploy it in the cloud with Amazon, Google Cloud Platform, or Azure, the features are configured in a central manager called SD-WAN Orchestrator. Then the device is shifted to the location and it only needs one internet connection. When the device connects to the internet it downloads the configurations necessary and that's the SD-WAN deployment process. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-12-06T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Stable, but could use more automation and integration What is our primary use case? I have deployed this solution, but just for a proof of concept. This solution is cloud-based. What needs improvement? VMware SD-WAN could be improved with more automation and more integration, but each vendor could use these improvements. For how long have I used the solution? I have been working with VMware SD-WAN for a few months. What do I think about the stability of the solution? This solution is as stable as most firewalls. VMware is a reputable vendor. How are customer service and support? I have never contacted VMware's technical support. How was the initial setup? The installation is a straightforward process. You don't need very many people on your tech team. What about the implementation team? I implemented this solution myself. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? You need to pay for a license to use this product. What other advice do I have? I rate this solution a six out of ten. I would recommend this solution to others who are considering implementation and I have about 10 customers who are using this solution. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-11-29T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Effective solution for increasing bandwidth across different sites while ensuring no loss in connectivity What is our primary use case? We use this solution to increase our network bandwidth between sites in our company. For example, there are two internet lines and one NPOS network in Taipei and one SD-WAN solution in Poland. The VCE connects these lines and networks to our LAN switch which increases our bandwidth. What is most valuable? If one circuit crashes, we are able to switch to a second circuit without any disruption in connection. What needs improvement? 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. The security function on the VCE could be improved as we need to purchase another device to protect our setup. What do I think about the stability of the solution? This is a stable solution. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? This is a scalable solution. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? We previously used the FortiGate SD-WAN solution. When using this solution, we experienced application disconnection if the network failed. This does not happen with VeloCloud. What about the implementation team? A vendor assisted us with the setup of this solution. What other advice do I have? I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Private Cloud Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from It's simple to deploy and automate, reducing the number of employees needed on the IT team What is our primary use case? VMware SD-WAN is a layer 7 firewall. How has it helped my organization? We're doing POCs and getting a lot of good feedback from customers about VMware. They see how simple it is to deploy and how it reduces the number of employees needed on the network team. What is most valuable? I like VMware SD-WAN's automation and zero-touch provisioning. Its main advantage is simplicity. Anyone can use this gateway. What needs improvement? Security is a challenge. I would like to see VMware add things like IPS, IDS, and web filtering. These features are the future of security, and most competing firewalls have them. We already have layer 7, but that is not enough for a headquarters. Maybe it's okay for a branch office. For how long have I used the solution? We have been a VMware partner for three years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? VMware SD-WAN is highly stable. We haven't had any complaints about lost connections or the need to restart devices. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? VMware's scalability is good so far. We have 100 devices. How are customer service and support? We opened many tickets with VMware support in the last month. It's good, and they usually respond in under 24 hours. I rate VMware support five out of five. How was the initial setup? Setting up VMware SD-WAN is simple and smooth. I would rate it four out of five for ease of deployment. What other advice do I have? I rate VMware SD-WAN eight out of 10. If you are looking for automation and want to free up your IT to focus on other things, I recommend VMware SD-WAN. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-01-26T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Good connectivity, reliable, and easy to setup What is our primary use case? We primarily use VMware SD-WAN for connectivity. What is most valuable? VMware SD-WAN is a complete solution. What needs improvement? I would like to see more features added to increase visibility. For how long have I used the solution? I have been working with VMware SD-WAN for one year. We are working with the latest version. What do I think about the stability of the solution? VMware SD-WAN is a stable product. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? VMware SD-WAN is scalable. We have 45 users in our company. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is easy. What about the implementation team? VMware technical support assisted us with the implementation of this solution. What other advice do I have? I would rate VMware SD-WAN an eight out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-02-26T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Scalable, highly reliable, and simple setup What is our primary use case? We use VMware SD-WAN on the cloud and we use our own cloud. The solution is used by our customers for putting their IT infrastructure in the Cloud and bridge to connect for retail. We have a very big string of customers moving their workplaces into the Cloud. This calls for a new topology and this is where VMware SD-WAN is the best fit. What needs improvement? 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. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using VMware SD-WAN for more than one year. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The stability of VMware SD-WAN is very good. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? VMware SD-WAN is scalable. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is very simple. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The licensing model of VMware SD-WAN could be improved, it is not always that competitive. The biggest concern is to be competitive against other solutions. However, the way that the licensing model is designed is not corresponding to the real use cases of my customers. What other advice do I have? My advice to others would be to trust the solution and buy it. I rate VMware SD-WAN an eight out of ten Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-02-07T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from A highly stable and desirable product that provides a variety of features What is our primary use case? Our clients use the product for connectivity in their headquarters and branches. They use the product for cloud connectivity in their branches. What is most valuable? The solution helps connect the branches to the cloud. It's the most desirable technology at this time. The product is consistent and is one of the best despite the competition. It provides a variety of solutions. They are always up to date with the features. What needs improvement? The product should have on-demand tunnels instead of fixed tunnels. When connectivity is established, the tunnel is fixed. It is permanent. Other products have tunnels that are established and terminated based on demand. When the traffic needs connectivity, the tunnel will be established, and it will be completed after the traffic is done. The solution could provide some advanced security features. For how long have I used the solution? I have been designing the solution for a couple of customers for the past eight to twelve months. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The product has high stability. I rate the stability a nine out of ten. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten. How are customer service and support? I don’t deal with support much, but from my point of view, it is not the greatest. How would you rate customer service and support? Neutral How was the initial setup? The initial setup is not that much straightforward. It's easy, but we had some complications while deploying the solution. I rate the ease of setup a seven and a half out of ten. What about the implementation team? The time taken for deployment depends upon the customer’s size and the number of branches. On average, the deployment takes three months. What other advice do I have? I am a system integrator. My customers are using the latest version of the solution. Our clients use the solution both on-premises and on the cloud. In my country, our clients choose the on-premises solution more. The solution is competing with Cisco. Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Integrator
Date published: 2023-06-13T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Helpful support, good reliability, and offers a user-friendly dashboard What is our primary use case? We are installing edge to support the service providers' enterprise customers. There's a standard hardware edge. What is most valuable? I like that I can combine some different internet connections and resources. For example, MPLS VPN, internet, and 4G. You can combine it all together. Before, we could only use an MPLS VPN only. The initial setup is very easy. It is stable. The solution is reliable. It's scalable. Technical support has been very helpful. The product has a very good user dashboard that is simple to navigate. What needs improvement? I'd like them to improve their mobile parts. I want them to get faster in this field. The cost is a little bit high. We'd like it if it was less expensive. We'd like to see more security added to the solution. It would be good if it had firewall functionality. For how long have I used the solution? I've been using the solution for one year. What do I think about the stability of the solution? This is a stable product. the performance is good and it is reliable. There aren't any bugs or glitches that I have seen and it does not crash or freeze. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The solution scales well. It's simple to expand. How are customer service and support? Technical support has a lot of expertise. They are knowledgeable and responsive. How would you rate customer service and support? Positive How was the initial setup? We found the setup to be straightforward and simple. It is not overly complex. I'd rate the ease of setup a five out of five. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? It's competitive, yet it's a little bit more expensive than other brands. We pay about $500 USD, or 700,000 Korean won. I'd rate it a two or three out of five in terms of affordability. Which other solutions did I evaluate? Compared to Fortinet or Cisco, VMware is quite easy to set up, and the management dashboard is intuitive. What other advice do I have? We are a reseller and distributor. I would give the solution a rating of eight out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Private Cloud Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Distributor / Reseller
Date published: 2022-10-14T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Able to expand and reliable but can be expensive What is our primary use case? We use the solution as an SD-WAN; we provide one connectivity with MPLS service on remote premises or virtually. By that, I mean anywhere on the planet. We have something like 190 or 200 sites being rolled out on all continents, with stuff in Japan and soon to come in Korea and China. We have a site in the USA, Norway, Sweden, Italy, France, and the UK. It's part of a SaaS (software as a service) solution. We are using VMware only on some of our setups. For most of it, we are using custom development. We are using the VMware solution only when we have no other choices, either due to the fact that the customer doesn't want us to come with a custom solution and prefer an off-the-shelf standard that is a fully supported solution by a third party. We prefer to come up with our own custom SD-WAN solution whenever we can. What is most valuable? The solution is a good off-the-shelf choice with full support. It's stable and reliable. The solution can scale. We found the initial setup to be pretty straightforward. What needs improvement? The solution is pricey. It could be cheaper. Support could be more helpful or responsive. For how long have I used the solution? We've been using the solution for three or four years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? It is a scalable solution. That said, as you expand, your costs rise. How are customer service and support? Most of the time, the tech support is not active enough. What we typically have is our own level two and level three skill sets on board, and we manage to fix the solution ourselves. Relying on third-party support is really for when we have no other choice. Most of the time, they are not proactive enough or don't know enough about what we're doing, so we try to get away as much as possible from this type of support. We are not a traditional end user or customer. We are an integrator or service operator. As such, when we have an issue, basically, we are already the last line of support for our customers. That's why we're also mixing different technologies. If we're having trouble with one technology on one side, we can easily swap and basically migrate to another technology to sort out the situation. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? We also use homemade solutions. How was the initial setup? The solution offers a very easy setup. It's not overly complex. It took some time for the initial site due to the ramp-up of the skills and understanding of exactly what to do and what not to do. Right now, the site takes between 15 and 30 minutes to deploy. What about the implementation team? We are an integrator on a hosting company, so basically, we can handle the initial setup process. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The solution can get expensive as you grow. We have about 200 clients using the solution. The licensing costs are part of a subscription from us. In other words, we are the owner of the license, so we are providing a service. It's up to us to deliver a service that is working. The benefit of the solution is that we can pick up anything that can work and meet the requirements. The customer doesn't really have much to say, except for some customers that are really picky and really have very special business requirements or because they are very large. Which other solutions did I evaluate? We've evaluated Juniper as well. We gave up looking at this solution either due to the fact that the scope of features was not matching the requirements or the pricing model was not matching what we could do as a SaaS service operator. What other advice do I have? We use both on-premises and cloud deployments. I'm not sure which exact version we're using. We're a service provider. This is one of many SD-WAN technologies I'd recommend to clients. I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Integrator
Date published: 2022-12-17T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Reliable, easy to work with, and easy to upgrade What is our primary use case? The use case is mainly just communication between the branch offices or the branches. That's pretty much it, the communication between the branches. Also, currently, we're doing what we call a PCI segmentation as well. What is most valuable? It's stable most of the time. It's reliable I would say. We have rarely or never disconnected unless there's a power issue or power outage. Even then, we have a disconnection from one of the branches. Beyond that we don't have a lot of issues. It's very minimum disruption. That's what I like about it. It's very easy to work with the solution. We understand it well. Customer service is very good. When we upgrade to one of the edges, it goes very smoothly. What needs improvement? We're trying to integrate it with our Prisma Access architecture in the future. We would just like to see it smoothly deployed. We are going now back and forth between our Palo Alto reps and VeloCloud or VMware SD-WAN reps to find a solution to integrate both into one solution. I'm not sure if this is on Palo Alto's or Prisma's or VMware's side. Other than that, all the features and everything look great. The only thing that I'm having issues with is on one of the sites, I can't see the location on the map. That's the only thing that can be fixed. For how long have I used the solution? I've used the solution for the last eight months only. I've been with the company only that long, however, they had this for probably a couple of years, I would say. What do I think about the stability of the solution? It's stable. We've had it for a period of time now and it's very reliable. All of them have issues and most of the time, they're not even related to the solution itself. The solution really does run well. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? It's very scalable. One of the edges we have supports 2,000 tunnels and their edge is very scalable. It depends on the model you use. On even some of these small sites, we rely on them for Wi-Fi in our small sites it's been great overall. We likely have 1,000 users on the solution. We have plans to increase usage since we're looking to migrate from a physical data center to Prisma Access on the cloud. Then we have to involve something called the VeloCloud Gateway, which is VMware. They are our cloud gateways, so those have to be involved in our new architecture or design. We're increasing everything and the only thing that would be decreasing would be where we're closing some offices and that's just the nature of business itself. However, we're still opening others in other states. How are customer service and support? Customer service is great. They've been very responsive. One time we had to replace one or two of the edges in one of our main offices in the Houston, Texas area and they send a technician and everything went smoothly on that end. The technical support is knowledgeable. Customer support is a partner with VMware, so when we ask for support or technical support, and it's always there and they're always helpful. How would you rate customer service and support? Positive How was the initial setup? I wasn't part of that actual step. You do not need much maintenance. The last time when I did one site it was only me and then probably a couple of people from our end. What about the implementation team? We likely had assistance from the reseller. That's who we deal with when we have any issues with our VMware SD-WAN. What was our ROI? I don't have any insights into any ROI. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? I'm not aware of the licensing aspect of the solution. It might be somewhere in the middle of the market. It's likely not the least expensive not the most. Support may be an extra add-on cost as well. What other advice do I have? We are using the VeloCloud version or model. On each site, on each branch, we have edges of either one or two for redundancies and that's how they communicate. There's an overlay and that's how they communicate between branches so we have on-prem edges, yes. We have one on AW as well, however, the most we use for now is between branches in Texas. I would recommend people use this product. We've been using it and we don't have any issues. Honestly, we don't want to get away from this solution at all. I recommend using the solution as it's very reliable, convenient, and easy when you communicate with it. Supporting it and then looking into issues and trying to implement rules and best policies is pretty straightforward. Even if not, we always work with their reseller and they always help us. I'd rate the solution a nine out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-07-14T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from To fully utilize cloud vendors' hardware networking, Microsoft and VMware support everything What is most valuable? One of the solution's most valuable features is the VMware core automation stack at an SDDC. It includes NSX, the VMware virtualization layer for the networks (the LAN virtualization), which works extremely well with the VMware SD-WAN solution and is the primary advantage over all the others. None of the other vendors could integrate with the virtual LAN, making it quite complicated and virtualized to be fully automized. The other extremely nice function from some vendors is that VMware has been integrating VMware SD-WAN with the cloud vendors or software-defined networking. Microsoft Azure is the most important because I work mostly with Azure customers. So far, VMware is the only SD-WAN solution that integrates with Azure Virtual WAN. Furthermore, if you want to fully utilize the cloud vendors' hardware networking, as in Azure Virtual WAN, Azure backbone, Microsoft and VMware support everything. No other vendors provide those two. An important element for my customers was their use of different hardware stacks for networking and security. If you go for a software-only product, like VMware, you don't need to replace your firewalls and routers immediately. This is where Fortinet and Cisco differ significantly from VMware. What needs improvement? 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. For how long have I used the solution? I have been familiar with this solution for about four years. I was familiar with it when the name was VeloCloud, the company VMware acquired. How are customer service and support? Customer support is very responsive to important issues. VMware has multiple support models. Basic support is rubbish, but real companies never rely on basic support. Production support is the basic model VMware offers, and it's pretty good. I would rate the service between seven and eight out of 10. Mission Critical and Business Critical support for the larger companies are excellent. They are the best on the market. Of course, this support is an expensive extra, but VMware support probably deserves a rating of 10 out of 10. Customers running all data centers on VMware definitely receive Mission Critical support. How would you rate customer service and support? Positive What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? Overall pricing could be lower. It is much more expensive than traditional hardware vendor pricing. The question of licensing costs is slightly different because, in the VMware case, it's fairly rare for customers to buy a license without implementing VMware data center facilities or something similar. If you compare it to just buying a license per site and checking how much it is with Fortinet when you implement the software, it depends on how large a firewall you have. For a very small firewall, the Fortinet licensing is around 200 euros, but if your firewall is huge, it could be 5,000 to 7,000 euros per year. From that perspective, it's pointless to evaluate VMware at a similar level because if you have VMware SD-WAN and NSX, then it's quite reasonable. It's more like a license for the data center. This process differs from the firewall vendors' because you don't need to buy a license for every firewall you have. However, you can do that in the case of VMware. So think of it as the customer having data centers. Connectivity between the data centers will have two aspects. The first is the big costs for bandwidth and connectivity. The second is the software cost. The VMware environment is more about customers with different departments in different locations. In these scenarios, customers with data centers should use a VMware stack. For customers with no data center who have everything on the cloud and are only looking for connectivity, Fortinet costs for 10 sites might be between 10 and 12, whereas VMware costs would be more than 20,000. But again, I would emphasize that the implementation is much, much more expensive on VMware in the case of virtual licenses. What other advice do I have? It's an excellent product. The only small disadvantage is it's a bit difficult. I would rate the product as nine out of 10. Regarding the number of people working with VMware SD-WAN in our customers' companies, these companies have around 7,000 employees; they all work with VMware SD-WAN, including some 300 people in IT, a networking team of 12, and around 20 cloud guys. Less than 20 actually do product administration. For people who want to implement VMware SD-WAN, I strongly suggest checking out the VMware SASE offering because there is a big difference in the approach. If you want something that combines all your VMware data centers into one with everything virtualized when you implement NSX, etc., VMware is a good solution. On the other hand, if you are primarily looking to replace FPS connections, VMware SASE is totally different from the big three security players, which mostly offer transfer capacity, bandwidth, and bandwidth transfer capacity as part of their SASE solution. You should then check the combined operation of VMware and Microsoft's Azure Virtual WAN because it beats Fortinet for pricing and performance. If you choose Fortinet, which might be slightly more mature than the VMware solution, you'll need to replace all your network equipment in every branch. Some customers can't do this. It's laborious and incredibly expensive. In China, for example, network equipment is extremely hard to replace. The only approved vendor is China Telecom, which uses its own devices. With VMware, you have the boxes and old VeloCloud routers. But if you want a physical device or a small office, you can buy it. On the other hand, if you implement a software solution, you won't have to touch any of the existing network hardware. Regarding overall performance, if you compare SD-WAN, all vendors provide high performance; that's not under question. The crucial factor is routing. Although SD-WANs all go through the same "public" internet, not everyone gets the capacity they want. Capacity doesn't only depend on having an internet connection. You also need to have a fixed bandwidth. Buying IP transit capacity and using it with SD-WAN is much more effective, whether using VMware, Fortinet, Check Point, or implementing it like Azure Virtual WAN using Microsoft Backbone. It has much more effect on performance than doubling investment in SD-WAN hardware. In short, the bottleneck is not due to the SD-WAN provider but IP connectivity between sites. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2022-08-22T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Simple to configure with zero-touch provisioning What is most valuable? It is very simple to configure. When you use the cloud to configure the equipment, it has zero-touch provisioning. What needs improvement? Its integration with the security systems would be a nice implementation. They can also consider using a management platform for both network and security operations. This would be a great improvement. How was the initial setup? Its initial setup is not complex. It is very simple. Its deployment took about one month. What other advice do I have? I would rate VMware SD-WAN a nine out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Private Cloud Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-02-23T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Plenty of features, reasonably priced, and high level quality What is most valuable? 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. Even though fully meshed is limited, it is still a good feature. What needs improvement? There are a number of customers we have that require a fully mashed SD-WAN on VeloCloud that is not available currently. If you compare the reporting tool to all other tools that you use for customers for MPLS, they are not as granular. Additionally, the security could be better and increasing the capabilities for fully meshed architectural typology would be beneficial. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using the solution for approximately two years. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? This solution is scalable, most of our clients are enterprise size companies. How are customer service and technical support? The technical support is there if we need them. We are a premium partner to VMware, if there are issues that you cannot resolve internally, we reach out to them and they give us the help we need. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? We currently use a few solutions other than this one such as Meraki. When picking the best solution for our clients, the best depends on the use case. It depends on the customer requirements, what they are looking for and then we will recommend the best fit based on our offering. How was the initial setup? The installation is easy. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? 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. What other advice do I have? This solution is at a very high level, and quite good. However, it is not one platform that fits all, it depends on the use case and what the customer looking for. You might find customers that want security or other UTM based features, which VeloCloud does not offer. It weighs heavily on the customer requirements, but if security is what they are after then I would not generally recommend the VeloCloud offering. I rate VMware SD-WAN an eight out of ten. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:partner
Date published: 2021-02-21T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Straightforward to set up and the support is good, but service providers should be enabled to have global visibility What is our primary use case? My company works with a wide range of SD-WAN services to bring such solutions to clients. The use cases depend, as they vary from client to client. One of them is application prioritization, and cost always comes into play when replacing a traditional MPLS network. What needs improvement? Some of the service providers that use VeloCloud as their SD-WAN should be enabled to have better global visibility. For how long have I used the solution? We have been working with VMware SD-WAN over the past 12 months. How are customer service and technical support? I have been in contact with technical support and they have been good. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? Some of the products that we work with or have experience with are Cisco SD-WAN, Silver Peak, and VMware's VeloCloud. How was the initial setup? In my experience, the setup process has been fairly straightforward. What other advice do I have? I would rate this solution a seven out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use? Other Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-02-14T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Fairly stable with capability for testing link connectivity, but they should embed the next-generation firewall functionality within the architecture What is our primary use case? a customer seeking to deploy an SD-WAN environment via 2 alternate stable methods either in a virtual environment or a physical device depending upon their site-specific requirements. What is most valuable? It is fairly similar to other solutions. It has the capability for testing link connectivity, which is its unique feature from a control perspective. What needs improvement? I would like to see an on-premise NGFW embedded into the solution. They have a SASE solution that is part of the deployment model now but is more cloud-focused. It would be nice to have an on-prem all-in-one SDWAN/NGFW box for some smaller deployments that don't need or have a virtual environment nor have a need for a full SASE deployment model. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using this solution for a couple of years. We generally have the version that is previous to the latest one. Our clients have cloud and on-premises deployments. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Early on, there were some issues with it, but now, it is fairly stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? It works well, but as it gets larger, it becomes more complex and difficult to address. It is good for mid-market type enterprise deployments but not for large deployments. Our clients are small, medium, and large businesses. How are customer service and technical support? I haven't used their technical support. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? One of our clients was using Fortinet. How was the initial setup? It is fairly straightforward. After you've done it once or twice, it is fairly simple. What other advice do I have? I would advise others to understand what you're using SD-WAN for. It is not for replacing MPLS. It is about application performance, access control, and manageability of your sites. Most of our clients don't even understand why they need SD-WAN or what they're looking at in SD-WAN. They think they can just replace MPLS, which is not really the case for SD-WAN. They do it because they think they are lowering costs, which in some cases is true, but it depends on the application performance criteria and things of that nature. I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. They can do some improvements. There are other solutions out there that I would highly recommend over this solution, but it is not bad. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-03-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Good security endpoints that include VeloCloud, it is stable, and has good technical support What is our primary use case? We use this solution to virtualize the data centers. If you don't want to have a lot of servers in your data center, you can virtualize it with VMware. The networking virtualization can be done with NSX. Every switch and every firewall can be virtualized. What is most valuable? The most valuable features of this solution are the security endpoints and the VeloCloud. Some of the best features are the SD-WAN platform for VMware and the NSX network virtualization. What needs improvement? The initial setup could be simplified for beginners. For how long have I used the solution? I have used VMware SD-WAN in the last 12 months. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The stability is good. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? We have 30 users in our company who are using this solution. How are customer service and technical support? Technical support is good. How was the initial setup? The initial setup was complex at first, but it gets easier. What about the implementation team? We used a consultant to help us with the deployment. What other advice do I have? I would rate VMware SD-WAN a ten out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Hybrid Cloud Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-03-29T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Exceptional performance on the cloud, but weak as an in-house solution What is most valuable? There is a cloud gateway feature that centrally locates every space, which you don't get with Cisco. The cloud gateway is a very good feature for scaling purposes, etc. It's a very simple feature. In fact, everything about VeloCloud is quite simple, including the concept of the circuits, and, from a technical perspective, it's not as challenging as Cisco VPNs. They have VPN 0, VPN 1, VPN 2, VPN 3, but they're very simple in that approach — the concept of circuits. Overall, I think both products are good. Cisco has begun to push its SD-WAN code within all of its ISR routers. This has made deployment quite challenging. With VeloCloud, deployment is much easier because they include all of their own hardware. What needs improvement? Cloud-based, it's okay because they roll up the device and provide you with a link for access. In regards to in-house, when you want to deploy the orchestrator, it becomes very difficult. Currently, I don't see any such good documentation compared to their competitors, like Cisco, etc. Also, If you look at Cisco, just Google it and you'll get every detail: what to do, what specific system, what server, how much RAM, how much storage, all the details — it's just much easier. If a customer has an optimization solution within their network, then you have to be very careful when designing — optimization and all. This can make your design very complex. If the customer has an existing optimization solution, then you have to be very careful when designing any part of the SD-WAN solution — Cisco or Velo. They should provide us with the flexibility to scale up. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using this solution for two and a half to three years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? VeloCloud is very stable — it's a very good solution. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? I have not done a scale with something like 6,000 to 7,000 sites; however, if you look at the pure design, phase-wise, then you have to be very particular about new designs. Velo is purely based on design. I don't think the SD-WAN is that new and scaling that amount of sites requires a simple design rather than a complex solution. With Cisco, we were working on a huge scale — I think it was around 1700 sites for that customer. After 900 sites, it started having problems. The controller was not sending the new site updates to the hub and it was not reflecting in the routing table; however, in the end, it scaled, but there were some challenges that we had to overcome. How are customer service and technical support? There are not enough people within their support team. I would give them a rating of three out of five. They have to improve, they have to be quicker and understand the types of problems customers face. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is straightforward. The initial setup is very simple compared to Cisco. Cisco claims to be Zero Touch Provisioning, but I think they have a lot of complexity surrounding that Zero Touch. With VeloCloud, you can generate and send emails, and the receiver just has to connect to the device, open up the email and the configuration improves. In this way, I think Velo is good with Zero Touch Provisioning. Deployment time really depends on what you deploy. If you want to roll out a small site on a single device, then the designing and the policies are all done — it's a really quick job. Your circuit and site will rollout quickly, everything will be up and running roughly within two to two and a half hours. If you're looking at a complex site, then of course, the complexity increases. What other advice do I have? VeloCloud is a good solution. They are only lacking in regards to the in-house version. On a scale from one to ten, I would give VeloCloud a rating of seven. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Public Cloud Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Integrator
Date published: 2020-11-22T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Straightforward, good manageability, built in scalability, and has reachable support What is our primary use case? The primary use case of this solution is manageability. Everything is controlled from a central aspect of the orchestrator. What is most valuable? The most valuable feature of this solution is manageability. It is easy to plug in new sites and provision new sites. It's very straightforward. It's difficult to find fault with this solution. What needs improvement? Reporting is an area that can be improved, as there are some features that are lacking with the reporting aspect. I would like to see a reporting site and for the monitoring, they can implement it, or interface it with an existing monitoring system, which is not easy. For how long have I used the solution? We started using VMware SD-WAN one year ago. We are using version 4.1 What do I think about the stability of the solution? We do not have any complaints regarding the stability of this solution. there are no outages or any malfunctioning. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? It's very scalable, it's built into the platform. How are customer service and technical support? We have no issues with technical support. We have no complaints. They are easily reachable. It doesn't take long to obtain technical assistance. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? We also use Harmony Connect, and one other competitor, Fortinet. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is easy. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? My understanding is that the pricing is in the same range as other solutions. Which other solutions did I evaluate? We have looked at some competitors. What other advice do I have? SD-WAN is a perfect fit as a solution for several branch sites. I would rate VMware SD-WAN a nine out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Hybrid Cloud Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:partner
Date published: 2021-06-10T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Reliable, scalable, and installation easy and quick What needs improvement? In an upcoming release, the solution can be more functional and have additional features. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using this solution for approximately two years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The service they provide is very stable and is the main influencer of why customers purchase this solution. How are customer service and technical support? The technical support could be quicker in response time and be more friendly. How was the initial setup? The installation is straightforward and it is very fast to install. What about the implementation team? We have five technicians to do the implementation and maintenance of the solution. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The price of the solution could be reduced. What other advice do I have? Sometimes if a customer has used VMware previously and has had a positive experience they are more like to want to do a demo, compare it with the competitors, or purchase. I would recommend this solution to others. I rate VMware SD-WAN a nine out of ten. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Integrator
Date published: 2021-06-05T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Easy to use, simple to install, and plenty of useful features What is our primary use case? Our main use cases have been for customers who have been traditionally using MPLS lines and are now moving into a lot more SaaS-based applications to transform the WAN infrastructure. A lot of our customers have end-of-life, end-of-support devices on the WAN and they are always looking for doing RFPs on cutting edge technology. Some of them happen to use a lot of VMware and Cisco portfolios in their data centers and they are constantly trying to see what solution fits best for them. What is most valuable? VMware has been chosen by many of our customers who do not want to do a lot of complex routing in their environment and want a very easy-to-use solution. The most valuable features are simple troubleshooting, Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO), and cybersecurity. DMPO is a technology that is similar to a proprietary technology that VMware has. Customers probably do not understand too much about it in detail but they know about the benefits of it in general. What it does is constantly monitors all different areas, such as latency, jitter bandwidth, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. It makes sure that if there is a case where there is a networking jitter contained in the link, it figures out how to maneuver your traffic elsewhere. This is all done automatically without customers getting slowed down on those poor links. The customers do not want to spend too much time researching these complex technologies which VMware automatically takes care of them. It benefits many IT teams by taking a lot of the burden away who are constantly juggling a hundred different other things as well. The cybersecurity component is very important. VMware also has a lot of security components embedded into the SD-WAN, especially with the traditionally SD-WAN, and now a lot more integration through secure access with partnerships companies, such as Zscaler and other SaaS-based solutions. VMware has a lot of portfolios within themselves that can support many security use cases and if they cannot they have partnerships with industry leaders who can. For example, the Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solutions through the Zscaler partnerships can help customers who want to move from traditional VPN solutions towards ZTNA based ones. Overall as an experience, I have found that customers like the UI/UX experience that they receive from VMware. What needs improvement? There are customers that have very large routing and segmentation operations who do a lot of segmentation within their network and have complex routing requirements. VMware does not provide the facilities in terms of doing a lot of operations with routing tables, such as complex routing policies. It is more about that out-of-pocket experience that customers get out of VMware. There are other technologies for this type of use case from solutions, such as Versa or other WANs. These are for customers who are wanting to maneuver or configure things themselves, similar to DIY solutions, for them going to technologies, for instance from Versa, makes much more sense because they can do a lot more with routing, complex segmentation, and complex configurations. For customers who have complex service provider requirements, VMware and other solutions cannot support a lot of those use cases. In an upcoming release, they should allow customers the flexibility to use mobile applications where they can go and check on the information about their networks. A lot of vendors, such as Meraki, have a lot more integration with the use of portals to a mobile application. Having this feature as an alternative to logging into a laptop would be beneficial. If you are a SaaS-based company why not make a mobile application as well. You might not be able to do configurations but at least monitor while away or on vacation. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using this solution for approximately four years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The software itself is very stable which our customers really like. They do not want to have buggy software or problems. I see the customers choose VMware over others and over time because of positive experiences with use cases, it becomes a trusted vendor and they tend to trust in the name as a brand in the future. IT vendors are getting much more stable with the code, but nowadays everybody has more attention towards SaaS technology. Networking will just become another bundle to a lot of those providing this type of solution. Many vendors are getting into SaaS solutions and in terms of documentation, code releases, and features, there are probably more advancements. In SD-WAN specifically, a lot more features are moving into SaaS-based solutions. These new solutions are going to get reviewed and push the industries even further towards SaaS solutions it is the future. How are customer service and technical support? The technical support is good. How was the initial setup? The solution is straightforward to install compared to other solutions, VMware makes setup simple. SD-WAN vendors have a kind of simplicity embedded into them, just because of the nature of the software-defined components into it. Which other solutions did I evaluate? I have evaluated Zscaler and Versa. What other advice do I have? The advice to others wanting to implement this solution is not to try and do everything yourself. A lot of customers choose this route and are negatively affected two years later. It is important to do a lot of proof of concepts and testing. Get the solution from a trusted service provider who can manage it for you because these technologies are really complex under the code. Having a trusted service provider who can work with you and can have a lot of benefits. If your company business is not running the WAN links, I would suggest just offload that burden to a trusted service provider because then you can focus on your business. Technologies are complex, and doing all of these operations through your own IP node is complex. A trusted service provider who knows what they are doing can offload a lot of that burden allowing for you to relax and actually focus on your main applications and business. A lot of customers I have seen in the industry try to do all the operations themselves just because they think that it is good to insource everything. This is one of the areas that you should not be insourceed a hundred percent of your team because these technologies can be extremely difficult to do on a day-to-day basis. Service providers handle hundreds of customers and they know a lot more about what you are doing and can be very useful than if you did it by yourself. I rate VMware SD-WAN an eight out of ten. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Implementer
Date published: 2021-07-06T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Has an optimization feature that ensures the quality of the services running on the overlay What is most valuable? I have found the optimization feature that acts to ensure the quality of the services running on the overlay to be most valuable. VMware SD-WAN is a more complete product because of the SD-WAN feature. What needs improvement? The firewall can be more advanced. The 4G connection doesn't come by default, and it would be good to have that in the next release. The flexibility of use for customers could be improved as well. It would be good to also improve the reseller transfer of the box from one customer to another customer. The cost could be lower too. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using VMware SD-WAN for about 2 to 3 years. How are customer service and technical support? The technical support is okay for Singapore. VMware has had quite good results this year. How was the initial setup? To register with the orchestrator takes some effort sometimes. Our engineer did try a few times, and it's not exactly zero-touch. You still need to have all the information. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The cost of VMware SD-WAN is high, but I think you can still get better pricing if your volume is high. What other advice do I have? If you are purely looking at it from a connectivity point of view and not so much from the point of security, then you can go for VMware. However, if you also want security features and you have a tight budget, then you probably need to choose Fortinet because Fortinet itself is a firewall. For VMware, you have to either get the NFV model that supports a third party firewall (it's a virtual appliance) or subscribe to additional services from cloud-based firewall vendors. So, you will have additional costs. Although Fortinet is lower cost-wise than VMware, in terms of the SD-WAN feature, I think VMware is more complete. Fortinet is still lagging on the orchestrator function. So, I would rate VMware SD-WAN at eight on a scale from one to ten. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:reseller
Date published: 2021-06-02T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Has many functionalities and good scalability What is our primary use case? Our only use cases are large multinational enterprise customers, as well as very large service providers. The solutions get deployed to the public cloud or to the private cloud depending on the user's requirements. What is most valuable? There are 400 functionalities of the system. Depending on the user's requirements, we may find one feature more important than the other. What needs improvement? Sometimes the room for improvement is designing it for a different customer base that they're not currently in. We match the right solution to the right user's requirements. Some users need a multitenant offering, whereas most large enterprises don't need that. But if you are talking to a service provider, some don't offer a multitenant solution. And so when the customer needs that, we would say use one with a multitenant, like VMware. For how long have I used the solution? We have been using this solution for about two or three years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The ones we work with are all very good. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The scalability of the solution is very good. We have plans to increase usage. Some clients want to go very slowly and test out just one country first. If you're going into a lot of countries, you sometimes have regulatory problems with devices being imported and finding the right people to handle that. How are customer service and support? I can't really comment because I haven't used it that much. How was the initial setup? The initial setup is always pretty complex with what we're involved in. The deployment time really depends on how conservative a customer is and how quickly they want it to go. Some of them are three months and some are a year. What about the implementation team? The amount of staff we need for the deployment depends on whether you're deploying to 50 sites or 2,500 sites. What other advice do I have? I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. In order for it to be a ten out of ten, there should be more automation and self-service features. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Consultant
Date published: 2021-11-10T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Effective dynamic multi-point protocol, exceptional technical support, straightforward deployment What is our primary use case? We use VMware SD-WAN for network security. What is most valuable? 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. What needs improvement? The security of the firewall should be improved. It would be a good idea to have a standalone product with better security. In an upcoming release, they should have firewall rules. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using VMware SD-WAN for approximately three years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The solution was stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? VMware SD-WAN is highly scalable. We have approximately 600 users using this solution in my organization. How are customer service and support? The technical support is exceptional. I would give them an A+. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? We were previously using Cisco Meraki. How was the initial setup? The deployment was straightforward and took a couple of months to complete. What about the implementation team? We have approximately six engineers that support VMware SD-WAN. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? There is only a standard fee for the solution. What other advice do I have? I rate VMware SD-WAN a ten out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Hybrid Cloud Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-01-12T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Effective and highly customizable solution What is our primary use case? Our customers are using VMware SD-WAN based on their specific requirements. One of the main use cases is for WAN connectivity and disaster recovery connections. They need secure connections and database synchronization between primary sites and disaster recovery sites. That's why we introduced VMware SD-WAN. How has it helped my organization? We primarily deal with VMware SD-WAN, and we handle services, configurations, and technicalities related to it. Our customers are quite satisfied with VMware SD-WAN, and they haven't encountered any problems. The operations are running smoothly. What is most valuable? One of the main reasons customers appreciate VMware SD-WAN is its comprehensive set of features. It covers network software services, starting from the underlying hardware and creating a virtualized network overlay. As a result, many customers find VMware SD-WAN to be highly beneficial for their networking needs. VMware SD-WAN Orchestrator provides centralized enterprise-level installation, configuration, and real-time monitoring. Additionally, data flows through the cloud network, enhancing performance. The solution offers simplified operations with RapidZERO Touch provisioning and cloud management, optimizing application performance. Security is one area where the solution is comfortable and reliable for us, especially in managing on-prem and cloud adoptions and accelerating performance through bandwidth optimization. So, it's very beneficial for us. What needs improvement? There is room for improvement in the pricing. Another area of improvement is in terms of security. It could be better. For how long have I used the solution? Approximately, I have been working with VMware SD-WAN for the last few months. I don't have the exact timeframe since I'm new, but I know that my company has sold a significant number of SD-WAN solutions. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The stability is a hundred percent. It is a stable solution. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? Most customers are satisfied with the scalability. So it seems to be quite manageable and without problems as of now. Most of our customers are SMBs. How are customer service and support? Customer service and support are good. If a customer needs support, they can open a support case through the Customer Connect portal. Our team will then work with the customer, discuss the issues, and collaborate with VMware engineers to address and resolve the problems. How would you rate customer service and support? Positive How was the initial setup? The initial setup is not troublesome at all. The initial configuration and deployment are quite easy. There haven't been any issues with deployment and configuration. What about the implementation team? We have a dedicated implementation team that takes care of deploying the solution for various events, including cloud-related setups. For the deployment of virtualized networks, storage of servers, and clouds, we usually have a team of 10 to 15 engineers involved, so it's a collaborative effort. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The pricing can vary depending on the features and the cloud resources utilized. It may seem a bit costly when considering cloud resources, but in terms of quality and configurations, it offers significant value compared to other products. There are additional costs to the standard license because the licensing model can vary based on the customer's deployment and preferences. For example, there may be additional costs depending on the customer's requirements. If a customer needs 24/7 support or other specific features, we will tailor the solution accordingly to fulfill their design and requirements. What other advice do I have? VMware SD-WAN offers competitive features and benefits for various requirements. It is especially effective for customer branch offices, remote offices, and scenarios where seamless connectivity is crucial for voice and video-sensitive applications like Salesforce, Google Mail, AWS, and Office 365. The product is highly customizable and can provide a solid foundation for networking needs. Overall, I would rate the solution a ten out of ten. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? On-premises Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner | We are a VMware partner in India.
Date published: 2023-08-03T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from A strong cloud web security product that helps provide secure connections for businesses of all sizes What is our primary use case? For our light branches and remote workers deploying secure connections, VMware is much more when you're looking to make direct connections to the cloud, especially where you don't necessarily have a lot of on-prem data. We have data centers where all our information is stored with the help of VMware. VMware SD-WAN is also good for everything in Microsoft 365 or Azure. What is most valuable? Feature-wise, VMware SD-WAN is a really strong cloud web security product. If you're looking to be able to provide your staff with remote access that doesn't need VPN into the router and go out to the internet, then I would say that VMware SD-WAN is a really good product for that. VMware has slightly better options and a variety of features in terms of what you can get with them. So if they have cloud web security, they have CASB, all those kinds of options you can then integrate, meaning you need to have one router. You can have decentralized firewalls, essentially cloud-based firewalls, which help remote staff connect directly to the internet rather than securely going via a corporate network. What needs improvement? VMware SD-WAN doesn't have the best built-in firewall. You would still need a firewall, depending on your needs. If you don't have a huge amount of outbound traffic, that's fine. If you are hosting a website or something like that, you would need an additional, more advanced firewall. They don't have a built-in next-generation firewall. In the future, a built-in next-generation firewall would be good for the solution. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using VMware SD-WAN for three or four years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? I don't have a huge amount of experience with the solution's stability. I don't use the solution's remote access feature, so I can't comment on that. From what I see, the solution's stability is good. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? There are different bandwidth options when it comes to scalability. VMware SD-WAN mainly works well for enterprise-sized customers. The solution is suitable for businesses of all sizes, including the fact that you can do it for a huge company. How are customer service and support? The technical support from VMware is very active. I rate the technical support a seven out of ten. I just don't have enough experience with them, honestly. I am mainly in the sales department, dealing with presales elements, and I can say that VMware's support team is incredibly active. Considering the aforementioned detail, I rate the support a nine out of ten. Post-deployment, I haven't dealt with VMware's support team. The follow-up point is that we don't deal with technical support. I can't accurately comment on the company support because we only need the hardware support. How would you rate customer service and support? Positive Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? Considering my past experience with other tools, VMware is easy to deploy, cheap, provides remote access, and helps secure web gateway. The tool is quite good for a smaller company since it has good cloud web security features. How was the initial setup? My clients have the solution deployed on the cloud as well as on-premises. It takes 35 days for the solution's deployment phase. One engineer and one solution architect can deploy the solution. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? We make monthly payments toward the licensing costs of the solution. I don't know if there are different options if you make payments to VMware directly. One needs to pay for the router and the license, and then you would also need to pay for the internet service to get into it. What other advice do I have? I recommend the solution to those planning to use it. I'm a big fan of VMware, personally. These days nobody works in an office that much anymore. The important thing is connecting to the internet securely when you're working remotely, which is one big thing we see with some customers. If the aforementioned details are areas where people are struggling, then VMware is the correct choice. Versa would be a better choice if someone has more intensive internal corporate networks and they are more focused on private internal networks. If you are looking at a tool for one or two offices with not a lot of people, VMware is a better choice. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2023-07-19T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from A cloud-native and scalable product for enterprise connectivity What is our primary use case? VMware SD-WAN is nice for enterprise connectivity. What is most valuable? I find the application-aware routing feature to be the most valuable. What needs improvement? I would like to improve the tool’s cloud security features. I would like to see high-throughput hardware requests in the product’s next release. The solution should also support multiple gigs which could be around ten. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using the solution for about a year. I use the latest version. What do I think about the stability of the solution? Compared to other SD-WAN vendors, the stability is good. They should be more flexible while connecting to a third-party cloud. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? I would rate the scalability of the solution an eight out of ten. How are customer service and support? The solution offers layer three high support which is also complex. How would you rate customer service and support? Neutral How was the initial setup? The solution’s setup is straightforward. I would rate the setup a seven out of ten. The tool is deployed over the cloud and could take around half a day to complete. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? I would rate the product’s pricing a six out of ten since the license is costly. What other advice do I have? I would rate the overall SD-WAN an eight out of ten. The tool is cloud-native and scalable. The solution is good for mid and complex environments. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Date published: 2023-03-21T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Efficient centralization of all virtualization locations but expensive license model How has it helped my organization? Initially, we had a scattered environment, but VMware SD-WAN helped us achieve centralization, which was beneficial. What is most valuable? I liked the stability and performance, as it facilitated different types of work under one centralized unit. It made the event deployment easier and allowed us to see the centralization process of all virtualization places. It had a positive and real-time impact on our business and provided a centralized view. What needs improvement? Better price model would be appreciated. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using it for two years. It's version 6.0. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The stability was 100%. It is a stable solution. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? There are around six users in my organization using the solution. How was the initial setup? The initial setup was easy. Not complex. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? It is expensive. It is a yearly payment. I would recommend opting for a quarterly license model. What other advice do I have? I would definitely recommend using the solution. I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-05-25T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Secure, high availability, and knowledgeable support What is our primary use case? VMware SD-WAN is used for security and virtualization. What is most valuable? The most valuable feature of VMware SD-WAN is security. Additionally, the integration and configuration are easier to do than with other solutions, such as Cisco. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using VMware SD-WAN for approximately three years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The solution is stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? We have approximately 200 customers using this solution. How are customer service and support? The support from VMware SD-WAN is knowledgeable. I rate the support from VMware SD-WAN a nine out of ten. How would you rate customer service and support? Positive How was the initial setup? The initial setup of VMware SD-WAN was simple. However, it took six days to complete. What about the implementation team? We use a third party to deploy the solution. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? The price of VMware SD-WAN is less expensive than some solutions, such as Cisco. What other advice do I have? I recommend this solution to others. I rate VMware SD-WAN a nine out of ten. Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2023-02-04T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Easy to use, scales well, but lacking interface integration What is our primary use case? We use VMware SD-WAN to connect our network globally. What is most valuable? The most valuable features of VMware SD-WAN are the overall capabilities and ease of use. What needs improvement? 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. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using VMware SD-WAN for approximately four years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The solution is stable with the physical connectivity. There are occasional issues with certain devices depending on the current firmware, causing them to reboot with a different configuration. Although this does not affect the operation of the devices, it is a known issue that exists in the background. I rate the stability of VMware SD-WAN an eight out of ten. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The solution is scalable. The solution is used daily and is an intricate part of our business. We have approximately 3,000 users using the solution. I rate the scalability of VMware SD-WAN a nine out of ten. How are customer service and support? We use a third party for support. Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch? I have not used a similar solution prior to VMware SD-WAN. How was the initial setup? The installation is relatively easy. We only need to plug it in and it works. However, sometimes there needs some configuration but it is not difficult. I rate the initial setup of VMware SD-WAN a seven out of ten. What other advice do I have? There are firmware updates that require maintenance. One person can complete the task. I rate VMware SD-WAN a seven out of ten. We have had some issues with firmware, it is not as flexible as I would like it to be with the configuration. We have not had any critical outages and overall it has been working well. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Hybrid Cloud If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use? Other Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-05-17T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Customizable solution that allows us to install servers and virtual appliances What is our primary use case? We use VMware to install some servers and virtual appliances. It can be deployed on cloud and on-premises. We have a team of five engineers. Only one of our customers uses this solution. They're a medium-size enterprise. What is most valuable? It can be used for load balancing and load sharing. It's easy to use and customizable. What needs improvement? The dashboards could be improved. For how long have I used the solution? I have used this solution for one year. What do I think about the stability of the solution? I would rate the stability as 10 out of 10. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? It's scalable. I would rate the scalability as eight out of ten. How are customer service and support? I would rate technical support as eight out of ten. I haven't faced any challenges. How was the initial setup? Deployment took two hours. What other advice do I have? I would rate this solution as eight out of ten. I would recommend it. Which deployment model are you using for this solution? Hybrid Cloud Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2023-01-31T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Top solution with good ISP support What is our primary use case? The solution offers ISP support for customers. What is most valuable? I love the solution because of its many features like cluster and cloud VPN. What needs improvement? The solution needs improvement for the security features and should include two firewalls. Cloud VPN can’t support any link. The solution needs to also improve the availability of centralized internal management. It needs to have debug detection and Deep Packet Detection features as well. The documentation for VMware is also hard to find. For how long have I used the solution? I have been working with the solution for three months. What do I think about the stability of the solution? I am using the solution in a virtual machine and cannot comment on its stability. However, I think that the solution is stable because, in Libya, ISP uses this technology and many customers use it. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The solution is scalable and very important for quality view. How was the initial setup? I worked with the solution in virtual Azure and it is complex. However, I think in the real scenario, the deployment should be more flexible. Which other solutions did I evaluate? I have evaluated Cisco SD-WAN and Fortinet SD-WAN. There is a need for more features in these solutions. What other advice do I have? I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. The product is intuitive and easy to use. The solution is suitable for both medium companies and enterprise ones. I would recommend it for customers who have many branches. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-03-13T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Provides good scalability but its support services need improvement What is our primary use case? The platform's use cases extend to various industries, including retail, where it helps security policies around POPs and implements SASE. It also enhances network visibility and the endpoints. What is most valuable? VMware SD-WAN is easy-to-use and provides many different analytics, showing latency and anomalies. It has an excellent security aspect. What needs improvement? There is still room for improvement in support and security, especially in enhancing the SASE aspect of the platform. They could include more functionalities similar to Fortinet. For how long have I used the solution? I have been using VMware SD-WAN for three and a half years. What do I think about the stability of the solution? VMware SD-WAN has good stability. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? It is a scalable platform. I have scaled from 20 sites to a couple of 1000 sites. How are customer service and support? Although the platform's service and support are improving, there are still some difficulties in obtaining specific units due to product manufacturing constraints, particularly with hardware. Getting some units can take time and effort. It's essential to set clear customer expectations regarding this aspect. How would you rate customer service and support? Neutral How was the initial setup? VMware SD-WAN is easy to set up. The deployment takes two minutes and requires one network engineer. I rate the process a seven out of ten. What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? VMware SD-WAN provides competitive pricing. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten. What other advice do I have? I advise others to do a POC on trial. I rate VMware SD-WAN a seven out of ten. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-07-20T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from A highly stable and adaptable solution for enterprises and service providers that stands out for its user-friendly deployment and robust scalability What is our primary use case? It is a valuable solution for organizations facing the challenge of managing networks across multiple locations. Its centralized console allows for easy network administration, addressing the complexity of handling numerous devices across various sites. How has it helped my organization? The centralized management proves economically efficient, making it a cost-effective choice for businesses. What is most valuable? One of the standout features is its ability to dynamically manage enterprise networks based on applications. Through application-based routing, organizations can efficiently direct traffic over multiple links. The solution incorporates features like link steering and forward error correction to ensure robust network performance. The seamless integration offered by VMware SD-WAN positions it as a versatile solution for evolving IT landscapes. It facilitates VPN connectivity without vendor restrictions, allowing organizations to establish VPN connections through any vendor. This flexibility eliminates the limitations associated with specific VPN protocols, offering a more adaptable solution. In the context of multi-tenancy, VMware SD-WAN stands out as a cloud-based, multi-tenant solution, catering to the needs of service providers looking to offer services to smaller customers. What needs improvement? There might be potential enhancements in better integration with other platforms, increased stability, and heightened security. For how long have I used the solution? I have been working with it for a year. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The solution exhibits high stability; I would rate it up to nine out of ten. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The key strength of this solution lies in its scalability, especially as a cloud-based solution. In contrast to on-premise solutions where scalability often involves device replacement, cloud-based solutions provide a highly scalable infrastructure. How was the initial setup? Setting up the system is extremely straightforward and efficient. The process is designed to be user-friendly, requiring minimal time and expertise. What about the implementation team? The deployment process involves several steps. First, we'll configure and create profiles, segments, firewall rules, and network services within VMware VeloCloud's orchestrated unit. This configuration is profile-based, allowing us to set up and define parameters in advance. Upon registering the device with the cloud, we can pre-configure profiles. Once the device is active, it connects to the cloud, automatically downloading all the necessary configurations. Getting a site up and running typically takes just a day. The entire process is designed to be profile-centric, simplifying the management and customization of configurations. For enterprises and service providers, considering the scale and complexity, it is advisable to hire subject matter experts (SMEs) or consultants to ensure a smoother and more proficient implementation process. What other advice do I have? If you're a service provider or managing a large enterprise, I highly recommend considering VMware, a leader in virtualization. Their cloud-based solutions, particularly in virtualization and software-defined networking, are top-notch. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-12-05T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of 5 by from A complex product that is useful for large enterprises What is our primary use case? 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 China. We assisted in building the system by integrating VMware servers and utilizing the Cisco suite. What needs improvement? VMware SD-WAN is harder than Cisco. It is complex, and we must take many steps to get the service. I think it would be beneficial if obtaining licenses could be simplified. Currently, numerous options and integrations are bundled together, which can make it quite complex. What do I think about the stability of the solution? The tool is stable. What do I think about the scalability of the solution? The product is scalable. We have three to four customers working with it. How are customer service and support? My assessment of the tech support for VMware is that it's generally accessible and valuable. However, there are some limitations. We typically contact them through a contracted third-party provider, often located outside of our region, such as in Singapore. While they are responsive, there are occasions when they may not immediately identify the issue and need to escalate it to a higher support tier, which can take some time. How was the initial setup? We initiated the process by installing the software and configuring Windows on the VMware SD-WAN platform. What other advice do I have? I rate the overall product a seven out of ten. The advice I would give to others who are considering starting to use VMware SD-WAN is to assess their organization's technical expertise and requirements first. However, if they lack the knowledge or resources, it might be better to opt for a simpler solution or to seek external support. The tool's value and impact are significant, particularly for larger enterprises. It allows for configuration. However, the benefits may not be as pronounced for smaller offices or enterprises. Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2024-03-16T00:00:00-04:00

This page was printed on 4/16/2024 1:19:14 PM.