What is our primary use case?
Major use cases for Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms are primarily for SD-WAN Edge devices, application-aware routing, and it combines routing and security since this is a one-box solution integrated with a firewall, IPS, IDS, and URL filtering, along with VPN IPsec and segmentation concepts.
When analyzing performance of Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms, I'm looking at network WAN performance metrics for mission-critical applications, measuring metrics such as latency, jitter, packet loss, RTT value, and also using SLA-based routing for path selection. In terms of application performance metrics, Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms uses Deep Packet Inspection, focusing on application response time, per application latency, jitter, loss, and throughput per application.
In terms of analytics and telemetry, we are using NETCONF or SNMP polling. We monitor interface statistics, loss, latency, jitter, application performance, CPU, and memory utilization. If we have an IPsec tunnel, we're also monitoring telemetry such as tunnel health, alongside routing and control plane status using vManage or ThousandEyes.
What is most valuable?
Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms is very user-friendly, and comparing with Fortinet and Palo Alto, Fortinet is definitely the cheapest, followed by Cisco, while Palo Alto is too costly.
Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms is very easy to install and use; we've been using Cisco for three to four decades, and it is really good. It's user-friendly for everyone.
Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms is quite affordable and not too expensive.
What needs improvement?
For troubleshooting, we are using vManage and ThousandEyes or CLI. We could improve in terms of step-by-step root cause analysis by integrating AI in vManage to assist users, especially remote IT users who are not full experts in IT technology, in performing basic troubleshooting tests.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have seven to eight months of experience handling Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms is a scalable product for me, and the same applies to my customers. Performance remains good and I do not have issues with performance. I would rate stability eight to nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have both cloud and private environments since I work at Orange, known as France Telecom. Both are very scalable and stable. Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms is a scalable product for me, and the same applies to my customers.
How are customer service and support?
I find their support to be very good. In my last experience, while deploying a Captive Portal for a customer and integrating it with ICE, Cisco TAC support resolved a bug within a couple of hours, which was very important for my customer. I'd rate Cisco support eight to nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Cisco is completely in the past, but in the middle of some of the projects I'm handling, such as organic growth type requests, I'm dealing with Cisco SD-WAN as well.
How was the initial setup?
Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms is very easy to install and use; we've been using Cisco for three to four decades, and it is really good. It's user-friendly for everyone.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms is very user-friendly, and comparing with Fortinet and Palo Alto, Fortinet is definitely the cheapest, followed by Cisco, while Palo Alto is too costly.
What other advice do I have?
I do not work with application hosting capability in Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms. Implementing Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms as a gateway does not affect application performance across remote or branch offices.
In terms of SD-WAN, I work with FortiGate for security. I'm currently on Fortinet SD-WAN, which is a FortiGate. We also have a third-party IPsec tunnel to form an IPsec tunnel with the third party, including Cisco and Palo Alto, depending upon the third-party devices.
Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms is mainly for VPN, and since I work at Orange, where we have different clients, depending upon the requirement of the different customers, if a customer is willing to migrate existing legacy networks to Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms, Fortinet SD-WAN, or Palo Alto SD-WAN, I deal with these SD-WAN technologies including the security part.
Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms is a very good product, and with this, we can do so many things, including integrating with the firewall, URL filtering, VPN, IPsec segmentation, and other capabilities. I would rate this product nine out of ten overall.
