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Broadcom Network Flow Analysis vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Broadcom Network Flow Analysis
Ranking in Network Management Applications
23rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (76th), Network Troubleshooting (11th)
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Ranking in Network Management Applications
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Broadcom Network Flow Analysis is 2.3%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is 2.3%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN2.3%
Broadcom Network Flow Analysis2.3%
Other95.4%
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

Purneswara Rao - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Consultant at KyndleIT Consulting
A stable tool that helps identify the complete flow analysis in a network
The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that the complete flow analysis can be identified through the tool. The classification of each protocol and how the bandwidth utilization is happening with the protocols while managing to get SLAs, IP protocols, and QoS metrics is possible because of the product.
Ashwani-Tyagi - PeerSpot reviewer
Regional Manager at Orange
Centralized control has simplified cloud access and has improved operational visibility
If they can have better firewall features as their competitors have, such as Fortinet and Versa, that would help to place this solution better so that we can address security related things. If they can have all the IPS, IDS, everything built on all the edge devices, whether physical or virtual, that could be one improvement. Actually, if customers are existing Cisco customers, if Cisco can be more flexible to leverage the existing investment, that could be another important aspect to save on cost and be more competitive from a pricing perspective. Overall, the pricing or the segment that Cisco deals with is a bit premium, which they charge a bit premium against the competition on the licensing, hardware, and services. The implementation is not straightforward. You need a specialized partner or specialized people who can implement this. It can be simplified a bit from that perspective as well. Mostly the way we implement the policies for a big environment requires a lot of things that we need to take care of. If that can somehow be improved, because they have different components, like they have vManage, they have vSmart, and vBond and all these components have to work with a certain flow that they need to follow.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Anomaly Detector - This detects the anomaly flows in infra environment and makes job easy to analyze issue."
"Despite the low level of support, I would still fully recommend this product, because even when not all the features are used, the advantage of having such a wealth of useful information about the network traffic in real time, together with such flexibility of its presentation, is undeniable."
"For supporting flow-traffic monitoring, this product is the best option."
"The custom report is the most valuable feature."
"This solution has helped our organization by allowing us to have visibility. We deal with cybersecurity, so visibility is very important."
"It is an overall stable solution."
"The first part that we like is that we can reuse certain hardware, which is a valuable asset. You can use hardware SKUs that already exist in the network. The second part that we like is the integration with the cloud and the measurement of the cloud's quality. These are the two values that this solution gives as compared to other implementations that we have seen."
"I think the segmented traffic it provides is the best in the industry right now."
"This is definitely a product worthy of being evaluated and tested."
"Cisco SD-WAN is a very good product."
"Application-aware routing offers flexibility in using different lines for traffic, depending on the policy implemented."
"The most valuable features of Cisco SD-WAN include the DIA and its integration with Cisco Umbrella for DNS security."
"The solution offers good quality of service, visibility, connectivity, and security."
"The most valuable features of Cisco SD-WAN are reliability and scalability."
 

Cons

"I would like to see more security features, like a lost protection package."
"If one is able to find it at all, the documentation is often no help."
"Currently, Broadcom Network Flow Analysis does not support high-availability solutions, making it an area that needs improvement."
"Enhanced support should be given with APIs that work to maintain collected information."
"Sometimes the custom report jammed in the MYSQL database."
"Prefer this product only if the scope of flow analysis is vast and for a limited scope I don’t prefer this product since the product licenses are very costly and it is a waste of money."
"The pricing is quite high."
"I would recommend better-integrated management."
"The only concern is the cost; compared to others, the cost is higher, but the features are the same as a superior product, so we are expecting that cost."
"They need to improve the licensing, definitely. It needs to be easier to license."
"This solution could be improved with a simpler implementation process and licensing model."
"I would like to see a better, web-based interface to make changes to the configuration or to view statistics."
"The product needs to have more understanding staff in their support team. The tool needs to provide support in every stage of deployment. We did not get the expected support from their team. The product is also not easy to use."
"It would be very helpful if we had better access to a knowledge base, or online documentation, to help both us and our customers learn to use this solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If you make a DX NetOps-based purchase and the complete suite of products that fall under DX NetOps from Broadcom, then you get Network Flow Analysis along with DX NetOps Performance Management and DX Spectrum."
"It's costly. The cost is high compared to competitors."
"SD-WAN as a service is probably something in the neighborhood of $100 to $200 a month per location."
"It is expensive."
"It's expensive. If you compare Cisco with Fortinet and Juniper, you'll find that Cisco is more expensive than other vendors."
"On a scale of one to five, I would rate Cisco's pricing as a three."
"The price is high."
"The price of Cisco SD-WAN is expensive. We pay approximately $50 monthly for the use of the solution."
"When purchasing, there are so many features available that it's quite confusing deciding which to choose. And some of the devices force you to buy licenses you don't want."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
16%
Construction Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business52
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise52
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco SD-WAN?
The pricing for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is something I don't know as the tender is not in my department or at my level, but I know it is very expensive.
What needs improvement with Cisco SD-WAN?
I cannot speak to programming-side improvements since that is not my area of expertise. On a base level, improvements could include a better interface, more AI capabilities, better pricing, and bet...
What is your primary use case for Cisco SD-WAN?
The primary use case is for network management and routers we have for WAN connectivity.
 

Also Known As

CA NetQoS Reporter Analyzer, CA NFA, CA Network Flow Analysis
Cisco SD-WAN
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Empowered, BCBST
Doyle Research, Ashton Metzler & Associates
Find out what your peers are saying about Broadcom Network Flow Analysis vs. Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.