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Cisco ACI vs Omada Cloud SDN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Cisco ACI
Ranking in Software Defined Networking (SDN)
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
104
Ranking in other categories
Network Virtualization (2nd), Cloud and Data Center Security (9th)
Omada Cloud SDN
Ranking in Software Defined Networking (SDN)
5th
Average Rating
0.0
Reviews Sentiment
9.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Software Defined Networking (SDN) category, the mindshare of Cisco ACI is 9.1%, down from 15.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Omada Cloud SDN is 4.9%, down from 11.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined Networking (SDN) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco ACI9.1%
Omada Cloud SDN4.9%
Other86.0%
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
 

Featured Reviews

Rahul Khandelwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Technical Manager at KPMG
Enables streamlined data center management with automation and application-centric design
The main features of Cisco ACI that I really appreciate are the application-centric and network-centric designs, allowing you to create your network according to your application. That's helpful, and it's good for one-time implementation. The automation capabilities are really helpful. We deployed one data center using Terraform, and after deployment, many automation features are available, which can be very helpful. Based on my experience, Cisco ACI provides substantial capability; you can design your network accordingly and it's part of the SDN family, providing many benefits to the organization, especially when moving from traditional network infrastructure. Many organizations are actually using the old traditional Nexus infrastructure or some old data center devices. It gives you significant control and one-time implementation capabilities, and it also provides better performance and security. Functionality-wise, Cisco ACI provides integration using automation. We implemented it through Terraform, which was easy. Those features are available, so I don't think any new features are needed right now; something new could come up, but they have implemented many improvements over the years.
Gavin Cotton - PeerSpot reviewer
Partner at Attune
Reasonably priced, easy to deploy, and enables remote monitoring
The implementation is quite straightforward. It works every time. The setup is very easy. I rate the ease of setup a ten out of ten. The deployment can be done very quickly. The time taken for deployment depends on the setup. Generally, it can be up and running in a few hours.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The best part of ACI is that it can integrate with a lot of virtual environments like VMware, Hyper-V, and KVM."
"One of the most valuable features is centralized management. The other is the ability to create policies by routing."
"It is a complete re-write of everything that you've ever thought of from a networking standpoint, and it can simplify your life if you do it right."
"It is very easy to do the configuration after you know how to work with the product, and it is global, so you change one interface and changes are reflected on every switch."
"I have found the SDN features to be the most valuable."
"We had different networks and combined them with ACI so we could have the control of one controller-based network, and automation is running so that the operational effort was reduced massively."
"The most valuable features are the automation with the different systems for the software development and the ability to provision switches in hours rather than days."
"The most valuable feature is the data center communication."
"The solution enables us to monitor and help our customer with their connectivity remotely."
 

Cons

"Security and isolation based on the type of traffic"
"There is quite a learning curve at the beginning."
"The CLI needs to be improved."
"We would like to have faster services and problem monitoring for our customers."
"Cost is one thing that could be improved, as it is heavy for an emerging market like ours."
"I think that technical support tickets should be escalated sooner."
"The interface is sometimes slow. I receive a lot of weird errors when I try to install apps, such as contract apps, which should give me a nice visualization of all the contracts. However, it just doesn't load, etc."
"In the new version of 4.0, the management groups for updating the software is not the best way to do it. It was better in 3.2."
"The product must provide access points that can be plastered into the ceiling."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's expensive but the product is very good. I have never found another partner like Cisco with a solution like this and with great support."
"A big company can automate it themselves or spend a lot of money and buy it."
"If you compare the licensing and total cost of ACI, it's cheaper than NSX because of the licensing fees. If you are going for full NSX features it will be too expensive, especially the next-generation firewalling feature."
"The licensing cost for ACI is expensive - I would rate its price 2.5 out of five."
"The price could be improved. It is expensive, but then again, it is Cisco. The price is worth what you pay for."
"We have seen time improvement using the product."
"Pricing for Cisco ACI could be expensive if you're not a gold partner. If you're a gold partner, you'll get reasonable pricing, but to become a gold partner, you must cross several layers. For example, at least twenty engineers within your organization have to be certified, with each certification priced at £2,000 minimum, so this would make some companies think twice about the product. If you're going for Aruba and Juniper products, on the other hand, you can quickly get the partner status, and you can start selling the product. As a gold partner, you can get up to seventy percent discount on Cisco ACI, for example, while an ordinary partner gets ten percent off. Cisco ACI is expensive for both customers and partners, but I'm rating pricing for the product as four out of five because even if the price is costly, you get a lot of benefits from the product. Cisco ACI isn't the best, price-wise, but it's still a good solution. If you're in a small organization, you may be unable to afford it. Cisco ACI is best for enterprises but not SMBs because Cisco ACI and its required resources are expensive."
"Cisco is much more expensive than other vendors, especially when it comes to the licensing."
"The tool is reasonably priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Educational Organization
9%
Retailer
9%
Construction Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise88
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
There are some very major differences between both the Products and to name a few. -Cisco ACI have physical network gear (9K Switches) where the Code runs in ACI Policy Mode & the UCS server wh...
What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
Once you know your way around the Cisco ecosystem, using Cisco ACI is not so difficult. It is a global product, so when you change one interface, changes are automatically reflected on every switch...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco ACI?
Cost is one thing that could be improved, as it is heavy for an emerging market like ours.
What advice do you have for others considering Omada Cloud SDN?
As a current user at home and a pro reseller, I can highly recommend Omada Cloud SDN. For usage at home, it maybe a little bit technical but you can forget many issues like unnecessary add-ons you ...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bowling Green State University, du, Qatar University
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Aviatrix, Megaport and others in Software Defined Networking (SDN). Updated: May 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.