Compare Citrix SD-WAN to the competition

Citrix SD-WAN is the only SD-WAN solution that combines proactive application traffic management, end-to-end QoS, routing and WAN optimization. This unique combination consistently delivers a better branch office user experience for SaaS, enterprise, and virtual desktop applications than other SD-WAN vendor products while lowering network costs, simplifying branch office networking, and providing visibility into application performance.

Among SD-WAN providers, Citrix SD-WAN offers one of the most comprehensive solutions.

Only Citrix SD-WAN:

  • Detects over 4,000 applications and sub-applications for use in firewall and SD-WAN polices
  • Reacts in milliseconds to small changes in network state, eliminating any degradation of user experience caused by network problems
  • Selects the best path for each session based on application requirements and network conditions
  • Bonds WAN links together to provide the most efficient throughput for an application
  • Supports BGP and OSPF routing to make network insertion simple
  • Can be deployed in edge mode or overlay mode within the same network
  • Optimizes HDX traffic at the source code level, delivering the best possible Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops experience to users
  • Provisions enough TCP sessions up front to scale with your business without adding appliances

ESG Lab Review: SD-WAN Integration with Amazon Web Services – Citrix

Discover the strength of the integration between Citrix SD-WAN and AWS

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Citrix SD-WAN vs. other vendors

The SD-WAN landscape is evolving rapidly. The market includes many companies with diverse functionality, making it difficult to differentiate between solutions. The side-by-side vendor comparison shows key criteria across leading SD-WAN providers, highlighting how Citrix SD-WAN outperforms other solutions.

Reliability
Optimization
Security
Manageability
Reliability

Criteria

Riverbed SteelConnect

Silver Peak Unity

Citrix SD-WAN

Citrix SD-WAN advantage

Path selection

By session

By session

By packet

Packet-based path selection allows for rapid adaptation to network changes and provides a better user experience.

Failover effectiveness

Applications may be interrupted

Limited application interruption

No application interruption

Citrix SD-WAN monitors every packet to detect failure quickly and eliminate any impact to an application session.

Path measurement & recovery speed

Seconds

Seconds

Milliseconds

Citrix SD-WAN responds to latency, jitter, and packet loss changes in milliseconds.

Packet duplication

But does include forward error correction (FEC)

 

Citrix SD-WAN ensures lossless delivery of VoIP and other mission critical applications. FEC benefits are less guaranteed and can't be applied to just specific applications.

Unidirectional path selection

Asymmetric routing not supported

Asymmetric routing not supported

Applications are not symmetric, so symmetric measurement and selection are inefficient.  Citrix SD-WAN supports asymmetric routing, delivering optimal efficiency.
Optimization

Criteria

Riverbed SteelConnect

Silver Peak Unity

Citrix SD-WAN

Citrix SD-WAN advantage

Link bonding

Assigns an application to a single WAN link via static mapping

Assigns an application to a single WAN link via dynamic mapping

A single application can use multiple WAN links

Link bonding ensures use of all available bandwidth, speeds up application performance, and avoids the path flapping that occurs with dynamic mapping.

Data compression and reduction

Requires a separate appliance

In addition to providing data compression and de-duplication for faster app performance, Citrix SD-WAN is the only vendor that provides visibility into application delivery.

Protocol acceleration

 

Limited

 

Citrix SD-WAN supports a broad set of acceleration protocols, including industry leading HDX acceleration for faster app delivery.
Adaptive bandwidth control Citrix SD-WAN adapts its QoS policies seamlessly to deal with links such as satellite and wireless that have varying amounts of bandwidth available.

Specialized Citrix HDX support

Citrix SD-WAN has HDX optimization built in, delivering the best possible Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops experience to users.
Security

Criteria

Riverbed SteelConnect

Silver Peak Unity

Citrix SD-WAN

Citrix SD-WAN advantage

Data encryption

Citrix SD-WAN supports 256 bit AES and IPSec encryption, even over MPLS links.

Secure cloud connection

Citrix SD-WAN integrates IPSec connection to the cloud, with no need to configure VPNs.

Secure Internet breakout at the branch

Citrix SD-WAN interoperates with SaaS-based SWG plaforms, such as ZScaler, for efficient branch internet connectivity

Data segmentation

Citrix SD-WAN can create separate virtual networks for users and applications
Stateful firewall Citrix SD-WAN has an integrated application aware firewall, making it simple to deploy centralized firewall policies
Manageability

Criteria

Riverbed SteelConnect

Silver Peak Unity

Citrix SD-WAN

Citrix SD-WAN advantage

Centralized Configuration

 

 

 

Centralized policy definition and integrated WAN Optimization configuration makes building a software-defined WAN with Citrix SD-WAN intuitive and simple.

Application visibility

Requires a separate application

Network level only

Citrix SD-WAN provides visibility into network performance and application delivery to proactively manage the user experience.
Dynamic routing Citrix SD-WAN dynamically learns about network changes and can be deployed as a branch WAN router

Next steps

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