SD-WAN for enterprise buyers
Asked as “SD-WAN platform”, and as “software-defined WAN solution”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 49 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, fourteen models each.
Standing · first-choice share
45%
Clear leader
45Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN39Fortinet Secure SD-WAN06Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN10others
45% of first choices, clear leader.
Since October 2026▼−5Since October 2026: 50% → 45%, −5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN held the lead, −5 points on 50%, inside the 11-point floor.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small business
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN40%Clear leader↗new leaderNew leader since October 2026: Fortinet Secure SD-WAN (40%) replaces Cisco Meraki SD-WAN (42% then, 40% now), 0 points clear, inside the 11-point floor.Standing →Mid-marketFortinet Secure SD-WAN67%Clear leader▲+17Since October 2026: 50% → 67%, +17 points. Past the 11-point floor: movement.Standing →Enterprise
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN45%Clear leader▼−5Since October 2026: 50% → 45%, −5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.This page
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN40%Clear leader↗new leaderNew leader since October 2026: Fortinet Secure SD-WAN (40%) replaces Cisco Meraki SD-WAN (42% then, 40% now), 0 points clear, inside the 11-point floor.Standing →Mid-marketFortinet Secure SD-WAN67%Clear leader▲+17Since October 2026: 50% → 67%, +17 points. Past the 11-point floor: movement.Standing →EnterpriseCisco Catalyst SD-WAN45%Clear leader▼−5Since October 2026: 50% → 45%, −5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.This pageThe standing
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all fourteen models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrantSince October 2026
01Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN45%18%66endorsed leader▼−5Since October 2026: 50% → 45%, −5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.50% → 45%
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN45%18%66endorsed leader▼−5Since October 2026: 50% → 45%, −5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.50% → 45%02Fortinet Secure SD-WAN39%3%68endorsed leader▲+11Since October 2026: 28% → 39%, +11 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.28% → 39%
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN39%3%68endorsed leader▲+11Since October 2026: 28% → 39%, +11 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.28% → 39%03
Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN6%14%56accepted challenger▲+4Since October 2026: 2% → 6%, +4 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.2% → 6%
Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN6%14%56accepted challenger▲+4Since October 2026: 2% → 6%, +4 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.2% → 6%04
Cato SASE Cloud4%7%29accepted challenger▼−5Since October 2026: 9% → 4%, −5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.9% → 4%
Cato SASE Cloud4%7%29accepted challenger▼−5Since October 2026: 9% → 4%, −5 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.9% → 4%05
HPE Aruba EdgeConnect2%10%40accepted challenger▼−2Since October 2026: 4% → 2%, −2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.4% → 2%
HPE Aruba EdgeConnect2%10%40accepted challenger▼−2Since October 2026: 4% → 2%, −2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.4% → 2%06
VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN2%32%50criticized challenger▲+2Since October 2026: 0% → 2%, +2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 2%
VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN2%32%50criticized challenger▲+2Since October 2026: 0% → 2%, +2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 2%Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09
Cisco Meraki SD-WAN0%30%20criticized challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%
Cisco Meraki SD-WAN0%30%20criticized challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%10
Cisco0%27%11criticized challenger▼−4Since October 2026: 4% → 0%, −4 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.4% → 0%
Cisco0%27%11criticized challenger▼−4Since October 2026: 4% → 0%, −4 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.4% → 0%11
Aryaka0%20%10accepted challenger▼−2Since October 2026: 2% → 0%, −2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.2% → 0%
Aryaka0%20%10accepted challenger▼−2Since October 2026: 2% → 0%, −2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.2% → 0%07
Versa Secure SD-WAN0%6%35accepted challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%
Versa Secure SD-WAN0%6%35accepted challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%08
Juniper Session Smart Routing (SSR) / Mist SD-WAN0%0%11accepted challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%
Juniper Session Smart Routing (SSR) / Mist SD-WAN0%0%11accepted challenger=heldSince October 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise.0% → 0%The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one can't be told apart from repeat variation, and both are shown. Each index measures its own floor from its own repeat, over its own categories, so the floor differs from one index to the next. Both editions asked the same fourteen models. How the floor is measured
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
For buyers
Head to head
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN vs Cisco Meraki SD-WANFortinet Secure SD-WAN vs Cisco Catalyst SD-WANFortinet Secure SD-WAN vs Cato SASE Cloud
Head-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not enterprise.All ten head-to-head pages: the top five products, each against each
Recommended versus criticized
Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.
Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
0102030405060708091011Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN45%
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN45%02Fortinet Secure SD-WAN39%
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN39%03Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN6%
Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN6%04Cato SASE Cloud4%
Cato SASE Cloud4%05HPE Aruba EdgeConnect2%
HPE Aruba EdgeConnect2%06VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN2%
VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN2%07Versa Secure SD-WAN0%
Versa Secure SD-WAN0%08Juniper Session Smart Routing (SSR) / Mist SD-WAN0%
Juniper Session Smart Routing (SSR) / Mist SD-WAN0%09Cisco Meraki SD-WAN0%
Cisco Meraki SD-WAN0%10Cisco0%
Cisco0%11Aryaka0%
Aryaka0%What they warned about
Seven of fourteen models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Mistral Small, Qwen 3.7 Flash, MiniMax M2.5, GPT-6 Luna and Muse Glimmer 30B changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN32%
16 of 50 labels negative · 12 of 14 models · 4 hard negative
“Proceed with extreme caution... This is a platform in transition, not a solid foundation for a multi-year WAN transformation.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN18%
12 of 66 labels negative · 9 of 14 models · 5 hard negative
“Zero-day exploitation tied to Volt Typhoon... security patch urgency, high exposure from the current exploitation wave, and management complexity” Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt
Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN14%
8 of 56 labels negative · 7 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“Some users advise against using Prisma, citing issues with the knowledge base, settings, and technical support.” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt
Cisco Meraki SD-WAN30%
6 of 20 labels negative · 5 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“better suited for small-to-medium deployments rather than large enterprises due to scalability and management limitations at scale” Mistral Small, negative prompt
What they cite
Fourteen of the fourteen models returned a source list in this edition: five return the pages they cited and nine the search results they consulted.
Sites the answers cite
79 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 902 links across 200 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. 52 of the 252 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category; the method page measures whether that reading tilts an answer.
vendor site · Fortinet40 answers · 74 citations · 14 models
vendor site · Cisco39 answers · 73 citations · 14 models
23 answers · 29 citations · 9 models
22 answers · 24 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Guideflow20 answers · 21 citations · 8 models
20 answers · 20 citations · 8 models
vendor site · G219 answers · 22 citations · 8 models
vendor site · HPE17 answers · 25 citations · 8 models
16 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
15 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
publisher (Gane)15 answers · 15 citations · 9 models
15 answers · 15 citations · 7 models
Pages the answers cite
The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.
20 answers · 8 models
19 answers · 7 models
15 answers · 7 models
15 answers · 7 models
13 answers · 8 models
13 answers · 7 models
13 answers · 9 models
13 answers · 7 models
12 answers · 6 models
12 answers · 7 models
Search against answers
Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best sd-wan platform”, “sd-wan platform”, “sd-wan platforms”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
| Company and products | Share | Own site cited | Name searches, Google | AI search demand, est. | Organic visits | Paid search a month, est. | Google ads, last 30 days | Best Google position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cisco parent site Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN 45%, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN 0% | 45% | 147 | 165,000 | 48,352 | ||||
| Fortinet parent site Fortinet Secure SD-WAN 39%, Fortinet FortiSASE 0% | 39% | 190 | 49,500 | 2,339 | ||||
| Palo Alto Networks parent site Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN 6% | 6% | 115 | 40,500 | 1,088 | ||||
| Cato catonetworks.com Cato SASE Cloud 4% | 4% | 126 | 30 | 1 | 20,161 company | 10 | 2 | |
| HPE arubanetworks.com HPE Aruba EdgeConnect 2% | 2% | 95 | 27,100 | 5,522 | 2,865 | |||
| VMware parent site VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN 2%, VMware NSX SD‑WAN 0% | 2% | 106 | 74,000 | 17,842 | ||||
| Cato SASE Platform | 2% | |||||||
| Versa versa-networks.com Versa Secure SD-WAN 0% | 0% | 60 | 20 | 1 | 14,861 company | $85 | 49 | 3 |
| Juniper Session Smart Routing (SSR) / Mist SD-WAN juniper.net | 0% | 13 | 0 | 267,308 | 0 | |||
| Cisco cisco.com | 0% | 121 | 165,000 | 48,352 | 5,114,808 | $683 | 91 | 2 |
Google's top ten for the three searches hold 23 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (cisco.com, g2.com, peerspot.com, techtarget.com). The first result for “best sd-wan platform” is g2.com.
How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.ShowHide
How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHideModelDirect“What is the best SD-WAN platform for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which software-defined WAN solution would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade SD-WAN platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best SD-WAN platform for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a SD-WAN platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which SD-WAN platforms should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Cisco Catalyst SD-WANno first choiceChangedCisco Catalyst SD-WANCato SASE Platform, Cisco Catalyst SD-WANno first choiceagainst: Cisco Catalyst SD-WANagainst: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Four alternatives
Aryaka, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANFive alternatives
Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WANOne alternative
Cisco Meraki SD-WANGPT-5.4 miniCisco Catalyst SD-WANCisco Catalyst SD-WANHeldCiscoFortinet Secure SD-WANno first choiceagainst: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Four alternatives
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WANTwo alternatives
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WANEight alternatives
Cradlepoint, Ericsson, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Juniper Session Smart Routing (SSR) / Mist SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WANTwo alternatives
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANGemini 3.5 FlashFortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANPalo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANChangedFortinet Secure SD-WANFortinet Secure SD-WANno first choiceagainst: Barracuda SD-WAN, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Citrix SD-WAN, Oracle SD-WAN, Peplink, Riverbed SteelConnect, SonicWall, Ubiquiti UniFi, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Three alternatives
Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco, VMware VeloCloud SD-WANThree alternatives
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnectFive alternatives
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WANThree alternatives
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANFive alternatives
Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANPerplexity SonarCisco Catalyst SD-WANagainst: Cisco Meraki SD-WANCisco Catalyst SD-WANHeldCisco Catalyst SD-WANFortinet Secure SD-WANno first choiceagainst: Aryaka, Bigleaf Networks, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WAN
Four alternatives
Cato SASE Cloud, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WANFive alternatives
Cato SASE Cloud, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WANSix alternatives
Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WANOne alternative
Cisco Catalyst SD-WANGrok 4.20Cisco Catalyst SD-WANCisco Catalyst SD-WANHeldFortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANagainst: VMware VeloCloud SD-WANFortinet Secure SD-WANagainst: Cisco, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WANno first choiceagainst: Aryaka, Barracuda SD-WAN, Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Three alternatives
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WANFour alternatives
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WANThree alternatives
Cisco, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Versa Secure SD-WANMistral SmallVMware VeloCloud SD-WANCisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WANChangedno first choiceCisco Catalyst SD-WANno first choiceagainst: Aruba Central, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Three alternatives
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANTwo alternatives
Cato SASE Cloud, VMware VeloCloud SD-WANOne alternative
Fortinet Secure SD-WANDeepSeek V4 FlashFortinet Secure SD-WANFortinet Secure SD-WANHeldno first choiceFortinet Secure SD-WANagainst: HPE Aruba EdgeConnectno first choiceagainst: Arista VeloCloud SD-WAN, Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Cradlepoint, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Masergy, New Horizon, Nuage, Spectrotel, TP-Link SD-WAN, Talari, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, Windstream, Zyxel
Four alternatives
Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANTwo alternatives
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANSeven alternatives
Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WANOne alternative
Cisco Catalyst SD-WANLlama 4 MaverickCisco Catalyst SD-WANCisco Catalyst SD-WANHeldno first choiceCisco Catalyst SD-WANno first choiceagainst: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Three alternatives
Cato SASE Cloud, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnectTwo alternatives
Cato SASE Cloud, Fortinet Secure SD-WANTwo alternatives
Cato SASE Cloud, Fortinet Secure SD-WANQwen 3.7 FlashCisco Catalyst SD-WANCisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WANChangedno first choiceFortinet Secure SD-WANno first choiceagainst: Cisco, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, Riverbed SteelConnect, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WAN
Five alternatives
Aryaka, Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANOne alternative
VMware VeloCloud SD-WANTwo alternatives
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANKimi K2Fortinet Secure SD-WANagainst: CiscoFortinet Secure SD-WANHeldagainst: VMware VeloCloud SD-WANno first choiceFortinet Secure SD-WANagainst: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WANno first choiceagainst: VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Four alternatives
HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WANFour alternatives
Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Juniper Session Smart Routing (SSR) / Mist SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANSix alternatives
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WANOne alternative
Versa Secure SD-WANGLM 4.7 FlashXCisco Catalyst SD-WANCisco Catalyst SD-WANHeldCisco Catalyst SD-WANCato SASE Cloudno first choiceagainst: LevelBlue, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, Verizon
Two alternatives
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANFour alternatives
Aryaka, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Juniper AI‑Native SD‑WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANFive alternatives
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WANFour alternatives
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware NSX SD‑WANMiniMax M2.5Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnectFortinet Secure SD-WANChangedCisco, Fortinet Secure SD-WANCato SASE Cloud, Cisco Catalyst SD-WANno first choiceagainst: Aruba SD-WAN, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Two alternatives
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANFour alternatives
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, HPE Aruba SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WANFour alternatives
HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WANTwo alternatives
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WANGPT-6 LunaCisco Catalyst SD-WANCisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WANChangedno first choiceFortinet Secure SD-WANagainst: Cisco Catalyst SD-WANno first choiceagainst: Citrix SD-WAN, Oracle SD-WAN Edge, Riverbed SteelConnect EX, Riverbed SteelConnect SDI / SteelHead-SD, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Three alternatives
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WANOne alternative
HPE Aruba EdgeConnectOne alternative
Cisco Meraki SD-WANMuse Glimmer 30BFortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WANCisco Catalyst SD-WANChangedCisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Cisco Meraki SD-WANFortinet Secure SD-WANno first choiceagainst: Barracuda SD-WAN, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Two alternatives
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnectFour alternatives
Fortinet FortiSASE, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WANNine alternatives
Aryaka Unified SASE as a Service, Cato SASE Cloud, Expereo, FortiGate SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN, Versa Secure SD-WANOne alternative
Cisco Catalyst SD-WANBold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against
The record
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Eighty-four rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct recommendation | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-11-01 12:35 | yes | 10 | 8 s |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-11-01 17:13 | yes | 3 | 5 s |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.6-flash (asked for gemini-3.5-flash; the API answered as this version) | 2026-11-01 11:54 | yes | 9 | 22 s |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-11-01 17:57 | yes | 10 | 4 s |
| Direct recommendation | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.20-non-reasoning via xai | 2026-11-01 16:48 | yes | 5 | 11 s |
| Direct recommendation | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-11-01 15:59 | yes | 5 | 5 s |
| Direct recommendation | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-11-01 10:03 | yes | 22 | 31 s |
| Direct recommendation | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-11-01 11:18 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Direct recommendation | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-11-01 09:06 | yes | 5 | 22 s |
| Direct recommendation | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-11-01 11:42 | yes | 9 | 62 s |
| Direct recommendation | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-11-01 12:50 | yes | 23 | 169 s |
| Direct recommendation | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-11-01 11:57 | yes | 9 | 32 s |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-11-01 12:30 | yes | 4 | 8 s |
| Direct recommendation | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-11-01 14:14 | yes | 20 | 25 s |
| Paraphrase | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-11-01 17:53 | no | 0 | 5 s |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-11-01 19:31 | yes | 5 | 5 s |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.6-flash (asked for gemini-3.5-flash; the API answered as this version) | 2026-11-01 09:39 | no | 0 | 15 s |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-11-01 17:15 | yes | 10 | 4 s |
| Paraphrase | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.20-non-reasoning via xai | 2026-11-01 19:42 | yes | 5 | 8 s |
| Paraphrase | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-11-01 10:46 | yes | 9 | 10 s |
| Paraphrase | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-11-01 14:32 | yes | 25 | 28 s |
| Paraphrase | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-11-01 09:01 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Paraphrase | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-11-01 14:38 | yes | 23 | 104 s |
| Paraphrase | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-11-01 16:53 | yes | 10 | 18 s |
| Paraphrase | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-11-01 13:10 | yes | 14 | 39 s |
| Paraphrase | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-11-01 19:04 | yes | 10 | 44 s |
| Paraphrase | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-11-01 14:40 | yes | 3 | 11 s |
| Paraphrase | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-11-01 11:49 | yes | 15 | 24 s |
| Comparative | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-11-01 18:17 | yes | 9 | 9 s |
| Comparative | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-11-01 19:07 | yes | 6 | 11 s |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.6-flash (asked for gemini-3.5-flash; the API answered as this version) | 2026-11-01 11:38 | yes | 8 | 28 s |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-11-01 12:04 | yes | 10 | 6 s |
| Comparative | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.20-non-reasoning via xai | 2026-11-01 15:46 | yes | 5 | 15 s |
| Comparative | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-11-01 11:32 | yes | 8 | 12 s |
| Comparative | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-11-01 19:08 | yes | 23 | 46 s |
| Comparative | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-11-01 12:23 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Comparative | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-11-01 14:48 | yes | 5 | 27 s |
| Comparative | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-11-01 14:50 | yes | 19 | 35 s |
| Comparative | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-11-01 10:44 | yes | 25 | 326 s |
| Comparative | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-11-01 13:33 | yes | 25 | 46 s |
| Comparative | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-11-01 15:44 | yes | 8 | 31 s |
| Comparative | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-11-01 10:55 | yes | 15 | 25 s |
| Budget constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-11-01 17:23 | yes | 19 | 9 s |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-11-01 09:29 | yes | 3 | 5 s |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.6-flash (asked for gemini-3.5-flash; the API answered as this version) | 2026-11-01 10:17 | yes | 10 | 25 s |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-11-01 15:44 | yes | 10 | 4 s |
| Budget constrained | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.20-non-reasoning via xai | 2026-11-01 17:01 | yes | 10 | 13 s |
| Budget constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-11-01 16:01 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Budget constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-11-01 09:30 | yes | 24 | 27 s |
| Budget constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-11-01 17:53 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Budget constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-11-01 18:13 | yes | 5 | 14 s |
| Budget constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-11-01 18:03 | yes | 15 | 44 s |
| Budget constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-11-01 11:38 | yes | 22 | 142 s |
| Budget constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-11-01 12:21 | yes | 5 | 23 s |
| Budget constrained | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-11-01 12:20 | yes | 4 | 18 s |
| Budget constrained | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-11-01 15:40 | yes | 13 | 19 s |
| Scale constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-11-01 19:14 | yes | 18 | 12 s |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-11-01 09:38 | yes | 2 | 9 s |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.6-flash (asked for gemini-3.5-flash; the API answered as this version) | 2026-11-01 18:14 | no | 0 | 22 s |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-11-01 19:44 | yes | 10 | 9 s |
| Scale constrained | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.20-non-reasoning via xai | 2026-11-01 16:03 | yes | 10 | 20 s |
| Scale constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-11-01 14:19 | no | 0 | 9 s |
| Scale constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-11-01 11:23 | yes | 23 | 37 s |
| Scale constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-11-01 16:19 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Scale constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-11-01 16:56 | yes | 9 | 37 s |
| Scale constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-11-01 10:17 | yes | 14 | 25 s |
| Scale constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-11-01 08:57 | yes | 14 | 33 s |
| Scale constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-11-01 15:40 | yes | 10 | 24 s |
| Scale constrained | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-11-01 16:37 | yes | 5 | 21 s |
| Scale constrained | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-11-01 09:03 | yes | 14 | 23 s |
| Negative framing | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-11-01 11:22 | yes | 18 | 9 s |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-11-01 14:49 | yes | 6 | 7 s |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.6-flash (asked for gemini-3.5-flash; the API answered as this version) | 2026-11-01 10:46 | yes | 6 | 18 s |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-11-01 19:19 | yes | 10 | 5 s |
| Negative framing | Grok 4.20 | spacexai/grok-4.20-non-reasoning via xai | 2026-11-01 17:58 | yes | 9 | 11 s |
| Negative framing | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-11-01 19:13 | yes | 5 | 5 s |
| Negative framing | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-11-01 15:46 | yes | 24 | 54 s |
| Negative framing | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-11-01 13:08 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Negative framing | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-11-01 17:05 | no | 0 | 37 s |
| Negative framing | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-11-01 09:29 | yes | 24 | 21 s |
| Negative framing | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-11-01 19:38 | yes | 24 | 123 s |
| Negative framing | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-11-01 19:19 | yes | 23 | 59 s |
| Negative framing | GPT-6 Luna | gpt-6-luna | 2026-11-01 08:55 | yes | 5 | 23 s |
| Negative framing | Muse Glimmer 30B | meta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai | 2026-11-01 08:53 | yes | 15 | 26 s |
Normalization in this category
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
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Category-scoped readings
Arista read as Arista VeloCloud SD-WAN
Arista (VeloCloud) read as Arista VeloCloud SD-WAN
Barracuda read as Barracuda SD-WAN
Broadcom (VMware SD-WAN) read as VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Broadcom (VMware VeloCloud / VeloCloud by Broadcom) read as VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Broadcom (VMware VeloCloud) read as VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Broadcom (VMware) read as VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Cato read as Cato SASE Cloud
Cato Networks read as Cato SASE Cloud
Cato Networks (SASE Cloud) read as Cato SASE Cloud
Cato Networks SASE Cloud read as Cato SASE Cloud
Cisco Meraki read as Cisco Meraki SD-WAN
Cisco Meraki MX read as Cisco Meraki SD-WAN
Citrix read as Citrix SD-WAN
Fortinet read as Fortinet Secure SD-WAN
Fortinet (FortiGate / Secure SD-WAN) read as Fortinet Secure SD-WAN
Fortinet (FortiGate Secure SD-WAN) read as Fortinet Secure SD-WAN
Fortinet (Secure SD-WAN) read as Fortinet Secure SD-WAN
Fortinet FortiGate read as Fortinet Secure SD-WAN
Fortinet Secure SD‑WAN read as Fortinet Secure SD-WAN
HPE read as HPE Aruba EdgeConnect
HPE (Aruba EdgeConnect) read as HPE Aruba EdgeConnect
HPE (Aruba) read as HPE Aruba EdgeConnect
HPE Aruba read as HPE Aruba EdgeConnect
HPE Aruba (Silver Peak) read as HPE Aruba EdgeConnect
HPE Aruba (VeloCloud) read as HPE Aruba EdgeConnect
HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN read as HPE Aruba EdgeConnect
Juniper read as Juniper Session Smart Routing (SSR) / Mist SD-WAN
Juniper (Session Smart Router) read as Juniper Session Smart Routing (SSR) / Mist SD-WAN
Juniper (Session Smart Routing) read as Juniper Session Smart Routing (SSR) / Mist SD-WAN
Juniper Mist read as Juniper Session Smart Routing (SSR) / Mist SD-WAN
Juniper SD-WAN read as Juniper Session Smart Routing (SSR) / Mist SD-WAN
Meraki read as Cisco Meraki SD-WAN
Nuage Networks read as Nuage
Palo Alto Networks read as Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN
Palo Alto Networks (Prisma SD-WAN / Prisma SASE) read as Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN
Palo Alto Networks (Prisma SD-WAN) read as Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN
Prisma (Palo Alto Networks) read as Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN
Riverbed read as Riverbed SteelConnect
Ubiquiti read as Ubiquiti UniFi
VMware read as VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
VMware (now Broadcom) read as VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
VMware VeloCloud read as VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
VMware VeloCloud (Broadcom) read as VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
VMware VeloCloud (now Arista VeloCloud) read as VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
VMware VeloCloud (now Broadcom) read as VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN
Versa read as Versa Secure SD-WAN
Versa Networks read as Versa Secure SD-WAN
Versa Networks (SD-WAN & SASE) read as Versa Secure SD-WAN
Versa Networks (Versa Secure SD-WAN) read as Versa Secure SD-WAN
Unresolved, counted raw
128 Technology
Aruba SD-WAN (HPE)
Aryaka Unified SASE as a Service
Cato SASE Platform
Forcepoint FlexEdge
HPE Aruba SD-WAN
HPE Juniper Session Smart Router (SSR)
HPE Networking EdgeConnect
HPE SD-WAN (EdgeConnect)
Juniper AI‑Native SD‑WAN
Juniper Session Smart / Mist SD-WAN
Meraki Dashboard
Netskope Pure-Flight
New Horizon
Oracle SD-WAN (formerly Talari Networks)
Oracle SD-WAN Edge (formerly Talari)
Riverbed SteelConnect EX
Riverbed SteelConnect SDI / SteelHead-SD
TP-Link SD-WAN
VeloCloud VCO
Viptela vManage
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.