2 categories · RankedCisco Catalyst SD-WAN
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN is a software-defined wide area network platform from Cisco for connecting enterprise networks across sites and regions · cisco.com ↗
Leads at enterprise. Ranked 4 of 70 for small business buyers.
The standing depends on who is buying. Every model is asked the same questions for each company size.
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN is first at 40%.
Fortinet Secure SD-WAN is first at 67%. 0 of 14 models made it the first choice when asked directly.
Ranked first. Next is Fortinet Secure SD-WAN at 39%.
Why models recommend it
“The strongest choices for most enterprises are Cisco Catalyst, Fortinet, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, VMware VeloCloud, Palo Alto Prisma, Versa, Cato, and Cisco Meraki.”Perplexity Sonar · Comparative question · first choice
“Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN ranks as the top SD-WAN solution as of September 2026, and it's an excellent choice for mid-market companies.”Claude Haiku 4.5 · Paraphrase question · first choice
“Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN (formerly Viptela) is my top recommendation for a mid-sized B2B company.”Grok 4.20 · Paraphrase question · first choice
“Leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SD-WAN for the fifth consecutive year”Muse Glimmer 30B · Comparative question · first choice
What gives them pause
“a catastrophic certificate expiration issue affected ALL legacy Viptela customers, causing widespread network outages and business disruption”GLM 4.7 FlashX · Negative question · warning
“A maximum-severity flaw in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller has been exploited in the wild for years.”Claude Haiku 4.5 · Negative question · warning
“Strongly advised against by some in recent threads. It's seen as outdated or problematic”Grok 4.20 · Negative question · warning
“Avoid or be cautious about Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN (Viptela)”Mistral Small · Negative question · warning
Also on the shortlist
The products named in the same answers as Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, over the 156 answers that named it, and how often each was the first choice instead.
| Product | Named together | Picked instead | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 135 | 46 | Compare → | |
| 93 | 3 | View → | |
| 79 | 24 | Compare → | |
| 74 | 2 | View → | |
| 60 | 1 | Compare → | |
| 48 | 0 | Compare → | |
| 45 | 0 | View → | |
| 18 | 0 | View → | |
| 12 | 0 | View → | |
| 10 | 0 | View → |
What the models named instead of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN →
A side-by-side page exists where both products are among a category's top eight.
At a glance
Stated on Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN's own site, not checked by Gane.
- For
- Fortune 500 client
- Also from Cisco
- Cisco ACE, Cisco ACI, Cisco ACI / Tetration, Cisco AI Defense, Cisco ASA/Firepower, Cisco AnyConnect and 70 more
How this is measured
Fourteen AI models from 12 labs are asked the same buying questions six ways, for three company sizes. Standings refresh every edition.
Gane sells AI visibility software. No company can pay to change a result.
Read the method →Sources returned with these answers
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. These counts come from 147 of the 156 answers that named Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
337 of the 432 domain citations in answers naming Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN came from a third party's page. Forty-six were to the publisher's own pages (the Gane Index), which the models cite like any other source; they are not counted as a third party.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
By model
| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| Grok 4.20 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 |