# Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN: which do AI models recommend for SD-WAN, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, SD-WAN. Zero of fourteen models named Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN first on the direct prompt; zero named Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/network/sd-wan/cisco-catalyst-sd-wan-vs-palo-alto-networks-prisma-sd-wan/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN | 10% | #3 of 10 | 32% | 40 | 13 of 14 |
| Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN | 2% | #7 of 10 | 17% | 35 | 14 of 14 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- GPT-5.4 mini: neither first, one named (first choices: Fortinet Secure SD-WAN) (alternatives: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Fortinet Secure SD-WAN) (alternatives: Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN)
- Perplexity Sonar: neither first, one named (first choices: Fortinet Secure SD-WAN) (alternatives: Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: neither first, one named (first choices: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN) (alternatives: HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Cato SASE Cloud, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN) (alternatives: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN) (alternatives: Cato SASE Cloud, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: neither first, one named (first choices: Cato SASE Cloud) (alternatives: Barracuda SecureEdge SD-WAN, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN)
- Muse Glimmer 30B: neither first, one named (first choices: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN) (alternatives: Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, FatPipe SD-WAN, HPE Aruba EdgeConnect)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: neither named (first choices: Cato SASE Cloud) (alternatives: Aryaka, Comcast Business, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, MetTel, Windstream)
- Mistral Small: neither named (first choices: HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN) (alternatives: Fortinet Secure SD-WAN)
- Llama 4 Maverick: neither named
- Kimi K2: neither named (first choices: Fortinet Secure SD-WAN) (alternatives: Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN)
- MiniMax M2.5: neither named (first choices: HPE Aruba EdgeConnect, VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN) (alternatives: Cisco Meraki SD-WAN)
- GPT-6 Luna: neither named (first choices: Fortinet Secure SD-WAN) (alternatives: Cato SASE Cloud, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN)

## What the models said about Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

- "Some network engineers advise avoiding it entirely ("wouldn't recommend Viptela to my worst enemy")" (MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Several industry sources now advise against Viptela, citing declining quality and poor support" (Mistral Small, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "one Reddit user advises against exploring Viptela" (Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN: An enterprise-grade software-defined WAN platform that simplifies wide-area networking across distributed environments." (Llama 4 Maverick, paraphrase prompt, first choice)
- "Cisco SD-WAN: A cloud-managed or on-premise solution that offers comprehensive routing, security, and policy control" (Llama 4 Maverick, paraphrase prompt, first choice)
- "the best SD-WAN choice is often Cisco SD-WAN (Viptela), because it is listed as the lowest-cost option" (Perplexity Sonar, budget prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN

- "Avoid ... Prisma SD-WAN due to quality, support, or flexibility concerns." (Mistral Small, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Prisma SD-WAN is also mentioned as a platform to avoid" (Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "strong products, but they skew more toward enterprise or converged SASE use cases than a straightforward mid-market recommendation" (Perplexity Sonar, direct prompt, soft negative)
- "Prisma SD-WAN is the best pick if you're an enterprise team that wants cloud-delivered, application-aware routing tied to unified Prisma SASE security governance" (Muse Glimmer 30B, comparative prompt, first choice)
- "my default recommendation would be Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN" (GPT-5.4 mini, paraphrase prompt, first choice)
- "If you are a cloud-first enterprise prioritizing deep application visibility, AIOps, and premium cloud security, choose Palo Alto Networks." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, comparative prompt, alternative)

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.