# Cisco alternatives: what AI models name instead, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. 713 of the 756 answers in the 3 categories where Cisco holds a standing named it neither first nor as an alternative; these are the first choices those answers made. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/cisco/alternatives/

## Named instead, most often (every category and segment added)

- Cloudflare One: 76
- Fortinet Secure SD-WAN: 66
- Cisco Meraki SD-WAN: 49
- Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN: 38
- Arista Networks: 34
- Cato Networks: 28

## Data center networking

**Small business**: 84 of 84 answers did not name Cisco.

- Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric: first choice in 6 of those 84
- Arista Networks: first choice in 5 of those 84
- Cisco Meraki: first choice in 3 of those 84
- Ubiquiti UniFi: first choice in 3 of those 84
- Arista CloudVision: first choice in 2 of those 84
- Aruba Instant On: first choice in 2 of those 84
- Cisco Nexus: first choice in 2 of those 84
- MikroTik CRS Series: first choice in 2 of those 84

**Mid-market**: 74 of 84 answers did not name Cisco (Cisco is #2 of 7 at 5%).

- Arista Networks: first choice in 13 of those 74
- Arista EOS: first choice in 3 of those 74
- HPE Aruba Networking CX Series: first choice in 3 of those 74
- Juniper Apstra: first choice in 3 of those 74
- Cisco Nexus: first choice in 2 of those 74
- Cumulus Linux: first choice in 2 of those 74
- FS.com: first choice in 2 of those 74
- Arista Converged Cloud Fabric: first choice in 1 of those 74

**Enterprise**: 76 of 84 answers did not name Cisco (Cisco is #4 of 7 at 9%).

- Arista Networks: first choice in 16 of those 76
- Cisco Nexus: first choice in 6 of those 76
- Juniper Networks: first choice in 4 of those 76
- Arista EOS: first choice in 3 of those 76
- Cisco ACI: first choice in 2 of those 76
- Arista EOS with CloudVision: first choice in 1 of those 76
- Arista Networks EOS / CloudVision: first choice in 1 of those 76
- Cisco ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure) with Nexus Dashboard/Catalyst Center: first choice in 1 of those 76

## SASE platforms

**Small business**: 82 of 84 answers did not name Cisco.

- Cloudflare One: first choice in 51 of those 82
- Cato Networks: first choice in 4 of those 82
- Fortinet FortiSASE: first choice in 4 of those 82
- Cato SASE Cloud: first choice in 3 of those 82
- Check Point Harmony SASE: first choice in 3 of those 82
- Cisco Secure Access: first choice in 2 of those 82
- Cisco Umbrella: first choice in 2 of those 82
- Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange: first choice in 2 of those 82

**Mid-market**: 81 of 84 answers did not name Cisco (Cisco is #10 of 11 at 0%).

- Cato Networks: first choice in 17 of those 81
- Cloudflare One: first choice in 16 of those 81
- Cato SASE Cloud: first choice in 5 of those 81
- Netskope One: first choice in 5 of those 81
- Fortinet FortiSASE: first choice in 3 of those 81
- Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE: first choice in 2 of those 81
- Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange: first choice in 2 of those 81
- Cato Networks' Cato SASE Cloud: first choice in 1 of those 81

**Enterprise**: 77 of 84 answers did not name Cisco (Cisco is #9 of 10 at 0%).

- Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE: first choice in 16 of those 77
- Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange: first choice in 15 of those 77
- Cloudflare One: first choice in 9 of those 77
- Cato Networks: first choice in 7 of those 77
- Netskope One: first choice in 4 of those 77
- Cato SASE Cloud: first choice in 3 of those 77
- Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access: first choice in 2 of those 77
- Fortinet FortiSASE: first choice in 1 of those 77

## SD-WAN

**Small business**: 83 of 84 answers did not name Cisco.

- Cisco Meraki SD-WAN: first choice in 39 of those 83
- Fortinet Secure SD-WAN: first choice in 24 of those 83
- Cato SASE Cloud: first choice in 5 of those 83
- Peplink: first choice in 4 of those 83
- Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN: first choice in 3 of those 83
- Ubiquiti UniFi: first choice in 3 of those 83
- Cisco SD‑WAN: first choice in 1 of those 83
- FortiGate SD-WAN: first choice in 1 of those 83

**Mid-market**: 79 of 84 answers did not name Cisco (Cisco is #9 of 10 at 0%).

- Fortinet Secure SD-WAN: first choice in 28 of those 79
- Cisco Meraki SD-WAN: first choice in 10 of those 79
- Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN: first choice in 5 of those 79
- Cato SASE Cloud: first choice in 4 of those 79
- HPE Aruba EdgeConnect: first choice in 3 of those 79
- Peplink: first choice in 2 of those 79
- VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN: first choice in 2 of those 79
- Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN: first choice in 1 of those 79

**Enterprise**: 77 of 84 answers did not name Cisco.

- Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN: first choice in 30 of those 77
- Fortinet Secure SD-WAN: first choice in 14 of those 77
- Cato SASE Cloud: first choice in 4 of those 77
- HPE Aruba EdgeConnect: first choice in 2 of those 77
- Aryaka: first choice in 1 of those 77
- Palo Alto Networks Prisma SD-WAN: first choice in 1 of those 77

Published under CC BY 4.0. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.