Best Cisco Routers for Enterprise

Pick any of these Cisco routers for your business’s success today.

Regardless of the size of your business enterprise, you need to make sure that you have the best business router. We are talking about a high-performance router that is efficient and capable of routing traffic between multiple networks and devices reliably.

But choosing the best Enterprise routers is never that easy, especially with a market full of excellent router options.  And with improvements in the firmware and hardware designs of routers over the years, your options have become more and significantly confusing, which means that you may need a little help as you look for an excellent Cisco enterprise router.

If you are in a rush and you need the best Cisco router for your enterprise, some of the considerations for you to bear in mind include the number of bands, wireless speeds, presence of Ethernet ports for wired connections, security settings for the router, and the area coverage for the router. You also need to consider the total number of devices that will be connected to your network.

Unfortunately, knowing all these might not be enough, and you still need to consider other aspects of the router, which is why you need someone to do the heavy lifting. We’ll help simplify your search by reviewing five of the best Cisco routers for enterprise. These are the best Cisco routers ideal for enterprises, and you only need to pick the one that best suits your needs.

Best Cisco Routers for Enterprise – Comparison Table

Best Cisco Routers for Enterprise	Best for	Price
Cisco 4321 Integrated Services Router	Best Integrated Wireless Router	Check Price
Cisco ASR 1001-X Router	Best Networking Router for Small and Large Business Enterprises	Check Price
887 Multi-Mode Router Annex M	Best Security Features	Check Price
Cisco 2010 Connected Grid Router	Best Industrial Router	Check Price
Cisco Systems NCS-5001 Series Router FD	Best Scalable Router	Check Price

Reviews of the Best Cisco Routers for Enterprise

1. Cisco 4321 Integrated Services Router – Best Integrated Wireless Router

If you are looking for a wireless router for your business enterprise, you might like this Cisco ISR4321/K9 4321 Router. It boasts winning features, including the best security features and convergence of wonderful features that enhance the performance of the router.

Among other reasons, this router makes an excellent fit as an enterprise router, and it delivers impressive advanced features for the smaller enterprise brand environment. We are talking about the high internet speeds of up to 50Mbps (default speed), and since it’s scalable, you can easily increase the capacity of the router to 100Mbps. For this package upgrade, you will only need to buy Cisco’s 4320-PERF-K9 smart license.

The other features that make this router one of the best include the presence of one SFP port, 2 WAN/LAN ports, and best-quality voice, a multicore processor, and an intelligent WAN. You might also like it because it offers the best quality voice services.

Pros

• Two ports
• Wired Ethernet connection for reliable performance
• Speeds of up to 50Mbps, and scalable to 100Mbps
• 1 SFP port
• Advanced and reliable security systems
• Intelligent WAN system

Cons

• No switch system

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2. Cisco ASR 1001-X Router – Best Networking Router for Small and Large Business Enterprises

This Cisco networking router is one of the best rack-mounted routers on the market, and it is an ideal fit for the small and the medium, as well as large enterprises. It’s a compact router that offers a nice wireless network thanks to the built-in adapter for the shared port’s interface processor. Speaking of ports, the router offers 6 SFP ports, as well as 2 SFP+ ports. The performance of the speaker is further enhanced by the powerful quad-core 2.13GHz processor, as well as a 2.5G bandwidth system.

It also features a route processor and also an embedded services processor or an ESP. All these features work to enhance the performance of the router, ensuring that you access high-speed connectivity throughout your organization.

It is also a high-performance router that boasts the best security features for crypto, firewall, data transformation, as well as NAT (Network Address Translation) sessions. The other high-performance security features of this router include the robust Cisco deep packet inspection performance features that ensure high throughputs for Cisco Visibility, Application, and Control.

On top of all these, the router also features an investment protection option which comes with other functions like the expanded container app support with future virtual services and applications, scalable forwarding throughput upgradable up to 20Gbps from the minimum speed of 2.5Gbps, as well as the built-in 10GE, which accelerates the 1GE into a 10GE system, and the best part is that you won’t need additional hardware. There’s also the 1RU compact form factor that increases the router’s rack space while reducing the cooling and power costs.

The router also offers one of the most flexible deployments through Cisco’s DCI (Data Center Interconnect Services) that allows for the support of the OTV (Overlay Transport Virtualization), VXLAN (Virtual Extensible LAN), VPLS, and LISP. It also offers advanced functions, including a route reflector for increased network scaling, as well as the rich and highly scalable CUBE (Cisco Unified Border Element) services for your enterprise.

Pros

• Flexible deployment
• Easy scaling
• High-speed performance scalable from 2.5Gbps to 20Gbps
• Numerous ports
• Advanced security features
• Powered by a 2.13GHz quad-core processor
• Gigabit Ethernet ports are built-in

Cons

• None

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3. 887 Multi-Mode Router Annex M – Best Security Features

This multi-mode router is one of the most versatile enterprise routers on the market today, and it not only boasts the best security features, but it also comes with integrated access to security, WiFi, and voice services.

Its security features include content blocking, firewalls, VPNs, as well as the centralized management system, all designed to ensure ease of use and for secured access to the network. The other security features offered include Cisco IOS, the Firewall Stateful Failover, VRF-Aware firewalls, IPS, Control Pl, and integrate threat control.

It offers data transfer speeds of 0.1Gbps, has four ports, and each of the LAN ports boasts a bandwidth of 10/100Mbps. The wireless network form this router is based on the 802.11n/g, and it’s backward compatible.

As an integrated router, it combines internet access with voice, security, and wireless services. Its broadband transmission speed is 24Mbps, and this fast internet transmission takes place via the ADSL2+ technology.

Pros

• Advanced security systems
• An integrated network system for voice, wireless, and security systems
• Easy network deployment
• Allow for centralized management

Cons

• None

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4. Cisco 2010 Connected Grid Router – Best Industrial Router

If you are looking for a high-performance, rugged router that allows for use in different networks for communication, particularly in industries, you might like this connected grid router. This Cisco CGR 2010 is one of the best rugged industrial routers that offer the most secure, reliable, and easily managed networks.

The rugged design and the fact that the router has no moving parts or fans, along with the operating temperature range, which has been extended beyond the expected normal, make this an ideal industrial router. It also boasts substation compliance with both IEEE 1613 and IEC-61850-3, ideal for use in the utility substation environments.

Then you have the integrated security features that ensure compliance, as well as infrastructure protection. You might also like this industrial router because of its high-availability design, which ensures redundancy and maximum network uptime. It also comes with advanced QoS capabilities for SCADA communications, along with device and network management tools for upgrades, deployments, and remote monitoring.

Pros

• High efficiency
• Robust build
• Secure networks and hardware
• High-speed performance
• Advanced QoS functions
• Reliable firmware
• Maximum uptime and redundancy across the network

Cons

• Expensive

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5. Cisco Systems NCS-5001 Series Router FD – Best Scalable Router

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As part of the NCS 5000 series of Cisco routers, this router is an extension to Cisco’s routing platform portfolio for MPLS-enabled data centers as well as enabling service providers. The router allows for the provision of elastic networks through improved business agility, as well as simplified operations for the delivery of high-bandwidth video, mobile, and cloud services.

This router boasts the best level of scalability of IP services, and it’s at the edge of enterprise networks. Its Ethernet technology is the 100 Gigabit Ethernet, and though it lacks support for POE and VoIP, it’s a reliable router for anyone looking for a system network that their business will grow with.

Pros

• 100GBase-X technology
• 44 expansion slots
• Integrated interface that’s easy to use
• High-performance router
• Easy management ports with access to the system console
• Very low footprint and power consumption
• 800Gbps maximum throughput

Cons

• No PoE or VoIP

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Buying Guide for the Best Cisco Routers for Enterprise

There are numerous routers on the market today, but do you know what an enterprise router is and what makes it different from the Cisco router you’d use at home?

Let’s look at everything you need to know about Cisco routers for enterprise and business users.

What is an Enterprise Router?

To help you understand exactly what an enterprise router is, we need to start with the basics. A router is the networking device that allows for the forwarding of data packets among your computer networks. It allows and assists in guiding your network and website traffic more efficiently.

Note that a packet is a vehicle through which data is transported across networks, and these packets are then forwarded from one router to the other via an internetwork that’s established in the network. The packets are forwarded through the network until they reach the desired destination.

In this case, the ‘enterprise’ in ‘enterprise router represents the difference in the implementation of the network system. And while the home routers feature built-in WiFi that makes for an easy setup, the enterprise routers are designed with a number of Ethernet ports that are designed to handle/ manage millions of data packets passing through the network each second.

The enterprise routers are available in different sizes, and they offer different levels of performance based on the size of the business you are in and your typical data usage.

For optimal performance, the design of the enterprise routers is modular, centrally-located, and they are also designed to works as rack-mounted products. The design of the routers makes the enterprise routers sophisticated technological gadgets connecting large business networks and ISP networks.

Why do you need an Enterprise Router?

Enterprise routers represent the most important products for enterprises and businesses, and they play an important role in the connection of computer networks and the internet. They are multifunctional and can be used for different things, including enterprise routing, which in turn gives the businesses a higher CPU capacity and better control over numerous tasks. The right router is also important because it allows businesses to enhance their business’ interfaces for WAN and Ethernet circuits. You also need an enterprise router to run MPLs, NetFlow/sFlow, as well as QoS and Security features. The router also comes in handy in the integration of systems for deep packer inspections, along with WAN acceleration.

In a nutshell, you need the best enterprise routers for the maximization of your productivity in your office.

Choosing the Best Cisco Enterprise Routers

To choose the best enterprise router from Cisco, you need to consider certain features of the router.

Types of Network Routers

Cisco Systems offers a number of network routers on their Enterprise range of products, and you really know exactly what you are looking for in a Cisco Enterprise network router. There are six main categories of Enterprise routers by Cisco, as shown above. These are:

Cisco Integrated Services/ Branch Routers

The integrated service routers by Cisco are also called branch routers, and they are designed to enhance Cisco’s range of the branch office routers thanks to their integration of a multiple services system into one platform. The integrated services routers are an improvement of the previous hardware that called for the purchase of extra hardware for the integration. Routers in this category include the CISCO 800 Series ISR, CISCO 4000 Series ISRM, and the CISCO Meraki MX.

Cisco Internet Edge Routers

Internet edge routers refer to a special kind of routers that are often placed at network boundaries, a design placement feature that results in an empowered campus network system capable of associating with external networks. The edge routers are often utilized within the web and WAN. The CISCO ASR 9000 Series and the CISCO ASR 1000 Series are two of the main router series in this category.

Cisco WAN Aggregation Routers

These routers boast a superior/ high-performance IP, and it also features scalable plus customized IP services all at your network’s edge. Routers in this category include the CISCO NCS 5000 Series, CISCO NCS 5500 Series, and the CISCO ASR 1000 Series.

CISCO Service Provider Core Router Series

These routers are also called Provider Cores routers, and they are ideal for consistent communication with your enterprise’s operations. It also allows for effortless scaling of your business enterprise from a simple single chassis form factor into one enormous multi-chassis system.

There are three main router series under this category, and they include the CISCO NCS 5500, CISCO NCS 6000, and the CISCO ASR 9000 Series.

Cisco Integrated Services Virtual Router

These integrated virtual routers are a part of Cisco’s new Borderless Network Architecture, which is aimed at empowering business innovation and growth, specifically in remote sites. There are two main routers that fall in this category – the CISCO CSR 1000v and the CISCO IOS XRv 9000.

CISCO Industrial Routers

These are integrated industrial routers. They are robust and compact and ideal for use in harsh environments. They include the CISCO 800 Series Industrial Integrated Services Router, the CISCO 900 Series Industrial router, the CISCO 1000 Series Connected Grid Routers, the CISCO 2000 Series Connected Grid Routers, and the CISCO 500 Series WPAN Industrial Routers.

Features and Benefits

It’s not enough to know about the main categories and types of Cisco enterprise routers. You need to know what features make an excellent Cisco router. Here are some of the most important considerations that you need to keep in mind.

Security

Make sure that the enterprise router you settle on offers the best authentication features, along with segmentation and the strongest encryptions for the protection of your data, applications, and users. The protection needs to span from your WAN edge to the Cloud.

SD-WAN

Cisco enterprise routers are either Cisco SD-WAN or No SD-WAN.

Target deployments

Are you looking for a router with WAN aggregation, Branch, Edge, or Machine-to-Machine target deployments? There also are other types of deployments, including virtual deployments, service providers, and small businesses.

Speed/ Encryption Throughput

Speed is also important, but you need to look at the speed of the router in terms of the maximum internet MIX encryption throughput. Generally, enterprise routers will have variable speed setups ranging from a minimum of 50Mbps IPsec to 45Gbps IPsec.

To choose the best router for your organization, you need to know the average speed from your office’s internet connection. With download speeds measured in Mbps, and most and internet connections offering variable speeds from 3-7Mbps, others will run at 2Mbps or lower while others will offer higher speeds. So, first, take your needs into consideration. ADSL2 and ADSL2+ routers are some of the fastest routers, but if you need speeds upwards of 50Mbps (minimum), it would be a good idea to settle for the Fiber-based routers (most of the enterprise routers fall in this category).

Router management

Look for a router with a simple GUI for easy network management. On the same note, you might want to opt for a router whose company offers excellent support.

The other features you need to keep in mind include:

• Scalability
• Connectivity choices
• Number of users that can use the router seamlessly.
• Security level, Firewalls, and presence of business-grade VPNs
• IP Phone networks
• WAN redundancy

FAQs

What is Cisco SD-WAN?

Cisco’s SD-WAN refers to a secure, cloud-scale architecture that is open, scalable, and programmable. It’s easy to establish an SD-WAN overlay fabric in your network through Cisco’s vManage console, and you can use the fabric overlay to connect branches, data centers, colocation facilities, and campuses, all in a bid to improve efficiency, network security, and speed.

What is a Gateway-to-Gateway VPN?

This is the VPN connection that allows you to securely connect two routers to each other while allowing the router client on one end to appear as part of the overall network with the second router on the other end. Thanks to the setup of the routers, resources, and data will be securely and easily shared over the internet. This VPN system is crucial for enterprises, but you need to make sure that the configuration is done correctly on both routers.

What is IPsec?

IP stands for “Internet Protocol” while “Sec” represents Secure.

IPsec refers to a group of specific protocols that allow for the setup of encrypted network connections between your devices. The protocols facilitate the secure transmission of data over public networks. To enhance the security of the networks, IPsec is set up along with VPNs where it works by encrypting IP packets while also authenticating sources of the data packets.

Conclusion

If you are looking for the best Enterprise Cisco router, the five routers reviewed above are some of the best for business/ industrial use. They are robust, reliable, and efficient.