MikroTik VS Cisco - Cisco’s Domination is about to end.

MikroTik VS Cisco - Can Routerboard replace Cisco routers?

MikroTik’s RouterOS are shipped with all Routerboard routers. The router software is featureful and easy to configure. And much cheaper than a Cisco router. But is the Routerboard router good enough to replace the Cisco router? The short answer is “yes, Routerboard can replace Cisco routers in some places”.

There are two aspects we have to dig into before we can decide.

1. Do we have the features that we need?
2. Is the performance equal or better?

Lets dig into the features first.

Cisco vs RouterOS: features

The Cisco routers are shipped with lots of features. Perhaps way to many, but what do we need? Here is a list of features that are on both the Cisco routers and on RouterOS. Features that are commonly used.

Feature	Comment
IPv4 and IPv6 routing	Both protocols are supported.
NAT	NAT is supported when routing on IPv4.
IPv4 and IPv6 firewalls	Are supported.
DHCP Server	Can be a DHCP Server.
DHCP Client	Can be a DHCP client on the network.
Routing protocols	RIP, OSPF and BGP are supported on both IPv4 and IPv6.
Ethernet ports	Both fast ethernet and gigabit ports are supported.
Internal switch	Ports can be switched if the hardware permits it.
802.1Q	VLAN tagging on ethernet ports.
Separate routing instances	You can isolate ports into separate routing instances.
HA	VRRP is supported so you can make HA solutions.
VPN	PPTP, IPSec, GRE are supported VPN protocols.
Authentication	Can authenticate using the RADIUS protocol.
Application helpers	FTP, h.323 and SIP are supported.
QoS	Supports many types of queues, tagging and DSCP marking of packets.

As you can see the RouterOS has lots of features and can replace Cisco routers in many uses.

Performance

Can RouterOS outperform Cisco routers? The short answer is that it depends.

If you need to scale up your router you will see that a software-only solution like RouterOS cannot outperform Cisco routers with hardware-based performance.

But often you don’t need to scale up. Let’s compare two routers.

Parameter	Cisco 2911	RB751G-2HnD
Num Gigabit ports	3 ports	5 ports
Wireless	No	2.4GHz bg/n (can be both client and AP)
Routing performance	25Mb/sec	25Mb/sec
Firewall included	Need to buy a feature set to implement firewall.	Included.
Serial port	Yes	No
USB port (for modem)	Unsure	Yes
Ports can be switched	No, need to insert a switch into the router.	Yes, ports can be configured as a routed or a switched port.
Software can be upgraded	Yes, with a support contract.	Yes, one major release are free of charge from MikroTik.
Price	About $900 with the security feature set.	$79.95

As the table above clearly shows the Routerboard can compete with Cisco routers in many places. And it can compete with other vendors as well.

Some Networking Officials personal view's :-

Mark my words !

MIKROTIK is the Future & Cisco’s Domination is about to end. 
For sure CISCO still holds the majority of shares in routers world, but it will going to change very soon  . . .
CISCO is best, but at higher price. Cisco have edge dueto reliable OS and Hardware. 
Mikrotik is good for multi purpose in a very cheap price as compared to CISCO and offer more.  So very cost effective solution.

Its all about personnel preference, choice, budget.
But Even if i have high budgeting, I will prefer Mikrotik  , buts that’s my personnel choice. and you are not bound to agree with it  
Syed M Jahanzaib (Pakistan)

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