We performed a comparison between Cisco DNA Center and VMware NSX based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Network Automation solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."It offers automation, security enforcement, analytics, and integration with other Cisco technologies, making it a key driver for efficient network operations and compliance with security protocols."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco DNA Center is the AI (Artificial Intelligence) that provides us with valuable information."
"What's most valuable in Cisco DNA Center is the ability to manage any Cisco infrastructure and device through it. Setup was straightforward."
"DNA Center is scalable."
"We can monitor all devices and get the required information using the product."
"The most valuable features of the solution are all of its security features...It is a highly scalable solution."
"The monitoring features are very useful for network engineers."
"The solution helps in user microsegmentation."
"The alert features are the most valuable."
"I have found VMware NSX to be easy to use."
"The installation is straightforward, it took a couple of hours."
"Though I haven't been working a lot on VMware NSX, it's good to have. What I like the most about it is that its console is good, and it doesn't take a lot of effort in terms of doing my daily tasks on it or what it's meant for. VMware NSX is still a preferred product in the market."
"Overall, for me, it's a good solution and has been working well."
"Some of the key features I find most valuable are the highly graphical user interface, virtualization of networks, and Microsoft application compatibility. It has all the functionality that we require."
"It's very important for them to have small footprints and have as much services in their servers, as possible."
"It has reduced the number of people on the network team along with the system engineer involved in the security process. So, it is valuable."
"The product has many features that do not work properly."
"Technical support could be better. The price could be better, and it could be more stable."
"DNA Center has been on the market for a few years and they need to update it."
"An area for improvement in Cisco DNA Center is the latency in data correlation. For example, sometimes, when an issue happens, and I check the logs, I can't find the corresponding log. There's a delay in log replication, so this is what needs improvement in Cisco DNA Center. Reporting in Cisco DNA Center could also be improved because it only has a few templates, and you can't customize it based on your requirements. There aren't many options available in Cisco DNA Center regarding reporting, versus Cisco Prime, which has excellent features for different levels of detailed reports. I'd like to see real-time data replication in the next release of Cisco DNA Center, similar to what's done in Meraki. Data in Meraki is real-time with no delay, so data is immediately replicated in the cloud. Currently, there's a lag in Cisco DNA Center, and addressing that lag is the enhancement I'd like to see in Cisco DNA Center. The solution also needs to be more user-friendly."
"It seems to be a little bit more centered toward wireless than wired. You've got more options you can do wirelessly than you can with the wired switches, but it works for what we need it to do. We would like to see a little bit more about the traffic, and we're looking at what's out there to see about that. We are looking at something that might give us a bit more insight into the actual traffic. If they had the full functionality on the wired side, as they do on the wireless side in terms of being able to view traffic and everything, it would be good."
"What could be improved is the licensing cost of Cisco DNA Center. It's a little bit expensive."
"We encountered issues with their response times, which had a big impact on our workflow."
"Cisco DNA Center was a new technology for us, at the beginning, it was not easy to do, but Cisco did a lot of training with us to a level we could handle everything. The team is managing itself now without the assistance of Cisco."
"It lacks full knowledge of physical side of the network topology."
"It isn't easy to deploy."
"They have some limitations in the firewall features as compared to the on-prem or dedicated hardware appliance. They can add more features, such as IPS and IDS, to the cloud firewall."
"The tool's setup is complex and we need support to implement it."
"An area for improvement in VMware NSX is that it uses up more resources and is heavy on the network. What I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is more automation."
"The feature it can improve is essentially application-based load balancing with intelligent load distribution for applications that require redundancy and high availability."
"I would like them to make integration with other vendors easier."
"Occasionally the licensing is not very clear. They should make it easier to understand."
Cisco DNA Center is ranked 1st in Network Automation with 37 reviews while VMware NSX is ranked 4th in Network Automation with 93 reviews. Cisco DNA Center is rated 7.8, while VMware NSX is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Cisco DNA Center writes "Practical implementation of VXLAN is good and provides centralized control". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VMware NSX writes "Allows for seamless micro-segmentation and the support is exceptional". Cisco DNA Center is most compared with Cisco Prime, Aruba Airwave, SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager, Huawei eSight and Apstra Operating System, whereas VMware NSX is most compared with Nutanix Flow Network Security, Illumio, Cisco ACI, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation and Check Point CloudGuard Network Security. See our Cisco DNA Center vs. VMware NSX report.
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