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DX Spectrum Reviews

Vendor: Broadcom
4.2 out of 5
Badge Ranked 1
2,557 followers
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What is DX Spectrum?

DX Spectrum is a complete event and fault management system for network operations teams. The tool provides powerful capabilities for managing your dynamic, complex IT infrastructure, which includes physical, virtual, and cloud environments.The technology allows you to manage and optimize the infrastructure and the professional services that operate on top of it. DX Spectrum is a unified platform that helps your company enhance network service levels while lowering monitoring costs.

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DX Spectrum is the #1 ranked solution in top DX NetOps solutions, #6 ranked solution in top Network Management Applications, #6 ranked solution in top Network Troubleshooting solutions, #20 ranked solution in Infrastructure Monitoring tools, and #21 ranked solution in best Network Monitoring Tools. PeerSpot users give DX Spectrum an average rating of 8.4 out of 10. DX Spectrum is most commonly compared to DX Performance Management: DX Spectrum vs DX Performance Management. DX Spectrum is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 75% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a financial services firm, accounting for 19% of all views.
Buyer's Guide
DX Spectrum
March 2025
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DX Spectrum mindshare

Product category:
DX NetOps
As of March 2025, the mindshare of DX Spectrum in the DX NetOps category stands at 32.5%, down from 41.9% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
DX NetOps

PeerAnalyst reports based on DX Spectrum reviews

TypeTitleDate
ProductReviews, tips, and advice from real usersMar 8, 2025Download
ComparisonDX Spectrum vs DX Performance ManagementMar 8, 2025Download
ComparisonDX Spectrum vs AppNeta by BroadcomMar 8, 2025Download
Suggested products
TitleRatingMindshareRecommending
DX Performance Management4.137.5%96%32 interviewsAdd to research
 
 
Key learnings from peers

Valuable Features

DX Spectrum's most valuable features include scalability, reliability, alarm management, and fault isolation. It excels in network topology views and device monitoring with extensive integration capabilities. It supports SNMP traps, auto-discovery, and robust event correlation. Users appreciate its intuitive GUI, flexibility, customizability, and seamless integration with CA Service Desk. Its advanced capabilities for root-cause analysis and topology mapping enhance network management efficiency. Its ability for global collections and SANM notifications provides exceptional device management.
  • "The performance manager is very good."
  • "DX Spectrum uses an SNMP Trap to accept all the details, especially for device monitoring of faulty devices, allowing me to use Spectrum effectively."
  • "We use Spectrum for network analysis, failure detection, and sending information to our service management tool."

Room for Improvement

DX Spectrum's usability is hampered by its complex coding and outdated Java interface. The graphical interface and reporting features require modernization and simplification. Integration with third-party tools and other CA products needs refinement. Proactive monitoring is limited, making incident response reactive. The application consumes high resources with limited return. Improvements in alert clearance, MIB management, and better API access are necessary. Documentation and support must be enhanced for easier configuration and reduced operational complexity.
  • "DX Spectrum should have an automatic ticketing mechanism with ServiceNow. I need to use other tools for event management."
  • "DX Spectrum should have an automatic ticketing mechanism with ServiceNow."
  • "Support from Broadcom could be better. Sometimes we wait a very long time for a solution to level three problems."

ROI

DX Spectrum users experience positive ROI through automation, reduced labor costs, and time efficiencies. Some state ROI is between 55% to 75%, while others say it reaches 100%. Automation in monitoring infrastructure leads to faster problem resolution and improved data accuracy. Users appreciate the integration capabilities with other CA IM tools. Organizations benefit from Spectrum's out-of-the-box functionality, which enhances network management and saves time.

Pricing

DX Spectrum's pricing is often seen as high, suitable primarily for large enterprises with extensive infrastructure needs. It employs a device-based licensing model that can be flexible but complex, particularly since Broadcom's acquisition. Enterprise customers find the ROI justifiable despite the cost, recognizing it as a comprehensive solution for managing critical assets. However, for small to mid-sized businesses, the price might be prohibitive, leading them to consider more affordable alternatives.
  • "Spectrum is expensive."
  • "DX Spectrum's pricing is neither expensive nor cheap."
  • "DX Spectrum's pricing depends on the license number. It is affordable."

Popular Use Cases

DX Spectrum is primarily used for fault domain isolation and network monitoring. Organizations value its ability to centralize alerts, perform fault management, and monitor infrastructure. It is crucial in notifying about system issues before they escalate, offering configuration management, and integrating with external monitoring tools. Users emphasize its strong performance in network fault management, allowing proactive resolution of network and service-related issues. It efficiently manages and monitors various network components and devices.

Service and Support

Customers find DX Spectrum's customer service and support varying in quality. Service is often described as exceptional, quick in response, and helpful. However, technical support experiences range widely, from excellent and knowledgeable to inconsistent and sometimes slow. Many appreciate the expertise of the support staff, while others note delays and insufficient solutions to complex issues. Community forums are frequently seen as a valuable supplement to direct support. Support effectiveness can depend on the region.

Deployment

Most found DX Spectrum's initial setup straightforward, often praising its simplicity and robust documentation. Some noted complexity, particularly with Linux or larger environments, requiring technical expertise and possible support. Users appreciated its discovery capabilities but highlighted the need for thorough planning and configuration, especially for complex infrastructures. Many benefited from CA's assistance, while others found the setup intuitive but needing domain knowledge for optimal deployment. Setup ease varied with project size and environment.

Scalability

Organizations expressed confidence in DX Spectrum's scalability capabilities, highlighting its ability to handle large environments and accommodate growth seamlessly. There were positive remarks about its effectiveness with thousands of devices and multiple users. Some described adding new servers as straightforward, with no significant issues reported during expansion. While a few noted challenges with discovering connections, the overall response indicates satisfaction with scalability, ease of deployment, and the ability to meet enterprise needs without encountering significant limitations.

Stability

DX Spectrum is mostly praised for being stable, though some users reported needing restarts or facing challenges during upgrades or in high-capacity scenarios. Memory leaks, database issues, and resource constraints occasionally arise. Most participants highlight Spectrum's reliability, ease of maintenance, and robust design once properly set up. Fault tolerance and high availability are commended, with recent versions noted for improvements in stability. Some attribute issues to incorrect configurations or insufficient hardware.
These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.
Download our DX Spectrum Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.

Review data by company size

By reviewers
By visitors reading reviews

Top industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
7%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
Healthcare Company
5%
Comms Service Provider
4%
Retailer
3%
Construction Company
3%
University
3%
Aerospace/Defense Firm
2%
Real Estate/Law Firm
2%
Non Profit
2%
Insurance Company
2%
Transportation Company
2%
Educational Organization
1%
International Affairs Institute
1%
Pharma/Biotech Company
1%
Recruiting/Hr Firm
1%
Consumer Goods Company
1%
Wholesaler/Distributor
1%
Hospitality Company
1%
Marketing Services Firm
1%
Performing Arts
1%
Recreational Facilities/Services Company
1%
Engineering Company
1%
Wellness & Fitness Company
1%
Media Company
1%

Compare DX Spectrum with alternative products

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Learn more about DX Spectrum

DX Spectrum has intelligent event correlation and root-cause analysis capabilities. It can pinpoint the precise components that are causing issues with availability and network settings. Reports and dashboards can be customized with role-based views. Change management solutions can also be used by teams to govern, track, and remediate changes across network devices.

DX Spectrum can identify multi-technology and multi-vendor stacks, as well as new software-defined networks (SDNs). It supports Multicast, MPLS, VPN, and VRF, among other routing protocols and technologies.

DX Spectrum Features

DX Spectrum has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

  • Service management: DX Spectrum assists personnel in discovering, modeling, visualizing, monitoring, and managing the links between infrastructure and the business services it supports.
  • Fault detection: DX Spectrum offers unique solutions that automate device discovery and root cause analysis, allowing for faster issue detection and resolution.
  • Change management capabilities: DX Spectrum gives administrators the visibility and control they need to prevent erroneous modifications from causing network performance problems and outages.
  • Comprehensive visibility: With DX Spectrum, managers can receive comprehensive insight across physical, virtualized, and cloud environments, as well as a variety of technologies, platforms, and suppliers.
  • Customization: DX Spectrum provides administrators, users, and customers with pre-packaged, easily configurable dashboards and reports that may be adjusted to their individual needs. For maximum performance and visibility, it is intimately connected with other solutions within the DX Service Assurance and DX Service Management systems.

DX Spectrum Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing DX Spectrum. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

  • Reduce symptomatic alarms and hasten resolution with DX Spectrum’s root-cause analysis and robust event correlation. Automatically map the relationships between your network infrastructure to find the source of service issues for faster resolution. Whether it's a network configuration or availability issue, our network fault management system pinpoints the exact component responsible for the issue.
  • DX Spectrum supports network access from wireless wearables, mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. Provide network operators with the tools they need to manage their wireless networks, decrease outages, and make them as stable as their wired networks. For wired and wireless networks, DX Spectrum offers a unified view.
  • Fault and event management can be integrated across the Agile Ops, Network Operations, and Analytics portfolios. Fault, inventory, and topology knowledge are combined with performance, application, and log monitoring and a unified view across a full-stack NetOps solution. Additional connections include business service and service desk management.

Reviews from Real Users

DX Spectrum stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its robust root cause analysis and its event correlation tool. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

Umair A., Enterprise Solutions & Services Head at Duroob Technologies, writes of the product, “It covers networks very well. It has all the capabilities that you're looking for when it comes to monitoring. Spectrum is great for root cause analysis. It has excellent correlation event management. Spectrum's stability and scalability are also amazing. If you have a CA Service Desk, then it can be integrated so that if you have open tickets they can be closed automatically.”

Itarchit, an IT Architect at a comms service provider, notes, “The most valuable feature is the event correlation mechanism. I also like the product's multi-customer approach.” He adds, “We haven't seen a better product. Overall, I am happy with this solution. Based on the current market, I would rate DX Spectrum a nine out of ten.”

DX Spectrum was previously known as CA Spectrum.

DX Spectrum customers

National Informatics Centre India, Banese, Olympus, AlphaServe Technologies, Sicredi

Related questions

  • 3
When evaluating DX NetOps, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?

Product Categories

Product Categories
DX NetOps
Network Management Applications
Network Monitoring Software
IT Infrastructure Monitoring
Network Troubleshooting

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons
DX Performance Management vs DX Spectrum Logo
DX Performance Management vs DX Spectrum
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DX Spectrum reviews

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PeerSpot user
Diplom Informatiker at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
Verified user of DX Spectrum
Jun 30, 2024
We have not had any downtime since we started using it and automate processes, especially in error detection

Pros

"We use Spectrum for network analysis, failure detection, and sending information to our service management tool. "

Cons

"Support from Broadcom could be better. Sometimes we wait a very long time for a solution to level three problems."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use DX Spectrum for network monitoring, deep analysis, and root cause analysis. It is also used for error detection and sending events to SOI, an add-on product from Broadcom. These events are then forwarded to our service management tool, SC3. 

What is most valuable?

The best thing about Spectrum is its stability. We have not had any downtime since we started using it. It has been consistently up and running without any priority one errors. It is also very quick.

*Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Read full review (666 words)
BC
Service Delivery Manager at Vvolve management consultants
Verified user of DX Spectrum
Jan 26, 2025
Comprehensive device monitoring enhances operational efficiency

Pros

"DX Spectrum uses an SNMP Trap to accept all the details, especially for device monitoring of faulty devices, allowing me to use Spectrum effectively. "

Cons

"DX Spectrum should have an automatic ticketing mechanism with ServiceNow."

What is our primary use case?

I am not working for cellular. I am a service provider. I am using all these tools for the UK customers.

What is most valuable?

DX Spectrum uses an SNMP Trap to accept all the details, especially for device monitoring of faulty devices, allowing me to use Spectrum effectively. 

DX Spectrum focuses more on device monitoring. It has a dashboard and a lighting mechanism. The performance manager is very good. It has thresholds and everything, and it shows the overall network health. It scans all the devices through the network via NSM. 

DX Network integrates with DX Net apps. The DX Net apps include all kinds of dashboards and integrate with event management tools, network tools, and all these tools from Broadcom. I am actively working on it. We completed earlier stages, and we are implementing almost more than eighty percent. It has many features. It has observability, automatic analysis, predictions, and everything.

*Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Read full review (461 words)
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Find out what your peers are saying about DX Spectrum. Updated March 2025
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PeerSpot user
Manager IT at New York Presbyterian Hospital
Verified user of DX Spectrum
Dec 15, 2016
Its ability to alert us on network issues before they become critical is a great benefit.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is it’s ability to monitor our network. We have a fairly sizable network with over 4000 nodes. Ultimately, at a hospital, network integrity is a patient care issue, so you want to make sure that the network is up as close to 100% as possible, 24/7 365. Hospitals don't close, so it needs to support that.

How has it helped my organization?

Its ability to alert us on network issues before they become critical is a great benefit. For example, say one of the power supplies on a device that has more than one goes down. Spectrum alerts us so we're aware of it, we can go and take care of the issue. If there are temperature issues, like if closets are hot, or something happens in the data closet, we are forewarned that there could be an issue happening. We can go and address it before anything happens.

The latest release I think is 10.2, and that may still be in beta right now, but we're on the newest version of the software. I don't necessarily know if there's anything in the latest release that has helped us, because we've been using Spectrum for about 5 years now. All the new releases do have their own advantages. I just don't know if we're leveraging any of those in relation to the latest release.

*Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Read full review (984 words)
NR
Solution Architect at Infosys
Verified user of DX Spectrum
Mar 29, 2017
Product version discussed: 10.0.1
The event and fault management features are valuable. It supports NFV.

What is most valuable?

  • Event management
  • Fault management
  • NFV support

How has it helped my organization?

The companies in which I have deployed this solution have benefited in several ways. From the technical perspective, they have a clear picture of their monitored systems and their dependencies. From the business perspective, they have improved MTTR significantly, creating an elevated ROI ratio.

*Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Read full review (327 words)
PeerSpot user
IT Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Verified user of DX Spectrum
Feb 24, 2020
Good monitoring, alerting capabilities, and improved visibility, but AIOps is restricted to Broadcom

Pros

"We were able to standardize the internal processes across all internal departments, resulting in almost an elimination of non-standard process flows through our organization."

Cons

"We want to make our own choice for the AIOps solution and do not want to be forced to use the Broadcom OI solution by default."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for monitoring both service provider networks as well as customer WAN / LAN / VOIP networks, including all kinds of SNMP-based edge devices.

The key solution to be solved is the correlation between all types of messages from all devices. We are receiving more than 1,000,000 SNMP messages a day across many types of domains.

Unifying the solution within our organization created a standard way of working and integration. We needed a centralized redundant solution for all of our domains, which requires an SNMP-based monitoring tool.

How has it helped my organization?

We were able to standardize the internal processes across all internal departments, resulting in almost an elimination of non-standard process flows through our organization.

We were also able to standardize by cross-learning from all teams on how we should configure the monitored elements, align the configuration of the monitoring application, and use the solution such that it created a common understanding of the best practices.

By implementing the automatic service incident, a very strong closed loop is created in the monitoring of the domains.

*Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Read full review (840 words)
UW
Senior Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Verified user of DX Spectrum
Nov 13, 2022
Helps in pinpointing a problem quickly, scales very well, and handles SNMP monitoring better than others

Pros

"The capability of handling and monitoring with SNMP and working with the SNMP traps is much better than other products."

Cons

"There should be better integration with other Broadcom products, like network performance manager. Currently, for every part of a product, you need a separate server environment. You have something for Spectrum, you have something for network performance, and you have something for NetFlow. There are a lot of islands and server farms with different technologies. They should be redeveloped to get one platform for all."

What is our primary use case?

Network monitoring is the most important reason for using it. It is deployed on-prem in our data center.

How has it helped my organization?

The visualization of the network topology is very good. The network operation guys get a much better understanding of the topology of the network. When something fails, it is easy to see who are the neighbors of the devices and what is impacted. This respective correlation is very helpful in limiting or pinpointing a problem.

*Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Read full review (767 words)
PeerSpot user
Senior Network Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Verified user of DX Spectrum
Jul 19, 2022
Comprehensive alerts, beneficial overall network viability, and scalability not limited

Pros

"The most valuable features of DX Spectrum are the comprehensive alerts."

Cons

"DX Spectrum is stable. However, now and then there are some issues, but overall it is good."

What is our primary use case?

DX Spectrum is used in our data center.

The solution notifies you of any type of network equipment, such as switches, or routers, that are down. It lets you know right away on a list of red critical alerts.

As long as you have your devices configured properly on your networks, such as switches or routers, then you're going to receive the alerts.

How has it helped my organization?

DX Spectrum has helped out our organization keep us aware of anything that's down and overall visibility. The previous package of software that we had was not the best, DX Spectrum is an improvement because sometimes we wouldn't get any notifications at all, and now we receive much everything.

*Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Read full review (409 words)
SW
Senior NMS Architect at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Verified user of DX Spectrum
Jan 2, 2018
I can use it to detect whenever things go wrong on my network, but I would like them to eliminate the Java console

Pros

"I can use it to detect whenever things go wrong on my network."

Cons

"We have had one support issue that's been open for a couple of months, and it is currently open."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to monitor the fault of our network to make sure that the infrastructure that delivers our services to our end users is up and all the redundancy is up. 

It performs really well in these tasks. It is one of its core competencies.

How has it helped my organization?

Spectrum is heavily loaded with alarm configuration, so it can detect whenever things go wrong. Things that I didn't even know could go wrong on my network. It picks up on those. I have integrated it into my ITIL management, incident management, change management, and problem management systems, so it feeds right in to my existing processes.

*Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Read full review (1680 words)