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Selva Subramaniam - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Analyst at a media company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 5
Helps with management and orchestration but needs improvement in configuration management
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution helps with the management and orchestration of campaigns. It helps with visibility and analytics. I also like its SDA configuration."
  • "Cisco DNA Center should improve its configuration management. It is better to have a dev version before pushing it."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution as a management platform for campaign work. 

What is most valuable?

The solution helps with the management and orchestration of campaigns. It helps with visibility and analytics. I also like its SDA configuration. 

What needs improvement?

Cisco DNA Center should improve its configuration management. It is better to have a dev version before pushing it. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product for the last two years. 

Buyer's Guide
Cisco DNA Center
March 2025
Learn what your peers think about Cisco DNA Center. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,690 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the tool's stability a six out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate Cisco DNA Center's scalability a five out of ten. 

How was the initial setup?

Cisco DNA Center's installation is complex. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Cisco DNA Center is too expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate the product a six out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Tech Specialist, Client Network DeliveryTech at AT&T
Real User
A network controller with a useful hardware configuration feature, but tech support could be better
Pros and Cons
  • "I like that we can easily configure any new hardware. It's also easy to deploy and easy to troubleshoot."
  • "Technical support could be better. The price could be better, and it could be more stable."

What is our primary use case?

I used Cisco DNA Center for LAN automation for the DnaC.

What is most valuable?

I like that we can easily configure any new hardware. It's also easy to deploy and easy to troubleshoot.

What needs improvement?

Technical support could be better. The price could be better, and it could be more stable.

For how long have I used the solution?

I used Cisco DNA Center for about a year while working with two organizations on a freelance basis.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco DNA Center could be more stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Cisco DNA Center is okay.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give scalability a seven.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is also struggling because it's a new product. They are not hundred percent sure about it. For example, it took them one week to fine-tune this appliance with the help of Cisco tech support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup isn't straightforward. It was a painful deployment. We have a couple of tickets with Cisco tags to be deployed because this is an unstable product. This is because it's tough to integrate with Cisco ISE which was running on the VM appliance, it was excruciating. Another common issue is that the end-use could not detect an IP address or authenticate it after we integrated it, on the branch side we are using Cisco Catalyst 9500/9300/9200 Series Switches.

The challenging part is that it has to be deployed on a standard load and integrated with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE). I'm not sure why they have used Cisco ISE for authentication. It should be deployed and not integrated.

What about the implementation team?

I implemented this solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price could be better. It's a very expensive tool.

What other advice do I have?

I would tell potential users not to buy Cisco DNA Center as it's a considerable expense that isn't worthwhile.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Cisco DNA Center a seven.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Cisco DNA Center
March 2025
Learn what your peers think about Cisco DNA Center. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,690 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer2178027 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 5
Stable product with essential security features
Pros and Cons
  • "Cisco DNA Center provides operational support, compliance support, security vulnerability detection, and automatic scheduling."
  • "They should include UTM features in the product."

What is our primary use case?

The availability endpoint is in the Cisco DNA Center dashboard, which allows us to push configurations and address compliance issues to all devices on Cisco network from a single location.

What is most valuable?

Cisco DNA Center provides operational support, compliance support, security vulnerability detection, and automatic scheduling.

What needs improvement?

They should include UTM features in the product. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco DNA Center for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support services need improvement.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Negative

How was the initial setup?

Cisco DNA Center can be deployed as a server or an appliance. It is up to you to choose which one meets the requirements. DNA Center can manage various endpoints, automatically adding new devices to DNS and integrating them with other Cisco devices. To do this, the DNA Center must be able to access the Cisco website. Therefore, this box should have internet connectivity with support for the Cisco website. DNA Center will then fetch the 802.1x authentication and client deployment information from the website and automatically deploy it to the box. It will take at least one or two days to do with automated and manual. We need to check both sides so that it's covering entire devices. Its maintenance is easy as well.

What other advice do I have?

Cisco DNA Center is a good product. There could be more features added to the dashboard. Overall, I rate it a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Aymen FHOULA - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Administrator at Banque de l'Habitat Tunisie
Real User
Top 10
It's a scalable but costly tool for managing networks
Pros and Cons
  • "DNA Center is scalable."
  • "There are some software problems from version to version. It takes a long time for DNA Center to recognize the video and control access devices."

What is our primary use case?

I use DNA Center for network administration. Four people in the IT department use this solution.

What needs improvement?

There are some software problems from version to version. It takes a long time for DNA Center to recognize the video and control access devices.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used Cisco DNA Center for about one year.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

DNA Center is scalable. 

How are customer service and support?

At the first level of Cisco support, no one can give you a solution, but the second level can help you.

What about the implementation team?

A third-party integrator installed DNA Center for us.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Cisco's suite is expensive. The full solution, including DNA Center, costs more than a million US dollars for a five-year license.

What other advice do I have?

I rate DNA Center seven out of 10, but it's not accessible to all companies who would benefit from the solution.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Olajide Olusegun - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Team Lead at Atlas Security
MSP
Top 5Leaderboard
It gives good visibility on all network devices (switches, routers, waps, and so on) within a network infrastructure from a single page on the dashboard, and its reporting is fantastic
Pros and Cons
  • "The best feature of Cisco DNA Center is the visibility page, where you can see everything on the dashboard, and you don't have to be a technical person to view the issues."
  • "What I want to see in Cisco DNA Center in the future is more support for other platforms so that you can manage third-party products, such as Fortinet."

What is our primary use case?

We deploy the Cisco DNA Center through Cisco Prime Migration, and we use Cisco DNA Center to monitor all the wired connections, endpoints, and switches such as access switches, data center switches, and routers. We also manage the wireless access points through the Cisco DNA Center.

We get reports on availability, health, manageability, logs, and critical errors. We monitor and maintain all the network devices using the solution.

How has it helped my organization?

We deploy DNAC for customers who want to manage and monitor all their Cisco Advantage licensed network devices. 

What is most valuable?

The best feature of Cisco DNA Center is the visibility page, which is unavailable in Cisco Prime. You can see everything on a single plane of glass on the dashboard, and you don't have to be a technical person to view different data and statistics. For example, you can see the issue alarms, errors, topology, and availability. So the tool gives you good visibility into all that's happening within your network infra. It also provides visibility into your computing environment. Application and performance analytics in huge detail is available in the DNA center.

The reporting is fantastic in both Cisco Prime and Cisco DNA Center, so I rate that feature a nine out of ten. My company migrated clients to the Cisco DNA Center, and the reporting is incredible.

What needs improvement?

Fresh deployments is not easy to set.

During single-node deployment, you must configure the node as if it is in a cluster.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Cisco DNA Center for two years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco DNA Center is a very stable tool.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very scalable.

How are customer service and support?

We have had a very great TAC support experience on Cisco DNA center.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Cisco Prime. DNAC is much more intuitive and better.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup for Cisco DNA Center is more complicated compared to Cisco Prime.

What about the implementation team?

We had an in-house deployment.

What other advice do I have?

My company uses Cisco DNA Center.

I'd tell anyone planning to use Cisco DNA Center to use it, especially when you have Cisco products or devices, such as wireless, security, and voice. Cisco DNA Center is the best product for  network monitoring and management. You can use Cisco Prime, but I prefer Cisco DNA Center because the visibility available there. You can see almost all information on a single page of the dashboard. If you have a Cisco environment, it's best to go for Cisco DNA Center.

I would give Cisco DNA Center an eight out of ten overall.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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PeerSpot user
Senior Network Engineer at a museum or institution with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Top 5
Helps monitor devices and get the required information, but the dashboard is complicated
Pros and Cons
  • "We can monitor all devices and get the required information using the product."
  • "The solution needs to improve the dashboard."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for location tracking. We have to monitor the traffic in our environment since we have more than 3000 visitors per day.

What is most valuable?

We can monitor all devices and get the required information using the product.

What needs improvement?

The solution needs to improve the dashboard. The dashboard is very difficult to understand for someone using it for the first time. We took around two months to connect our environment to Cisco.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for six months.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The network team uses the solution in our organization.

How are customer service and support?

When we struggled to connect our environment to the solution, we raised the issue thrice. However, the team was not able to resolve our issue. Finally, we figured out that we had to upgrade our wireless controller and install the proper certificate. I am not happy with the support.

What other advice do I have?

Cisco should invest some resources to educate the users about the product. Overall, I rate the solution a six and a half out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Chandrasekhar Rao Gajarao - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Architect at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
Real User
The data centers are mainly on-premise enterprise environments
Pros and Cons
  • "Cisco is a leading network company."
  • "From the recent DNA point of view, there are some stability challenges with Cisco, but very minor."

What is our primary use case?

I am a solution architect. I design for the data center and I also write technical presentations.

What is most valuable?

Cisco is a leading network company. Every organization uses networks and data centers. The data centers are mainly on-premise enterprise environments.

For how long have I used the solution?

Cisco has been used in our organization for 14 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

From the recent DNA point of view, there are some stability challenges with Cisco, but very minor. 

How are customer service and support?

I have not worked with Cisco technical support for over three years. From my experience, Cisco support is available. They have their own SMEs in each area. There is a gap in between the information shared between Cisco and the technical teams. Cisco should provide a clear view of what has caused the problem when they do the RCA. By providing more information, we can be more proactive and do the upgrades if it is impacting security compliance.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

We have been using Cisco for so many years that setup is straightforward. The DNA solutions are there and SD-Access is in place. With these, we have come to zero touch provisioning. Deployment is easier than it was five or six years ago. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We have a large Cisco portfolio in our organization. We have a three-year license with them.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution a seven out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Joni Saputro - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at Packet System Indonesia
Real User
Top 5
Automates workflows and deployments across disparate systems in order to streamline operations across domains
Pros and Cons
  • "The automation features are significant, reducing configuration time. This means outstanding functionality. By deploying the controller automatically, the rest becomes automated"
  • "When it comes to deploying wireless fields, integrating defaults into the DNS interface can be challenging."

What is our primary use case?

It can assess traditional networks.

What is most valuable?

The automation features are significant and reduce configuration time. This means outstanding functionality. By deploying the controller automatically, the rest becomes automated.

What needs improvement?

When it comes to deploying wireless fields, integrating defaults into the DNS interface can be challenging.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have experience with Cisco DNA Center.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In the dashboard, we observe that the integration with IT is functional. However, when inspecting the system, we encounter occasional errors in the desktop.I would rate it 8 out of 10.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate it 8 out of 10.

How was the initial setup?

Deployment is not difficult; it could take approximately a day to complete, assuming we have all the necessary information and the initial email from Cisco.

What about the implementation team?

Maintenance can be challenging because we're unsure about the number of applications utilized in the studio.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I would rate it 7 in terms of pricing.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco DNA Center Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco DNA Center Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.