Cisco Intersight vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

Cisco and VMware are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Cisco is ranked #18 with an average rating of 8.0, while VMware is ranked #17 with an average rating of 9.0. Cisco holds a 2.3% mindshare in IM, compared to VMware’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Cisco Intersight

Read 11 Cisco Intersight reviews

2,709 Views
2,199 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

vRealize Network Insight

Read 45 vRealize Network Insight reviews

1,082 Views
632 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Cisco Intersight

vRealize Network Insight

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

vRealize Network Insight and Cisco Intersight compete in the enterprise network management and cloud management categories. While vRealize is noted for its strong network insight capabilities, Cisco Intersight appears to have an advantage in comprehensive cloud management with its hybrid capabilities.

Features: vRealize Network Insight provides comprehensive log analysis across hypervisors and virtual servers, network visualization, and aids in network troubleshooting and microsegmentation. It excels in tracking data flows and optimizing firewall rules. Cisco Intersight integrates cloud management with hybrid capabilities, supports Kubernetes, and offers detailed insights into data center operations.

Room for Improvement: vRealize Network Insight needs better integration, more intuitive interfaces, and improved support for third-party products, with pricing and advanced analytics being areas of concern. Cisco Intersight users desire expanded automation, improved hybrid cloud management, and deeper integration with non-Cisco products.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: vRealize Network Insight is primarily deployed on-premises, praised for intuitive setup with strong VMware technical support, though initial challenges are noted. Cisco Intersight supports on-premises, public, and hybrid clouds, providing flexibility. Its technical support is well-regarded but could benefit from more in-depth assistance across platforms.

Pricing and ROI: vRealize Network Insight is considered costly but offers significant ROI through reduced troubleshooting and optimized deployments. Cisco Intersight, while expensive, provides value with competitive pricing and no extra fees for basic monitoring, ensuring efficient data center management and streamlined operations.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Intersight vs. vRealize Network Insight Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Intersight vs. vRealize Network Insight

January 2025

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Helped 831,158 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Intersight

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

18th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Management (12th)

vRealize Network Insight

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

17th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (21st)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Cisco Intersight is 2.3%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vRealize Network Insight is 0.5%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

David Fartouk

CTO at Trust-IT Solutions

Helps know whether a solution is deployed correctly, but the automation capabilities are difficult to use

We used the solution's automation capabilities, but it wasn’t easy. It was part of why we took some time to deploy the solution. It didn't give us much value. It wasn't that good. Intersight is a pretty complex solution. It can give you a lot of things, but nothing is simple. The usability must be better.

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NiteshKumar1

Principle consultant at Infosys

The tool's configuration is easy and artifacts are easily accessible through professional services and the web

The product is highly regarded, and many customers have been using it along with other VMware products like vSphere and VMware vCloud Usage Insight. However, recently, there's been a trend among customers, especially those using VMware for a considerable period, to explore the potential of migrating to the public cloud. The common concern among these customers is how the VMware products will perform in the public cloud environment. Migrating instances from VMware to different platforms is not easy, especially when dealing with many instances across multiple customers. Customers are keen to maintain the functionality of their existing VMware products but prefer to run them on the public cloud instead of on-premise servers. Our clients for vRealize Network Insight are enterprise businesses. I rate it a nine out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Our organization uses Cisco Intersight since it helps manage our physical infrastructure."

"What I like most about Cisco Intersight is its manageability."

"Provides an overall view using a single portal."

"Intersight can validate our environment."

"We enjoy having an inside view of all the data centers and all the EdgeX nodes within a single portal rather than going into the EdgeX connections one by one."

"The product has good integration."

"The tool helps to manage Cisco servers."

"It offers visibility and optimization of workloads, which are very important features for a company."

More Cisco Intersight pros

"A lot of time is saved when you use this type of software solution for the network. We have moved systems into the new data center and the servers and systems are much faster because of the very low latency between virtual machines."

"With this product, we can precisely identify communication patterns between virtual machines within our data center, whether it's east-east or east-west communication."

"We're a smaller company so it automates a lot of the tasks and lets us focus in on building out our own solution. It's quicker, there is less building of manual solutions, and less downtime. It allows our developers to quickly develop, get provisioning done, de-provisioning, etc; the stuff that you would expect to be able to make it streamlined."

"It gives the visibility that was either broken or there in pieces only. This solution provides a unified view of the whole system, back and forth. It has helped to reduce time to value, increase performance, more easily manage networks, and provide deep visibility."

"The most valuable feature is the visualization. It's really handy to be able to classify network objects as with applications and see the interaction between them."

"The automation collects all the relationships between servers, allowing us to visualize these relationships and organize the migration into waves."

"Also, the ability to troubleshoot all the way across the NSX part of it to the physical and actually watch the packets go through and then see where the bottleneck is or where the interruption is. We run queries on the network flows within the application to find where they are in it and it graphically tells us how the packets are actually going through the system."

"The initial setup was straightforward."

More vRealize Network Insight pros

Cons

"The product could be easy to use."

"The product's setup should be easier."

"Technical support from Cisco has been mixed. For complex issues, it's challenging to get the right engineer quickly unless you have a specific contract like CX."

"Cisco Intersight needs some improvement in terms of stability. Hybrid cloud management and proper hyperscaler tie-up are other areas for improvement."

"The usability must be better."

"In the future, the solution needs to plan on an extension to cover a broader range of objects since, at present, there are some Cisco devices within the range of Intersight UCS that it can't manage."

"When new features are added, the service becomes full of bugs."

"The solution needs some enhancement in order to build the cluster in two nodes."

More Cisco Intersight cons

"While it's not exactly a feature, what normally happens when we are trying to look at the VM flow portion is - although Network Insight does have options to integrate a few physical switches into it - we can't really get an end-to-end flow of the network. We might be using a few switches that are not supported by Network Insight. That is where they can improve, in the support for more physical switches and network devices."

"I would like to see them expand the capabilities to infrastructure types other than just VMware."

"I want to see more in terms of microsegmentation. As of now, I can see the rules, but they are not in a readable format that I can convert to microsegmentation and can fit into NSX Manager."

"After you use it for a little while you become accustomed to it but the layout doesn't feel very intuitive. You have to dig around and find the exact place where you can find the information, where you can actually see your east-west traffic, etc. I would like them to bring that information more to the forefront, instead of having to find it."

"It just needs to be more reliable and more accurate. At some point, there are some things where it does not match properly."

"There's enough information there, especially in the visualizations, but I would love to see this in a kiosk mode, where I could have a dashboard for interested stakeholders to see and appreciate what's going on. Then, moving on to a more practical level for our Help Desk, our operations team could benefit by seeing, in real-time, a visual view of the network."

"The only reason I would not give it a nine or a 10 is for cost reasons. It seems to be one of those things that really belongs as part of the product inherently and not as an add-on. That would be my only concern."

"I would like to see more reporting features, more dashboards."

More vRealize Network Insight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You can get a free license for monitoring but need to purchase a license if you need extra control."

"It's just the standard licensing cost. There are no additional fees."

"The product is cost-effective."

"Cisco Intersight is not cheap, but it's not the most expensive product either."

"Cisco Intersight has competitive pricing. On a scale of one to five, my rating for its pricing is four."

"I rate vRealize Network Insight's pricing a seven point five out of ten."

"It's an expensive product because we have a lot of nodes."

"They should include the product in NSX because it's important to have it for deployment."

"It's a little expensive, but for what you're getting out of the product, you often see the trade-off. It depends on the type of licensing you have. It might be a little too pricey for some."

"We have spent less time investigating network flows, so it is absolutely cost-effective."

"vRealize Network Insight is expensive."

"The solution has reduced the time that we spend on other products. For example, with NSX, we were able to quickly find things that we would normally spend days trying to figure out."

"The solution has helped us to reduce time, increase performance, reduce costs, and even easily manage networks. We are probably seeing 10 to 20 percent labor savings because we are able to be very specific and focused on what we want to do. It ends up saving the customer money and makes us be more efficient on our cost deliveries."

More vRealize Network Insight pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

40%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Intersight?

Intersight can validate our environment.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco Intersight?

More products should be made compatible with iWORK, including more software and hardware. There is also a need to increase the number of partners.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cisco Intersight?

The most common use case was the HyperFlex deployment in the past. However, with HyperFlex being discontinued, I now focus my efforts on selling Intersight with iWORK Waterlog Optimizer. This is va...

See all answers

What do you like most about vRealize Network Insight?

The tool's ease of configuration and use and the availability of information and artifacts through professional services and the web are key factors that customers find valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vRealize Network Insight?

The sales team often complains about the cost whenever we need to quote vRealize Network.

See all answers

What needs improvement with vRealize Network Insight?

Since Broadcom acquired VMware, it has been experiencing challenges. Many sales processes are not well defined. They can show a little bit more information because vRealize Network Insight is virtu...

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco UCS Manager vs Cisco Intersight

Compared 45% of the time

IBM Turbonomic vs Cisco Intersight

Compared 8% of the time

HPE OneView vs Cisco Intersight

Compared 7% of the time

VMware Aria Operations vs Cisco Intersight

Compared 7% of the time

Dell CloudIQ vs Cisco Intersight

Compared 6% of the time

More Cisco Intersight Competitors

ThousandEyes vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 17% of the time

AppNeta by Broadcom vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 13% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 12% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 9% of the time

DX Spectrum vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 9% of the time

More vRealize Network Insight Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Intersight

January 2025

Download Cisco Intersight product report

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

December 2024

Download vRealize Network Insight product report

Also Known As

Intersight

Arkin

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Cisco

VMware

Overview

Cisco Intersight is Cisco’s systems management platform that delivers intuitive computing through cloud-powered intelligence. This platform offers a more intelligent level of management that enables IT organizations to analyze, simplify, and automate their environments in ways that were not possible with prior generations of tools. This capability empowers organizations to achieve significant savings in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and to deliver applications faster, so they can support new business initiates. The advantages of the model-based management of the Cisco UCS platform plus Cisco Intersight are extended to Cisco UCS servers and Cisco HyperFlex and Cisco HyperFlex Edge systems. Cisco HyperFlex Edge is optimized for remote sites, branch offices, and edge environments.

VMware vRealize Network Insight delivers intelligent operations for software-defined networking and security. It helps customers build an optimized, highly-available and secure network infrastructure across multi-cloud environments. It accelerates micro-segmentation planning and deployment, enables visibility across virtual and physical networks and provides operational views to manage and scale VMware NSX deployments.

Sample Customers

EXMAR, RapidScale

NTTi3, VCIX-NV, VMware Networking and Security Business Unit, Illumio, CompuNet

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Intersight vs. vRealize Network Insight

January 2025

Free Report: Cisco Intersight vs. vRealize Network Insight

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Intersight vs. vRealize Network Insight and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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