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Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Juniper Mist Premium Analytics
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (59th)
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabri...
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (23rd)
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic ...
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Network Monitoring Software
Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)
 

Featured Reviews

Shiva_Prasad - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 25, 2024
A cloud solution for warehousing with a troubleshooting feature
The initial setup is straightforward. It's based on user requirements. We also conduct heat mapping using a couple of tools. The only requirement is to understand the technical or configuration aspects from the user's end and then configure it. Mist takes no more than 15 to 20 minutes for a particular deployment. You need to understand the end user's environment and have a concrete plan on whether it's a greenfield installation or an existing one, considering the density and height. Based on that, we need to develop a passive heat map. Then, you need to discuss with the user to understand exactly what needs to be configured and what they require in their environment. Based on that, you can proceed with the installation. Additionally, you can perform post-installation heat mapping to ensure it matches the earlier heat map. I rate the initial setup an eight out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.
Olajide Olusegun - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 5, 2024
Easy to deploy, stable, scalable and best data center manager for your infra.
The reporting is not very intuitive and has room for improvement. I opened a case with Cisco regarding the DCNM report, however, they were unable to help me. The report comes in the form of a programmable report, which requires high-level knowledge of Python and JSON script. As I was in a meeting and had to present the report, I had to settle for generating an Excel sheet to showcase the data. Unfortunately, this was not well-received as they expected a more detailed report. In order to identify any issues in the data center, we must thoroughly examine a variety of components such as links, errors, SSPs, supervisor engines, power supply, and more. Forty of each element need to be examined.
HY
Jul 12, 2024
Provides more insights like spikes or the time interval and helps with troubleshooting processes
The product is the response. SolarWinds team's response when there is an issue with the responsiveness to address some of the issues is very slow. And also, if I have a priority issue that needs to be fixed, they don't understand the customer's pain. They go their own way of doing things. They don't understand the customer's pain. Second, they don't assess the impact. If my monitoring system is not available, maybe something is not getting monitored, or I am unable to pull some availability reports. Maybe I'm unable to analyze it. They don't understand the impact of that unavailability on the business users. This is the only source of truth where I can go ahead and talk to my business and say that, hey, it is not because of XYZ, but because of this reason. Maybe there could be a possibility that business might be running heavy app job schedules, which might have impacted the network traffic during business hours. If I want to point that out, I need this tool to be available. I'm not saying it should be 100% available, but at least if there is an issue, people should understand and react. There should be some sense of urgency. This product has a lot more capabilities. If SolarWinds is focused more on how the industry is trending toward creating some dashboards and user-friendly dashboards or a little bit of customization. I guess SolarWinds has more capabilities. The representation might require a little bit of a tweak because SolarWinds has been in the industry for a longer time. But due to responsiveness of the support and the features. The product is coming up with a lot of features, but the navigation or the way it is being perceived by the customers is not right because of a lack of documentation or the lack of responsiveness as well as a lack of dashboards, especially on the dashboards. When I use a monitoring tool, it is a single source of truth. If I need to run an NOC or a SOC, it is the only dashboard I can look at, my Analyzer or my technical teams. But that single pane of view is not reversible. Many customers where I have seen it integrate this with either an open source like Grafana or some Power BI to have their own way of giving the dashboards. That is not necessary because if I compare it with other products, they have their own dashboards, which I can customize, but that's not the case with SolarWinds.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We can manage the entire system across the network and troubleshoot the pain points."
"The single dashboard is a valuable feature."
"It uses push technology, which pushes the changes to all relevant devices to ensure they are updated accordingly."
"The feature I find most valuable, is the stability of the solution."
"I like running the scripts. With the help of a Python script, we deployed within the configuration and built up the code."
"The product makes the management of our environment simpler."
"The automation capability is more than enough. It depends on how we consider and integrate the automation engine. We need to ensure the automation engine and then how to perform it. It depends on the policy making, API integration, and other integrations."
"We use the product to manage access points."
"Automation of the ILS."
"It has a very nice dashboard so you can see what's currently happening in the network and the performance of the back story."
"For managing the traffic, it provides you a response about whether the traffic is down, up, or heavy, which is a very powerful feature. It has a good response time. We have been using this solution for many years, and we don't have any problem with this solution."
"NTA's most valuable feature is traffic analysis and visibility."
"The most valuable features are the bandwidth analyzer, the monitoring, the network analyzer, it has overall good performance, and an easy deployment."
"What people found most valuable in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is its report customization feature."
"What my organization likes best about SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is its easy deployment. It's also well-integrated in terms of monitoring because my organization also uses a SolarWinds solution for monitoring. You can connect SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer directly to that monitoring tool to get information. My organization also finds the default graphs that appear before the configuration in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer very useful."
"With SolarWinds, we are now able to accurately gauge bandwidth consumption."
"It is great at telling you if your devices are working and it keeps an eye on your network's overall performance."
"I can point out the exact root cause 'why.' If there is a slowness, I can point out what was before the issue or before the slowness, what it is, and what is now."
 

Cons

"The Wi-Fi side needs improvement."
"The technical support needs improvement."
"The delivery Cisco Data Center Network Manager could improve if it was easier. Additionally, some feature improvement is needed."
"It's very costly."
"The solution needs to improve reports."
"The tool's pricing strategy could be improved to compete more effectively in the market, especially against competitors like Huawei, Aruba, and Juniper."
"The automation feature could be improved."
"The initial setup is challenging."
"One of the biggest challenges is that we aren't always able to push the configuration onto the target device. Whenever this happens, we have to do a factory reset, put on the script, and then reconfigure it again. In the next release, I would like to have a troubleshooting feature."
"The configuration is too complicated and you have to create templates and use a lot of menus."
"NTA's documentation for the implementation phase needs some enhancement."
"Customer Support is quite complex."
"Technical support could be improved with quicker response times."
"The pricing is expensive."
"One area that we struggle with is the price. Because the price of this solution is so high, we are largely unable to introduce it into the local market, and only the banking sector has the means to afford it."
"An area for improvement in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is the dashboarding. The user interface also has room for improvement because it's currently clunky."
"The price of the solution is a bit high for our clients. They should consider adjusting their price model."
"This solution would benefit from having more security-based communications between the actual devices and the software itself."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"When we purchase a Nexus box, the MDS CM license comes with it."
"We usually opt for a yearly plan, commonly for three or five years upfront. Some customers may not utilize all the features included in the product, and this can lead to them paying for functionalities they don't need."
"I would say that the pricing offers great value for the money."
"The product is licensed with contracts that work on a yearly basis rather than a monthly model."
"The solution is very expensive."
"On average, Data Center Network Manager's pricing isn't too costly unless you choose a premier license."
"The price of Cisco Data Center Network Manager is expensive compared to other vendors on the market."
"The tool is always expensive, but their service, product quality, and support are good. We're happy with it, but it's still an expensive solution. There are cheaper alternatives but no similar platform across all domains."
"I don't have information on the licensing cost for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer because it's bundled with another SolarWinds solution. My organization has seven different models and pays for the license yearly. My organization also had to deploy additional pollers, but the cost wasn't very expensive, though I can't give the exact numbers."
"SolarWinds' pricing structure is the primary reason why some customers opt for another solution such as ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer. In NTA, you are charged per port, meaning that if you have a 24-port switch you will be charged for 24 individual nodes. ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer, on the other hand, charges per switch, such that if you add a switch, the entire switch will count as one single node."
"While the pricing is fair, it could be better."
"The price of this solution is exceptional."
"Pricing for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is very high. I have a customer that needs the solution but doesn't have the budget for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer because the problem is that you can't use the solution only. You have to buy requirements such as the SolarWinds NPM first, and some companies don't have the budget for all the required components and modules. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer can cost up to $10,000, and some customers don't have that budget. Another product has all the modules that SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer has, with a very low price, that can be a replacement, which is ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer. PRTG is another solution that can replace SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer."
"The licensing for this solution is based on the number of nodes."
"NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is reasonably priced."
"We have licenses for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer. In terms of pricing, its license is not that expensive versus other tools such as HP."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
24%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
68%
Computer Software Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Government
3%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Juniper Mist Premium Analytics?
We can manage the entire system across the network and troubleshoot the pain points.
What do you like most about Cisco Data Center Network Manager?
It uses push technology, which pushes the changes to all relevant devices to ensure they are updated accordingly.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Data Center Network Manager?
We usually opt for a yearly plan, commonly for three or five years upfront. Some customers may not utilize all the fe...
What needs improvement with Cisco Data Center Network Manager?
It's very costly. Most of our customers are actually looking for other cost-effective solutions. Even if it has very ...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
I have worked from 1973 with all kind of systems in large enterprises across the world. And have experience with all ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?
The pricing is great. I would rate the pricing a three out of ten, where ten is the most expensive and one is cheap.
What needs improvement with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?
The product is the response. SolarWinds team's response when there is an issue with the responsiveness to address som...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Cisco Data Center Network Manager
Netflow Traffic Analyzer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Banco de Guayaquil, Cox Communications, Kuwait Petroleum Italia, Roper St. Francis, University of British Columbia
Oceaneering International, Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, 335th Signal Command, Immofori
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer and other solutions. Updated: September 2020.
802,829 professionals have used our research since 2012.