Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance vs ThousandEyes comparison

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance and ThousandEyes are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance is ranked #43 with an average rating of 8.0, while ThousandEyes is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.3. Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance holds a 1.0% mindshare in NMS, compared to ThousandEyes’s 3.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of ThousandEyes users who would recommend it.

Cisco Provider Connectivity...

Read 24 Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance reviews

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1,114 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

ThousandEyes

Read 16 ThousandEyes reviews

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4,475 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco Provider Connectivity...

ThousandEyes

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 24, 2024

ThousandEyes and Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance compete in network monitoring solutions. ThousandEyes has the upper hand in user-friendliness and integration capabilities, while Cisco leads in analytical services and scalability.

Features: ThousandEyes is noted for its high ease of use, deep visibility across diverse network layers, and extensive integration capabilities. Users benefit from application visibility and WAN monitoring insights. Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance offers strong analytical services, superior security measures, and comprehensive support, which users find beneficial, especially for network path analysis.

Room for Improvement: ThousandEyes could improve user-friendliness and enhance application monitoring. There's a call for better integration with Cisco platforms and improved cloud network path monitoring. Cisco needs to address high costs and simplify guest portal use. Users suggest improvements in integration and automation, along with enhanced customization and DNA integration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both products support on-premises, hybrid, and cloud deployment options. ThousandEyes is praised for responsive customer service, ensuring high satisfaction. Cisco's technical support provides reliable assistance during both implementation and operation.

Pricing and ROI: ThousandEyes is perceived as middle-priced, suitable for larger organizations with a strong ROI driven by efficient problem resolution. Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance offers significant ROI but is often considered expensive, with costs escalating after acquisitions. Users recognize its value despite the higher pricing.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance vs. ThousandEyes Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance vs. ThousandEyes

January 2025

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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 Provider Connectivity...

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

43rd

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (45th)

ThousandEyes

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Monitoring Software (16th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance is 1.0%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ThousandEyes is 3.7%, down from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Sylvain Germe

Application and Network Performance Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Highly scalable, responsive support, but lacking new features

This solution is geared towards on-premise setups, and would not be useful if the company plans to move to the cloud within the next two years, such as Google Cloud for example. If the goal is to monitor bandwidth at remote sites and identify performance issues because the network is under the control, this solution is useful. However, if a company primarily uses cloud-based servers and does not manage the internet connection of its remote sites, the solution becomes less useful. I rate Accedian Skylight a seven out of ten. I have a positive opinion of the tool, but it can be challenging to set up. It is also limited in its applicability to certain use cases. I am familiar with the engineers behind the solution and have a good impression of them. However, I am not pleased with the fact that the company removed many features and raised prices after it was acquired by Accedian.

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Satyavrat Nirala

Founder at Mindclick Consulting Services

Offers user monitoring and Internet insights and include customer journeys

It’s evolving; I feel it needs more holistic integration. It needs more improvement. It’s very good, but the integration can be slightly complicated on different platforms. I used it for a healthcare organization, and the integration was slightly challenging. In future releases, I would like to explore AI capabilities. AI would be more valuable because it works across different cloud and server systems. It looks into issue detection and insight modeling, so that is something I feel will be very helpful in the near future. More AI because of compliance and other challenges, not because of the product challenge. It’s about regulations, and we have HIPAA laws in the US and many different kinds of laws. Because of that, these specific elements and certain units don’t allow the tooling system to be fully utilized. We also support a certain segment of healthcare, which is the army healthcare segment, which is more government-controlled. There are certain restrictions in moving into the cloud. That’s where I thought those elements might need some more improvement. Also, looking into how we’ll be able to use more data visualization. It has it, but it doesn’t give you everything. If you look into the elements of use and so many other elements are there, but the UI/UX also has to be improved a bit, I feel. From a developer’s standpoint, it’s very easy, but from a consultant’s standpoint, there can be more enhancement, like one-click view and one-click report generation. Those things should be more seamless.

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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

"I always have the Skylight dashboard on one of my screens... Now you can create your own dashboard, specific to an application, specific to a server, or to something else."

"The response times, with the performance, are really interesting too, where you can see the packet loss."

"The feature I used to like the most was its ability to decode layer seven protocols, although this is becoming less useful now that encryption is so widespread."

"It is about finding operational problems. When sites go down, we try to determine who is at fault. While there is not much finger-pointing, the solution is just trying to analyse when there is an outage and where do we start looking to fix it. The very nature of why organization chooses to use the solution is to accelerate the meantime to resolution and find where problems lie to get them rectified as quickly as possible."

"The ability to measure performance end-to-end across the cloud data center allows us to take corrective action to keep our channels online."

"If [the problem] is something related to HTTP or VoIP, then I can have a quick look into the protocols, a process which gives me some good ideas..."

"This solution has helped to improve the interaction between our network, datacenter, and application teams. I have used other tools, but this tool can pinpoint the root cause of my application or network issue in the majority of the cases. So, it helps different divisions or groups in the IT department to troubleshoot together and get an issue resolved. This tool helps a lot in our day-to-day networking application and IT operations."

"Capturing traffic [is very interesting]. Currently, with our configuration, we don't capture the payload of the packets, just the header. But when we want the body, the payload of the packets, we can do a PCAP, and then analyze it within Wireshark."

More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance pros

"The solution's most valuable feature is network security."

"The solution's most valuable feature is the path analyzer, which identifies the node causing the errors."

"It's fairly easy to set up."

"The company provides excellent service."

"The most valuable feature of ThousandEyes is user-friendliness. It has been essential for us to have a solution that is easy to use."

"The solution is very easy to use."

"The most valuable features of ThousandEyes are the full monitoring capabilities and the ability to identify the exact location of problems in the path between the application and the end-user."

"The most valuable features are integration and ease of use."

More ThousandEyes pros

Cons

"The UI interface of Accedian Skylight could improve."

"It's a bit slow. When I execute a query, something general with a short timeframe that covers one month, for instance, and I do not specify the IP source or IP destination, it can take ages because it has to query the whole database."

"Human resource costs can be high when dealing with connection issues."

"Because of the policies in Vietnam, we cannot connect the system to the Accedian cloud. It would be good if Accedian could provide a local cloud. In the next release, I would like them to focus on improving and adding more reporting features. This will help the operations teams."

"There should be an option to update and upgrade the solution to the new version without having to re-buy it. I have clients switching to other solutions. The old solution is great, but if you change your license to a new one, you have to almost re-buy it completely."

"Some of the Skylight applications are a little newer, and they're still moving through initial revs. There are certain bugs, but nothing is insurmountable... It will just take a little bit of time for their user interface to get a little bit better."

"If you want a new version, you go to the website. The hardest part is finding the link, where is that .bin file? Sometimes it's pretty hidden in a document... it's hidden in the release notes or in another file somewhere. And it's usually not on the first page either."

"It needs the possibility to export data because it is not easy to see larger data sets, e.g., for one month. It would be interesting to export data into a PDF or dashboard to keep a history of the situation."

More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance cons

"It would be nice if the solution covered other areas like server monitoring."

"We can show the traffic path in some cases, but it's almost impossible to do so in cloud networks like CDN, Akamai, or Microsoft."

"I feel it needs more holistic integration. It needs more improvement."

"It's an expensive solution."

"ThousandEyes could improve the dashboards by adding more features."

"Presently, it lacks the ability to integrate with other Cisco products."

"ThousandEyes should expand its application monitoring to monitor some communication applications."

"They only offer synthetic requests."

More ThousandEyes cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If you look into Riverbed, it's a licensing nightmare. You need to pay for every type of analysis... If you don't look into licensing, Riverbed and SolarWinds are pretty comparable. But if you look into licensing it would not be smart to go for either of them. On the pure, bare-metal basis, it's the same. But when you get the bare metal and a few basic licenses, then you need all those other licenses just to be sure that there's no issue... One of the great things about Skylight is you have them all, and you actually need them all."

"We understand there's a significant cost difference, but have yet to investigate fully."

"It provides value and the cost is not huge."

"It's not for free, clearly. But on the other hand, it offers very interesting functionality. We pay around €100,000."

"The pricing is cheaper than other competing products, which is better for our budgets."

"The price is competitive overall, depending on the type of customer."

"The pricing of Accedian Skylight is really good. The sensors are low cost. Their model to analytics for sensors is by license, endpoint, or session. With the probes for their analytics, if they get deployed virtually, they are free. The licensing is only based on flows. So, you can effectively deploy probes everywhere in your network. Then, if you want to look at a specific type of traffic, you can enter into it with a very low cost license. You can just use things like spam ports, mirrors, TAPs, and aggregators to optimize what sort of traffic you send to these analysis tools. Then, if you want to start looking at more, you can up your licensed as you go. You are not getting forced into expensive appliances or subscription models."

"The solution was previously well-regarded, but after being acquired by Accedian, the prices have significantly increased. This has made it challenging to sell the product due to its high cost. It is an expensive solution."

More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance pricing and cost advice

"The solution is cheap."

"In our company, we incur a yearly expense in our company for the licensing part. I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten since it is expensive."

"The solution costs several thousand dollars per year."

"The solution's pricing is cheap; I rate it a five out of ten."

"It is a quite expensive solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

40%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

22%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Accedian Skylight?

Human resource costs can be high when dealing with connection issues. I require more tools to file and resolve these issues efficiently.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Accedian Skylight?

I had prepared for COC and the client. I work as a vendor for a client using Flow Mount for network performance monitoring. I focus on resolving client-side issues related to Packy Performance and ...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Accedian Skylight?

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

It actually depends on the exact purpose or requirements. Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better from a cloud monitoring or APM monitoring perspective. You can check...

See all answers

What do you like most about ThousandEyes?

The solution is very easy to use.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ThousandEyes?

When I first started using ThousandEyes, I found it challenging to extract useful information due to the numerous options available. I needed some training to effectively troubleshoot. More detaile...

See all answers

Comparisons

SolarWinds NPM vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance

Compared 16% of the time

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance

Compared 9% of the time

Dynatrace vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance

Compared 8% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance

Compared 6% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance

Compared 4% of the time

More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance Competitors

SolarWinds NPM vs ThousandEyes

Compared 9% of the time

NetBrain vs ThousandEyes

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs ThousandEyes

Compared 6% of the time

Datadog vs ThousandEyes

Compared 5% of the time

Dynatrace vs ThousandEyes

Compared 5% of the time

More ThousandEyes Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance

February 2025

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance report

Download Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance product report

Buyer's Guide

ThousandEyes

January 2025

Download ThousandEyes product report

Also Known As

Accedian Skylight, Accedian SkyLIGHT PVX, SkyLIGHT PVX, SecurActive, Performance Vision

No data available

Overview

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance offers real-time application and network performance monitoring, VPN management, and network diagnostics across multiple sites.

Organizations use Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance for active and passive monitoring, stress testing, and troubleshooting performance issues. Deployed both on-premise and in the cloud, it supports IT infrastructure, security, and analytics with end-to-end performance measurement across cloud data centers. The modern, intuitive interface features TWAMP for real-time traffic accuracy and standardized reports, along with insightful dashboards for circuit performance, latency, jitter, and throughput monitoring.

What are the most important features?

TWAMP: Provides real-time traffic accuracy and standardized reporting.
Insightful Dashboards: Monitor circuit performance, latency, jitter, and throughput.
Security Integration: Compatible with tools like Splunk for enhanced security.
Application Support: Facilitates comprehensive network performance analysis.

What benefits or ROI should users look for in reviews?

Quick Corrective Actions: Immediate response capabilities for performance issues.
Easy Navigation: User-friendly layouts simplify monitoring and troubleshooting.
Comprehensive Analytics: Advanced tools for in-depth network performance insights.
Cloud and On-Premise Options: Flexible deployment to meet different needs.

In industries like finance and healthcare, Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance ensures robust performance monitoring and quick diagnostics for VPNs and internet lines. It aids in maintaining the integrity and security of data transference, facilitating active and passive monitoring, stress testing, and performance troubleshooting across geographically dispersed locations, ensuring seamless operation and compliance with industry standards.

Cisco

ThousandEyes is a Network Intelligence platform that delivers visibility into every network an organization relies on, whether public or private. ThousandEyes enables users to optimize application delivery, end-user experience and ongoing infrastructure investments.

With cloud, enterprises can innovate much faster, but the growing number of cloud and SaaS applications means that more apps are being delivered over the Internet. This increases dependence on the Internet, a public “best effort” network, and other third-party infrastructures, substantially reducing the ability of IT teams to predict, visualize and control operational behavior. This results in a chaotic and unmanageable IT environment, making issue resolution a time-consuming ordeal, potentially impacting reputation and revenue. ThousandEyes has innovated an approach based on an unmatched distribution of smart agents across the Internet and enterprise, providing visibility all the way to the end user. ThousandEyes gathers and analyzes massive volumes of Network Intelligence data from all of these vantage points, enabling organizations to solve even their most obscure performance problems in minutes. By using ThousandEyes in the planning and testing phases of cloud adoption, customers can also strategically identify and fix underlying problems before production deployment of business-critical applications.

The ThousandEyes solution is ubiquitous across industry sectors, and since launching in mid-2013, customers have come from a diverse set of industry sectors, which include Silicon Valley technology companies, financial services, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, retail, manufacturing and education.

Cisco

Sample Customers

T-Systems, Thomson Reuters, Bordeaux Metropole, CGI, Citadelle Regional Hospital Center, Lorraine Institute of Oncology, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Groupe BPCE, Group S, Splitpoint, Horus-Net, Audatex, Indexis, Province de Liège, EASI, Spie Batignolles, Faymonville

Wayfair, GitHub, Craigslist, Comcast, SurveyMonkey, Lyft, Box, HP, Zendesk, IO Data Centers, Good Technology, NNTCommunications, Proofpoint, Schneider, Crowdstrike, Avera, Pitney Bowes, InstartLogic, Shutterfly, Shutterstock, Condé Nast, Roche, Jive, Actelion, Brocade, Infor, Okta, JLL, DigitalOcean, Zuora, NetSuite, CloudFlare, One, DemonWare, Quantcast, Carbonite, CareerBuilder, Prosper, Oscar, Slack

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance vs. ThousandEyes

January 2025

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