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Cisco UCS Manager vs NetApp Cloud Insights comparison

Cisco and NetApp are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Cisco is ranked #17 with an average rating of 8.5, while NetApp is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.5. Cisco holds a 1.5% mindshare in IM, compared to NetApp’s 0.2% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NetApp users who would recommend it.
Cisco UCS Manager
Read 27 Cisco UCS Manager reviews
  • 1,734 Views
  • 1,468 Comparison Views
96% willing to recommend
NetApp Cloud Insights
Read 12 NetApp Cloud Insights reviews
  • 907 Views
  • 353 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Cisco UCS Manager and NetApp Cloud Insights compete in the cloud and network management category. Cisco UCS Manager has the upper hand in environments needing advanced security and virtualization integration, whereas NetApp Cloud Insights leads in analytics and visualization, offering deep multi-platform visibility.

Features: Cisco UCS Manager offers flexibility, strong integration for virtualization environments, and is favored for its hardware customization capabilities. NetApp Cloud Insights provides advanced analytics, multi-environment visualization, and the ability to resolve complex issues in multi-tiered systems efficiently.

Room for Improvement: Cisco UCS Manager should enhance user-friendliness, cross-platform management, and simplify firmware upgrades, which may require extensive training. NetApp Cloud Insights could improve its reporting functions, simplifying the licensing model, and easing navigation for complex system aspects.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco UCS Manager is best suited for on-premises deployment, supported by reliable technical support but demands expertise to manage. NetApp Cloud Insights offers deployment flexibility across private, public, and hybrid clouds with generally good support, though inconsistencies are noted in Europe vs. the US.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco UCS Manager is expensive but valuable for enterprise solutions with Cisco bundles, offering cost-effectiveness due to stability. NetApp Cloud Insights has competitive pricing with scalable options, but the licensing is complex. ROI is favorable for both, though Cisco may be costly for smaller companies while NetApp provides a scalable model appealing for those avoiding upfront costs.

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To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS Manager vs. NetApp Cloud Insights Report (Updated: April 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Cisco UCS Manager vs. NetApp Cloud Insights
April 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 UCS Manager
Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring
17th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetApp Cloud Insights
Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring
19th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Migration (9th), Cloud Monitoring Software (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS Manager is 1.5%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp Cloud Insights is 0.2%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Infrastructure Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

Edwin Mwosa - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced network oversight with rapid issue identification and good efficiency
We mainly use Cisco UCS Manager to integrate and manage our Cisco switches across the building. We also utilize it for network integration. It provides an integrated solution for our Cisco environment, streamlining our operations and managing multiple Cisco devices like switches and routers Cisco…
Read full review
Scott Lauters - PeerSpot reviewer
It provides a single pane of glass, giving us visibility into the environment
All our production clusters are in Cloud Insight. It provides a single pane of glass, giving us visibility into the environment, which allows us to understand if any issues are going on across any of our clusters. The main issue we were looking to address was the lack of visibility across all the clusters in one single view. We're using Cloud Insight's Unified Manager. It has improved our ability to support and see the immediate status of the entire environment. If we have a critical incident, we can quickly see these issues and loop in monitoring teams and other teams. For example, if our app team thinks there are issues in the environment, we can quickly see if anything related to storage is part of the problem. It improved our organization by unifying all the various support teams. We all have the same view of what's happening in the environment. The dev team knows what storage is used or not, and we can quickly move on to other activities. Cloud Insights provides a single tool for containers and other cloud-based architectures, but we're not using some of those things, such as Kubernetes. We're primarily leveraging the monitoring and reporting. The solution does a great job of inventorying our resources. It allows us to put the tags on the devices. The process is fast. It also gives you the dependencies. I can dig down into all the related components. Cloud Insight's advanced analytics feature does a good job of highlighting the areas where there might be issues in the future.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The flexibility and the ease in which the features can be expanded are the solution's most valuable aspects."
"For the blade architecture and ease of use, I consider Cisco UCS Manager the best option on the market at the moment."
"The hardware is very powerful and it is a stable solution."
"The most valuable features of Cisco UCS Manager include the visibility it provides and the ease of identifying issues within the Cisco environment."
"What I like most about Cisco UCS Manager is the ease of administration. It also allows the central management of maintenance, installation, and configuration activities."
"The interface is ergonomic and native. We can use UCS Manager to do all the configurations for the servers, including storage, networking, and all the other components we need inside the fabric. It's simple and flexible."
"Cisco UCS has different layers of security, and you can do multiple installations of your LIAMs on top of the server and Blade. You can install VMware, Windows Server, Hyper-V, etc."
"I can deploy something in my 50-odd servers all in one go, in parallel, whereas if I was to do that individually, it could be a nightmare."
More Cisco UCS Manager pros
"Cloud Insights' best features are visibility and the connector to move the workloads."
"Cloud Secure is definitely the most valuable feature and being able to see file level activity. It gives real-time alerting on possible ransomware attacks and provides file security review. It helps us to see if something abnormal is happening on the system before it's too late."
"One feature we appreciate the most is its ability to take snapshots, which adds an extra layer of security and allows us to protect our data effectively."
"It is good for giving an overview of the systems and for tracking long-term trends. It is handy for root cause analysis, e.g. it can eliminate whether storage is the cause of an issue."
"The solution is 98 percent stable."
"The solution is easy to deploy."
"The visibility and assistance with security vulnerabilities are valuable."
"Among the most valuable features are the queries and reporting that allow us to look at the utilization of resources, at how well the storage is performing, and to report on which resources are being used by which business units. We can track usage across the entire environment, across applications, business units, cost centers, etc."
More NetApp Cloud Insights pros
 

Cons

"There is room for improvement in terms of cost and complexity to set up. It doesn't work straight out of the UCS, so someone who knows what they're doing is needed immediately, and it can be quite confusing."
"I would like to see Cisco UCS optionally work as a hyper-converged system because right now, it only operates as a converged system."
"Cisco UCS Manager is not a scalable solution because once you have 160 blades, it cannot be expanded more."
"Improving functionalities similar to InterSite within UCS Manager would be beneficial."
"The solution's pricing is high and could be reduced."
"What's lacking in Cisco UCS Manager is the performance dashboard. If a blade has any performance issues, you should be able to create a dashboard on Cisco UCS Manager. Currently, this feature isn't present."
"In the next release, I would like to see improvements made to their security."
"For improvements, while the current graphical user interface is satisfactory, it could be further simplified for different tasks."
More Cisco UCS Manager cons
"Ease of reporting is one thing that they're trying to tackle. If you have a specific set of data you want from Cloud Insights, you can ask NetApp to help you build the reports from the ground up. The dashboards are intuitive, but finding the report you want is sometimes a challenge. If you don't have the report already loaded, pulling it in and letting it build its data can be cumbersome."
"When I did need support because I was having problems with the solution, the first or the second line just didn't understand it. They were providing this only on a software as a service basis. So, they were asking all the wrong questions."
"The IP-based monitoring could be added in a future release."
"The support is not very quick."
"The first level of NetApp's technical support could be improved."
"In a perfect world we would have something built, right out-of-the-box, that can identify what we call "noise," and reduce the amount of data. You're presented with so much data when you first start the data collectors. For example, it brings back a lot of change rates that happen just because of standard computing, like profile changes and that sort of thing. Being able to identify things like that and categorize them and strip it down—and it probably can do that, I just haven't gotten there yet—would be very beneficial."
"Most of the time, I initially connect with entry-level support, and then I need to request a higher-tier support level, which can result in delays."
"The visualization needs some improvement because there are occasional delays while the system queries information."
More NetApp Cloud Insights cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We need to take a license for each port, which amounts to a big sum."
"You buy the hardware and then you get Cisco UCS Manager for free."
"Cisco UCS Manager’s annual licensing fee is expensive."
"Cisco UCS is more expensive than Dell and HP, but it is more reliable. I see less issues and it's quite stable."
"With product discounts which can be negotiated, the product is a great value."
"The pricing for Cisco UCS Manager is okay for its market, so it's a four out of five for me."
"Be aware of the capacity licensing and understand how that works, because it is based on capacity. Getting an understanding of that is the biggest thing."
"The solution's pricing is based on the device you purchase and includes support services."
"The solution is expensive."
"The licensing model could be improved. We love that you can use it for free for looking at NetApp products. You only need licenses to look at non-NetApp products, but as soon as you do that, you start utilizing licenses that actually would have been free in the public. So, there is a bit of an anomaly in the licensing model."
"We are billed based on management units, so we can purchase units based on six months, twelve months, twenty-four months, or thirty-six months upfront or pay as you go depending on our requirements."
"The licensing is complex. The calculation depends on what you're ingesting. A terabyte of one product is not a terabyte of another product. Virtual machines don't equate so easily. It's all about the end-use managed units and having an easy place to reference how far those units go."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
26%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
33%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Educational Organization
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco UCS Manager?
When one server fails, we can attach the service profile to a new server, which saves a lot of time.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS Manager?
My experience with the pricing of Cisco UCS Manager ( /products/cisco-ucs-manager-reviews ) is that it is reasonable. Recently, we acquired an excellent bundle with significant discounts, with offe...
See all answers
What needs improvement with Cisco UCS Manager?
For improvements, while the current graphical user interface is satisfactory, it could be further simplified for different tasks. While it has been improved from using Java to HTML, simplifying the...
See all answers
What do you like most about NetApp Cloud Insights?
NetApp Cloud Insights helps with login monitoring and troubleshooting. Previously, if we had performance concerns or needed to interface with other groups and their products, a task that should req...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp Cloud Insights?
The licensing is complex. The calculation depends on what you're ingesting. A terabyte of one product is not a terabyte of another product. Virtual machines don't equate so easily. It's all about t...
See all answers
What needs improvement with NetApp Cloud Insights?
Ease of reporting is one thing that they're trying to tackle. If you have a specific set of data you want from Cloud Insights, you can ask NetApp to help you build the reports from the ground up. T...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

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Compared 9% of the time
HPE OneView vs Cisco UCS Manager Logo
HPE OneView vs Cisco UCS Manager
Compared 5% of the time
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Zabbix vs Cisco UCS Manager
Compared 3% of the time
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Dell CloudIQ vs NetApp Cloud Insights Logo
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Compared 62% of the time
Datadog vs NetApp Cloud Insights Logo
Datadog vs NetApp Cloud Insights
Compared 38% of the time
More NetApp Cloud Insights Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Cisco UCS Manager
April 2025
Cisco UCS Manager reportDownload Cisco UCS Manager product report
Buyer's Guide
NetApp Cloud Insights
March 2025
NetApp Cloud Insights reportDownload NetApp Cloud Insights product report
 

Overview

Cisco UCS Manager helps significantly reduce management and administration expenses by automating routine tasks to increase operational agility. Customers can extend the benefits of Cisco UCS Manager globally across an enterprise to thousands of servers in multiple domains with Cisco UCS Central Software.
Cisco

NetApp Cloud Insights is an infrastructure monitoring tool that gives you visibility into your complete infrastructure. With Cloud Insights, you can monitor, troubleshoot and optimize all your resources including your public clouds and your private data centers.

NetApp
 

Sample Customers

Management Science Associates, Peak 10, Virtual Consulting Professionals
Information Not Available
Buyer's Guide
Cisco UCS Manager vs. NetApp Cloud Insights
April 2025
Free Report: Cisco UCS Manager vs. NetApp Cloud Insights
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