Cisco UCS Manager vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

Cisco and VMware are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Cisco is ranked #17 with an average rating of 8.5, while VMware is ranked #23 with an average rating of 8.8. Cisco holds a 1.5% mindshare in IM, compared to VMware’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of VMware 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

vRealize Network Insight

Read 46 vRealize Network Insight reviews

885 Views
526 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS Manager

vRealize Network Insight

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

vRealize Network Insight and Cisco UCS Manager are prominent solutions within the networking and computing infrastructure management category. vRealize Network Insight appears to have the upper hand in pricing and support, while Cisco UCS Manager stands out with comprehensive features that justify its higher cost.

Features: vRealize Network Insight offers advanced network visualization, flow analysis, and troubleshooting capabilities. It aids in microsegmentation and capacity management, providing an interactive and intuitive interface for identifying network patterns. Cisco UCS Manager excels in consolidating storage, networking, and computing resources, offering robust management capabilities and seamless updates valuable for hardware management.

Room for Improvement: vRealize Network Insight should enhance third-party integration, reporting, and ease of use while addressing pricing concerns. Cisco UCS Manager could improve automation features, simplify its user interface, and offer better licensing options. Usability enhancements are needed for both but target different refinement areas.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both solutions offer satisfactory technical support but may require technical expertise for initial deployment. vRealize Network Insight is noted for ease of use post-deployment. Cisco UCS Manager requires more experienced handling during setup but both companies provide reliable support, with vRealize Network Insight having a more streamlined customer service experience.

Pricing and ROI: Users find vRealize Network Insight's pricing high but appreciate its value in reducing operational time and improving efficiency. Cisco UCS Manager, though more expensive, offers features that contribute to its value. ROI from both comes through time-saving efficiencies, with Cisco's hardware reliability being a critical value driver.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS Manager vs. vRealize Network Insight Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. vRealize Network Insight

April 2025

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Helped 847,862 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 UCS Manager

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

17th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

vRealize Network Insight

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

23rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (23rd)

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 vRealize Network Insight is 0.5%, down from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Edwin Mwosa

IT Infrastructure Manager at KTDA

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…

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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

"From a usability and functionality perspective, Cisco UCS Manager is very good."

"The solution is highly scalable, mainly because of the templates that make it easy for you to actually edit on the system."

"When one server fails, we can attach the service profile to a new server, which saves a lot of time."

"The most valuable features are flexibility and management."

"Cisco UCS Manager is recommended for its ease of deployment and management capabilities."

"It is more robust than other solutions. So, the stability is good."

"The hardware is very powerful and it is a stable solution."

"The reporting functionality will give you any report you want."

More Cisco UCS Manager pros

"The solution helps reduce time to value, increase performance, provide deep visibility, and easily manage networks."

"Whenever we say "valuable" with respect to the network, it's more towards the security. The firewall rule issues it shows us and the recommendations that we get from vRNI are the most valuable features because they are actually making our network more secure."

"The most valuable feature is the profiling of the applications for micro-segmentation... It has made the migration to NSX much easier. Most of the sys admins within the smaller silos, they have no idea what ports are needed to run their stuff at all. I am pretty sure the micro-segmentation would never, ever have occurred without it."

"The most valuable feture is NetFlow to help us understand how VMs communicate with each other over ports that are known and ports that are also unknown to us. Our company is a security company, so it's very important for us to know exactly which VMs are doing what at all times."

"It allows you to see traffic that you couldn't otherwise see, which is traffic within your Layer 3-bounded network, meaning east-west traffic. It's hard to get that any other way."

"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."

"It has enabled us to set up and do application discovery, as far as network traffic is concerned, and set up the appropriate rules that we need to make sure we're compliant with our security frameworks."

"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."

More vRealize Network Insight pros

Cons

"Getting a CLI report on routers, switches, or any other CLI configuration device is difficult."

"I want to be able to schedule multiple sequential updates in one go."

"We have three data centers and if we could manage all three data centers using one interface, it would be great."

"Cisco UCS is expensive compared to others. The Cisco UCS Chassis is more expensive than a standalone server, but some companies require standalone servers because of their production load and affordability. You need to pay more if you require more features on the Blade or if you need more ports on the switch."

"The installation and upgrade sytems need to be improved."

"The primary challenge we face is identifying the correct version to deploy during firmware upgrades or compute updates."

"The pricing aspect should be addressed."

"Some settings are still fairly well hidden, even the basic ones."

More Cisco UCS Manager cons

"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."

"The product is slightly complex use, while still being user-friendly. It could use more training modules, as it is not a straightforward product."

"The IT infrastructure industry is expected to evolve towards a hybrid cloud model in the next five to ten years. In this model, most of the customer's resources reside on-premise within a private cloud setup, such as VMware. Another segment operates within public cloud environments like Azure and AWS, and a portion remains in traditional data centers. There should be seamless interoperability between public and private clouds. AWS and VMware need to work together to make it possible. Whether users interact with on-premise infrastructure or configure resources in the public cloud, the user experience must be seamless."

"vRNI needs more remediation where it hooks into NSX."

"The virtual appliance has rebooted."

"The only issue we have is that the solution does not always capture the host names."

"The solution can be improved by making it more compatible with other brands, allowing for better integration."

"I'd like to see better support for being able to search the hardware NetFlow data. It ingests fairly well, but you can't tell, in a lot of cases, what source the data came from. I'd like to see more support for picking specific sources. That way you could really make a compelling use case. There are also some difficulties where it can't exactly trace the path between source and destination but if you hit the reverse flow on the same search it shows the entire path."

More vRealize Network Insight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"With product discounts which can be negotiated, the product is a great value."

"You buy the hardware and then you get Cisco UCS Manager for free."

"Cisco UCS Manager’s annual licensing fee is expensive."

"We need to take a license for each port, which amounts to a big sum."

"Cisco UCS is more expensive than Dell and HP, but it is more reliable. I see less issues and it's quite stable."

"The pricing for Cisco UCS Manager is okay for its market, so it's a four out of five for me."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"It has brought more money into our company."

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

"It reduces costs. It takes something that may be challenging and makes it more usable and visual by being able to bring in tools, seeing what their impact is, such as microsegmentation and application rationalization, and seeing it quickly."

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

More vRealize Network Insight pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

26%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

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 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 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?

Broadcom is known for increasing product prices, making them expensive compared to what people used to pay. I liken the subscription model to not truly owning what you pay for.

See all answers

What needs improvement with vRealize Network Insight?

Right now, I do not see a specific area for improvement. My main concern is understanding the intentions of Broadcom, which has acquired VMware. Broadcom should improve by going back to what was wo...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 83% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

HPE OneView vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 5% of the time

Zabbix vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 3% of the time

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ThousandEyes vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 16% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 13% of the time

DX NetOps vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 13% of the time

DX Spectrum vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 11% of the time

AppNeta by Broadcom vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 10% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager

April 2025

Download Cisco UCS Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

March 2025

Download vRealize Network Insight product report

Also Known As

No data available

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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

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.

VMware

Sample Customers

Management Science Associates, Peak 10, Virtual Consulting Professionals

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

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. vRealize Network Insight

April 2025

Free Report: Cisco UCS Manager vs. vRealize Network Insight

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