We performed a comparison between Cisco DNA Center and VMware NSX based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Network Automation solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."We can monitor all devices and get the required information using the product."
"Cisco is a leading network company."
"The most valuable features were the monitoring, maintenance, and configuration."
"Has a good processing feature with a high level of accuracy."
"The product gives a consolidated view."
"The automation features are significant, reducing configuration time. This means outstanding functionality. By deploying the controller automatically, the rest becomes automated"
"The product offers an intuitive and automated way to manage user networks. It gives me an insight into the network health."
"I like the visibility, instant build, network, policies, and the ability to control access. I also like that you can visualize your whole network."
"It is a stable solution...The solution's initial setup process was easy."
"VMware NSX offers some of the best features for security, such as micro-segmentation."
"From a security standpoint, the customer was able to better secure critical workloads while routing L2/L3 worked normally, giving them more confidence that they would be ready for any potential security incident mitigation or outage (DR)."
"It operates on a logical level, providing a comprehensive and centralized way to manage your network resources."
"The micro-segmentation and the ability to create policy rules are valuable."
"The most valuable feature of VMware NSX is the high bandwidth."
"It does have capabilities of micro-segmenting a network, being able to create smaller segments of various types of applications separated by various tiers."
"One significant advantage of VMware NSX is the ability to provide advanced security at the micro-level, focusing on securing applications and workloads rather than just the network structure or virtualization-based network security."
"There are some software problems from version to version. It takes a long time for DNA Center to recognize the video and control access devices."
"The solution can be quite pricey."
"In terms of the clustering part, there are some concerns."
"There is a limitation with the number of VRFs that you can have in your network, and this has caused us problems with some customers."
"The solution's technical support is an area with which my company's clients have a problem. Cisco doesn't provide good technical support unless a user has a big account that Cisco wants to retain."
"Cisco DNA Center should improve its configuration management. It is better to have a dev version before pushing it."
"An area for improvement in Cisco DNA Center is the latency in data correlation. For example, sometimes, when an issue happens, and I check the logs, I can't find the corresponding log. There's a delay in log replication, so this is what needs improvement in Cisco DNA Center. Reporting in Cisco DNA Center could also be improved because it only has a few templates, and you can't customize it based on your requirements. There aren't many options available in Cisco DNA Center regarding reporting, versus Cisco Prime, which has excellent features for different levels of detailed reports. I'd like to see real-time data replication in the next release of Cisco DNA Center, similar to what's done in Meraki. Data in Meraki is real-time with no delay, so data is immediately replicated in the cloud. Currently, there's a lag in Cisco DNA Center, and addressing that lag is the enhancement I'd like to see in Cisco DNA Center. The solution also needs to be more user-friendly."
"From the recent DNA point of view, there are some stability challenges with Cisco, but very minor."
"The initial establishment can be complex."
"There were some issues with finance and other accounting."
"VMware NSX provides a lot of automation capabilities, but there is still room for improvement."
"The integration with other brands is not the best."
"If you're worried that NSX is too complex, I would tell you to take another look. If you compare NSX to a similar solution you might find it to be a bit more complex. Usually, the guy that comes in to implement NSX isn't the network guy and will lack the knowledge for the program. He can lack the knowledge for this program and will therefore think it's complex. You need somebody with network experience."
"The engineering team has room for improvement. They should have have more of a Knowledge Base about different case studies and should develop more advanced features. These kinds of improvements will change the way things get done."
"The solution is quite complex. You need to keep your thinking cap on and know what you are doing: Go to the training and listen to the solution architects when they come in because they have a lot of knowledge."
"Lacks integration with other solutions."
Cisco DNA Center is ranked 1st in Network Automation with 37 reviews while VMware NSX is ranked 4th in Network Automation with 93 reviews. Cisco DNA Center is rated 7.8, while VMware NSX is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Cisco DNA Center writes "Practical implementation of VXLAN is good and provides centralized control". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VMware NSX writes "Allows for seamless micro-segmentation and the support is exceptional". Cisco DNA Center is most compared with Cisco Prime, Aruba Airwave, SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager, Huawei eSight and Apstra Operating System, whereas VMware NSX is most compared with Nutanix Flow Network Security, Illumio, Cisco ACI, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation and Check Point CloudGuard Network Security. See our Cisco DNA Center vs. VMware NSX report.
See our list of best Network Automation vendors.
We monitor all Network Automation reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.