We performed a comparison between Cisco DNA Center and Fortinet FortiManager based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Network Management Applications solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."Application Assurance works very well."
"The best feature of Cisco DNA Center is the visibility page, where you can see everything on the dashboard, and you don't have to be a technical person to view the issues."
"The solution helps in user microsegmentation."
"We have many people from the team who manage a lot of devices. By using Cisco DNA Center, it has taken some of that burden away, we are impressed with it. We did the investment in CAPEX, but in the OPEX was very low."
"It enables monitoring of various components such as access points, switch cards, and other elements within the company's solutions."
"We can monitor all devices and get the required information using the product."
"What I found valuable in Cisco DNA Center is the Software-Defined Access Network, so the entire LAN network can be centralized and managed from a single dashboard. Cisco DNA Center is suitable for centralized management and lets you deploy switches in a centralized fashion. You can also do multiple switch port configurations simultaneously and segregate your traffic into multiple fabrics. Another valuable feature of Cisco DNA Center is enhanced security through Scalable Group Tags. Cisco DNA Center can be integrated with your Cisco ISE to enhance the port securities, and this paves the way for Software-Defined Networking in the LAN segment, which is the main advantage of Cisco DNA Center. I also like that you can use Cisco DNA Center for data assurance or correlation. The solution shows your network and client health parameters, which I find convenient for troubleshooting."
"Cisco VXLAN is a protocol that has been around for some time, but the practical implementation and operational capability of Cisco DNA Center bring it to life."
"Centralized configuration is the most helpful feature. I like the ability to create templates and push them to all the devices at the same time. I also like that I can see the the logs with one device to provide zero touch on all other products."
"The most valuable feature is the central configuration for firewall policies."
"The user interface is very easy to navigate."
"Without FortiManager, you cannot manage a complex environment across several sites with multiple firewalls."
"FortiManager's best feature is the integration of administrator users."
"Central management system for Fortinet devices that's simple, scalable, and stable, with a straightforward setup."
"The setup is very simple."
"I like the rapid deployment feature. I also like that it's easy to troubleshoot. FortiManager is amazing because we can have a centralized policy. All our devices are integrated, and we can also engage in troubleshooting. We can use it for different deployments. One fantastic feature is the ability to create a version and deploy it immediately."
"I would like is to have a small information pointer available. It could be a plus feature that I want to implement. When I hover my mouse over the user interface, it should provide a brief explanation. It would be helpful to have it incorporated into the UI."
"Cisco DNA Center was a new technology for us, at the beginning, it was not easy to do, but Cisco did a lot of training with us to a level we could handle everything. The team is managing itself now without the assistance of Cisco."
"The solution can be quite pricey."
"As a user, it would be good if I could plug in controllers, suites, and devices from other vendors to Cisco DNA Center."
"Integration with analytic tools and API integrations would be ideal."
"It seems to be a little bit more centered toward wireless than wired. You've got more options you can do wirelessly than you can with the wired switches, but it works for what we need it to do. We would like to see a little bit more about the traffic, and we're looking at what's out there to see about that. We are looking at something that might give us a bit more insight into the actual traffic. If they had the full functionality on the wired side, as they do on the wireless side in terms of being able to view traffic and everything, it would be good."
"The solution's integration feature can be better."
"When it comes to deploying wireless fields, integrating defaults into the DNS interface can be challenging."
"Within the management of some features on FortiManager, specifically the management of user objects used for VPN service, FortiManager is quite weak."
"The GUI is not ideal."
"I prefer configuring rules and the VPN on the standalone device, not on the manager."
"This solution needs more experienced technical support staff. There's nothing special about it compared to other vendors."
"The scalability has room for improvement."
"The presence of Fortinet in our region (Nigeria) needs to be stronger."
"The dashboard could use some improvement."
"It requires a lot of resources. This is the main challenge."
Cisco DNA Center is ranked 1st in Network Management Applications with 36 reviews while Fortinet FortiManager is ranked 3rd in Network Management Applications with 61 reviews. Cisco DNA Center is rated 7.8, while Fortinet FortiManager 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 Fortinet FortiManager writes "Easy to set up with good integration capabilities but we've had troubles when moving devices". Cisco DNA Center is most compared with Cisco Prime, Aruba Airwave, SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager, Huawei eSight and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, whereas Fortinet FortiManager is most compared with Fortinet FortiGate Cloud, Fortinet FortiOS, Zabbix, AlgoSec and SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. See our Cisco DNA Center vs. Fortinet FortiManager report.
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