You don't get all the solution's benefits if you have older switches. 

The solution is expensive and includes a bunch of fees. For example, you can monitor but you have to pay for that type of drill down. 

I would say there's a lot that can be done to improve the product.

From the time we got it to today's last version, a lot was done, and I still believe there's a lot that can be done to improve it, to make it better.

For example, on Action Orchestrator, they can improve it to handle more, to cater to different languages. Right now, it caters mainly to Python and Partial, so there are a lot of groovy languages around.NET, Java, and Go Language, for example. They can add some of those features to make the platform more usable for different backgrounds and developer skills.

On Action Orchestrator, that's the main thing I look at and the logging. Logging could be looked at a little bit differently. When you run a process and want to track the steps of that process, logging could also be improved.

Cisco can improve their product by being agnostic, not just specific to Cisco components but also supportive of other vendors. 

Improvements are needed in UI and multi-tenancy for this solution. We primarily work with Cisco View. Cisco CloudCenter is their own product and they are working with us to create a hybrid cloud solution. Our custom CMP solution will  be sold by Cisco as their own solution. I wouldn't say they are doing much research on CloudCenter, but are exploring different CMPs. Cisco acquired CliQr and since then I haven't seen much development on CloudCenter. 

The solution does not have YAML abstractions that allow you to consume the overall YAML to create a relevant infrastructure. 

VMware on AWS needs to be supported because native AWS is not useful in hybrid cloud situations. We have a customer who requires a hybrid cloud, so we went toward vRealize Automation. The solution is primarily for private clouds as they don't support much on public clouds. When we discussed this, they didn't have GCP in their portfolio. I'm assuming they have added it now. 

The improvement I would like to see are not one thing particular to CloudCenter. I'd say it's more of a message that the system is still using a lot of the different products and if they would all just fit better together, they all could be faster together. We noticed it's just the pace at which the actions start. CloudCenter could integrate faster with all this cloud. CloudCenter is one thing. We're doing a good job. We're asking them all a job together so that I get the best value out of purchasing online.

We typically use a lot of Cisco products at the same time. One of the things that are holding us back right now is the fact that, first of all, we're on the old version, version 4.10. The upgrade path towards CloudCenter Suite, version 5, is actually available as 5.1, which is targeted to be released this summer or early Q4. So we're still waiting on that. They have to port the old VM based on a Java-based application and database into the container. It has to migrate all of our stuff from the old system to the new one. So we have a lot of work to do there because they did a significant architecture change for that.

Once we've done that, the next thing missing for us is as follows. We have ACI, another product introduced exclusively with CloudCenter software. They have a system stack. In order to manage this stack, which we have deployed in at least three sites right now and have had to use, we'll call it the multi-site orchestrator. So that tool actually provisions the software networking points on every site. We will need CloudCenter to talk to that component instead of talking to an individual site. We are going to be using the multi-site capabilities of ACI. Typically this is a feature that will be added. I've already met with the Cisco team and they know about it. We've seen them two times to build up the backlog. That's how customer-driven Cisco is for us right now. We're able to meet them on a regular basis and share and build a backlog.

Those would be the things that I would like to see, but they're all already aware of them and it's stuff that's on the roadmap. For the rest, they're very responsive to their environment.

They should provide an entire cloud offering, from architecture to network security features.

I'm looking for another product that's going to be quite simple and that's going to be more aligned with DevOps orientation so that they can do scripting, etc. I know that you can do it with CloudCenter, with the API, however, it's not perfect yet.

I'm not a big fan of CloudCenter. I don't have anything against it, however, the on-premise version has been so hard to upgrade and maintain. 

We need too many machines just to have a cloud portal. That is very hard to manage and sustain with the versions. Every time that we have upgraded this product to go from version 4.0 something to the latest version under 4.0, we have to spend days and days with Cisco due to all the bugs. Our setup is straightforward. It's not because we did the setup too much complex. We have the base setup and every time that we're creating it, it's pain. 

The upgrade is always failing. They need to get way better at upgrading the solution.

We're the company that uses this solution the most in the entire world, and we've really been pushing for Cisco to make improvements, however, now it's coming to end of life, so they aren't going to happen.

The tool should improve its security on the XDR part. 

Due to the branding reputation and field experience, the customers in our country are very confident about the Cisco cloud DC solutions however the competition is very hard and vendors like Huawei can provide the same solutions with a less expensive budget or another like VMWARE that have a stronger software based solution available to be mounted in any hardware.

The add value of Cisco is the integration through the layers of network, servers and software for virtualization where his powerful network solution is the core bit the budget may be an issue for the customers and could be opening an space to other vendors.

It would be ideal if there was more automation available within the product. I'm not sure if this is possible in the short term, however a lot of clients ask about it.

The solution needs to be more simple.