AppNeta vs. (EOL) Cisco CloudCenter

AppNeta is awesome for getting site-to-site statistics or trying to find out why at 3 am every night, this server loses connectivity to another server in a different data center. But we have found the multiple bugs in the hardware hard to deal with when the devices are a 4-hour plane ride away and require someone to console into the device.

Incentivized

It is well suited for large corporate entities, whether they are in manufacturing, sales, engineering, healthcare, supply or shipping. It is easy to understand and operate once it has been initially configured. Expansion of the system is likewise easy to do once expertise has been acquired. The only difficulty with this or any cloud scenario is ensuring where the data is located and managing that securely.

Incentivized

• AppNeta provides detailed application availability & uptime.
• AppNeta provides great longitudinal data regarding how the applications perform including an overall grade or "AppDex."
• AppNeta sends notifications of service downtime that aids in technical dispatch.

Incentivized

• We are able to automate deployment which has been a strength to the geographical distribution of the enterprise.
• We have been able to work with a wider variety of developer tools and haven't had to customize to fit CloudCenter.
• It is easier for us to allocate space and allow users to take advantage of the system directly with a minimum of overhead.

Incentivized

• Hardware has a lot of bugs.
• Auto-updates cannot be turned off on the hardware, causing blips in monitoring.

Incentivized

• The software and systems don't present a problem to us but the continued interaction with mid-level support teams and vendors can slow down implementation or correction of difficulties we experience.
• The continued overhead associated with peripheral training on systems we have purchased can cause delays.
• Language barriers sometimes show up but this, again, is due to remote middle agents that are themselves contractors of or sales agents of the main agency. It slows down communication and can introduce business difficulties.

Incentivized

Timely support is one of AppNeta's strong suits. But the ability to develop permeant fixes for issues within there product is where they lack.

Incentivized

We currently use Nagios/GroundWork and Cacti to perform network monitoring. AppNeta's UI is far superior.

Incentivized

We found that the cost advantages were greater by going with Cisco because of our present contracts and the materials and equipment we already had on hand. The reliability of the system, for us, outweighed any cost advantages we might have been realized by going with another provider. Certainly the service and support for the entire system is much better when handled by a single vendor with a good track record.

Incentivized

• A reduction in network outages and length of network outages.
• More detailed post outage investigation available.

Incentivized

• We have had a positive return on investment by adopting Cisco CloudCenter as the system is more mature than competitors. We have saved a lot by working with them rather than continuing to act as a defacto test location for other systems.
• We have been able to reduce the number of staff necessary to operate the system and turn them over to more profitable work.
• One negative impact we have seen is that it is difficult to map where the data is located at any specific instance.

Incentivized