Cisco Catalyst Assurance vs. OpenText Network Node Manager i (NNMi)

So not everyone is in need of a smart AI checking their network metrics looking for issues before they happen or finding and alerting on problems that the network staff may not have noticed, but if you have the budget for it, it could be a huge time saver for your whole department.

Incentivized

[Micro Focus Network Node Manager i (formerly HP Network Node Manager)] is like you implement it, setup monitoring and alerting and forget it forever until any major activity is there and that is possible because of the product's stability. Another reason for product stability is less features as compared to other vendor tools and its own inbuilt database.

Incentivized

• Push configs to new floors or during switch upgrades
• Assurance to troubleshoot issues
• Inventory
• Keep track of infrastructure OS levels

Incentivized

• Network infrastructure monitoring.
• Interface monitoring.

Incentivized

• May require an implementer to get this set up and running.
• For a software based service that you can run on your own VM's, price is still very high.
• The first setup can be a bear and you will need much help from TAC.

Incentivized

• Most customers would like to see NNM get away from using some Java applets.
• In environments where we see more than 10 different network device vendors in production, we see issues with L2 mapping. Different vendors use different L2 protocols. This can cause an issue with L2 discovery and mapping.

Incentivized

Cisco DNA Analytics and Assurance definitely has a steep learning curve. While it's had an upgrade to its onboarding, it's still a very technically heavy application that requires knowledge of Cisco networking and terminology. I think keeping that in mind helps with the expectations, but anyone can use the application with a little training and experience.

Incentivized

NNMi's user interface is described as well-designed and intuitive, making it easy for users to navigate and perform tasks quickly, thereby enhancing the overall user experience. The system offers a powerful network discovery mechanism that maps out your network's physical and virtual topology, enabling you to visualize connections between devices and identify potential issues. Fault monitoring is at its best. NNMi provides a unified environment for viewing faults, availability, and performance data, consolidating essential information into a single platform.

Incentivized

Support is long and arduous and often are unable to help resolve the issue. We often have to do escalations or duty manager to get things moved. Even with a technical account manager, we do not see much improvement from a support point of view. This is an area where Micro Focus has a lot of improvement to do.

Incentivized

Mainly we did have some funding remain and major our network gears are Cisco shop.

Incentivized

NNMi is best suited for enterprise-grade, large to very large infrastructure. You have fewer servers to install the product and manage all your devices through a single server, which also enhances ease of use.

Incentivized

• I thinkCisco DNA Analytics and Assurance can have a positive ROI as it frees up labor resources to do other things.
• We've saved countless hours of troubleshooting with our end user device team using it as well.

Incentivized

• Improved Network Monitoring Experience
• Business stability has increased by using this product due to proactive monitoring capabilities
• Capacity Planning has improved due to out of the box reports availability

Incentivized