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Cisco Catalyst Center vs. F5 BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Catalyst Center

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/ACisco Catalyst Center provides an intent-based platform for managing enterprise networks across campus, branch, and edge environments. It combines automation, analytics, and assurance to streamline IT operations, improve security posture, and reduce manual tasks. With integratedAI/ML-driven insights, policy-based controls, and end-to-end visibility across wired and wireless infrastructures, Catalyst Center empowers IT teams toproactively detect issues, enforce compliance, and accelerate…N/A

    F5 BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator

    Score5.9 out of 10
    N/AF5 Networks provides the SSL Orchestrator, a high-performance decryption, analysis, and re-encryption tool for SSL/TLS traffic across the network to locate threats or data exfiltration efforts concealed in encrypted traffic.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Catalyst CenterF5 BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Catalyst CenterF5 BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Catalyst CenterF5 BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    F5
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    306 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    90%
    Delivers good value for the price
    245 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    319 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    83%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    195 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    80%
    Implementation went as expected
    229 Answers
    No answers on this topic
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    User Ratings
    Cisco Catalyst CenterF5 BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.4
    (343 ratings)
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.9
    (9 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    7.9
    (19 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.7
    (33 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Catalyst CenterF5 BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    Would recommend Cisco Catalyst Center to medium to large scale organizations that have many cookie-cutter sites and the resources to properly provision all their devices. I would not recommend to teams that do not have a strong network engineering team that can navigate the various intricacies of the platform.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    F5
    F5 SSL Orchestrator is an ideal software to address the blind spots of the encryption of incoming and outgoing traffic, this is because it provides a high visibility of the traffic. By having a management based on policies allows to carry out a simpler management and obtain a more integration easy with existing infrastructures. It is ideal for reducing costs as it allows the creation of dynamic devices, thereby evaluating whether the traffic should be decrypted or not.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • Again, the ease of use of the APIs and the API Explorer provides the tools needed to write these custom workflows that allow us to do a lot of the automation we’re doing now, saving hundreds of hours by using those tools.
    • The product is very intuitive, and there is a lot of support out there in the DevNet community to help with that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    F5
    • its very secure
    • it had 2 step authentication
    • it was cost effective to the company
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • Within its Tasks - Audit, it can sometimes allow plaintext data, including passwords, to be seen. There should be functionality to detect password usage and appropriately obfuscate the data.
    • Occasionally, Catalyst Center does not sync changes properly within templates, which requires deleting and reconfiguring the template version. Better processes here would be beneficial.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    F5
    • It is a software with a somewhat complex documentation so when you are in doubt it is difficult to solve it through its documentation.
    • A good knowledge is required in the management of the software, because although its implementation is flexible, carrying it out in the appropriate way guarantees good operation.
    • Its price can be somewhat high if it is a small company, however considering its high versatility the investment is worth it.
    • Learning curve somewhat steep, but you can count on the support of your support team.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    I think new products are often "half-baked" or over hyped when they release, as was the case with DNAC. We were well ahead of the curve in acquiring it. But as it has matured it is now a fantastic addition to our infrastructure. I think we are easing into a stage where it is hard to envision a large organization NOT having Catalyst Center in place. If for nothing outside of the mapping and troubleshooting aspects; using it as a "source of truth".
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    F5
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Cisco
    Cisco DNA Center is going to help us in security, simplicity and ease of administration. Cisco DNA Center is complete management and control platform that simplifies and streamlines network operations. Cisco DNA Center offers a single dashboard for every core function in your network. With this platform, IT can become more nimble and respond to changes and challenges faster and more intelligently.
    Read full review
    F5
    its very easy to use and user friendly
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    El soporte de CISCO DNA Center es muy bueno, responden a mis dudas pero no he tenido oportunidad de reportar un incidente o determinar un tiempo de respuesta critico. The support of CISCO DNA Center is very good, they answer my questions, but I have not had the opportunity to report an incident or determine a critical response time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    F5
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Cisco
    It was informative, but the labs were not available long enough for us to get intimately familiar with CCNA before it was closed. The course instructor was well informed and got us as close to ready as she could.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    F5
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    Cisco Catalyst Centeris basic zero-touch provisioning out of the box. You just rack and stack the switches, patch 'em in, and the controller pushes the config automatically. No need to console into every single box or spend hours script-running over CLI.The AI-driven assurance and telemetry are top-tier. Instead of getting flooded with useless syslog alerts when a link drops, it correlates the telemetry data to give you proactive health checks. It literally pinpoints wireless anomalies and bandwidth chokepoints before the users even start opening tickets.It handles fabric microsegmentation like a boss through SD-Access and TrustSec. You can easily enforce group-based policies right at the hardware level. It drops IoT gear, guests, and corporate traffic into their own secure buckets dynamically, without you having to manage a trillion messy VLANs and ACLs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    F5
    OpenSSL is a simple software to use, with a complete documentation and an easy installation and ideal for encrypting and decrypting and making certificates, however F5 SSL Orchestrator can be implemented in different ways, it provides a high visibility of the traffic which does not miss any threat It wants to hide in encrypted traffic, but its biggest advantage is that it helps to better manage and does not provide static but dynamic devices so it is possible to decrypt once or encrypt once, it is for all these powerful features that F5 SSL Orchestrator was chosen.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • I have used it for upgrading devices, and it's does a great job at that, however out operations team for whatever reason has not adopted the feature.
    • Overall it feels like Cisco Catalyst Center has been huge waste of time. I feel like my time would be better spent on other projects and looking at other products and tools
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    F5
    • By providing a high vision of inbound and outbound traffic, we manage to avoid the entry of threats and the exposure or loss of data from our business infrastructure.
    • Its policy based management is very helpful, since it is much simpler to manage SSL traffic and to be aware of any attack coming from it and to apply security controls to all business traffic.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Cisco Catalyst Center Screenshots

    Screenshot of AIOpsScreenshot of BaselinesScreenshot of PoliciesScreenshot of HealthScreenshot of Network HierarchyScreenshot of PoE