Cisco Catalyst Center vs. SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Catalyst Center
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Cisco Catalyst Center delivers a comprehensive, software-defined approach to managing enterprise networks. It simplifies operations by integrating automation, real-time monitoring, security policies, and advanced analytics into a single interface. Designed to support complex networking environments, Catalyst Center optimizes efficiency, enhances security, and ensures seamless connectivity across wired and wireless infrastructures.N/A
SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
SolarWinds® Hybrid Cloud Observability aims to provide a comprehensive, integrated, and full-stack solution designed to optimize performance, improve availability, and reduce remediation time by correlating data from across the IT ecosystem, including networks, servers, applications, databases, and more.
$5
per month node
Pricing
Cisco Catalyst CenterSolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Essentials
$5
per month per node
Advanced
$9
per month per node
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Catalyst CenterSolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPricing is set per node, per month, and billing is annual. The prices listed are base prices that could increase depending on your environment. Please speak to a representative to get a quote.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Catalyst CenterSolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability
Considered Both Products
Cisco Catalyst Center
Chose Cisco Catalyst Center
We started out with using Cisco Prime infrastructure and we migrated to DNA center or Catalyst Center from Prime Infrastructure. We found that it wasn't apples to Apples migration. It wasn't exactly, it wasn't a direct upgrade. There were a lot of key differences, but yeah, I …
SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability

No answer on this topic

Top Pros

No answers on this topic

Top Cons

No answers on this topic

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Cisco Catalyst CenterSolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability
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User Ratings
Cisco Catalyst CenterSolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(188 ratings)
8.9
(4 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.7
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(17 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.1
(32 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Catalyst CenterSolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
If it met their requirements, I'd say it's probably a 10. If they could go down with Cisco route, especially driving software defined access, then it's the only show in town for that. If they didn't want to go down the software defined access route and the more traditional side, there might be other tools that they might want to consider just because of a flexibility which other tools might allow them to have.
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SolarWinds
- For small teams serving big organizations - it's a really simple tool to install and set up relatively quickly. - the new installer is also great - I don't have to understand what modules need to be installed; it's all streamlined. - The HCO Licensing allows you to run the Additional polling engines at a scale where the previous licensing model didn't. We can deploy APEs in locations now, which would not have been worth the investment in previously as there weren't enough devices in that location/region to spend the $$$$ on an APE License.
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Pros
Cisco
  • I really like the assurance. I like that I can go through and find problems on the network that could be a mismatch VLAN between two interfaces, port errors, like physical errors that we otherwise probably would need to wait for a customer to complain or we have that we can see that ahead of time and be proactive and say, Hey, I'm noticing that this port is having some errors on it. We might want to check that out ahead of time before it becomes an issue. So that's really useful. And then also being able to configure the network. I think that the programmability part of it, I think I have, I've been having some struggle with that initially, just having to apply. So I have my script, my template that I want to deploy, but in order to deploy it, I have to apply it to a template or a profile and then I have to assign that profile to a group of switches that I want to program. I think it gets a little bit messy and a little bit convoluted, but other than that, I mean it's really helpful. It does automate right now, I think it seems a little convoluted with the process.
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SolarWinds
  • Automated dependency mapping is a big hit.
  • High availability is extremely simple to implement.
  • Simple to use and drill into issues.
  • Analysis of growth patterns driving the recommendation engine.
Read full review
Cons
Cisco
  • The one thing that we had to get used to was really breaking down our wireless. We integrated our 9800 controllers into it, and the breakdown of our tags being floor specific and not just being campus specific was a challenge for us. And so we had to create all new tags and it wasn't necessarily a problem, it just required a little bit redesign on our wireless. And so it would've been nice for us to be able to assign a tag to an entire campus versus a floor, but that's a small complaint.
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SolarWinds
  • Can be complex to setup
  • Is strongest with network resources
  • Assumes a fairly large amount of base knowledge
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
The first impressions using the tool, led us to believe that it will be very helpful going forward. There's a lot of potential to implement other features in the network
Read full review
SolarWinds
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
SolarWinds
- decent ease of use - good training materials - good documentation - acceptable level of expected knowledge
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.
Read full review
SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cisco
We haven't used anything like this. We looked at the competitors. I think we are quite early in their products, so I think now Cisco DNA center is quite mature, still in heavy development, but compared to the competitors, we think that there is nothing like it out there.
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SolarWinds
Solarwinds has the best overlap of the two others I've mentioned - the other two tools (Datadog and Dynatrace) are great in their own way but Solarwinds is just good at everything; if I had to pick one tool of the above, it would be Solarwinds for the compatibility and ease of use, the other tools are more focused on being great at certain things while Solarwinds is the jack of all trades.
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Return on Investment
Cisco
  • Initial cost is pricy, but management needs to understand the value this provides so make them aware
  • Reporting could be improved in more detail in our opinion, but it gives a great overview of your environment. High level overview for managers would be greatly appreciated with as little or much detail as needed for certain Cisco gear.
  • Does not work as well with some older Cisco equipment because they want you to buy new, again the cost impact comes into play.
Read full review
SolarWinds
  • one license requiring 1 PO to be raised
  • sharing costs between departments for monitoring under one platform using APEs
Read full review
ScreenShots

Cisco Catalyst Center Screenshots

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

SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability Screenshots

Screenshot of ITOM Executive DashboardScreenshot of Observability MapsScreenshot of Performance Analysis DashboardScreenshot of Application Alerting DashboardScreenshot of Network Path Analysis