Cisco Catalyst Center (formerly Cisco DNA
Center) is a network management system that leverages AI to connect,
secure, and automate customer’s network operations. It harnesses the Catalyst family of switching and wireless through AI-enabled
automation that simplifies the IT experience and streamlines complex network
operations. Offering
operational flexibility, Cisco Catalyst Center can be deployed on-premises on a
physical appliance or in a VMware virtual environment, or in a…
N/A
SecureLink Enterprise Access
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
SecureLink is a platform for remote support in regulated industries. Enterprise software vendors use SecureLink to deliver remote support and services. Hospitals, banks, casinos and other regulated entities use SecureLink to authenticate, control and audit remote access for their vendors, business associates and other 3rd parties.
Cisco Catalyst Center does a good job configuring the switches and forming the fabric using recommended configuration and specific switch setup. Managing switches through inventory is another job Cisco Catalyst Center does well. On the other hand managing access to infrastructure (host onboarding for example) is one tedious job. To set 48 access ports on a switch takes more time than it would take an engineer connected to a switch using CLI.
It does exactly what it needs to. The only times I've had serious issues with rolling out to a vendor is when they have a "contractual agreement" to only use their solution. Almost every vendor that I've worked with and shown this product to has been skeptical for the first 5 minutes and fully converted to liking the ease of use of the product by 10 minutes
I think it abstracts the technical detail of what actually needs to be configured on the devices. So you can specify the intent and it'll do complex technical commands on the devices. You do not necessarily need to know I'm from a technical background, so I do know that, but on a scale, it's very easy just to click a few buttons and say what you want and it'll just do it for you.
Setting golden images is tricky and cant always get it to work as advertised. Takes a couple times. Having a recent problem where it stopped working and Cisco TAC only explanation is that 3850 is no longer supported.
When I initially set up, couldnt find documentation. I set up a lot of IP addresses and assigned them to DNA. Cant find where these are located.
Troubleshooting with TAC, they always want me to run some scripts that I have no clue how to do.
Ability to be able to access configuration backups would be great.
Java based. Always an issue. I know they are working on this and it will be Javaless if we need it. I know that Java can cause issues across the board and I understand the need of it, but it does not make it any better when there are Java issues.
Stronger integration with the Active Directory. Currently its only read-only, which is good and bad.
I would love to see an App. I know they are working on this as well.
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.
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.
The employees at Securelink have always been responsive and seem to be invested in the success of my company. They truly understand what their product means to us so if there is a problem, they are always willing to help. In the rare event that something is found on their end, they will be proactive and reach out to someone to help and get something on calendar for a fix
The software upgrades and ability to integrate with the wireless telemetry data set Cisco DNA Center ahead. However the automation with Change Control, Intent and better path mapping (even across MPLS and WAN Circuits) make NetBrain a needed tool to get that gives you that visibility and flexibility. Solarwinds has the ablity to view Netflow which would be an interesting add to DNA Center or an easier path to get or integrate with Stealthwatch.
Securelink seems to work better than LogMein for a large enterprise group. Our company has over 10,000 different connections and securelink manages them well.
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.
I've found that Securelink allows me to get a vendor access to an application for support purposes much faster than a provisioned VPN account and the red tape around this. I can set up a vendor to access an application suite in a half hour and it will be more secure than regular provisioning.
The ROI is yet to be seen on this, but it certainly makes Compliance, Internal Audit, and Legal very happy, which helps everybody.
Internally, there is much more push back and it has been problematic. For a tech, to have to log in to a server and navigate to a system is considered cumbersome, when before all they had to do was open up Putty or RDP to a server to get in. The only way to combat this is to force them to use Securelink by removing rights. Near impossible for the domain admins.
