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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Intersight

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/ACisco Intersight is an operations platform that helps IT operations teams control and automate Cisco UCS, converged, and hyperconverged infrastructure. Intersight consolidates and automates infrastructure lifecycle management from data centers to the edge in one solution delivered as-a-service.N/A

    Hyper-V

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AN/A

    $24.95

    per month

    Pricing
    Cisco IntersightHyper-V
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Developer
    $24.95
    per month
    Bronze
    $49.00
    per month
    Silver
    $89.00
    per month
    Gold
    $135.00
    per month
    Platinum
    $199.00
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco IntersightHyper-V
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    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 IntersightHyper-V
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    93%
    Would buy again
    43 Answers
    94%
    Would buy again
    33 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    91%
    Delivers good value for the price
    39 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    34 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    91%
    Happy with the feature set
    42 Answers
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    33 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    89%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    34 Answers
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    27 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    87%
    Implementation went as expected
    39 Answers
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    32 Answers
    Features
    Cisco IntersightHyper-V
    Server Virtualization
    Comparison of Server Virtualization features of Cisco Intersight and Hyper-V
    Feature
    Cisco Intersight
    -
    Ratings
    Hyper-V
    7.6
    73 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Virtual machine automated provisioning00 Ratings6.861 Ratings
    Management console00 Ratings7.873 Ratings
    Live virtual machine backup00 Ratings8.265 Ratings
    Live virtual machine migration00 Ratings7.367 Ratings
    Hypervisor-level security00 Ratings7.867 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco IntersightHyper-V
    Small Businesses
    Rackspace Fabric
    Score6.3 out of 10
    Proxmox VE
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM Turbonomic
    Score8.5 out of 10
    VMware vSOM (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    IBM Turbonomic
    Score8.5 out of 10
    IBM PowerVM
    Score9.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco IntersightHyper-V
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.8
    (46 ratings)
    8.4
    (74 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.3
    (5 ratings)
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    Usability
    6.1
    (8 ratings)
    9.0
    (11 ratings)
    Availability
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.3
    (46 ratings)
    7.5
    (16 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    5.0
    (3 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    8.3
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    8.4
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco IntersightHyper-V
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    It is highly suited for an organisation pushing for a standardised and centralised configuration of settings using policies, profiles and templates. It is highly suited for customers used to legacy UMM that need to refresh their environment, but instead of deploying them in UMM (which is still possible), to take the time and effort to learn Cisco Intersight Infrastructure Service and IMM as well as familiarise themselves with the differences between UMM and IMM, and the issues in UMM which IMM addresses and improves upon. We deployed in UMM initially then transitioned to IMM with the transition too. I cannot think of a scenario where Cisco Intersight Infrastructure Service would not be suited. Even for small-scale deployments, it provides significant benefits. Maybe if you come from another server vendor management environment, the learning curve may feel steep (e.g. many new concepts and constructs that one has to master).
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Hyper-V makes a lot of sense in scenarios that will support several Windows Server-based OS virtual machines. The only limitation of those licensed VMs is the hardware that hosts the Hyper-V role. If you need to deploy many servers running Windows Server OS, it is worth the price. Hyper-V also does a great job of managing the server host's computational resources, including memory, CPU, network, and storage.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Cisco
    • Intersight can consolidate Infra management on a single dashboard such as UCS Server, Hyperflex, Fabric Interconnect, UCSM.
    • Device policy and configuration can be deployed from Intersight.
    • Firmware and software upgrade for all devices can be done from Intersight.
    • No impact to DC production if Intersight connection is interrupted.
    • Apps workload data is not passed through Intersight, only the control plane.
    • TAC can be opened via Intersight.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Easy to use GUI - very easy for someone with sufficient Windows experience - not necessarily a system administrator.
    • Provisioning VMs with different OSes - we mostly rely on different flavors of Windows Server, but having a few *nix distributions was not that difficult.
    • Managing virtual networks - we usually have 1 or 2 VLANs for our business purposes, but we are happy with the outcomes.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cisco
    • It would be great to not having to create EVERY profile within a deployment. since some items can be done be default, the defaults should be set and the deployment can be much faster.
    • When adding Rack servers, indicating that the CIMC interface should not being connected before powering on the system and they it will be managed by Cisco Intersight can reduce down times. We had to manually reset our CIMC after disconnecting from our OOBM switches.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • We manage Hyper-V using both System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) and the in-build Hyper-V administration tool, the former being the main product we use as the built-in tool is very light on functionality, unlike VMware ESXi.
    • Management of storage is not great and quite a shift away from how VMware does it with ESXi; there is no separate panel/blade/window for LUNs/data stores, which means there is a lot of back and forth when trying to manage storage.
    • A dedicated client with all functionality in one place would be awesome.
    • Having the equivalent of ESXi's virtual console is something which is absolutely needed.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    Been using Cisco Software as a service (SaaS) platform in a production environment for a large medical and health professionals that has critical healthcare and patients care dependency.
    Support team is very helpful getting system updated as needed, and vendor support is fantastic. Also get a dedicated Cisco networking engine to review and advise system health and recommendations.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Cheap and easy is the name of the game. It has great support, it doesn't require additional licenses, it works the same if it is a cluster or stand-alone, and all the servers can be centrally managed from a system center virtual machine manager server, even when located at remote sites.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Cisco
    Usability of Cisco Intersight is highly dependent on the licensing purchased. The default (free) license level provides a lot of value for the minimal amount of effort to implement. The paid license levels provide additional features (detailed inventory, configuration management and deployment, etc.)
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    It is quite intuitive. Junior techs are able to provision and administrate Hyper-V virtual server infrastructure with little to no additional training. Documentation from Microsoft is easily avaliable and decently well written. Hyper-V is reliable and does what it is supposed to. Can be admin from an intuitive gui, or aoutmated with extensive powershell.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    So far over the past 4 years we have not experienced any issues with the servers being available.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    In the past 2 years our Hyper-V servers have only had a handful of instances where the VM's on them were unreachable and the physical Hyper-V server had to be restarted. One time this was due to a RAM issue with the physical box and was resolved when we stopped using dynamic memory in Hyper-V. The other times were after updates were installed and the physical box was not restarted after the updates were installed.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Cisco
    Could need some more refinement. It takes some time getting used to where different settings are being defined.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Hyper-V itself works quickly and rarely gave performance issues but this can be more attributed to the physical server specifications that the actual Hyper-V software in my opinion as Hyper-V technically just utilizes config files such as xml, and a data drive file (VHD, VHDX, etc) to perform its' duties.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Cisco
    I have had servers TAC cases open for issues with Cisco Intersight. Some have yet to be resolved. One case that is still open is where the HCL status ( Hardware Compatibility List ) shows not validated when It should be. We have several servers that have the exact same hardware, OS, and the same firmware. One server will show the HCL is not validated but all others will
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    I gave it a middle of the road rating - as far as getting direct help from Microsoft this never seems to happen. (Good luck getting ahold of them.) Getting help from online support forums is pretty much where I get all my help from. Hyper-V is used quite widely and anything you could need help with is out there and easily searched for on your favorite search engine.
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    We had in person training from a third party and while it was very in depth it was at a beginner's level and by the time we received the training we had advanced past this level so it was monotonous and redundant at that point. It was good training though and would have provided a solid foundation for learning the rest of Hyper-V had I had it from the beginning.
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    Cisco
    You really need a lab to get hands on but it was useful
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    The training was easy to read and find. There were good examples in the training and it is plentiful if you use third party resources also. It is not perfect as sometimes you may have a specific question and have to spend time learning or in the rare case you get an error you might have to research that error code which could have multiple causes.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    Very smooth process and we did it for 2 data centers
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    initial configuration of hyper-v is intuitive to anyone familiar with windows and roles for basic items like single server deployments, storage and basic networking. the majority of the problems were with implementing advanced features like high availability and more complex networking. There is a lot of documentation on how to do it but it is not seamless, even to experienced virtualization professionals.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    I personally think that Cisco Intersight Infrastructure Service is at the top of its class when it comes to managing data center hardware. The cloud-connected design feels very modern and easy to use. The mobile app is something I wouldn't expect to get in a server management tool. The way it can update, monitor, and manage our servers is very nice. Overall, we are very happy with it.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    VMware is the pioneer of virtualization but when you compare it with Hyper-V, VMware lacks the flexibility of hardware customization and configuration options Hyper-V has also GPU virtualization still not adequate for both platforms. VMware has better graphical interface and control options for virtual machines. Another advantage VMware has is it does not need a dedicated os GUI base installation only needs small resources and can easily install on any host.
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Cisco
    Contract terms is similar to other Cisco subscription model, option from 1 year till 5 years. Billing frequency can be monthly, quarterly, annual or prepaid. I think I would not suggest anything regarding contract terms
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Cisco
    Easy to add new services into it. Having everything policy driven makes it a lot easier to add new hardware into the solution and get setup.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Nothing is perfect but Hyper-V does a great job of showing the necessary data to users to ensure that there is enough resources to perform essential functions. You can also select what fields show on the management console which is helpful for a quick glance. There are notifications that can be set up and if things go unnoticed and a Hyper-V server runs out of a resource it will safely and quickly shut down the VM's it needs to in order to ensure no Hardware failure or unnecessary data loss.
    Incentivized
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    Professional Services
    Cisco
    We're not using professional service for Intersight
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • The negative thing is that we prefer to use the UCS Manager in our company because this bare metal is integrated into the FI and no extra appliance is required. SaaS is generally not viewed favorably in Germany.
    • Telling the user that they have to buy Intersight licenses even if they use UCS Manager annoys our customers.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • Massively positive impact on expenses in my company by reducing our storage needs drastically. We were able to reallocate the budget to upgrading our primary Hyper-V server with pure enterprise SSD's as we reduced the storage needs by over 50% and by this we increased performance by over 400%.
    • We have deployed more than 8 servers with EXTREMELY minimal cost using Hyper-V and not requiring another hardware server to host it. We have leveraged our hardware resources in our 2 servers so well that we were able to add many new services, not in place prior, as we did not have the servers to host them. Now with Hyper-V, we deployed many more servers in VM's, purchased OS's & CAL's, but did not need any hardware, which is the greatest expense of all.
    • With Hyper-V, our ROI was reduced from 36-40 months on our primary server, down to only 13 months by reducing costs of storage and adding so many more servers, by calculating the "would-be" cost of those servers that was avoided by creating them in Hyper-V.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Cisco Intersight Screenshots

    Screenshot of the Intersight dashboard, which provides out-of-the box summaries of real-time health and performance data across data center and edge infrastructure. Users can customize the dashboard with a library of widgets to quickly see information that's most important to them.Screenshot of the security advisories and field notices that alert users about endpoint devices in their environment that are impacted along with recommended resolution.Screenshot of the Topology Views that let users quickly identify any UCS domain connectivity issues thorugh a visual representation.Screenshot of an example of the automated workflows that users can create, using Intersight's drag-and-drop workflow designer and library of tasks and workflows.Screenshot of an example of the aggregated and visualized metrics that are collected for fabric interconnects, chassis, and servers to monitor devices, optimize performance, identify bottlenecks, and proactively address any potential issues.