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Cisco Meraki Dashboard vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Meraki Dashboard

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/AAs a cloud-managed network management solution, the Cisco Meraki Dashboard enables users to provision, configure, and troubleshoot global networking and IoT deployments.N/A

    SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds Netflow Traffic Analyzer is a network monitoring tool within the broader SolarWinds ecosystem. It includes core traffic monitoring features, as well as customizable traffic reports and alerts.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Meraki DashboardSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Meraki DashboardSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Meraki DashboardSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    113 Answers
    95%
    Would buy again
    42 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    106 Answers
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    37 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    112 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    42 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    79 Answers
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    36 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    99%
    Implementation went as expected
    97 Answers
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    37 Answers
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    User Ratings
    Cisco Meraki DashboardSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.9
    (116 ratings)
    9.0
    (62 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.2
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.9
    (115 ratings)
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (49 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Meraki DashboardSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    Well suited is if you do configuration one time and roll out to multiple sites, multiple networks, multiple wireless S societies. You create a profile and rollout, and you use automation that takes care of a lot of your manual work. So it's pretty suitable for those divers. Anything related to customization that a Cisco Meraki Dashboard doesn't offer and you use your other automation tool, I think there is an improvement for Cisco Meraki Dashboard to involve all those features and integrate with other third party services.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    We use and depend on it for status state of our network gear, switches and routers. It does an excellent job of getting you the details you need to confirm all devices and products are working at the level needed. At times, it does tend to flag network switch ports and/or switches themselves as exceeding their rated capacity when frequently it was a quick blip of high traffic due to downloads, or uploads causing the max'ing of the device. Again, you can adjust the settings but then you adjust it too high and miss real activity. It can become nuisance alerting when you tend to then ignore
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Cisco
    • Oh, just the ease of use. I am not an IT technical expert by trade—I’m more on the leadership side. So this makes it easy for me to understand everything that is going on and be able to provide an honest review of how the organization is doing at that particular time.
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • The level of customization possible with Network Bandwidth Analyzer is very valuable. Rather than being stuck with a "one-size-fits-all" presentation, an administrator can easily create customized views, reports, and alerts so that users can have a more tailored view of the data provided by Network Bandwidth Analyzer. This has the effect of making the tool more attractive to the end user.
    • The NetFlow Traffic Analyzer piece of Network Bandwidth Analyzer provides the details on bandwidth usage on the network. More than knowing how much bandwidth is being used, one is provided with detailed information on how that bandwidth is being used. This provides invaluable information for capacity planning and even certain forensic tasks faced by the network engineer.
    • The ability to produce network maps provides an easy way to create an attractive and functional NOC/SOC view of the entire network. Both technician and the occasional passerby can quickly determine if there are issues to be addressed. The ability to customize a map with background images and custom icons and stencils can make these maps really pop.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cisco
    • Some features are unavailable when the network doesn't have a switch (network topology, for example)
    • I wish there was an overview for all organizations with pending firmware updates, rather than going through one-by-one.
    • I would like to have some of the switch tools available for firewall devices (port cycling, line testing).
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    • The ability to intuitively and quickly serve up specified information up to a dashboard for general “public” consumption, that cycles through several pages of information.
    • The ability to intuitively set up alerting on bandwidth levels, instead of having to dig through all types of alerts available to find the one needed.
    • Provide a pricing model based on different support levels: if I want only available update installations, don’t make me pay the same amount as those wanting full support.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    Very pleased with he product overall. it is used as expecting + easy to use and very scalable if we want to add new orgs
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Cisco
    Cisco Meraki Dashboard is a modern interface that makes it easy to find devices and their health status. It has powerful remote tools that can help you manage every aspect of the network at a granular level. Something that may be frustrating is that some advanced settings are sometimes oversimplified, and the customization is limited.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    As far as rating for usability is concerned I would give 10/10 as NTA is very easy to use. All you need to do is install that module and ask network Team to configure the Netflow towards Server IP. [The] rest is pre-configured and reports are pre-built. Moment you receive the flows from Network all you will have is information about traffic.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Cisco
    Support seems very knowledgeable and provides detail summary about the call. They even follow up later to check on your case.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    I know we could probably pay for it, but it would be nice if we could get to a tier 2 technician faster. Spending a couple of hours on the phone with the level 1 technician, when we have already tried the troubleshooting they are walking us through, is just a waste of time.
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    The training offered by SolarWinds is some of the best out there. They have several different videos that go into great detail from initial setup to advanced configurations. In addition to the view at your own pace video, they also have live training for customers that focus on a single product and you can ask questions with the folks who develop the software. I have had good success with their live sessions and getting questions answered.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    Cisco Meraki Dashboard is easy to use compared to other vendors. They do not have all the intricate configurations offered by products from competitors, but for the price point and what it gives you there is nothing better. The lower learning curve with onboarding a new hire and get them familiar with Meraki is much easier which our company loves.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer compared to Wireshark and PRTG Network Monitor beats it by just the simple interface. Though all are manual setup, NTA takes it a step further with graphs and reports that analyze the data for you. In comparing to Extrahop from a bandwidth comparison, Extrahop wins but Extrahop is a lot more than just a bandwidth monitoring and cost.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • When there's an issue with communication to the cloud. EX: unable to fetch configs. This due to like new device being installed or if you have to factory reset the device. This has been a negative impact.
    • Incorrect status. Sometimes the status of the device or network is not reflected as it should be. This has had a negative impact in the past. However, for the most part, the Status is fairly accurate.
    • Incident response has been very good. Anytime an issue has been reported to Cisco regarding Cisco Meraki Dashboard, the issue is quickly investigated and doesn't take long to resolve.
    • Customer support and Cisco's technical team has been very helpful and responsive.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    • Be prepared to answer lots of questions. When people see the data in NTA they are going to want to know why App A is talking to App B. Be ready to explain!
    • Hand the keys to the NTA kingdom to the network team. They will thank you. Everyone wants to have friends on the network team, right?
    • Be prepared to invest in some significant compute and storage performance to keep up with your NTA monitoring
    • Running the latest firmware for your network gear is (often) required to take advantage of all the flow-monitoring. You upgrade regularly, right??
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Cisco Meraki Dashboard Screenshots

    Screenshot of Connect MS225 24portScreenshot of ConnectMS225 24portScreenshot of SECURITY MX64WScreenshot of SECURITY MX64WScreenshot of Connect MS225 24port