#1 most frequent
United States of America
61.1%390 installations of 638
What is Cisco Catalyst Center?
Cisco 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 troubleshooting from a centralized interface. Designed for scalability and agility, it enables organizations to simplify complex network management inhybrid and multicloud deployments.
Categories & Use Cases
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Who Buys & Uses Cisco Catalyst Center
#1 most frequent
Manufacturing
16.3%104 installations of 637
“Don't trust it for code upgrades.”
#2 most frequent
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
14.8%94 installations of 637
“In our organization, I use Cisco Catalyst Center to implement, manage and monitor enterprise networks for customer.”
#3 most frequent
Health Care and Social Assistance
12.4%79 installations of 637
“Shortening the timeline for deploying switches”
#2 most frequent
Canada
6.6%42 installations of 638
#3 most frequent
Sweden
4.4%28 installations of 638
Pros
- Consistent configuration deployment across multiple devices
- Automates operational tasks and facilitates mass rollouts
- Simplifies software upgrades and patches
Cons
- User interface and navigation lack intuitiveness
- Complex and laborious initial setup and configuration
- Challenges with integration, including other Cisco and third-party products
DNAC
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We mainly use DNAC for managing our Cisco hardware and for its Assurance tools. It gives us good information about the experience of our 8000+ end-users on both our wired and wireless network, and it is a very good tool for troubleshooting when those users are having problems. I like the inventory control tool that enable us to be notified when devices go down or are removed from the network. It is a nice one-dstop shop for managing those devices because commands, IOS upgrades, configuration changes can all be pushed out to the device or multiple devices.
Pros
- Monitoring hardware uptime and reporting outages
- Monitoring end-user experience and repoting problems that occur
- Image management
Cons
- Upgrading is always scary; sometimes updates work, and sometimes they result in a TAC call.
- Sometimes outages are not reported in real time, and sometimes they are not reported at all.
- It is sometimes difficult to determine the root cause of a problem Sometimes all DNAC will tell you is that yes, a problem occurred.
- Image management can be clunk at times, especially when multiple models are lumped together under one series (i.e. Catalyst 2960G switches are lumped in with Catalyst 2960X switches even though a different gold-star image is used with each).
Return on Investment
- It has saved us time when provisioning hardware.
- Like Prime Infrastructure before it, it provides nice graphical views of your network, particularly wireless.
- Assurance data can be used to justify purchases to improve end-user experience.
Other Software Used
ThousandEyes, Cisco Firepower 4100 Series, Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches
Cisco Catalyst Center review
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
It solves several problems. One that comes to mind is troubleshooting issues with its assurance, especially for wireless issues. It makes it pretty easy to find the root cause for a single user—even our junior engineers can use it to find that.
Also, the automation piece and access to APIs have allowed us to deploy large changes at scale, saving us a lot of time and late nights by leveraging APIs and Python to deploy wireless networks and upgrade switches.
Also, the automation piece and access to APIs have allowed us to deploy large changes at scale, saving us a lot of time and late nights by leveraging APIs and Python to deploy wireless networks and upgrade switches.
Pros
- 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.
Cons
- The level of customization for configuring sites gets a little confusing, especially if everything is a little bit different in your environment, and it’s not, I guess. So it’s tough to individually customize certain parts of it, but I understand that is the nature of the product itself.
- The only other pain point I have is the length of time it takes to update and upgrade the software on it.
Return on Investment
- A positive impact is that it allows us to deploy campus wireless solutions automatically without any user intervention. The only thing we have to do is plug the access points in, and with Python and Catalyst Center, we can deploy all the wireless automatically without the need for any network engineer to get involved, which saves hundreds of hours and really helps us out a lot.
Other Software Used
Plixer Scrutinizer, NetBrain Technologies
Cisco Catalyst Center User
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
I use Cisco Catalyst Center on a day to day basis, for provisioning switchports on boarding switches, creating virtual networks, and more. Also we leverage it to create SGTs and configure cross VLAN policies by leveraging PX Grid feature. We have it integrated with ISE for dot.1x and closed authentications.
Pros
- Provisioning SDA switches
- Creating virtual networks
- Configuring switchports
- Generating reports
Cons
- I would love to see Catalyst Center to handle switch stacks more intelligently to where failed switches be freely swapped over with new switches easily.
- Simplifying Cisco Catalyst Center-ISE integration and SGT propagations
- Faster more consistent dealing with the internal database to where provisioning switches and/or switchports can take less time
Return on Investment
- Depending on the particular environment dynamics, Cisco Catalyst Center can be good or not from the ROI perspective.
- Scaling is definitely a huge plus where it can be done in a much fluid way
- Decoupling software upgrades for the control plan from data plan is a huge advantage when it comes to rolling out Cisco Catalyst Center updates/upgrades
Other Software Used
Cisco Firepower 4100 Series, Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), Cisco Nexus Dashboard
Catalyst Center.
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Manage catalyst switches, APs, and start managing IoT.
Pros
- Analytics.
- Packet Capture.
- Getting better at patches with little to no downtime.
Cons
- Patches.
- Integrate with other systems like Netally, etc.
- User UI more friendly.
Return on Investment
- Showing low tier techs why something is like or is or what the issue is visually.
- WiFi mapping is pretty good, but could be better.
- Does patching a lot better now.
Catalyst Center is a Network Device Management Powerhouse
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Network device provisioning for day 0 and day-n provisioning, scripting and automation workflows, device inventory management, software image management and upgrades. The business problems the product addresses is having a single area to manage inventory and the myriad of sites we have as well as making deploying configuration changes easier.
Pros
- Quality of Service Config Deployments
- Software Image Management
- Plug and Play Provisioning
- Config templates
Cons
- Deployment of config changes to more than 100 devices
- Post install checks
- Long forms and steps
- Unclear compliance issues that may be false positives
- Config rollbacks
Return on Investment
- Scaling our network
- Shortening the timeline for deploying switches
- Inventory visbility
- Easier software upgrades
Other Software Used
Splunk Enterprise, Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)
