Cisco Catalyst Center review
February 12, 2026
Cisco Catalyst Center review
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- Analytics Assurance
- Automation
Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Catalyst Center
We've been using Cisco Catalyst Center for roughly 5 years now, so have seen the development in the platform from version 1.3
I work for the University [...], which has a highly devolved campus meaning the central network team do not run the entire network. But where we do, and where we've been able to refresh hardware we've standardized on running SDA deployments. Cisco Catalyst Center is great, we love things like SWIM and being able to have standardisation across the switches, plus the ability to have resilient L3 connections to the edge increases redundancy. We also recently started using ISE to onboard clients onto the network and for micro-segmentation.
One of our biggest gripes is the licensing costs. We have an CX EA but the licensing is complex and could be made far simpler - and cheaper. But I guess something has to pay for all the AI!!!!
I work for the University [...], which has a highly devolved campus meaning the central network team do not run the entire network. But where we do, and where we've been able to refresh hardware we've standardized on running SDA deployments. Cisco Catalyst Center is great, we love things like SWIM and being able to have standardisation across the switches, plus the ability to have resilient L3 connections to the edge increases redundancy. We also recently started using ISE to onboard clients onto the network and for micro-segmentation.
One of our biggest gripes is the licensing costs. We have an CX EA but the licensing is complex and could be made far simpler - and cheaper. But I guess something has to pay for all the AI!!!!
Pros
- Microsegementation
- L3 to the edge - multiple connections without L2 is great
- SWIM
Cons
- SDA Licensing (not strictly Cisco Catalyst Center)
- The UI is busy - it's had for junior engineers to know what and how to do things
- Assurance
- Software management - much better than TFTPing images to every device ;)
- Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
Do you think Cisco Catalyst Center delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Cisco Catalyst Center's feature set?
Yes
Did Cisco Catalyst Center live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Cisco Catalyst Center go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Cisco Catalyst Center again?
Yes
Comments
Please log in to join the conversation