What is our primary use case?
I would like to share my opinion about Cisco, particularly Cisco Crosswork Network Insights, as we are implementing Cisco products for the infrastructure needs for the internet. If you connect the networks, you cannot do it without the switches and all, and Cisco switches do come in as an important piece of hardware where routers, switches, or wireless access points are needed. All of those are basically important to build the right infrastructure to even deploy any type of framework on top of it. Until you do not have the infrastructure in place with the right routers, switches, and wireless access points, Cisco is quite a credible product.
Initially, it was Novell. When Novell was there, then Novell moved out from the market, and Cisco took over. Then you had all the different people with CCNA and CCNP type of certifications coming in. Now it is pretty much a standard in the market.
What is most valuable?
The major benefits of using Cisco Crosswork Network Insights are that it is a better product to plan and deploy the network. It is quite a comprehensive product that gives real-time visualization and lifecycle management. It reduces the operating expenses eventually, decreases the deployment time, and definitely creates interest for the staff and boosts their productivity.
End-to-end visibility is significant in Cisco Crosswork Network Insights for proactive network management, as right now, there are several tools available, and network management tools can help create that visibility very easily. Initially, we had to only look at the lights, and if the light was on, we would understand that the network point was working, but now it is all virtual points. You can connect anywhere and just reassign the users to another point if one point is not working, so the point of failure has now become much easier to manage through the network management tools. With those network tools, it is easier for the IT team to manage the entire setup.
What needs improvement?
From my perspective, there is some room for improvement in the product, as you have to check your competitors, such as what Juniper is doing and what HP is offering, and those things have to come in to stay and survive in the market. All the features that your competition is giving, such as faster service provisioning, reduced error, and enhanced network performance, should all be better than your competitors to survive in this game.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Cisco, specifically Cisco Crosswork Network Insights, for maybe eight to ten years, but what is happening now is that people are gradually moving to newer products, such as Huawei and other vendors because they are equally producing good products right now, and sometimes they pitch in with a better price, which leads people to opt for that newer product and new technology.
How are customer service and support?
I would give the rating for support of Cisco the same, as we normally are not having too many issues where we have to revert back to the vendor. It is more of a hardware type of thing where if something is not working, we just get a replacement or a quick fix because it is hardware. It does not require too much analysis; if something is not working, it needs to be replaced, which makes it faster and easier, and normally, it is a good tool to manage the traffic and the network, so it is quite a comprehensive product.
What about the implementation team?
For the implementation of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights, we have different levels of people. We normally have a junior and a senior role, with both of them attending the implementation, so normally, when it comes to racking and stacking or fixing of those items, the junior person is working, and when it comes to configuration, the senior person takes over. They are also supported by the OEM.
What was our ROI?
If I were to give a rating for Cisco Crosswork Network Insights from one to ten, I can give them nine out of ten, considering Cisco's ROI, as it is quite a comprehensive product with very few errors and enhanced network performance, so basically, all of those points collate together.
What other advice do I have?
The deployment of Cisco Crosswork Network Insights is only challenged by having the right design, basically. If your design is okay and the design is properly done, then you do not face those many problems because Cisco is an elegant product. The only thing is if your infrastructure design is covering the needs of the customer, then the rollout should be very fast. It takes three to four days to implement the different types of firewalls, switches, network, and wireless access points, and that is it. Our engineers do not exactly know, but normally whenever our teams go to implement, they have a back-to-back support call with the OEM, so they are on the line to guide them. Sometimes when they are migrating from an older environment to a new one, that is more important because you plug in the right cables in the right points, and that is it. If you cannot do it properly, then you have messed up the entire environment.
We do support real-time analytics features with Cisco Crosswork Network Insights as an implementation partner if a customer is using it or if any of our customers is going with some real-time analytics, but in case they are doing it on their own, we are aware that they have taken some product, but maybe they have implemented it themselves.
I would give Cisco Crosswork Network Insights a rating of nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other