Cisco DNA Center delivers powerful centralized security, automation, and comprehensive analytics for enhanced network management. With an intuitive dashboard and integration with Cisco devices, it reduces errors, boosts efficiency, and ensures seamless wired and wireless network operations.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| Cisco DNA Center | 8.7% |
| OpenText Network Node Manager | 5.4% |
| DataMiner | 5.0% |
| Other | 80.9% |
| Type | Title | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Network Management Applications | Jun 23, 2026 | Download |
| Product | Reviews, tips, and advice from real users | Jun 23, 2026 | Download |
| Comparison | Cisco DNA Center vs Cisco Catalyst Center | Jun 23, 2026 | Download |
| Comparison | Cisco DNA Center vs Fortinet FortiManager | Jun 23, 2026 | Download |
| Comparison | Cisco DNA Center vs Aruba Airwave | Jun 23, 2026 | Download |
| Title | Rating | Mindshare | Recommending | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Datadog | 4.3 | N/A | 97% | 211 interviewsAdd to research |
| Zabbix | 4.2 | N/A | 95% | 109 interviewsAdd to research |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 10 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 9 |
| Large Enterprise | 18 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 307 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 150 |
| Large Enterprise | 684 |
Organizations leverage Cisco DNA Center for network management and automation, offering increased visibility into traffic flows and efficient device provisioning. It supports real-time data transmission, network segmentation, and integrates with ISE. Features like wireless assurance, centralized management, and AI-driven insights into network health promote an efficient network environment while addressing compliance issues. However, improvements are necessary for better third-party integration, affordability, and more user-friendly documentation.
What are the solution's most important features?In industries like healthcare, finance, and education, Cisco DNA Center's advanced features facilitate the management of complex network infrastructures and aid in achieving compliance efficiently. Its ability to manage LANs and WLANs supports diverse networking environments including greenfield projects and SPN setups.
Cisco DNA Center was previously known as DNA Center.
| Author info | Rating | Review Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Network Engineer at NGN Bilgi ve İletişim Hizmetleri | 4.5 | I use Cisco DNA Center for SD-Access and mainly rely on its client history feature, which I find useful, though I wish it covered more than 10 days; overall, it’s stable, scalable, and meets my needs well. |
| Sr. Director, Business Development & Sales Operations at connect professional services | 4.0 | I've worked with Cisco DNA Center for seven years, primarily for troubleshooting. Its AI-driven insights and real-time monitoring are invaluable, despite its cost. The software-defined access feature also enhances our operations, showing noticeable returns in time savings. |
| Cloud Infrastructure Architect at POST Luxembourg | 4.0 | We've used Cisco DNA Center for six years, finding deployment complex and lengthy due to Juniper integration. Support is excellent (9/10), contributing to an overall 8/10 rating, despite our team not directly managing it. |
| Senior Network Engineer at Inside Global | 4.0 | We primarily use Cisco DNA Center for monitoring our wireless network, with a focus on alarms. The platform's most valuable feature is the visual representation of the switch's front panel. However, the setup process could be improved. |
| Systems technician. IT Office at LNU | 4.0 | I effectively monitor my network with Cisco DNA Center, finding it very stable with good customer service. My main concern is the very high cost and licensing, which Cisco should review to avoid losing customers. |
| Network Solutions Architect at SPIE ICS | 4.0 | I frequently use Cisco DNA Center for configuration, monitoring, and zero-touch provisioning. Its security features are valuable, but the price and technical support need improvement. I haven't used other solutions or cloud providers with this tool. |
| Solution Architect at Velocis Systems | 4.0 | I primarily use Cisco DNA Center for greenfield operations, benefiting from its wireless assurance and AI-driven guided remediation. Its GUI-based configuration enhances operational ease, although clustering needs improvement despite being easy to deploy with open APIs. |
| Engineer at AGCO Corporation | 4.5 | I used Cisco DNA Center for monitoring and troubleshooting wireless infrastructure issues, and its AI feature provided valuable insights quickly, such as diagnosing memory leaks in the Cisco wireless controller. However, support for non-Cisco devices would enhance its utility. |
| Technical Consultant at KPN IT Solutions - Trusted Services | 4.0 | We use Cisco DNA Center primarily for network building and maintenance with a focus on security policies. Its lifecycle management and security features are valuable, but pricing and the need for improved bandwidth and throughput are areas needing improvement. |
| Network Manager at Qassim University | 3.0 | I find Cisco DNA Center useful for organizations with mature Cisco infrastructures. Application Assurance, micro-segmentation, and Multi-Cisco DNA Center features are valuable, but many features need improvement due to stability issues and complexity, hindering basic DNA activities. |
My use case for Cisco DNA Center is for SD-Access, which is for software-defined access and management of devices.
I mostly use the client history feature of Cisco DNA Center.
I didn't use the real-time monitoring capability of Cisco DNA Center because I primarily used it for client history regarding issues and problems. I don't use it for real-time monitoring. If there is a problem, I can inspect the situation and see what is happening, which is beneficial.
In my opinion, the client history in Cisco DNA Center can be longer than 10 days, perhaps extending to 15 or 20 days. I am using it in a huge factory in Turkey, and sometimes I need to see what occurred one month or 20 days prior.
I have approximately one year of experience working with Cisco DNA Center.
We faced a few problems with Cisco DNA Center when we were setting up devices, but it wasn't significant because we are managing and using it with Cisco engineers who help us. We inform them of issues, and they assist in resolving them. I'm happy with the support from Cisco support. When we communicate problems, they solve them effectively.
Scalability in Cisco DNA Center is good. We are using it for Software-Defined Access solution, and we haven't reached our device limit yet. From my experience, we can easily manage numerous devices. Though we are not using the full potential of Cisco DNA Center, it seems very good so far.
I did not talk with Cisco support directly, but according to my colleagues, the support for Cisco DNA Center is good. On a scale from one to ten, it would rate seven or eight.
Positive
I am just a customer in relation to Cisco.
I don't know anything about prices and licensing of Cisco DNA Center because it's not my job; I'm just using it.
I have Cisco DNA Center deployed on-premises.
I have approximately three years of experience working in my current field.
I rate Cisco DNA Center overall nine out of ten.
We have been working with Cisco DNA Center for ten years. Our clients use Cisco DNA Center for unified visibility/monitoring across Enterprise Campus both LAN & WLAN along with Access and fast technical issues troubleshooting.
The solution provides fast troubleshooting capabilities and fast technical problems solving across both LAN & WLAN platform. The pricing, setup cost, and licensing of Cisco DNA Center are medium expensive.
The most valuable features includes unified visibility and monitoring across LAN & WLAN technologies which make troubleshooting much easier. The real-time monitoring capability of Cisco DNA Center is particularly effective.
We have utilized the software-defined access (SDA) feature of Cisco DNA Center. The AI-driven needs enhancements and Integration and unification of visibility and monitoring to include other areas like Data Center and WAN to have a full visibility of the traffic end to end.
We have been promoting solution since 10+ years.
The solution is now very stable.
The solution is designed for large enterprise companies.
The solution is stable. The technical support rates eight out of ten. Overall, Cisco DNA Center rates eight out of ten as a complete solution.
Positive
The initial setup was of medium complexity.
We have our own in-house expert consultants to do the implementation on very professional level.
Although Cisco DNA Center is expensive, we have seen a return on investment in terms of time savings.
After evaluating other solutions, we will provide feedback.
We did evaluate Huawei SDN Technology called iMaster and we will evaluate Juniper and also Arista SDN.
I am a Cisco Gold partner and currently Managing Director at CONNECT-PS ConnectProfessional Services Saudi Regional Office. The overall rating for Cisco DNA Center is 8 out of 10.
In my organization, we currently have some Cisco devices such as access switches, and we also have infrastructure, but that is not part of our responsibility. We do not manage that infrastructure. We have a software-defined network running, but this is a campus environment, and another team manages it because we specialize in the data center only.
We have Cisco DNA Center, but we are not managing it directly; another team manages it.
The deployment of Cisco DNA Center was complex due to the fact that on the data center side, we have a Juniper infrastructure, which created some complexity, though not significant.
The deployment part is definitely an area for improvement. Cisco DNA Center has some weaknesses that require improvements in that area.
In particular, deployment is where improvements are needed.
We have been utilizing Cisco DNA Center for six years.
For support, Cisco demonstrates themselves as more reactive, and I think they are better than Juniper.
One of the advantages is Cisco support.
I would rate Cisco support easily at nine out of ten.
The deployment of Cisco DNA Center was complex due to the fact that on the data center side, we have a Juniper infrastructure, which created some complexity, though not significant.
The deployment for Cisco DNA Center took approximately six to seven months; I do not remember exactly.
The reason it took so long for the deployment is because they were deploying it building by building.
A team of ten engineers were involved in the deployment of Cisco DNA Center.
To be honest, I did not test all of the comparable solutions for DNS, such as Mist with Juniper, so I cannot provide a comparison for the overall rating of Cisco DNA Center.
I have not worked with Cisco Wireless 9110 access points, and I did not work on the recent models.
I have never worked with Cisco Crosswork technology.
I have never worked on TIBCO Spotfire; I never had a chance to work on it.
My overall rating for this solution is eight out of ten.
We primarily use the platform for monitoring, especially within our wireless network. Additionally, we have started registering our 9300 and 9400 switches, although the primary focus remains on monitoring and alarming purposes.
One notable aspect of Cisco DNA Center is the code it injects into switches during enrollment—approximately 1,200 lines for telemetry and other configurations. Compared to other solutions, such as SolarWinds, which requires far less code to gather the necessary information, this seems excessive. They could improve this process by making it lighter and more efficient.
The product's most valuable feature is the visual representation of the switch's front panel. It provides a clear, at-a-glance view of each port's status, color-coded based on its status.
The solution's setup process needs enhancement.
We have been using Cisco DNA Center for five months.
The product stability has been good so far.
We are working with a small network of about 300 devices. Thus, I can only briefly comment on scalability. For our requirements, the platform's capacity is more than sufficient.
The initial setup requires extensive training. Like many Cisco products, it is complex and cannot be learned without proper training.
The platform's biggest benefit has been in managing our wireless network. Having a single pane of glass to control all wireless controllers and access points and to monitor activity has been a significant advantage.
We're a small federal agency with around 300 network devices, so automation is a minor focus. It's more relevant for larger networks.
The main benefits we've seen are in inventory management and the potential for configuration automation. However, I recommend using the DNA Centre only for larger networks with over a thousand devices; otherwise, it may not be cost-effective.
Before proceeding, ensure that your devices are compatible with DNA Center, as not all Cisco devices are supported. Also, investing in proper training is different from plug-and-play.
I rate it an eight.
I use the system to manage our network effectively.
The monitoring is very valuable to me. I can easily monitor all my clients through Cisco DNA Center at this point.
The system is working fine for me currently.
I have been with Cisco for about five years.
The system is very stable.
The scalability is okay for me.
I have contacted customer service once or twice, and it was very good. I rate it between nine and ten.
Positive
The previous solution was also from Cisco. It was Cisco Prime infrastructure. Since Cisco Prime is an old solution and end of life, Cisco upgraded it to Cisco DNA.
The setup is not complex when setting up Cisco DNA, however, it's not easy either.
The implementation was completed by me.
It's a very good product, however, it comes with a very high price. The customer needs to pay a license for each client inside Cisco DNA, each switch, and each access point to get it to work.
The cost is very high.
Cisco needs to review the pricing of the Cisco DNA license. Otherwise, they might lose customers.
I rate the overall solution between eight out of ten.
My company uses the solution frequently for configuration, monitoring, and ZTP, which is Zero-touch provisioning. The solution is for configuration purposes, making it a centralized configuration tool.
The most valuable features of the solution are all of its security features.
Price is an area with certain shortcomings in the solution that needs improvement.
The technical support team of Cisco needs to improve the support they provide to users of their products.
I have been using Cisco DNA Center for five years. My company is a platinum partner of Cisco. I work as an integrator. There is an update each time we work with the solution in our company, so we always use the latest version.
It is a highly stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight to nine out of ten.
It is a highly scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Around 30 to 40 percent of my company's clients use Cisco DNA Center, which may consist of more than a hundred users.
Most big companies opt for Cisco DNA Center. The smaller companies may find Cisco DNA Center to be costly.
The solution's technical support is an area with which my company's clients have a problem. Cisco doesn't provide good technical support unless a user has a big account that Cisco wants to retain. I rate the technical support provided by Aruba, Huawei, or Extreme Networks to be way higher than what Cisco provides.
I rate the technical support of Cisco a four or five out of ten.
Neutral
I rate the initial setup phase of the product a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy. The initial configuration is not a problem, but working with Cisco DNA Center is hard, so there is a learning curve for all the clients.
It is really complex to speak on how Cisco DNA Center can be improved, but there are products equivalent to Cisco in the market, like Aruba Central, which is way easier to work with, including the dashboard and everything. Cisco offers a wide range of features in their management tool, making it hard for the client to work on it. It is hard to wrap your head around all the functionalities provided by Cisco, and you have to learn about the solution to get a hang of it.
The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.
The deployment time taken for the solution depends on the requirements of the company's clients. The time taken for deployment may range from a day to two weeks.
For Cisco DNA Center's deployment, there is a need for a server and an OVA file. There is also a process for configuring Cisco DNA Center by itself, and then there is another process for adding all your devices. At the end of the deployment phase, we get templates to push into the configuration part.
I rate the product's pricing an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is very cheap, and ten is very expensive. The solution's price could be a problem for smaller businesses. There are a lot of customers who want Cisco products but are startled when they see Cisco's pricing model, which includes Cisco DNA Center. So Cisco forces its customers to purchase DNA Center with everything. If you don't buy Cisco DNA Center, then the product you purchase from Cisco won't work.
When customers see the prices of Cisco products, they change their minds and opt for other products like Aruba or Huawei.
There are no costs in addition to the licensing cost of the solution. Cisco offers a wide range of products, which is the problem with Cisco's portfolio of products since they offer different options like three years, five years, or seven years. Suppose you don't pay after three years to renew the license, then they provide you with a period of sixty days, after which the product won't work anymore, but this is not the case with products from other vendors like Aruba. If you don't have Aruba Central, you directly connect it to your suite and use it traditionally, but with Cisco, it's an obligation to have a license and renew it. Since Cisco is the leader in the market, it uses the power to force others with their terms, which is a normal strategy.
Cisco DNA Center is pretty much a complete product.
I won't recommend Cisco DNA Center to anyone, and I would rather suggest that they use Aruba.
Cisco offers good products, and I believe they have the most solid products in the market.
I rate the overall solution somewhere between eight and nine out of ten.
I use Cisco DNA Center mainly for greenfield, which is for bringing up the site, adding the devices, and doing day 0 and day 1. With the tool, the key important part handled is in terms of wireless assurance. The tool's Wireless Assurance version provides me with a good amount of data to help me understand how my wireless network functions within the network. The guided remediation helps with the tool's offerings in terms of AI and machine learning, especially if there are a lot of devices and there will be a lot of notifications. In my company, we can select the golden software image, and we can activate and distribute it in bulk. The SIEM compliance part and the integrations that it has in terms of Cisco ISE will form the segmentation in terms of SDN.
The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it gives some kind of ease in operations, especially since our company is moving from CLI to GUI-based configuration. You can design your network hierarchy and export the wireless heat maps. You can get the data that our company needs to understand how the network is behaving. You can visualize how your network is performing, look at the health course, and whatever it provides in terms of the user and client or from a network perspective.
In terms of the clustering part, there are some concerns. I feel like the clustering part is there because it is built on microservices architecture, so by default it is there in the tool. It is not complex to deploy, and it is easy, to be honest. The open APIs are there in the tool, which is fine.
I have been using Cisco DNA Center for four to five years.
The tool's stability is fine.
Similar to the options like XL and XXL that one gets when it comes to clothing sizes to choose from, Cisco DNA Center offers a few options to its users. Based on your network nodes, be it the number of wireless access points or wired endpoints, the tool is scalable, and that is not a problem. The scalability has no limits. If you have increased the scalability limit, you can have one more cluster of Cisco DNA Center, which can be deployed, after which those branches can be there. One need not worry about the scalability process. People also have an AWS option.
My company works with government companies, enterprise-sized businesses, and SMBs. When it comes to SMBs, my company does not prefer to offer Cisco DNA Center. Instead, my company offers SMBs Cisco Meraki.
The solution's technical support is fine. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.
Positive
The product is easy to deploy.
The number of engineers or architects required for the deployment and maintenance of the tool depends on the size of the organization. Suppose you are catering to the needs of an organization where there are more than 40 or 50 sites are there with one DNS center, which is deployed in an HQ or a regional center, even if you roughly have a Cisco stack consisting of wired and wireless tools if you have Cisco DNA Center, even if it is based on a twenty-four hours and seven days a week shift, you can able to manage the entire network with around three to four engineers.
The time required to install the product depends on the scale at which you plan to deploy the tool. For just doing the basics related to the deployment part involving or utilizing enterprise port or cluster port, you just make it up and get it connected to the network and reach out to Cisco sites to download anything, which will take maybe one to two hours to just to make it up if every prerequisite is met and are in place.
The tool's licensing may not come across as something that may be friendly for users. Customers may not like the licensing part because if you want to have more features, then you need to go for Cisco DNA Center with SDA, or you will get only the minimum functionalities in the tool.
The product's automation capabilities are fine, especially considering the tool's areas like day 0 and day 1.
The product does offer support in terms of compliance. Even though I have not worked with use cases relating to compliance, I know that it works well.
If you want to use a tool for your operations, and if you want to get visibility on your network, especially if you have Cisco products, and you want and then without having Cisco L3 Switches, if you want to support in terms of troubleshooting, Cisco DNA Center can be a good option.
I rate the tool an eight out of ten.
In my former company, we used Cisco DNA Center specifically for monitoring. I also used the solution as a troubleshooting tool to investigate issues on the wireless infrastructure.
The most valuable feature of Cisco DNA Center is the AI (Artificial Intelligence) that provides us with valuable information. Otherwise, we would have to spend a lot of time trying to understand what's going on. I really appreciate the reports provided by the solution's AI for the wireless.
For example, we had issues with the Cisco wireless controller and spent a lot of time troubleshooting it. In just a few minutes, Cisco DNA Center provided us with valuable information regarding the memory leaking in the controller. That helped us to fix the issue. For me, the most valuable feature of Cisco DNA Center is the intelligence inside the tool.
As a user, it would be good if I could plug in controllers, suites, and devices from other vendors to Cisco DNA Center. Users could use the intelligence in Cisco DNA Center for the entire environment.
I have been using Cisco DNA Center for three or four years.
I faced a few problems during the solution's upgrade process, and TAC took a few hours to fix it. I'm pretty comfortable with the solution's technical support.
Positive
I previously used Cisco Prime and other monitoring tools.
Cisco DNA Center's initial setup is pretty easy.
Overall, I rate Cisco DNA Center a nine out of ten.
Our primary use case is for building and maintaining networks while adhering to security policies. It offers automation, security enforcement, analytics, and integration with other Cisco technologies, making it a key driver for efficient network operations and compliance with security protocols.
The most valuable features are its life cycle management and the security aspects it provides.
The weaknesses primarily involve pricing and the ongoing need for increased bandwidth and data throughput. These aspects are interconnected with the lifecycle management of the network. Security is also a concern, even though is somewhat implemented. There are no specific requirements except for user-friendly dashboards, but the definition of "user-friendly" can vary from person to person, making it challenging to define a universal standard.
I have used it for a year.
It has good stability capabilities.
It offers good scalability features.
The initial setup was complex.
The partnership price is notably high, but it ultimately depends on the chosen business model.
The choice of the solution depends on the organization's size, network complexity, and whether they have its own maintenance or operational department. Organizations can opt to outsource to Cisco partners, but this decision relies on their specific needs. It's crucial to determine whether to keep network knowledge in-house or rely on external expertise. Skill versions and portfolio updates should be approached cautiously, considering customer requirements and the timing of upgrades to avoid disrupting operations. I would rate it eight out of ten.
The solution is useful when an organization has a mature infrastructure with all Cisco devices.
Application Assurance works very well. The micro-segmentation and Multi-Cisco DNA Center features are also good.
The product has many features that do not work properly. We can’t work on basic DNA activities. The tool has very complex features. It's not stable, and it's not fully estimated.
I have been working with the product for almost one year.
The tool is not stable and reliable.
I don't think there is an issue with scalability. The main issue with the solution is that there is no way to integrate any other vendors with it. It is scalable, but we need Cisco devices.
It's mandatory to have access to technical support because it's a very complicated product. We have SmartNet from Cisco.
The initial setup is very complex. We must have a mature Cisco environment and a well-defined built-in configuration on the devices. Not all the devices would work properly. We must have the latest devices. It's very complex to build it.
It takes at least two months to deploy seven switches on one site. On average, the deployment takes one to two months.
We take help from Cisco partners for deployment. Our team does some of the implementations. It depends on the project and the budget. We need a manager, a technical team leader, and three engineers to deploy it.
We must upgrade all the devices to the optimal stable version to deploy the tool. Then, we must configure the initial IS-IS configuration. We need reachability between the devices for the product to work. Then, we must provision the devices in DNA one by one. Provisioning is the most complex process because the tool will check and verify every single command on the device.
Sometimes, the provisioning fails because of a conflict in configuration. It takes too much time to erase the configuration and redo the provisioning. After provisioning, we must configure the VLANs and the border routing from the overlay to the underlay.
The product is very costly. We must have a DNA license and upgrade it if we use it. Money is a major issue that we have with the solution.
We did not have any user experience issues. I don't highly recommend the tool. Organizations with expert Cisco engineers can use the product. It's not suitable for organizations that don't have any expertise. Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten.
