Cisco Prime [EOL] Reviews

We primarily use the solution for wireless and to do backups on switches and routers. In addition, we're using it for the deployment of our new software versions.

The product has a lot of features and capabilities. It's very flexible. It's a big tool with lots of useful pro features.

The initial setup isn't too complex. We have a good in-house team that can manage it.

The stability has been quite good overall.

The solution has scaled as much as we have needed it to.

The hardware Cisco provides is excellent. It's a well-made product.

We tried here to use it as a bigger monitoring tool. However, the problem is that a lot of new products from Cisco are not supported by Prime anymore.

The solution is not easy to configure. It's not user-friendly for admins. It's quite a complex solution.

The strategy from Cisco doesn't seem to be well defined. We need to figure out how to properly integrate everything together, and right now, that's not exactly clear.

I've been using the solution for about two years at this point. It's been a while.

The stability has been good so far. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. For how we are using it, we haven't had issues.

The scalability fits our needs. For how we are using it, the scalability has been fine.

We have direct technical support from our supplier here in Germany if we need it.

The initial setup is not so complex. It's pretty straightforward. We had a lot of people in-house that were proficient in Cisco. It was not very complicated.

The initial implementation was done here within the company. We did not need to hire any consultants or integration partners. We handled it ourselves.

We're looking at Cisco DNA. Prime, for the things we're using it for, is too big for us. This is why we want to compare it with Cisco's DNA Center. Cisco creates very good hardware solutions. However, we need some time here to integrate products into software solutions from Cisco. 

We are a customer and an end-user. We do not have a professional relationship with Cisco.

We will not keep using this solution. I'm only keeping Prime Infrastructure at the moment for coexistence purposes as we have not yet created some functionalities elsewhere. 

I'd rate the solution at a six out of ten, mostly due to some issues we have surrounding its overall complexity that hinders us a bit.

We use Cisco Prime to manage all of the wireless infrastructure in our stores and campus distribution centers. In our distribution centers we also monitor switches so we can do rogue AP detection. I'm the IT wireless manager and we are customers of Cisco Prime. 

I'm required to produce a rogue report once a quarter and also to provide a summary. The map overview of our campus environment shows the distribution of RF frequency channels and the distribution of a client. It provides us with a great idea of where the busier areas are within our environment to allow us to tweak and tune. The reporting is also a great feature because everyone sees which APs and which clients are the busiest, as well as the busiest applications. This solution enables us to do that.

Cisco is currently moving to DNA Center which has a lot of extra features we're looking forward to using. I think many of the gaps currently in Cisco Prime will be implemented in DNA Center. For now, because there are more and more devices in enterprise organizations that are wireless, it's the platform that's depended on. Cisco Prime is slow at times, we often have to restart the database to run reports or to gain access. We have it deployed on a VM, and that was a mistake, because when you put it on VM, the resources and management don't function well. The good still outweighs the bad, but when we have these ongoing problems, performance is not ideal. 

For additional features, I'd like to see support for Ekahau Site Survey maps. Some competing companies allow you to import that together with its AP attributes, so you can perform your predictive, or post site surveys and incorporate them into their management system. It ensures you don't have to start from scratch and then import a new map and new APs with all of the attributes. Having some level of ability to work with either AirMagnet or Ekahau, the two top wireless analysis tools on the market, is where you can gain great benefit for supporting large deployments.

I've been using this solution for 12 years. 

If you're using a VM, stability is iffy, probably around 80% stable. 

We currently have 10 Prime servers and when I compare it to the competition, it can handle more devices than competing companies. From a scalability standpoint, it seems to be able to support more devices. We have our operations department which troubleshoots on a daily basis. Our wireless engineering team set up new facilities, put in new maps and AP placements. There are two groups - operations and engineering. We have a few people involved in that area. 

The technical support is very helpful and very knowledgeable.

Working for a larger company, we were using Wavelink to manage our first and second generation access points. Wavelink is a vendor-agnostic management tool to manage APs. When you choose a more sophisticated solution, such as Cisco, as our vendor for deploying nationwide, it made sense to select a management tool that's going to allow us to manage, deploy, report, and provide PCI requirements. Those are the main reasons we switched. 

The initial setup was straightforward.

We're not like a normal company, we get steep discounts from Cisco, although they do compete well on a pricing level with other similar solutions. 

Anyone wanting to implement this now should deploy DNA Center and I would recommend against using VMs if possible.

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

I use Cisco Prime to work with VLANs, especially the VLANs that function in my daily business. I deploy security updates, iOS configurations, and configs on the access layer, routers, and switches. I also use reports to troubleshoot problems.

The VLAN mapping function has been most impactful in simplifying our network management tasks.

There is room for improvement in the Access layer. 

I have been using it since 2017. 

I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.

The scalability is great. I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten. 

For all functions, we have around 200 end users.

I contacted customer service and support vie email. Their response is okay, but not very fast.

Neutral

The initial setup is very difficult. 

We work with Cisco through our dealer.

Cisco Prime is a great solution for Cisco environments. I don't think other software is the same leader because other software doesn't support Cisco hardware like Cisco software does. It's very familiar.

For the Cisco environment, I would rate Cisco Prime a ten out of ten. 

I primarily offer this solution to my clients. It is really helpful, for example, for monitoring the access point condition of my clients' devices.

I like the monitoring of access points. We can see the heat map in locations within the building. In case of trouble, if my client has trouble in some specific area, we can look to specific areas on the map, which areas are impacted.

The installation is easy.

The solution is a bit pricey.

It should be able to monitor Palo Alto, Juniper, and Check Point products - not just Cisco solutions. 

I've been dealing with the solution for five or six years.

It's stable. There are no bugs or glitches. I have never heard my customers complaining about the stability of Cisco Prime.

I'm not sure about the scalability. Most of my clients deploy the network differently. Not that many worry about scaling. If you want it to be scalable, it's still possible to scale by upgrading the hardware or software, maybe. It's VM-based; it's still scalable if you upgrade it.

We have five clients using the solution, however, I'm unsure how many users are under each client. 

Technical support is great. We find them to be helpful and responsive. 

The solution is very straightforward and simple. It's not overly complex. 

The deployment is quick as well. For installation, a half-day is enough. That covers not just installation. That also covers the testing and connection to the network.

The licensing is pretty simple, however, we would like it to be less expensive. 

We resell both the cloud and on-premises versions. 

I would recommend the solution. We tend to recommend it to clients. 

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

There are fewer monitoring solutions around, however, for now, my clients are using Cisco Prime just to monitor Cisco products only - not other brands like HP or Palo Alto, or Check Point. I cannot recommend it beyond using it if you are heavily involved in Cisco.

The user interface of Cisco Prime could be more user-friendly and increase its performance.

I have been using Cisco Prime for approximately one year.

Cisco Prime is a stable solution.

I have found the solution to be scalable.

We are in Tanzania and we use a support representative in Kenya. We have received good responses from them and the technical support we receive from Cisco has been through email and it was good. However, the support we have received from Huawei was better. It would have a local presence in Tanzania.

I rate the support from Cisco Prime a four out of five.

I have used other solutions previously, such as Huawei. What attracts customers to Cisco Prime is it is readily available. Many customers are comfortable with Cisco solutions, it is easy for us to sell to them. The solution is recommended for large enterprises.

The initial setup of Cisco Prime is simple.

I would rate the initial setup of Cisco Prime a three out of five.

I rate Cisco Prime an eight out of ten.

We use Cisco Prime for managing calls for the company. We are only at the beginning of using the solution.

Cisco Prime allows us to do a lot of functions with the users and it is flexible.

Cisco Prime could improve the graphical user interface.

I have been using Cisco Prime for approximately seven months.

Cisco Prime is a sable solution.

We have five administrators using this solution in my organization.

I have used the support.

I rate the support from Cisco Prime a five out of five.

The initial setup of Cisco Prime is very simple. The process takes a few minutes.

I rate the initial setup of Cisco Prime a four out of five.

I rate Cisco Prime an eight out of ten.

We use Cisco Prime to manage and monitor our banking app devices and other wireless devices.

Within our company, there are seven employees that use this solution. We have plans to increase our usage of this product. 

Availability and uptime. Cisco Prime helps us a great deal with reports.

Cisco Prime is helpful as it provides us with real-time monitoring. This allows us to be proactive in our environment.

When compared to DNA, I think DNA has a lot of improvements over Cisco Prime. I think going forward, it's best to move towards Cisco DNA instead of trying to improve Prime.

The overall management capabilities of Prime need to be improved. With Cisco DNA, you get total visibility of your environment. Not only can you manage the uptime, but you can also apply recommendations. Cisco Prime doesn't allow you to do this.

We've been using Cisco Prime for seven years.

Stability-wise, it's great. We don't have any complaints. Once it's installed, it functions well.

Cisco Prime is scalable.

The installation of Cisco Prime is very easy.

Cisco Prime is an expensive solution.

I would recommend Cisco Prime — it's a good product; however, I would suggest you go with Cisco DNA instead. 

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of seven. If it provided us with true visibility, I would give it a higher rating.

Prime is geared towards medium and enterprise size companies and that's where we deploy it. I don't think it's a suitable solution for small companies. We've used the product for several projects, providing solutions to our customers and managing it for them. We've  been dealing with Cisco for the past 10 years. One of our current projects is with one of the leading hospitals here. We are premier partners and we also resell Cisco products. I'm an IT specialist. 

The interfaces are a valuable feature and the product is easy to deploy. We receive a lot of good support from Cisco. 

I can't really come up with anything that needs improvement in the solution, the technical team might be able to comment on that. 

If my understanding is correct, Cisco doesn't have a SIEM tool. Prime is used for managing all the infrastructure and if it can be integrated with the SIEM tool it could be well managed. That's my personal opinion. 

I've been using this solution for about four years. 

Our clients are happy with Prime, the stability is good and it's easy to manage.  

Scalability is good. 

We receive partnership support and it's very good.

Initial setup is very straightforward, it only takes a short time. 

I would definitely recommend Cisco Prime.

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10.