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Cisco Secure Network Analytics pros and cons

Vendor: Cisco
4.1 out of 5
1,079 followers
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

NetFlow data is crucial for starting security investigations and provides a holistic view of network traffic.
Stealthwatch enhances threat detection rates and reduces detection times with improved network visibility.
Cisco Secure Network Analytics offers integration with other Cisco security devices and provides comprehensive coverage of endpoints and traffic flows.
Visibility and anomaly detection features help in identifying suspicious activities without relying on signatures.
The platform's analytics, including reporting and mitigation capabilities, improve overall network security management.

CONS

Cisco Secure Network Analytics needs to improve its integration with Cisco ISE for user and session details, which currently requires additional setup.
Scalability is a concern due to problems with element licensing costs.
The initial setup and configuration of Cisco Secure Network Analytics are complex and time-consuming.
Cisco Secure Network Analytics requires better integration with device discovery to reduce manual efforts.
Cisco Secure Network Analytics still needs to mature in artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.
 

Cisco Secure Network Analytics Pros review quotes

Rainier S. - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 22, 2018
Able to drill down into a center's utilization, then create reports based on it.
Richard Payne - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 13, 2023
The solution allowed us to not only get gain insight but also start collaborating with other tools.
reviewer1467678 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 14, 2021
It has definitely helped us improve our mean time to resolution on network issues.
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Secure Network Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
TB
Jun 17, 2019
The most valuable part is that Stealthwatch is part of a portfolio of security devices from Cisco. Cisco literally can touch every single end point, every single ingress and egress point in the network. Nobody else has that.
Muhammad Harun-Owr-Roshid - PeerSpot reviewer
May 23, 2025
AI provides suggested common lines and protection features that help safeguard networks from various threats or unwanted situations.
Technicab71a - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 17, 2019
The most valuable features are encrypted threat analysis and the ability to run jobs on entire flows.
NetworkAcb23 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 17, 2019
The most valuable feature of this solution is data hoarding because it catches threats on a frequent basis that we had no idea of.
AyoubAkhtar - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 31, 2024
The most valuable feature of the solution is that it helps you gain visibility for your application.
reviewer1330293 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 22, 2022
Cisco Stealthwatch has predefined alerts for different types of security issues that might happen in the network. Whether it's PCs or servers that are used for botnets or Bitcoin mining we receive the alerts automatically. This functionality is what we receive from the solution out of the box.
ML
Jul 8, 2021
From what I understand, you can encrypt and unencrypt traffic moving in transit. This is one of the features that we liked about it.
 

Cisco Secure Network Analytics Cons review quotes

Rainier S. - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 22, 2018
Reliance on Java. Get away from that.
Richard Payne - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 13, 2023
The customizability of the UI should improve.
reviewer1467678 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 14, 2021
Many of these tools require extensive on-premises hardware to run.
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Secure Network Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
TB
Jun 17, 2019
I would like Cisco to make it easier for the administrators to use it.
Muhammad Harun-Owr-Roshid - PeerSpot reviewer
May 23, 2025
Cisco should upgrade their hardware part to run the database, because sometimes it cannot handle the load while all features are running in the network.
Technicab71a - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 17, 2019
It would be better to let people know, up front, that is doesn't give you nice, clear information, as seen in the demos, without Cisco ISE installed.
NetworkAcb23 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 17, 2019
One thing I would like to see improved is if it could automatically be tied through ISE, instead of you having to manually get notifications and disable it yourself.
AyoubAkhtar - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 31, 2024
The expensive nature of the tool is an area of concern where improvements are required.
reviewer1330293 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 22, 2022
Cisco Stealthwatch can improve by having bundled packages for popular add-ons. It would be a lot easier for people implementing it, have let's say a better way to use the product.
ML
Jul 8, 2021
We determined that Stealthwatch wouldn't provide the machine learning model that we required.