Alluvio AppResponse vs Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) comparison

Riverbed and Cisco are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Riverbed is ranked #56 with an average rating of 8.0, while Cisco is ranked #17 with an average rating of 8.0. Riverbed holds a 0.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to Cisco’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Riverbed users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

Alluvio AppResponse

Read 17 Alluvio AppResponse reviews

1,209 Views
762 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabri...

Read 25 Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) reviews

891 Views
864 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Alluvio AppResponse

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabri...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

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Alluvio AppResponse and Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller compete in the advanced network management category. Alluvio delivers better pricing and customer service, while Cisco Nexus excels with its robust features.

Features: Alluvio AppResponse offers real-time monitoring, comprehensive traffic analysis, and powerful diagnostics. Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller features advanced automation capabilities, extensive policy management, and integration with the Cisco ecosystem.

Room for Improvement: Alluvio AppResponse could improve its integration capabilities and expand its automation features. It might also benefit from more advanced policy management. Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller can enhance user-friendliness and reduce setup complexity. Expanding pricing flexibility could make it more accessible.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Alluvio AppResponse is known for its straightforward deployment and responsive customer service. Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller, while offering tools that streamline deployment, requires more initial setup and familiarization. Its support aligns with Cisco's comprehensive service model.

Pricing and ROI: Alluvio AppResponse is cost-effective, with lower setup costs and significant ROI through efficient network analytics. The Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller, with a higher initial investment, is praised for long-term value and superior ROI through extensive management capabilities.

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To learn more, read our detailed Alluvio AppResponse vs. Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Alluvio AppResponse vs. Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

September 2025

Download the complete report

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Alluvio AppResponse

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

56th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (49th)

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabri...

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

17th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Alluvio AppResponse is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)	0.6%
Alluvio AppResponse	0.5%
Other	98.9%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Ahmet Kilic

Network and Security Unit Manager at Bankalararası Kart Merkezi (BKM)

It's a total solution that gives you end-to-end visibility at all levels

I rate Alluvio AppResponse 10 out of 10. If you work for a financial company especially, you probably face problems on the application side. The problem is easy to identify, but you need to determine the root cause. You can solve issues easily via AppResponse because it shows you all the details of your transactions so you can see the real problem in the database, network, software, etc. For example, you can find the solution easily if you create the right dashboard on your site. If you can't find the problem, you can observe or investigate PCAP.

Read full review

Upul Abhayasena

Manager - Technology at a engineering company with 10,001+ employees

Robust management tool with an easy setup and room for more features

DCNM is used by one of the airline customers in Qatar to manage many data centers and rack switches running on normal Nexus or NX-OS mode. They required a controller platform to manage these Nexus switches, and thus, they utilized DCNM as a Fabric controller. Given that ACI deployment is very low…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Riverbed's product is a superb product."

"With some APM solutions, it can take a long time to check a periodic report, but you can get all the necessary details quickly with AppResponse."

"It provides us with complete visibility of every packet."

"I have found the AppResponse, which is a packet capture solution, very good. It gives you the ability to drill down back in time. You've got all the packets there. You can troubleshoot it later, not immediately. It's very interesting."

"Ability to see end to end user, application, server, and network response time and throughput data."

"You need a packet capture device to perform any type of network monitoring. It helps ensure that network overloads don't happen with alerts allowing for proactive decisions."

"It's a stable product. Riverbed has invested a significant amount of research and development into it, so it's a solid tool overall."

"When it comes to the ability to scale up the product, this is suitable for small medium and large environments,"

More Alluvio AppResponse pros

"I like that is easy to work on and straightforward."

"It uses push technology, which pushes the changes to all relevant devices to ensure they are updated accordingly."

"It has a very nice dashboard so you can see what's currently happening in the network and the performance of the back story."

"The product has excellent stability."

"The automation capability is more than enough. It depends on how we consider and integrate the automation engine. We need to ensure the automation engine and then how to perform it. It depends on the policy making, API integration, and other integrations."

"I like running the scripts. With the help of a Python script, we deployed within the configuration and built up the code."

"Data Center Network Manager is absolutely stable."

"Stability is not an issue."

More Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) pros

Cons

"Need to bring back the NetFlow module for AppResponse."

"Alluvio AppResponse should improve its ability to expand across multiple operating systems."

"Technical support needs to be more responsive."

"The recent changes in corporate structure may have caused some decrease in support quality."

"Integration between NPM and APM solutions would improve efficiency. There is no agent on the server site related to AppResponse."

"The AI features should be addressed in respect of the analysis and intelligence that must be supported and delivered in the tool to predigest the large amounts of data."

"The initial setup is straightforward, but you have to know a little about the product. It's not for everybody to just plug and play. If you know how the solution is implemented then it is straightforward."

"If Alluvio AppResponse reduces its cost, it will be more beneficial for customers to monitor their application and network performance."

More Alluvio AppResponse cons

"It is not very easy to monitor or to browse."

"If the customer thinks about using additional solutions, Cisco should make sure they are not left out."

"The configuration is too complicated and you have to create templates and use a lot of menus."

"We need better performance and reliability."

"One of the biggest challenges is that we aren't always able to push the configuration onto the target device. Whenever this happens, we have to do a factory reset, put on the script, and then reconfigure it again. In the next release, I would like to have a troubleshooting feature."

"The delivery Cisco Data Center Network Manager could improve if it was easier. Additionally, some feature improvement is needed."

"The solution needs to improve reports."

"It's very costly."

More Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is costly for small and medium businesses."

"The solution is no more expensive than other products."

"The licensing model is expensive compared to its competitors, but the service it gives to your business, and the data quality, means that it's worth it."

"The price is a little bit high, especially because we have to pay an import tax."

"The price of Cisco Data Center Network Manager is expensive compared to other vendors on the market."

"The tool is always expensive, but their service, product quality, and support are good. We're happy with it, but it's still an expensive solution. There are cheaper alternatives but no similar platform across all domains."

"The solution is very expensive."

"On average, Data Center Network Manager's pricing isn't too costly unless you choose a premier license."

"We usually opt for a yearly plan, commonly for three or five years upfront. Some customers may not utilize all the features included in the product, and this can lead to them paying for functionalities they don't need."

"I would say that the pricing offers great value for the money."

"When we purchase a Nexus box, the MDS CM license comes with it."

"The product is licensed with contracts that work on a yearly basis rather than a monthly model."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Performing Arts

12%

Energy/Utilities Company

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	10

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	15

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Riverbed SteelCentral AppResponse?

The most valuable feature of Alluvio AppResponse is the actual response time for measuring performance.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Riverbed SteelCentral AppResponse?

The pricing of Riverbed Alluvio AppResponse is really high. Very few customers buy Riverbed because many do not have the sufficient budget. Its pricing is comparatively higher than SolarWinds. Rive...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Riverbed SteelCentral AppResponse?

The reporting models need improvement as most of the time, we have to customize the reports manually. Additionally, a feature similar to SolarWinds AppStack, which provides a holistic view of the i...

See all answers

What do you like most about Cisco Data Center Network Manager?

It uses push technology, which pushes the changes to all relevant devices to ensure they are updated accordingly.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Data Center Network Manager?

The tool is always expensive, but their service, product quality, and support are good. We're happy with it, but it's still an expensive solution. There are cheaper alternatives but no similar plat...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco Data Center Network Manager?

In a mixed architecture where Nexus switches are used as border devices and are connected to a Palo Alto firewall (e.g., version 9.1 or 10.1), you might encounter issues with BGP peering. For insta...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 12% of the time

Pico Corvil Analytics vs Alluvio AppResponse

Compared 11% of the time

OP5 Monitor vs Alluvio AppResponse

Compared 9% of the time

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Cisco DNA Center vs Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

Compared 54% of the time

Zabbix vs Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

Compared 16% of the time

SolarWinds Network Automation Manager vs Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

Compared 12% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

Compared 10% of the time

Icinga vs Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

Compared 8% of the time

More Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

September 2025

Download Alluvio AppResponse product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

October 2025

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) report

Download Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) product report

Also Known As

Riverbed AppResponse, OPNET SteelCentral AppResponse, ACE Live, OPNET, AppResponse Xpert

Cisco Data Center Network Manager

Overview

Alluvio AppResponse provides fast packet capture and storage that feeds intelligent network and application analysis with fast troubleshooting workflows to speed problem diagnosis and resolution. AppResponse delivers full stack application analysis—from packets to web pages - enabling you observe all network and application interactions as they cross the wire, whether they are encrypted or not. Using powerful, flexible network and application analytics and workflows, AppResponse speeds problem diagnosis and resolution, helping you get to answers fast

Riverbed

The Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC) offers a comprehensive solution for managing Cisco NX-OS switches in hybrid-cloud environments, providing automation, visibility, and consistent operations. Designed to simplify and enhance data center management, NDFC integrates with Cisco Nexus Dashboard to streamline network connectivity, reduce deployment times, and ensure seamless transitions with minimal disruptions. Its modular architecture, new user interface, and support for non-Nexus OS platforms make it a robust tool for LAN, SAN, and IP Fabric for Media management. Additionally, NDFC enhances fabric reliability, automates workflows, and supports cloud connectivity with AWS and Microsoft Azure, making it ideal for businesses adapting to increasingly complex digital environments.

Cisco

Sample Customers

N11.com, OneMain Financial, China Bank, Halkbank, Kaust

Banco de Guayaquil, Cox Communications, Kuwait Petroleum Italia, Roper St. Francis, University of British Columbia

Buyer's Guide

Alluvio AppResponse vs. Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

September 2025

Free Report: Alluvio AppResponse vs. Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

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