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 #54 with an average rating of 8.0, while Cisco is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.1. Riverbed holds a 0.7% mindshare in NMS, compared to Cisco’s 0.7% 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

1,735 Views
1,076 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabri...

Read 26 Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) reviews

1,291 Views
1,239 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: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

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

December 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

54th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (46th)

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabri...

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Alluvio AppResponse is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) is 0.7%, 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)	0.7%
Alluvio AppResponse	0.7%
Other	98.6%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Satyam Kumar

Senior Technical Engineer at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

Identifies and analyzes performance issues quickly using in-built AI and ML

With Alluvio AppResponse, there is an in-built analytical analysis with AI and ML, which identifies and provides data such as the number of TCP retransmits, web access time, total connection time out, total connections established, and server-side errors. The RTCC response time composition chart is crucial because it helps pinpoint the issue's origin, whether from the server, network, or application side. It's a superb product when compared to SolarWinds SAM, which is agent-based, while Alluvio AppResponse captures all traffic from the core switch.

Read full review

Jagdev Dhaliwal

Network Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Flow monitoring has improved planning for east-west traffic and real-time capacity decisions

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) helps to understand the flows and data plane capacities, which are the primary use cases. Usually, people struggle with east-west traffic flow when they need to decide on firewalls or products. People typically understand north-south traffic flows but usually miss the east-west traffic flows in data centers. I was focusing more on this so that people can accordingly plan, such as after F5, the number of servers, the number of sessions needed, and whether we need to plan the interface for groups from the line capacity perspective. This kind of information was valuable to us. The real-time telemetry feature was beneficial. When experiencing performance issues, I could determine if there were any issues related to flows or areas where bottlenecks were occurring.

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

"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."

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

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

"Riverbed's product is a superb product."

"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."

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

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

"We really like the scalability capabilities."

More Alluvio AppResponse pros

"Stability is not an issue."

"You can integrate all the networks into the software."

"The product makes the management of our environment simpler."

"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."

"The product has excellent stability."

"The monitoring capability is the best in Cisco Data Center Network Manager. It helps me improve network management tasks and optimize processes."

"The most valuable feature is the connectivity monitoring."

"VCNM provides a unique capability of managing the admin VDCs of Nexus boxes."

More Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) pros

Cons

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

"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."

"Technical support needs to be more responsive."

"They need to better integrate with products and solutions from different vendors."

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

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

"The pricing is on the higher side of things. If they could lower it, that would be ideal."

More Alluvio AppResponse cons

"It would be nice to have the ability to more easily collect information from other software when doing some types of analysis."

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

"Sometimes the product gives us problems that require support."

"In the next release, I would like to see it merged with Prime and I think that it should be more unified."

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

"API lacks robustness."

"The solution needs to improve reports."

"I do not believe it integrated well with different infrastructures for hybrid environments."

More Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"The solution is very expensive."

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

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Performing Arts

15%

Manufacturing Company

Media Company

Government

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

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	16

Questions from the Community

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 is your primary use case for Riverbed SteelCentral AppResponse?

We are the partner of Riverbed. Once any customer buys the Riverbed product, we deploy and configure it to meet their use cases. Alluvio AppResponse can identify if a page or an application is slow...

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?

I do not believe it integrated well with different infrastructures for hybrid environments. I am uncertain because we have never attempted that in our environment, so they could perform better in t...

See all answers

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Compared 6% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs Alluvio AppResponse

Compared 6% of the time

Nagios XI vs Alluvio AppResponse

Compared 6% of the time

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

Compared 45% of the time

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

Compared 14% of the time

Zabbix vs Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

Compared 14% of the time

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

Compared 12% of the time

Cisco Secure Network Analytics 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

January 2026

Download Alluvio AppResponse product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

January 2026

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)

December 2025

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

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