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Cisco UCS Manager vs Splunk AppDynamics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.1
Cisco UCS Manager enhances ROI by minimizing hardware failures, downtime, and maintenance, simplifying management, and integrating efficiently with other tools.
Sentiment score
6.5
Investments in Splunk AppDynamics improve productivity, software quality, troubleshooting, and operational efficiency, enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing costs.
There's no need for an extra management device or virtual machine, as everything runs within the fabric interconnect.
CTO at Next Technologies Ltd
Cisco UCS Manager provides cost savings by reducing the time support staff spend on long deployments.
Systems Engineer at First Rand Bank Ltd.
Overall, as a production gatekeeper, we achieve at least 50% efficiency immediately, with potential savings ranging from 60 to 70% as well, reinforcing why it is a popular tool in the banking industry.
Technology lead at Infosys
According to errors, exceptions, and code-level details related to their application performance on a daily basis, the application development team tries to help with Splunk AppDynamics to reduce errors and exceptions, which helps the end users get application availability and feel more confident.
Back office at Reliance Industries Ltd
To understand the magnitude of it, when the company asked to replace Splunk AppDynamics with another tool, I indicated that for the proposed tool, we would need five people to do the analysis that Splunk AppDynamics enables me to do.
Digital Performance Tester at Amdocs
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.2
Cisco UCS Manager support is praised for expertise and responsiveness, though European support and urgent issues may vary.
Sentiment score
7.2
Splunk AppDynamics is praised for responsive customer service, though some complex issue resolutions need improvement.
For a severity one case, a call ensures immediate assistance and resolution of the matter.
CTO at Next Technologies Ltd
With Intersight, service requests are automatically generated, enhancing the user experience and providing timely resolutions.
Systems Engineer at First Rand Bank Ltd.
Regarding Cisco tech, they are pretty good.
Consultant at rcnss
AppDynamics is much more helpful.
Director of Technical Part at NOS SGPS
We got a contact, an account manager, to work directly with for technical support.
Performance Engineer at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
They help us resolve any issues raised by our team relating to operations, application instrumentation, or any other issues.
Back office at Reliance Industries Ltd
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Cisco UCS Manager offers scalable infrastructure solutions, though constrained by chassis limits, with largely positive user feedback.
Sentiment score
7.3
AppDynamics is scalable and adaptable, though costly for small enterprises, with seamless scalability and effective monitoring capabilities.
Adding new chassis and extra blades is streamlined.
CTO at Next Technologies Ltd
I would rate the scalability at nine out of ten, probably.
Consultant at rcnss
We have reached maximum capacity in our tier, and extending capacity has not been cost-effective from Splunk's perspective.
Senior Principal, Enterprise Architect at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
I would rate the scalability of Splunk AppDynamics as a nine out of ten.
Digital Performance Tester at Amdocs
I assess how Splunk AppDynamics scales with the growing needs of my organization as good, since we are growing and adding more servers.
Development Operations Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco UCS Manager is praised for its stability, reliability, and prompt support, often outperforming competitors in overall robustness.
Sentiment score
7.8
Splunk AppDynamics is praised for reliability and stability, with minimal downtime despite occasional glitches or isolated performance concerns.
If there's a really complex problem, I would probably give it a ten since it gets escalated quickly.
Consultant at rcnss
It is necessary to conduct appropriate testing before deploying them in production to prevent potential outages.
Senior Principal, Enterprise Architect at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
There are no issues or bugs with the 20.4 version; it is very stable with no functionality or operational issues.
Back office at Reliance Industries Ltd
Splunk AppDynamics is superior to any alternative, including Dynatrace.
Technology lead at Infosys
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco UCS Manager needs a streamlined interface, enhanced support, simpler updates, better integration, affordability, and improved monitoring.
Users want better integration, modern UI, improved network monitoring, cloud support, and user-friendly navigation in Splunk AppDynamics.
We would benefit from advancements in AI that offer firmware recommendations automatically, reducing the need for human intervention and vendor communication.
Systems Engineer at First Rand Bank Ltd.
It doesn't work straight out of the UCS, so someone who knows what they're doing is needed immediately, and it can be quite confusing.
Consultant at rcnss
While it has been improved from using Java to HTML, simplifying the tabs would enhance user experience.
CTO at Next Technologies Ltd
Splunk AppDynamics does not support the complete MELT framework, which includes metrics, events, logging, and tracing for the entire stack.
Senior Principal, Enterprise Architect at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
If AppDynamics could develop a means to monitor without an agent, it could significantly improve application performance and reduce potential problems.
Head of Technology and Services at arwentech
A good integration with Splunk would be very interesting, as Splunk is a good product for logs, and that part is currently missing in Splunk AppDynamics.
Director of Technical Part at NOS SGPS
 

Setup Cost

Cisco UCS Manager is seen as expensive but offers competitive value with bundled discounts, quality, and reliability.
Enterprise buyers should consider AppDynamics' complex pricing and value for monitoring, despite it being more expensive than alternatives.
Recently, we acquired an excellent bundle with significant discounts, with offers like buying three servers and getting one free, along with UCSC and fabric included for free.
CTO at Next Technologies Ltd
As long as they can afford it, there is a setup cost involved.
Consultant at rcnss
We completed a three-year deal for Splunk and for AppDynamics, which costs millions of dollars.
Development Operations Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Customers have to pay a premium price, however, they receive considerable value from the product.
Head of Technology and Services at arwentech
All these solutions at the moment are cheap, but it is like paying for insurance; you pay insurance to avoid major damage.
Senior Principal, Enterprise Architect at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
 

Valuable Features

Cisco UCS Manager offers unified management, easy deployment, flexible configurations, high availability, and cross-infrastructure security compatibility.
AppDynamics provides comprehensive monitoring and diagnostics tools for optimizing application performance and enhancing infrastructure visibility.
It supports ease of deployment, allowing for quick mass deployments in the data center, saving time and resources by doing so from a remote location.
Systems Engineer at First Rand Bank Ltd.
Whenever there's a failure of any component, it's very easy to swap because you just disassociate that profile, remove the faulty blade, connect the new blade, and associate that profile, maintaining the same MAC address and worldwide port name.
CTO at Next Technologies Ltd
One of the valuable features is the user interface base, specifically the C user interface.
Consultant at rcnss
We have multiple tools, but end users prefer to use Splunk AppDynamics because their portal navigation is very simple and clear.
Back office at Reliance Industries Ltd
The real user monitoring and digital experience monitoring effectively track actual user experience with the applications, including page loading, interaction time for both desktop and mobile applications.
Regional Director at iSecureMind
This is the best feature because, although you can't monitor a whole application at once, Splunk AppDynamics gives you the option that if there is any failure—simple failure regarding anything set up as per our use cases—you will get an alert.
Technology lead at Infosys
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco UCS Manager
Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring
18th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Splunk AppDynamics
Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
258
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (3rd), IT Operations Analytics (2nd), Mobile APM (1st), Container Monitoring (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS Manager is 1.3%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk AppDynamics is 2.6%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Infrastructure Monitoring Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Splunk AppDynamics2.6%
Cisco UCS Manager1.3%
Other96.1%
IT Infrastructure Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

RC
Consultant at rcnss
A market leader with an enhanced user interface for seamless experience
There is room for improvement in terms of cost and complexity to set up. It doesn't work straight out of the UCS, so someone who knows what they're doing is needed immediately, and it can be quite confusing. Some settings are still fairly well hidden, even the basic ones. Companies don't really understand how long it takes to set up. Also, when changes are pushed, it can take their phone line off the system for twenty minutes to half an hour. Out-of-the-box functionality is an issue, too. I know that my company is different, however, the basics are always the same. You do your tap lines, zip lines, and stuff like that, then you get your internal phone line system. That can all be automated and scripted, and it's probably part of the automation process. However, I haven't really seen it.
DK
Technology lead at Infosys
Has enabled us to detect issues instantly through alerts and monitor every service from a single dashboard
Splunk requires significantly more improvements compared to Splunk AppDynamics, specifically regarding the licensing aspect. Splunk renews licenses every six months, which is inconvenient. It would be better to have a one-year license to avoid needing to update keys constantly, which can only occur on weekends, making it a burdensome task. Although Splunk is better for certain use cases, Splunk AppDynamics is broader in functionality. Specifically, I want enhancements related to creating dashboards not only for logs or minor services but also for configuration levels, allowing us to check configurations immediately without manually opening the entire code when exceptions arise—a feature I wish to see improved in Splunk, although it may not be necessary for Splunk AppDynamics.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
27%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise18
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business55
Midsize Enterprise36
Large Enterprise193
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco UCS Manager?
When one server fails, we can attach the service profile to a new server, which saves a lot of time.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS Manager?
My experience with the pricing of Cisco UCS Manager ( /products/cisco-ucs-manager-reviews ) is that it is reasonable. Recently, we acquired an excellent bundle with significant discounts, with offe...
What needs improvement with Cisco UCS Manager?
For improvements, while the current graphical user interface is satisfactory, it could be further simplified for different tasks. While it has been improved from using Java to HTML, simplifying the...
Any advice about APM solutions?
There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems, the scope of implementation). Our goal was to consolidate APM and infra monitor...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AppDynamics?
I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten. The solution is highly expensive. Our company pays for the solution on a yearly basis, if we don't add new modules or features to the license, we need ...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Management Science Associates, Peak 10, Virtual Consulting Professionals
Cisco, Sony, Nasdaq, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Edmunds.com, Puma, Fox News, DirecTV, Pizza Hut, T-Systems, Cornell University, OpenTable, BITMARCK, Green Mountain Power, Care.com, Overstock, Paddy Power, eHarmony, Kraft, The Motley Fool, The Container Store, and more See more customers
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS Manager vs. Splunk AppDynamics and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
879,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.