Aruba Airwave vs Cisco DNA Center comparison

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HPE Aruba Networking Logo
2,170 views|1,482 comparisons
87% willing to recommend
Cisco Logo
9,069 views|5,146 comparisons
87% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Aruba Airwave and Cisco DNA Center based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Network Management Applications solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Aruba Airwave vs. Cisco DNA Center Report (Updated: March 2024).
767,995 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It can interact with other vendors better than Cisco, which is a good point of AirWave. It is easy to use, and its reporting is good.""Aruba Airwave provides a robust solution for monitoring and configuring Wi-Fi networks.""The solution is not overly expensive.""The solution's initial setup process is straightforward.""This solution gives you a lot of reporting capabilities, and it has a very good interface.""What I like best about Aruba Airwave is its orchestration feature because it saves configuration time. I also like that it allows you to do ZTP installations for new Aruba equipment.""The Clarity feature makes it easy to use and understand what is going on with your network in a nice dashboard.​""It has improved my organization by increasing troubleshooting opportunities which makes things more efficient."

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"I like that we can easily configure any new hardware. It's also easy to deploy and easy to troubleshoot.""I think that their LAN automation is a very good feature.""It offers automation, security enforcement, analytics, and integration with other Cisco technologies, making it a key driver for efficient network operations and compliance with security protocols.""Has a good processing feature with a high level of accuracy.""Application Assurance works very well.""The most valuable features of the solution are all of its security features...It is a highly scalable solution.""The solution has the capability to scale.""The monitoring features are very useful for network engineers."

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Cons
"They should make it cheaper. By doing that, they can replace Cisco, which is also very expensive. If it is equivalent to Cisco in the features, with a reduced price, they can sell it more than Cisco.""More devices or vendors should be onboarded to Aruba Airwave.""I would like to see is “AAS”. Not only Aruba APs with central, but NAC/ClearPass, AirWave, and everything licensed as a Service.""I would like to see an integration of services into one system, rather than having multiple systems to do multiple things.""We sometimes have problems with troubleshooting between the GUI and the CLI manipulation.""We're looking for more device compatibility. Like compatibility with third-party devices.""Whenever you get an error it doesn't immediately tell you what the thing is that is causing the error. You have to sit down and research it. If it could say what error is causing the issue, it would make my troubleshooting a lot quicker.""Pricing for Aruba Airwave could be cheaper, which is an area for improvement in the solution."

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"Integration with analytic tools and API integrations would be ideal.""The product doesn’t have good monitoring capabilities.""DNA Center has been on the market for a few years and they need to update it.""When it comes to deploying wireless fields, integrating defaults into the DNS interface can be challenging.""The tool's IoT integration should be better.""There is a limitation with the number of VRFs that you can have in your network, and this has caused us problems with some customers.""The solution's technical support is an area with which my company's clients have a problem. Cisco doesn't provide good technical support unless a user has a big account that Cisco wants to retain.""The tool's deployment is complex. It also needs to improve its GUI."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Licensing and pricing are extremely straightforward."
  • "Run a 90 day free Proof of Concept (PoC) for each product by implementing and using it fully in your environment. This way you will be educated on its features, functionality, and manageability."
  • "The cost is perfect because the devices have a lifetime warranty, and the licensing is good as well."
  • "This product is not expensive."
  • "AirWave is a very expensive solution. If you implement it in a wide range network, it will cost a lot. There is no option to sell it outside that price segment, which is a problem."
  • "The licensing cost for Aruba Airwave increased from $72 to $210 within a few months. It would be better if the pricing for the solution were cheaper."
  • "It is an expensive solution."
  • "We must buy a new license to connect more devices to scale up the solution."
  • More Aruba Airwave Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Our licensing agreement is for three years."
  • "I do know that Cisco does offer some really good promotions for DNA Center to bring the costs down."
  • "The licensing cost for Cisco DNA Center is not more than that of other solutions."
  • "Licensing for Cisco DNA Center is a little bit expensive, just like any Cisco solution. Its cost could still be improved."
  • "We have a three-year license with them."
  • "Cisco DNA Center is a licensed product with multiple levels of licensing available such as basic, advanced, and essential. I don't have the exact figure, but Cisco DNA Center is costly. For example, the box has information about the essential license and costs a considerable amount of money. You need to pay extra to use advanced features in Cisco DNA Center. My company sees Cisco DNA Center as a solution that's worth the money, which is why it invested in the solution. If you want centralized management for your network, especially when upgrading it, Cisco DNA Center is perfect, but it's more suitable for a large-scale rather than a small-scale network."
  • "The price could be better. It's a very expensive tool."
  • "It is an expensive solution."
  • More Cisco DNA Center Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.
    Top Answer:I would rate the pricing a nine out of ten, with one being low (like, really cheap and affordable) and ten being high (really expensive). The device requires a license if it was onboarded earlier or… more »
    Top Answer:We're looking for more device compatibility. Like compatibility with third-party devices.
    Top Answer:The automation features are significant, reducing configuration time. This means outstanding functionality. By deploying the controller automatically, the rest becomes automated
    Top Answer:When it comes to deploying wireless fields, integrating defaults into the DNS interface can be challenging.
    Ranking
    Views
    2,170
    Comparisons
    1,482
    Reviews
    8
    Average Words per Review
    378
    Rating
    8.1
    Views
    9,069
    Comparisons
    5,146
    Reviews
    26
    Average Words per Review
    465
    Rating
    7.8
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    DNA Center
    Learn More
    Overview
    Offering granular visibility into wired and wireless networks, AirWave is the only management platform designed with mobile devices and apps in mind. By proactively monitoring the health and performance of all things connected, AirWave lets IT gain the insights they need to support the digital workplace.

    Cisco DNA Center is a robust, intuitive network controller and management platform that provides secure, safe access to applications and networks. Cisco DNA Center allows you to take control of your network to increase the effectiveness of your Cisco products, lower your TCO, and improve your ROI.

    Your organization’s network is an integral part of your business’s success. In today’s aggressive marketplace, organizations need a network management system in place that can effectively automate deployments and connectivity, and manage the health of their infrastructure. Additionally, management systems also need to be able to strategically maintain the quality and safety of their systems so that the organization can direct valuable IT resources to concentrate on projects that can improve the overall effectiveness of the organization. An intent-based network controller such as Cisco DNA center will help your organization do that.

    Cisco DNA Center is a group of software solutions that will automate all your virtual devices, provide secure administration of your network, and ensure the best network experience for all users on the network. Cisco DNA Center does away with all the tedious, mundane tasks and simplifies workflow device installations, upgrading from hours to minutes using Plug-and-Play (PnP) and Software Image Management (SWIM).

    Cisco DNA Center’s intuitive, robust assurance feature makes every network point a sensor, continually communicating user connectivity and application performance in real time. This ensures all issues are resolved immediately.

    Cisco DNA Center integrates with Cisco security solutions, Cisco Umbrella, and Cisco Secure Network Analytics, which provide an extra level of extensive security protection against threats. The entire solution can be easily managed from one single dashboard, making Cisco DNA Center a very robust, secure, complete solution.

    Benefits of Cisco DNA Center

    • Cost-effectiveness: Policy automation and remediation minimizes the amount of time IT staff spend managing mundane network tasks.
    • Improved performance: AI/ML automation improves workflow and overall user experience. A clean, crisp dashboard makes management easy.
    • Enhance your network: Cisco DNA Center delivers the latest, most intuitive cloud services and applications to optimize your network.

    • Improved security: Cisco DNA Center utilizes the most robust zero-trust policies based on overall endpoint user behavior to keep networks secure.

    Features of Cisco DNA Center

    • Easy automation: Cisco DNA Center offers zero-touch device deployment, automated quality of service (QoS), automated device discovery, and drag-and-drop policy creation.

    • Clear analytics: Cisco DNA Center offers more than 150 workable insights, such as guided remediation, endpoint tracking, context-guided analytics, and more.

    • Simplified management: Users have complete control from a user-friendly single dashboard that provides a completely transparent view of the network, devices, applications, and services. Additionally, there is integration with Cisco Prime or APIC-EM for the importation of maps or other configurations as needed.

    • Security: Cisco DNA Center provides a highly secure segmentation, encrypted traffic analytics, and robust threat detection and response, and also uses Stealthwatch and ISE integration.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Mostafa G., Network and Data Center Supervisor at a hospitality company, says, “Since using the solution, three or four people can do what 10 people could previously. It has been a benefit to the organization. We have many people from the team who manage a lot of devices. By using Cisco DNA Center, it has taken some of that burden away, we are impressed with it.”

    Nihar K., Managing Director at Allot Group, relates, “In day-to-day operations, especially post-pandemic, the majority of our customers have to work from anywhere. It's not just work from home, it's work from anywhere. Due to this work from anywhere concept, the traditional silos of a network for the data center architecture, managing everything from anywhere, and having that single integrated dashboard for each and every activity while being able to correlate those activities in line with a business objective, has been very well addressed by Cisco DNA. The solution's most valuable aspect is its simplicity and the complete automation of the network workflow, which we can use that correlate with the business. It's not only limited to STXs or a data center. It completes everything, which really helps us.

    Sample Customers
    Henkel, University of Findlay, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Iowa
    Information Not Available
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Construction Company18%
    Manufacturing Company18%
    Healthcare Company9%
    Government9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Manufacturing Company12%
    University8%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider20%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Hospitality Company10%
    University10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company20%
    Government9%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Healthcare Company6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise53%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise64%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business24%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise59%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise70%
    Buyer's Guide
    Aruba Airwave vs. Cisco DNA Center
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Airwave vs. Cisco DNA Center and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    767,995 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Aruba Airwave is ranked 6th in Network Management Applications with 16 reviews while Cisco DNA Center is ranked 1st in Network Management Applications with 36 reviews. Aruba Airwave is rated 8.4, while Cisco DNA Center is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Aruba Airwave writes "The solution has multi-vendor support, and it can be used for network management". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Cisco DNA Center writes "Practical implementation of VXLAN is good and provides centralized control". Aruba Airwave is most compared with HPE Intelligent Management Center, Cisco Prime, Fortinet FortiManager, Huawei eSight and Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista, whereas Cisco DNA Center is most compared with Cisco Prime, SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager, Huawei eSight, Juniper Mist Wired Assurance and Fortinet FortiManager. See our Aruba Airwave vs. Cisco DNA Center report.

    See our list of best Network Management Applications vendors.

    We monitor all Network Management Applications reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.