Avantra vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance comparison

Avantra and Cisco are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Avantra is ranked #58, while Cisco is ranked #43 with an average rating of 8.0. Avantra holds a 0.6% mindshare in APM, compared to Cisco’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Avantra users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

Avantra

Read 5 Avantra reviews

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100% willing to recommend

Cisco Provider Connectivity...

Read 24 Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance reviews

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1,107 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Avantra

Cisco Provider Connectivity...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

Avantra and Accedian Skylight are both sophisticated solutions in their respective domains. Avantra seems to have the upper hand in intuitive setup and monitoring capabilities, while Accedian Skylight excels in network performance management.

Features: Avantra offers automated monitoring, predictive analytics, and seamless integration. Accedian Skylight provides real-time analytics, detailed network visibility, and advanced troubleshooting tools.

Room for Improvement: Avantra could enhance customization and scalability, and add more flexibility. Accedian Skylight needs improvements in reporting capabilities and user training, as well as better analytical reporting.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Avantra is praised for its straightforward deployment model and responsive customer service. Accedian Skylight requires more time and expertise but is recognized for its comprehensive setup guides and detailed documentation and support.

Pricing and ROI: Avantra is considered cost-effective with a higher immediate ROI due to its streamlined operations. Accedian Skylight has higher setup costs but justifies the price with robust features yielding long-term benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Avantra vs. Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Avantra vs. Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance

December 2025

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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

Avantra

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

58th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

SAP Service Providers (15th), Server Monitoring (32nd), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (62nd)

Cisco Provider Connectivity...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

43rd

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (43rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Avantra is 0.6%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance is 0.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance	0.7%
Avantra	0.6%
Other	98.7%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Mani Velayudhan

Manager, SAP Basis at The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company

Useful automation capabilities, scales well, and simple implementation

We are currently exploring automation options for various areas, and Avantra should consider implementing automation for change request management, an area they have not yet ventured into. While Avantra is currently excelling in monitoring and system refreshes, there is scope for improvement in automating change request management. In addition to primarily focusing on SAP, Avantra currently performs kernel patches which are core SAP patches. However, exploring more into OS patching could be another potential area for Avantra to expand its automation capabilities. Looking ahead to future releases, I would like to see more advanced automation features. As a long-term goal, I am considering the possibility of automating SAP system upgrades. While this would not be an easy feat, advancements in technology may make it feasible in the future. Overall, a key feature I hope to see in future releases is increased automation capabilities.

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Sylvain Germe

Application and Network Performance Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Highly scalable, responsive support, but lacking new features

This solution is geared towards on-premise setups, and would not be useful if the company plans to move to the cloud within the next two years, such as Google Cloud for example. If the goal is to monitor bandwidth at remote sites and identify performance issues because the network is under the control, this solution is useful. However, if a company primarily uses cloud-based servers and does not manage the internet connection of its remote sites, the solution becomes less useful. I rate Accedian Skylight a seven out of ten. I have a positive opinion of the tool, but it can be challenging to set up. It is also limited in its applicability to certain use cases. I am familiar with the engineers behind the solution and have a good impression of them. However, I am not pleased with the fact that the company removed many features and raised prices after it was acquired by Accedian.

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

"The most valuable feature of Avantra is automation. The reduction of manual work and having them automated is one of the top reasons why I would use it."

"It's very easy to manage and use."

"You can customize alerts based on need."

"One valuable feature we have is real-time monitoring for connection issues."

"I always have the Skylight dashboard on one of my screens... Now you can create your own dashboard, specific to an application, specific to a server, or to something else."

"The feature I used to like the most was its ability to decode layer seven protocols, although this is becoming less useful now that encryption is so widespread."

"The solution’s UI and single pane of glass is good. The new dashboard is modern with its new design. The look of it is not pretty, but it is efficient, which is good. It is user-friendly; you can find what you need on the interface quickly."

"If [the problem] is something related to HTTP or VoIP, then I can have a quick look into the protocols, a process which gives me some good ideas..."

"What I like most about Accedian Skylight is that it's a UI application, so using it is easy. I also like that the support for Accedian Skylight is helpful."

"The ability to measure performance end-to-end across the cloud data center allows us to take corrective action to keep our channels online."

"The response times, with the performance, are really interesting too, where you can see the packet loss."

More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance pros

Cons

"We are currently exploring automation options for various areas, and Avantra should consider implementing automation for change request management, an area they have not yet ventured into. While Avantra is currently excelling in monitoring and system refreshes, there is scope for improvement in automating change request management. In addition to primarily focusing on SAP, Avantra currently performs kernel patches which are core SAP patches. However, exploring more into OS patching could be another potential area for Avantra to expand its automation capabilities."

"The dashboard needs to improve."

"The machine-learning is lacking and should be improved."

"Human resource costs can be high when dealing with connection issues."

"Some of the Skylight applications are a little newer, and they're still moving through initial revs. There are certain bugs, but nothing is insurmountable... It will just take a little bit of time for their user interface to get a little bit better."

"Human resource costs can be high when dealing with connection issues."

"For the PVX, they are in the process of getting the results to export to cloud and SaaS for analytics. They told me that this will happen later this year. Right now, for the most part, I create that data myself."

"I would like to see some improvements in parts of their synthetic transactions, which includes all the latency, jitter, and throughput. I would like to see some Layer 7 analytics in there. I want to be able to do a DNS request, HTTP GET request, or even SIP call point-to-point or via registration."

"The UI interface of Accedian Skylight could improve."

"It needs the possibility to export data because it is not easy to see larger data sets, e.g., for one month. It would be interesting to export data into a PDF or dashboard to keep a history of the situation."

"If you want a new version, you go to the website. The hardest part is finding the link, where is that .bin file? Sometimes it's pretty hidden in a document... it's hidden in the release notes or in another file somewhere. And it's usually not on the first page either."

More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The price is competitive overall, depending on the type of customer."

"It provides value and the cost is not huge."

"We understand there's a significant cost difference, but have yet to investigate fully."

"The pricing of Accedian Skylight is really good. The sensors are low cost. Their model to analytics for sensors is by license, endpoint, or session. With the probes for their analytics, if they get deployed virtually, they are free. The licensing is only based on flows. So, you can effectively deploy probes everywhere in your network. Then, if you want to look at a specific type of traffic, you can enter into it with a very low cost license. You can just use things like spam ports, mirrors, TAPs, and aggregators to optimize what sort of traffic you send to these analysis tools. Then, if you want to start looking at more, you can up your licensed as you go. You are not getting forced into expensive appliances or subscription models."

"Pricing is a little bit expensive."

"If you look into Riverbed, it's a licensing nightmare. You need to pay for every type of analysis... If you don't look into licensing, Riverbed and SolarWinds are pretty comparable. But if you look into licensing it would not be smart to go for either of them. On the pure, bare-metal basis, it's the same. But when you get the bare metal and a few basic licenses, then you need all those other licenses just to be sure that there's no issue... One of the great things about Skylight is you have them all, and you actually need them all."

"The pricing is cheaper than other competing products, which is better for our budgets."

"The solution was previously well-regarded, but after being acquired by Accedian, the prices have significantly increased. This has made it challenging to sell the product due to its high cost. It is an expensive solution."

More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Aerospace/Defense Firm

Computer Software Company

25%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	9

Questions from the Community

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What needs improvement with Accedian Skylight?

Human resource costs can be high when dealing with connection issues. I require more tools to file and resolve these issues efficiently.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Accedian Skylight?

I had prepared for COC and the client. I work as a vendor for a client using Flow Mount for network performance monitoring. I focus on resolving client-side issues related to Packy Performance and ...

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What advice do you have for others considering Accedian Skylight?

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Avantra

January 2026

Download Avantra product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance

January 2026

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance report

Download Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance product report

Also Known As

No data available

Accedian Skylight, Accedian SkyLIGHT PVX, SkyLIGHT PVX, SecurActive, Performance Vision

Overview

Avantra is a highly-regarded next-generation AI operations platform for SAP automation operation processes. Avantra enables enterprise organizations to become self-healing organizations, fully able to process their complex operating systems more efficiently and productively. With Avantra, SAP clients will improve performance and compliance, redirect critical resources to enhance digital transformation, and reduce operational costs, thereby improving the overall business experience.

Avantra offers robust integrated operations for on-premises, cloud, hybrid, and SaaS options for both Build and Run operations. Avantra is a recognized, trusted solution that is used worldwide for both enterprise organizations and managed service providers (MSPs). Users can expect to consistently benefit from Avantra’s valuable intuitive processes and unrivaled intelligence to ensure their organization is able to maintain its landscape health while significantly reducing overall operational costs.

Avantra Benefits

Start/stop automation: Avantra provides unmatched comprehensive visibility of the organization's SAP processes, enabling robust KPI and performance-based cloud scaling. Avantra issues swift automated direction about when to start/stop a SAP system process and when it's best to scale out or in.
Monitoring automation: Benefiting from more than 160 plug-and-play SAP process checks results in no additional lengthy projects or consultancy fees. Avantra is cost-effective immediately. Avantra provides intuitively customized research and auto-deploy proficiencies that allow organizations to meet their most demanding and distinctive monitoring demands. Immediately upon deployment, Avantra automatically identifies the specific SAP system components, version, and type.
Best practice automation: Avantra consistently uses the latest industry-recognized best practice monitoring processes for Basis monitoring audits and thresholds throughout the entire full stack and all SAP systems.
System hardening: Avantra’s intuitive notification and system hardening process allows users to specify who receives unauthorized system notifications immediately. Should the alert not be addressed in a timely manner, Avantra will re-flag the issue.
Fast, easy installation: Avantra can be installed and deployed in one day. The setup is straightforward, and there are no long-term commitments or excessive licensing costs. This makes Avantra very cost-effective and allows organizations to experience an almost immediate ROI.

Avantra Features

Intuitive dashboards: Avantra offers fully customizable dashboards available to all stakeholders throughout the organization. Top-level executives receive full transparency regarding the entire fitness and health of the organization. Other users, IT staff, and team members have access to all the data they need to ensure the organization is running efficiently and productively.
Cloud integrations: Avantra provides seamless integrations with Alibaba Cloud, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and more, all with a very easy setup process. Avantra also has the ability to automate, monitor, and manage a complete range of SAP SaaS solutions, as well as third-party non-SAP SaaS web services and applications.
SAP ecosystem: Avantra simplifies the SAP monitoring process by monitoring, managing, and automating every process of an organization's SAP ecosystem, including SAP and non–SAP applications, third-party applications, web servers, databases, and SaaS solutions. Everything is streamlined into one easy-to-use tool.
ServiceNow integration: Avantra provides certified immediate integration with ServiceNow. This allows for enhancement of CMDB with SAP-specific data, and the capability of quickly triggering Avantra automations for immediate resolution of issues. Avantra also provides ServiceNow unique ITSM and ITOM integrations and many seamless integrations with today’s popular ITSM solutions via RESTful APIs.

Avantra

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance is known for its user-friendly approach to network analysis and performance monitoring. It excels in real-time diagnostics, helping organizations quickly resolve network issues and optimize performance effortlessly.

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance focuses on comprehensive network troubleshooting and performance monitoring, assisting in identifying bottlenecks and analyzing applications. Real-time data collection and evaluation ensure IT infrastructure efficiency. With active monitoring of latency, jitter, and throughput, users maintain smooth operations across multiple sites and applications. While highly effective, improvements in data handling, protocol support, and dashboard aesthetics are suggested to enhance user experience.

What are the key features of Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance?

Flow Matrices: Advanced analysis of network paths and traffic distribution.
SQL and DNS Analysis: In-depth insights into database and domain queries for troubleshooting.
Bandwidth Assessment: Evaluation of network capacity and utilization for performance optimization.
Real-time TWAMP Monitoring: Tracks network performance using Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol.
Application Performance Modules: Monitors the performance of various applications and services.
Customizable Dashboards: Personalized views for tracking critical network metrics and trends.
PCAP Capturing: Detailed packet analysis using tools like Wireshark for deeper insights.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Ease of Use: Intuitive design allowing users to swiftly diagnose network issues.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Enhanced visibility of network activity for better control.
Performance Efficiency: Optimization of throughput, reducing downtimes and improving service delivery.
Cost-Effectiveness: Balances features and functionality with competitive pricing for better ROI.

In industries such as telecommunications and finance, where network reliability is crucial, Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance offers critical network performance insights. It supports high-demand environments by providing data-driven decisions, ensuring infrastructures handle increased loads efficiently.

Cisco

Sample Customers

Migros, Strauss, Migros, LAM research, Deloitte, Deloitte, Kiewit

T-Systems, Thomson Reuters, Bordeaux Metropole, CGI, Citadelle Regional Hospital Center, Lorraine Institute of Oncology, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Groupe BPCE, Group S, Splitpoint, Horus-Net, Audatex, Indexis, Province de Liège, EASI, Spie Batignolles, Faymonville

Buyer's Guide

Avantra vs. Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance

December 2025

Free Report: Avantra vs. Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance

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