Azure Network Watcher vs DX Performance Management comparison

Microsoft and Broadcom are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Microsoft is ranked #47 with an average rating of 8.3, while Broadcom is ranked #55 with an average rating of 8.5. Microsoft holds a 0.4% mindshare in NMS, compared to Broadcom’s 0.3% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

Azure Network Watcher

Read 12 Azure Network Watcher reviews

670 Views
630 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

DX Performance Management

Read 32 DX Performance Management reviews

778 Views
451 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Azure Network Watcher

DX Performance Management

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

DX Performance Management and Azure Network Watcher compete in network performance and monitoring. Azure Network Watcher has the upper hand due to its robust features, though DX Performance Management is favorable for its cost-effectiveness and customer support.

Features: DX Performance Management provides comprehensive insights into network performance, offers extensive analytics, and customizable reports. Ideal for continuous performance improvement, it caters to diverse monitoring needs. Azure Network Watcher stands out with built-in diagnostics, detailed network topology visualization, and automatic configuration checks, making it powerful for monitoring and troubleshooting.

Room for Improvement: DX Performance Management can improve in areas such as expanding advanced diagnostics capabilities, enhancing visualization features, and streamlining integration with other tools. Azure Network Watcher might benefit from simplified user onboarding, improved customer training resources, and more consistent support experiences.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: DX Performance Management is recognized for smooth deployment and effective customer support, catering to various network environments efficiently. Azure Network Watcher offers integrated deployment within the Azure ecosystem, benefitting Azure Cloud users particularly, but it may present a steeper learning curve with varying levels of support satisfaction.

Pricing and ROI: DX Performance Management presents a lower initial setup cost, appealing to organizations seeking a cost-effective solution with tangible ROI improvements in performance. Conversely, Azure Network Watcher, while having higher upfront costs, delivers substantial ROI through comprehensive monitoring and agile troubleshooting capabilities, adding value for those deeply integrated with the Azure platform.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Network Watcher vs. DX Performance Management Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher vs. DX Performance Management

September 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

Azure Network Watcher

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

47th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

DX Performance Management

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

55th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Infrastructure Capacity Planning (2nd), DX NetOps (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Azure Network Watcher is 0.4%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of DX Performance Management is 0.3%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Azure Network Watcher	0.4%
DX Performance Management	0.3%
Other	99.3%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Bijoyendra Roychowdhury

Program Manager at Capgemini

Network monitoring provides comprehensive analytics while the interface requires further development

The quality of Azure Network Watcher is quite good in terms of the in-depth analysis you can create from these matrices. There are other monitoring tools such as New Relic, AppDynamics, and Dynatrace which provide very detailed network tracing. Cloud providers such as Azure or AWS do not have that kind of GUI-based capability at this point, but using PowerShell or Python, you can develop it yourself. From the GUI perspective, it still needs to evolve in terms of quality and standard, though overall, it is quite good for troubleshooting. Regarding areas for improvement, when comparing to other network tools beyond Azure Monitor or Azure Network Watcher, those tools can identify single failed packets. This level of granularity is not currently possible with cloud providers as they only go to a certain level rather than the granular level needed for deep troubleshooting, though they do provide hints with available matrices.

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Sandip Kheni

Lead Developer at STL - Sterlite Technologies Limited

The vertical database loads faster than any other product available

We experience disconnections between the solutions own components. In the last five years, there have been many intermittent connection issues with the four components and we still don't know the reasons. The solution has issues when loading groups that have been created in the application interfaces. It would be nice to have a mobile application. In the current industry and technical word, the mobile phone is the only thing that is always in your hands. Other Broadcom products have mobile applications but the solution doesn't offer one. It would be great to view device parameters and view or download graphs from a mobile device.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It provides good visibility."

"The stability is very good. I rate it a ten out of ten."

"The solution is stable."

"The most valuable features I have found are typology, visualization, and capture."

"The solution is good for monitoring device behavior."

"The most valuable feature of Azure Network Watcher is using the gateways with the connections. The monitoring is useful for the logs and application insights into the data. The traffic filtering issues when it comes to deploying those applications are helpful."

"We use the solution to monitor network services. It helps to capture any network issues."

"What I like most about Azure Network Watcher is that it's focused more on the architecture. I also like that it has a packet capture feature that tells you how the packet travels and whether it's exiting Azure, etc."

More Azure Network Watcher pros

"The out-of-the-box dashboards are valuable, in terms of being able to visualize performance data in ways that we haven't in the past."

"The capability where not only the traditional SNMP information is captured but also the netflow data; who is consuming the data on the WAN, and voice-related information, is helpful. The voice quality makes it very easy for first- and second-line operators to see where the issue is, and who is impacted."

"You can have thousands of devices inside and hundreds of thousands of interphases without a problem."

"Scalability is the reason we bought the product to begin with. It was designed from the ground up for carrier-grade services, and we are in effect a MSP ourselves. So we were really interested in looking at something to be able to handle the multi-tenancy and scale as large as possible. This was the only solution that we really considered at that level."

"It is the gathering of the whole performance data in our environment and our network environment, for us and our customers."

"The integration with NetFlow, the NFA solution, so that we can have our flow forensics paired with the SNMP polling performance metrics on the same page."

"We're able to present data from multiple back-end collection sources into a single dashboard for the users. So they don't have to go to multiple locations to get data about a particular item, or device."

"Customer service is top-notch."

More DX Performance Management pros

Cons

"Azure Network Watcher could improve by having other built-in applications. For example, an application to log activities for in and outbound traffic."

"Technical support from Microsoft needs significant improvement compared to other product vendors."

"Azure Network Watcher needs to have better documentation and it needs to capture information accurately."

"Azure is good, however, the Fortinet GUI is more intuitive and I like it more than anything else."

"I would like to see in the future if we can troubleshoot as a firewall because it is equipment as a network player and some diagnostics."

"I still use Wireshark and Azure Network Watcher to get the required data. My team captures the traffic from Azure Network Watcher, downloads it, then imports that traffic into Wireshark to get more details on the number of hits and replies, for example. If you can do that on Azure Network Watcher and have Wireshark built-in, that would make Azure Network Watcher better. If Azure Network Watcher has that functionality where you won't need a third-party tool to get what you need, that would be helpful. I'm also expecting more from Azure Network Watcher. It's more complex than knowing how the IP flows from its source to the destination. The tool also needs more open-source features, such as having some built-in Wireshark that improves monitoring for customers. Sometimes, you encounter a VPN tunnel, network, or routing issue, but finding out more about the blockage is challenging. Is it one hundred percent an Azure issue? Is it a peer issue? You don't get complete information from Azure Network Watcher, so you must use other tools and depend on your strategies to resolve a specific issue. If more features could be added in the next release of Azure Network Watcher, specifically ones you can find on open-source tools, then that would be a plus point for the tool."

"The initial setup and deployment could be improved to be simplified."

"Lacks sufficient security features."

More Azure Network Watcher cons

"Product has issue collecting IP SLA data."

"It would be helpful if CA provided online training for its customers."

"For CA PM, there should be a way of easily migrating the reports coming from eHealth going to CA Performance Center, since CA PC is replacing eHealth."

"I would like to have more tasks, graphs, and possibilities for linking to the graphs and reports added to the solution."

"This may be available by now but for server space, when it comes to the disk file system, I'd like to see that graphically represented, or the trend, rather than what I'm seeing now."

"We experience disconnections between the solutions own components."

"The quantity of views which are tied to specific metric families is too high. Also, the problem is the view doesn't tell you which metric family it uses, so you don't know why you don't see data."

"This solution is not very scalable."

More DX Performance Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price-wise, I have no information on how much Azure Network Watcher costs."

"The pricing is good. It's not too expensive."

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

"Azure Network Watcher is a little bit expensive."

"They should provide more scalable licensing for the product."

"We purchase a license to use the solution every three years and we have multiple contracts. They have been increasing the price annually. We have a baseline for three years and then we need to pay the difference from the baseline, and we are in the process of negotiating a new price for all the licenses we need. The price overall is affordable."

"The tool's pricing is based on the number of network devices."

"I like the licensing model because it's device-based."

"We were looking at other vendors in the marketplace for NetFlow, and CA just beat everybody else in price, cost, and the size to implement. "

"Do your homework and know how many devices you will be managing out of the gate. Be sure to project what your growth will be each year."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

University

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Educational Organization

11%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Large Enterprise	25

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Azure Network Watcher?

I like the visibility.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Network Watcher?

Azure Network Watcher is affordable from the perspective of basic costing. It doesn't cost too much at this point unless you are requesting customizable detailed matrices. For the default configura...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Azure Network Watcher?

See all answers

What do you like most about DX Performance Management?

The tool helps us understand network performance.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DX Performance Management?

The tool's pricing is based on the number of network devices.

See all answers

What needs improvement with DX Performance Management?

Spectrum's topology view sometimes does not rebuild automatically when a device is shut down and reconnected. It requires manual discovery and rebuilding of the topology, which I hope can be improved.

See all answers

Comparisons

ThousandEyes vs Azure Network Watcher

Compared 31% of the time

Microsoft Network Monitor vs Azure Network Watcher

Compared 25% of the time

Nmap vs Azure Network Watcher

Compared 24% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Azure Network Watcher

Compared 20% of the time

More Azure Network Watcher Competitors

IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) vs DX Performance Management

Compared 24% of the time

SolarWinds AppOptics vs DX Performance Management

Compared 24% of the time

DX Spectrum vs DX Performance Management

Compared 22% of the time

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs DX Performance Management

Compared 15% of the time

OmniPeek vs DX Performance Management

Compared 15% of the time

More DX Performance Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher

October 2025

Download Azure Network Watcher product report

Buyer's Guide

DX Performance Management

October 2025

Download DX Performance Management product report

Also Known As

No data available

CA Performance Management

Overview

Azure Network Watcher is a comprehensive network monitoring and diagnostic service offered by Microsoft Azure. It provides a range of tools and capabilities to help users monitor, diagnose, and gain insights into their Azure network infrastructure. With Network Watcher, users can capture and analyze network traffic, monitor network performance, troubleshoot connectivity issues, and gain visibility into network topology. It also offers features like packet capture, flow logs, connection monitoring, and VPN diagnostics to ensure the smooth operation of Azure networks. Network Watcher enables users to proactively identify and resolve network issues, optimize network performance, and enhance the overall reliability and security of their Azure network environment.

Microsoft

CA Performance Management is a comprehensive and highly scalable network performance monitoring and analytics platform. It was built to meet the unique demands of big data and modern networks architectures, including highly dynamic and complex hybrid cloud and software-defined networks (SDN).

The platform is design to reduce complexity inherent in modern networks built across numerous technology stacks through advanced network performance monitoring and relationship mapping for improved operational assurance.

Combined with CA Virtual Network Assurance, the platform extends operator visibility through advanced discovery and network performance monitoring of highly sensitive cloud and multi-layered SDN networks and service chains.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Jack Henry & Assoc, Target, CenturyLink, Bell Canada, BrightHouse Networks, Telus, Unisys, Verizon, Southern California Edison, GEICO, Fidelity Investments, Wells Fargo, American Family Insurance Group, Deutsche Telekom AG

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher vs. DX Performance Management

September 2025

Free Report: Azure Network Watcher vs. DX Performance Management

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