CA Unified Communications Monitor vs Kentik comparison

CA Unified Communications M...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

CA Unified Communications Monitor and Kentik are competitors in the network performance monitoring category. CA Unified Communications Monitor has an edge in pricing and support, while Kentik offers superior features that make it a worthwhile investment.

Features: CA Unified Communications Monitor provides robust analytics specifically for VoIP and video, combined with network behavior analysis. Its focus is on optimizing communication traffic. Kentik offers real-time traffic monitoring, advanced DDoS protection, and comprehensive IP flow record analysis, allowing for more extensive network infrastructure coverage.

Room for Improvement: CA Unified Communications Monitor could improve by expanding beyond communication traffic to cover broader network issues, enhancing its real-time monitoring capabilities, and offering better scalability options. Kentik might focus on reducing initial setup complexities, provide more targeted support for communication systems, and streamline its pricing structures for smaller businesses.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CA Unified Communications Monitor emphasizes straightforward deployment with easy integration into existing infrastructures, backed by robust customer support focusing on communications. Kentik features easy cloud-based deployment with rapid assistance aimed at scalability, which suits rapidly growing networks and modern IT environments.

Pricing and ROI: CA Unified Communications Monitor is known for its lower initial setup cost, which leads to a quicker ROI through its communication performance insights. Kentik has a higher setup cost, but this is justified with its comprehensive network traffic analysis and scalability, potentially offering a better long-term ROI due to its extensive feature set.

To learn more, read our detailed CA Unified Communications Monitor vs. Kentik Report (Updated: June 2026).

CA Unified Communications Monitor vs. Kentik

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Helped 902,988 peers since 2012

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

CA Unified Communications M...

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

88th

Average Rating

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Unified Communications Monitoring (3rd), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (61st)

Kentik

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

22nd

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (16th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of CA Unified Communications Monitor is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kentik is 1.8%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Kentik	1.8%
CA Unified Communications Monitor	0.5%
Other	97.7%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

itarchit489981

IT Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Good end-to-end voice quality monitoring and offers valuable features

The solution should have automatic baseline detection. On the per hour, per base, per week. That's usually the best. And on a per individual CI level. I know that they're working on it and when that's available then we will definitely implement it because it will reduce the effort we need to maintain all the products. Right now we have to set thresholds for every location, and it needs to be actually dynamic so if we have better thresholding, we'll have faster alarms across all our locations. We won't have to expend effort on it by resetting or checking them on a regular basis.

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ADRIANA SALDARRIAGA TOBON

Sales Manager at IFX NEtworks

Client experience and cybersecurity have improved with an easy setup

The solution is valuable for client experience, especially in the financial sector. The most important feature is cybersecurity. The pricing is good, but the functionality is the most important aspect for clients. The solution is easy to deploy and requires only one person to set up, making it easy and quick. Overall, the ease of use and the fact that it meets client expectations are major positives.

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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

"We use the solution to meet the needs of the customer."

"Good end-to-end monitoring"

"For us, it's very key to know the voice quality of the total solution, which is based on many components across many domains."

"Having the API access allows us to do a great deal of automation around a lot of our reporting and management tools."

"We're also using Kentik to ingest metrics. It's a useful feature, and its response time, whenever we're pulling back the data, is higher than our on-prem solution."

"Technical support is second to none."

"We haven't seen anything else that comes even close to Kentik's real-time visibility across our network infrastructure, and we've demo'ed everything under the sun."

"In terms of overall vendor partnership, I'd give Kentik a nine out of 10; they're right up there as one of my best partners to work with, amongst all the contracts that I own, and they're very customer-centric, always available, with nothing too small or too big that I can't ask them to help with, and they seem to be willing and able to jump in no matter what."

"It offers a simple yet powerful feature of classifying applications, going beyond basic statistics."

"The most valuable features have been anything around traffic engineering: being able to determine the source or destination of a surge of traffic, whether it's DDoS-related, or a customer just happened to have a sudden uptick in traffic. Being able to tell where that's coming from or where it's going to enables us to do things based on that."

"I really love the Data Explorer. I use it all the time to go in and craft exactly what I need to see. I'm able to then take that story and explain it to the executives. I've done that a couple of times and it is helpful."

More Kentik pros

Cons

"All the features and functions of the solution can be improved, specifically the user experience."

"The solution should have automatic baseline detection."

"It also detects anomalies proactively, but the same is not so true when it comes to real network problems, since they tend to just happen."

"We had faced some issues during an outage and were not able to get the desired results from Kentik tools. It took time to resolve these issues, which is why I give them eight points."

"They're moving more in a direction where they are saying, "Hey, here's information that you may be interested in or may a need," before the question has to explicitly be asked. Continuing to move in that direction would be a good thing."

"Sometimes it's difficult to order the dimensions correctly when trying to make Sankey flow diagrams."

"Perhaps a better explanation would be to see how tagging is captured and a method of comparing my tagged interfaces on Kentik’s side."

"The product could strive for more improvements to become closer to perfect."

"There is room for improvement around the usability of the API. It's a hugely complex task to call it and you need a lot of backing to be able to do it. I should say, as someone who's not in networking, maybe it's easier for people who are in networking, but for me that one part is not very user-friendly."

"There is a large difference between BGP and normal nodes. I don't think this plays out to the best for the customer or Kentik."

More Kentik cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"We have an annual contract with Kentik that we renew each year for a set number of licenses. We also have some burstable licenses which we can spin up and spin down, and those are paid as they are used."

"The tool is cheaply priced."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Comms Service Provider

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Construction Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kentik?

I would say Kentik's pricing is not cheap. From my perspective as part of the technical team, I would not categorize it as expensive, but I know it is not cheap.

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What needs improvement with Kentik?

There's always room for improvements and better relations when using any kind of product. We faced some issues with Kentik UI and alerting, which we asked them to fix, and they succeeded. They have...

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What is your primary use case for Kentik?

We are using Kentik mostly for synthetic tests, and from one last year, network monitoring as well. We are using it for inter DC BGP tests and server monitoring as well.

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Product Reports

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CA Unified Communications Monitor report

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Also Known As

CA UC Monitor

No data available

Overview

CA Unified Communications Monitor provides real-time insight into communication networks, ensuring seamless connectivity and performance.

Designed for efficient management of unified communications, CA Unified Communications Monitor helps organizations monitor, diagnose, and manage their network and communication services efficiently. It delivers critical network visibility, allowing IT teams to quickly identify and resolve performance issues. Built with scalability in mind, it supports environments of all sizes, adapting to evolving network demands.

What are the key features of CA Unified Communications Monitor?

Real-time Monitoring: Provides live updates and dashboards for continuous network performance oversight.
Scalability: Handles growing network demands effortlessly, supporting various organization sizes.
Comprehensive Reporting: Offers detailed analytics and reporting to help in troubleshooting and performance analysis.
Custom Alerts: Configures alerts for proactive issue management, ensuring quick response to potential disruptions.

What benefits can users expect when evaluating CA Unified Communications Monitor?

Improved Network Performance: Enhances overall communication quality by addressing bottlenecks promptly.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces downtime and maintenance costs through proactive monitoring and quick issue resolution.
Enhanced User Satisfaction: Ensures a seamless user experience with consistent communication services.
Operational Agility: Adapts easily to growing network needs, supporting efficient management processes.

Industries such as finance, healthcare, and education benefit significantly from CA Unified Communications Monitor implementation. It ensures stable connections for remote consultations in healthcare, supports financial data transmission, and enables interactive learning experiences in education. By facilitating uninterrupted and high-quality communications, it directly contributes to business continuity and improved operational outcomes.

Broadcom

Kentik provides real-time visibility into network infrastructure, focusing on monitoring, data visualization, and flow analysis to manage traffic patterns efficiently.

With robust analytics capabilities, Kentik offers insights into BGP peering status, aids in DDoS detection, and allows for detailed telemetry through its intuitive interface. The platform's SaaS nature simplifies operations by eliminating server maintenance concerns. Multi-vendor support and synthetic testing enhance network security and performance by simulating customer scenarios, while its API offers automation for querying and reporting tasks.

What are the key features of Kentik?

Real-Time Visibility: Monitors network infrastructure effectively.
Data Visualization: Offers powerful tools for viewing complex data.
Flow Analysis: Analyzes traffic flow for optimal management.
BGP Peering Insights: Provides in-depth peering status checks.
DDoS Alerting: Notifies about potential DDoS threats.
Data Explorer: Aids in understanding traffic patterns.
Synthetic Testing: Simulates scenarios to enhance security and performance.

What benefits can be found in user reviews?

Automation: Users value the flexibility of its API for automating tasks.
Ease of Use: SaaS model streamlines user engagement, eliminating server maintenance.
Flexibility: Report customization and query settings are highly appreciated.
Enhanced Observability: Telemetry and multi-vendor support increase oversight.

Industries implement Kentik for network monitoring, traffic management, and flow data analysis across both on-prem and cloud setups. It proves valuable for detecting DDoS events, managing peering relationships, and optimizing costs, besides managing CDN configurations and performing synthetic tests in diverse environments.

Sample Customers

BBVA Compass

Pandora, Yelp, Neustar, Box, University of Washington, Zoom, Tata, and Cogent.

CA Unified Communications Monitor vs. Kentik