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Cisco Catalyst Center vs FireMon Asset Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

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

Cisco Catalyst Center
Ranking in Network Management Applications
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
FireMon Asset Manager
Ranking in Network Management Applications
17th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (11th), Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Cisco Catalyst Center is 7.9%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FireMon Asset Manager is 1.0%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Catalyst Center7.9%
FireMon Asset Manager1.0%
Other91.1%
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

AR
Network Engineer at Edmonton Catholic School Board
Has improved infrastructure management with customizable reporting and automated deployment
Cisco Catalyst Center's reporting is one of the best features, providing graphs and quick hit analysis in one place instead of having to search elsewhere. Historical data can be stored in Cisco Catalyst Center, and dashboards and widgets can be configured to personal preference. Device deployment can be automated to the point where all someone needs to do is plug it in. Zero Touch Provisioning, while requiring some initial work to set up properly, provides significant benefits. Once configured, it reduces the need for travel by specific network personnel, allowing on-site or other staff to handle device deployment by simply plugging in the cable.
AN
Director of Delivery for IT and Cybersecurity at IMRI
Quickly discovers large IP address spaces, integrates seamlessly, and is easy to maintain
The fact that Asset Manager provides us with accurate updated asset information and details, is important for us. When FireMon Asset Manager is properly configured the data it provides is comprehensive. I have used Asset Manager to create dashboards for certificate monitoring to identify out-of-date certificates. I've also used it for operational technology, like industrial control system-type monitoring. They work well. They're a great resource when we're trying to learn more about our network, find a gap, or discover if something isn't being monitored that we need to be monitoring. The speed at which Asset Manager can discover large IP address spaces is impressive. It discovers things relatively quickly and with relatively minimal configuration and setup. Asset Manager's benefits became evident soon after implementation. Real-time data provided immediate clarity; even simple queries quickly demonstrated its value. Asset Manager identified unauthorized devices on the network, prompting a review of connections between various generative networks. In simpler terms, I discovered unexpected devices, addressed a potential security breach by isolating them, and identified additional unauthorized connections. This has a clear impact on overall network security. We have configured FireMon APIs for alerting.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cisco Catalyst Center was flexible in terms of scalability, offering advanced security features and reliable performance."
"The best feature of Cisco is its industry-standard nature."
"I find Cisco Catalyst Center to be a great solution because their hardware is strong, and the platform is reliable."
"Cisco Catalyst switches are reliable and stable."
"Customer service has been excellent."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Catalyst Center is automation."
"Cisco Catalyst Center's reporting is one of the best features, providing graphs and quick hit analysis in one place instead of having to search elsewhere."
"One of the most significant features of Cisco Catalyst Center that has improved our network performance is the wireless assurance, which helped us identify issues in the wireless; thanks to the help of Cisco Catalyst Center, we migrated from 2.4 to 5G as we understood where the maximum service interruptions were happening, leading to significant improvement in customer satisfaction, better connectivity, better strength, and better onboarding."
"It offers a single platform for managing firewalls of different brands and simplifies policy deployment and auditing. It helps push policies to different firewalls, and it also helps with policy auditing."
"The most valuable aspects of FireMon Asset Manager are its integrations and its ability to passively monitor the network for unknown assets."
"The most valuable feature is the change modules. Whenever there is a change in the firewall, it automatically reflects on FireMon."
 

Cons

"The deployment process is pretty complex"
"The retention period of data could be improved from seven days to 30 days."
"Some features in terms of security should be there, especially in threat detection. Cisco Catalyst Center lacked intelligence in this area and required reliance on third-party appliances like firewalls or threat protection devices."
"The retention period of data could be improved from seven days to 30 days. This change would help in cases where users are on leave for extended periods."
"Advanced hardware replacement services have seen a degradation in quality, with delays in replacement parts."
"The main drawback of Cisco Catalyst Center is that it can only manage and monitor Cisco devices with a DNA license, specifically the Catalyst 9000 series."
"Regarding the cons of Catalyst, it is a little more expensive. With other vendors, you have one license for all features. In the case of Catalyst, there are many licensing options."
"Current pricing is too expensive for features that users may not be sure they will use, pricing the company out of the market."
"It is not very good at monitoring the Check Point firewall, but it works very well with other firewalls such as Palo Alto, Fortinet, and Cisco ASA."
"The discovery process could be improved. If incorrect credentials are entered, it should give an error message. That would make our work easy rather than having to troubleshoot why the issue is occurring."
"While passive discovery remains important, active retrieval of asset details would be valuable, and this functionality is starting to be implemented, as I've observed in recent updates but it is not fully there yet."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"FireMon Asset Manager's pricing has been reasonable and has worked well for us from a licensing standpoint."
"FireMon is more expensive than other brands but justified by its comprehensive feature set. It includes several functions that might require additional subscriptions in other solutions."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Government
12%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise12
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Catalyst Center?
During license renewal, the pricing for Catalyst licensing increased significantly. For a hardware refresh, the site switched to Fortinet switching because the cost difference was approximately six...
What needs improvement with Cisco Catalyst Center?
Cisco Catalyst Center would benefit from different licensing tiers instead of an all-or-nothing model. Some tiers could focus on monitoring and tracking licenses with minimal configuration automati...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Catalyst Center?
The product was used with Catholic schools because that was their primary infrastructure. This is an enterprise-level product rather than an SMB-grade solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FireMon Asset Manager?
FireMon is more expensive than other brands but justified by its comprehensive feature set. It includes several functions that might require additional subscriptions in other solutions.
What needs improvement with FireMon Asset Manager?
We used FireMon Asset Manager only for the firewalls. It could not always discover, so we had to go in and add it manually. The discovery was not always consistent. At times it worked, and at times...
What is your primary use case for FireMon Asset Manager?
We used FireMon Asset Manager for 12 clients. We used it for firewall audits and rule changes.
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Catalyst Center vs. FireMon Asset Manager and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.