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Cisco Catalyst Center vs IBM Tivoli NetCool 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
IBM Tivoli NetCool
Ranking in Network Management Applications
14th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 IBM Tivoli NetCool is 2.7%, up from 1.7% 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%
IBM Tivoli NetCool2.7%
Other89.4%
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.
Petar Ganev - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Enterprise Monitoring Engineer at Commerzbank
Reliable for enterprise monitoring but no longer actively developed
There are problems with the latest security requirements because many things have changed in recent years, and now the security audits are very strict. And we need to switch to something else. We need to patch it constantly. Moreover, it is a very old tool and a little bit difficult to support. Otherwise, they work okay.

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."
"Cisco Catalyst Center allows me to manage all the fabric SD Access from one location."
"Cisco Catalyst Center allows me to manage all the fabric SD Access from one location."
"The best feature of Cisco is its industry-standard nature."
"The integration of Cisco Catalyst Center is fine"
"Cisco Catalyst Center has greatly enhanced the user-friendliness of configuring Catalyst switches."
"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."
"There is a lot of documentation for the platform, which is an advantage."
"Tivoli NetCool allows us to grasp a lot of data that can be applied toward predictive analytics and auto-remediation."
"It's very easy to use."
"The scalability of monitoring, the breadth of supported network components, the scale of the number of monitoring events, and the flexibility in customization make this a well-rounded product."
"Anything is possible with Tivoli. It's quite a robust system."
"The tool is much easier to manage than running scripts and figuring out how many endpoints have been exceeded."
"It's very easy to use."
"The feature I have found most valuable with NetCool is how it collaborates all the alarms, and then it does a predictive analysis, providing a consolidated alarm view and management."
"NetCool has a huge database that can collect and process about one million alarms a day."
 

Cons

"It is a little more expensive."
"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."
"Some documentation or use cases are not clear enough."
"The only limitation is when integrating with other products due to Cisco's proprietary protocols."
"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."
"For someone new, the documentation is not very clear."
"My customers often complain about numerous software bugs requiring frequent software patches and updates to resolve these issues."
"The installation could be simplified, and technical support could be faster."
"Tivoli NetCool is based on a Linux platform, it would be beneficial if they moved it to Windows because not everyone is acquainted with Linux."
"The solution is too expensive."
"The installation could be simplified, and technical support could be faster."
"UI is outdated, very old legacy."
"The solution is not user-friendly."
"Customization and integration that you need to do to make the product fit your needs is very complex. It is not a product that somebody could easily pick up without any prior training or experience."
"Tivoli NetCool's has medium scalability - there are some problems with its replications not being mature."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Customers are required to pay a licensing fee."
"The price of the product is too expensive."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"It costs around 100k for every ten servers, which is lower than similar products from other vendors."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Government
12%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
28%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise5
 

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 the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
I have worked from 1973 with all kind of systems in large enterprises across the world. And have experience with all kind of software in monitoring from infra to end to end, it depends on the funct...
What do you like most about IBM Tivoli NetCool?
The tool had many built-in automation capabilities.
What needs improvement with IBM Tivoli NetCool?
The main challenge is its licensing model, which is very complicated.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Tivoli NetCool
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Claranet, Consolidated Communications, Telus, €sterreichische Bundesbahnen (€BB), Telekom Srbija, Bendigo Community Telco, Capgemini, Schweizerische Bundesbahnen (SBB)
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Catalyst Center vs. IBM Tivoli NetCool and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.