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Cisco DNA Center vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance comparison

Cisco DNA Center and Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco DNA Center is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.0, while Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance is ranked #40 with an average rating of 8.0. Cisco DNA Center holds a 1.4% mindshare in NMS, compared to Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of Cisco DNA Center users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance users who would recommend it.
Cisco DNA Center
Read 41 Cisco DNA Center reviews
  • 1,823 Views
  • 1,148 Comparison Views
89% willing to recommend
Cisco Provider Connectivity...
Read 24 Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance reviews
  • 1,670 Views
  • 1,083 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance and Cisco DNA Center are network management solutions competing in the enterprise IT space. Cisco DNA Center has the upper hand due to its comprehensive integration and automation capabilities.

Features: Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance provides detailed network analysis, real-time traffic monitoring, and ease of use features such as flow matrices and response time analysis which aid effective network management. Cisco DNA Center emphasizes automation and integration with a comprehensive network view from a single dashboard and advanced security features, along with seamless device management and robust analytics for managing large-scale networks.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance could be enhanced in areas such as data retention, performance optimizations, and improved third-party integrations. Issues with licensing for virtual pollers are noted. Cisco DNA Center would benefit from pricing adjustments to increase accessibility for small to mid-sized businesses, simplification of complex configurations, better integration with non-Cisco devices, and improving upgrade and support processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both solutions are mainly deployed on-premises, while Cisco DNA Center also offers hybrid and public cloud deployment options for added flexibility. Users appreciate the responsive technical support for both, but Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance users highlight knowledgeable support staff, whereas Cisco DNA Center could enhance customization assistance and integration guidance.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance is considered cost-effective with a flexible licensing model that allows for scale and efficiency, showing significant ROI by saving costs on additional hardware. Although Cisco DNA Center provides high value in functionality, its high costs remain a barrier for smaller enterprises requiring extensive licensing for advanced features.

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Buyer's Guide
Cisco DNA Center vs. Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance
April 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

Cisco DNA Center
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (1st), Network Automation (2nd)
Cisco Provider Connectivity...
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
40th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (45th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 1.4%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance is 0.9%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

AvrahamSonenthal - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficiently manages our wireless network and provides valuable monitoring features
The platform's biggest benefit has been in managing our wireless network. Having a single pane of glass to control all wireless controllers and access points and to monitor activity has been a significant advantage. We're a small federal agency with around 300 network devices, so automation is a minor focus. It's more relevant for larger networks. The main benefits we've seen are in inventory management and the potential for configuration automation. However, I recommend using the DNA Centre only for larger networks with over a thousand devices; otherwise, it may not be cost-effective. Before proceeding, ensure that your devices are compatible with DNA Center, as not all Cisco devices are supported. Also, investing in proper training is different from plug-and-play. I rate it an eight.
Read full review
Sylvain Germe - PeerSpot reviewer
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

"It is a stable solution."
"It is very versatile in terms of analytics."
"Automation is another key highlight. With automation, you can automate everything through a single port."
"People like to use the dashboards to get an overview of their network."
"Automation helps configure devices without manual intervention, enabling zero-touch provisioning."
"The most valuable features of the solution are all of its security features...It is a highly scalable solution."
"We can monitor all devices and get the required information using the product."
"The solution helps with the management and orchestration of campaigns. It helps with visibility and analytics. I also like its SDA configuration."
More Cisco DNA Center pros
"One valuable feature we have is real-time monitoring for connection issues."
"I think the analytics features are okay. My customer also likes the interface, the GUI, because it's easy to operate."
"One valuable feature we have is real-time monitoring for connection issues."
"The performance of Accedian Skylight is better than other vendors."
"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."
"The ability to measure performance end-to-end across the cloud data center allows us to take corrective action to keep our channels online."
"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."
"For us, the most valuable feature is something called TWAMP that allows for real-time traffic in a way that is 10 times lighter than things like SolarWinds. It's in the sub-milliseconds of accuracy, and you can divide tasks so that you can literally see things like the tagging for Quality of Service. That had been incorrect with the carrier, but there was no way on this planet you'd be able to tell a carrier that they're wrong. I have dozens of scenarios where we found "No, that's not right," and got it resolved instantly."
More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance pros
 

Cons

"I would like is to have a small information pointer available. It could be a plus feature that I want to implement. When I hover my mouse over the user interface, it should provide a brief explanation. It would be helpful to have it incorporated into the UI."
"It seems to be a little bit more centered toward wireless than wired. You've got more options you can do wirelessly than you can with the wired switches, but it works for what we need it to do. We would like to see a little bit more about the traffic, and we're looking at what's out there to see about that. We are looking at something that might give us a bit more insight into the actual traffic. If they had the full functionality on the wired side, as they do on the wireless side in terms of being able to view traffic and everything, it would be good."
"From the recent DNA point of view, there are some stability challenges with Cisco, but very minor."
"The product has many features that do not work properly."
"What could be improved is the licensing cost of Cisco DNA Center. It's a little bit expensive."
"There are some software problems from version to version. It takes a long time for DNA Center to recognize the video and control access devices."
"In terms of the clustering part, there are some concerns."
"Cisco could improve the security side of their solutions."
More Cisco DNA Center cons
"Human resource costs can be high when dealing with connection issues."
"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."
"Human resource costs can be high when dealing with connection issues."
"The Accedian Skylight user interface still has room for improvement."
"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."
"It's a bit slow. When I execute a query, something general with a short timeframe that covers one month, for instance, and I do not specify the IP source or IP destination, it can take ages because it has to query the whole database."
"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."
More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing for Cisco DNA Center is a little bit expensive, just like any Cisco solution. Its cost could still be improved."
"The licensing cost for Cisco DNA Center is not more than that of other solutions."
"Cisco DNA Center is too expensive."
"Our licensing agreement is for three years."
"The price could be better. It's a very expensive tool."
"I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"The price of the solution is expensive. The hardware is licensed on the device, but the hardware on the server is expensive."
"Affordability is a problem because it's created for large enterprises only. So, some customers, even if their engineers want the solution, might have problems with budget limitations."
More Cisco DNA Center pricing and cost advice
"We understand there's a significant cost difference, but have yet to investigate fully."
"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 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."
"The pricing is cheaper than other competing products, which is better for our budgets."
"Pricing is a little bit expensive."
"It provides value and the cost is not huge."
"It's not for free, clearly. But on the other hand, it offers very interesting functionality. We pay around €100,000."
"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."
More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
39%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco DNA Center?
The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it gives some kind of ease in operations, especially since our company is moving from CLI to GUI-based configuration.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco DNA Center?
The cost is very high.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Cisco DNA Center?
The system is working fine for me currently.
See all answers
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 ...
See all answers
What advice do you have for others considering Accedian Skylight?
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

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Compared 7% of the time
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager vs Cisco DNA Center Logo
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager vs Cisco DNA Center
Compared 6% of the time
Fortinet FortiManager vs Cisco DNA Center Logo
Fortinet FortiManager vs Cisco DNA Center
Compared 6% of the time
Meraki Dashboard vs Cisco DNA Center Logo
Meraki Dashboard vs Cisco DNA Center
Compared 5% of the time
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ThousandEyes vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance Logo
ThousandEyes vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance
Compared 43% of the time
SolarWinds NPM vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance Logo
SolarWinds NPM vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance
Compared 15% of the time
NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance Logo
NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance
Compared 11% of the time
Dynatrace vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance Logo
Dynatrace vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance
Compared 9% of the time
Zabbix vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance Logo
Zabbix vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance
Compared 5% of the time
More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Cisco DNA Center
May 2025
Cisco DNA Center reportDownload Cisco DNA Center product report
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance
May 2025
Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance reportDownload Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance product report
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

Cisco DNA Center offers a comprehensive platform for network automation and management, providing detailed analytics, enhanced security, and streamlined operations for both wired and wireless networks.

Cisco DNA Center integrates with Cisco infrastructure to deliver efficient network automation and management, helping organizations improve network visibility, security, and control. It supports AI-driven analytics and automated workflows to enhance operational efficiency and reduce errors. Challenges include compatibility with third-party systems, steep learning curve, and complex deployment. Its interface facilitates centralized control, vital for troubleshooting, policy management, and configuration management, with support for zero-touch provisioning and SD-Access.

What are the key features of Cisco DNA Center?
  • Robust Analytics: Provides detailed insights into network health with AI-driven analytics.
  • Centralized Security: Integrates with ISE for comprehensive security management.
  • Automated Device Management: Simplifies device provisioning and configuration transfers.
  • Wi-Fi Analytics: Offers deep insights into wireless network performance.
  • Zero-Touch Provisioning: Streamlines new device deployments with minimal human intervention.
  • Scalable Segmentation: Efficiently segments network traffic ensuring security and performance.
What benefits should users consider?
  • Operational Efficiency: Automation reduces potential errors and streamlines workflow.
  • Enhanced Security: Integration with Cisco ISE bolsters security capabilities.
  • Network Visibility: Comprehensive dashboards and analysis tools enhance monitoring.
  • Troubleshooting: Real-time monitoring aids in identifying and resolving issues swiftly.

In sectors such as healthcare, finance, and retail, Cisco DNA Center is utilized for its ability to enhance security and compliance, manage large-scale networks, and provide detailed analytics for better operational decision-making. Its support for location tracking and policy automation ensures efficient network management across diverse environments.

Cisco

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance offers real-time application and network performance monitoring, VPN management, and network diagnostics across multiple sites.

Organizations use Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance for active and passive monitoring, stress testing, and troubleshooting performance issues. Deployed both on-premise and in the cloud, it supports IT infrastructure, security, and analytics with end-to-end performance measurement across cloud data centers. The modern, intuitive interface features TWAMP for real-time traffic accuracy and standardized reports, along with insightful dashboards for circuit performance, latency, jitter, and throughput monitoring.

What are the most important features?
  • TWAMP: Provides real-time traffic accuracy and standardized reporting.
  • Insightful Dashboards: Monitor circuit performance, latency, jitter, and throughput.
  • Security Integration: Compatible with tools like Splunk for enhanced security.
  • Application Support: Facilitates comprehensive network performance analysis.
What benefits or ROI should users look for in reviews?
  • Quick Corrective Actions: Immediate response capabilities for performance issues.
  • Easy Navigation: User-friendly layouts simplify monitoring and troubleshooting.
  • Comprehensive Analytics: Advanced tools for in-depth network performance insights.
  • Cloud and On-Premise Options: Flexible deployment to meet different needs.

In industries like finance and healthcare, Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance ensures robust performance monitoring and quick diagnostics for VPNs and internet lines. It aids in maintaining the integrity and security of data transference, facilitating active and passive monitoring, stress testing, and performance troubleshooting across geographically dispersed locations, ensuring seamless operation and compliance with industry standards.

Cisco
 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
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
Cisco DNA Center vs. Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance
April 2025
Free Report: Cisco DNA Center vs. Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance
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