Kentik and Cisco DNA Center compete in network management and analytics. Kentik has an advantage with its SaaS-based analytics and automation tools, while Cisco DNA Center focuses more on centralized management for Cisco devices with strong security and automation features.
Features: Kentik provides flow visualization, real-time traffic insights, SaaS-based analytics tools, automation capabilities, network flow understanding, connectivity optimization, and DDoS alert settings. Cisco DNA Center offers centralized network management, analytics, rapid network provisioning, integration with Cisco devices, security features, LAN automation, and data visualization interfaces.
Room for Improvement: Kentik could improve user and security permission granularity, API usability, cost analysis features, flow data actionability, and interface usability, especially in newer versions. Cisco DNA Center could enhance third-party integrations, provide a clearer upgrade path, address the high price, improve configuration management, offer a more user-friendly interface, integrate better with diverse networks, and enhance task failure reporting details.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Kentik is deployable across SaaS, on-premises, and private cloud environments, with outstanding customer support offering quick and effective solutions and proactive communication, ensuring reliable service. Cisco DNA Center primarily deploys on-premises, with mixed customer service experiences, requiring detailed technical guidance and quicker response times, yet its integration within Cisco environments adds value to comprehensive networks despite initial deployment challenges.
Pricing and ROI: Kentik's device-based pricing is considered cost-effective for large infrastructures, offering significant ROI through cost savings in network transit and automation efficiency, with discounts for education customers. Cisco DNA Center's pricing is high, with notable licensing costs, beneficial for large enterprises investing in Cisco infrastructure but deterring smaller businesses, with licensing costs a common concern, though ROI can justify the expense if leveraging full capabilities.
Although Cisco DNA Center is expensive, we have seen a return on investment in terms of time savings.
If we had, for example, a contracted capacity from Vivo of 50 GB and we were using 40, with Kentik we reduced this usage from 40 to 20.
In production environments, especially for service providers on IP networks and data centers, Kentik helps in reducing the time to identify and resolve issues.
I believe the return on investment has been mainly time savings in performing troubleshooting.
Overall, Cisco DNA Center rates eight out of ten as a complete solution.
I would rate Cisco support easily at nine out of ten.
The support for Cisco DNA Center is good.
I have mostly used forums for any support needed because the setup is straightforward and the documentation is quite good.
They have monthly calls and discuss the product roadmap with us to determine what is needed.
From my experience, we can easily manage numerous devices.
The solution is designed for large enterprise companies.
Kentik's integration with Kubernetes makes scaling easier.
Kentik's scalability is effective; the platform can handle these large volumes.
Kentik's scalability depends on how it is contracted.
When we communicate problems, they solve them effectively.
In production, however, dimensioning of the underlying platforms is something to be mindful of.
Based on stability, I would give Kentik a nine.
I can say it is so great for us because if we configure it with Flowspec, the orchestration that we use, which is Kentik, makes the decision and automatically forwards the traffic to another position that we have in our network, or outgoing that we use.
The AI-driven insights have contributed significantly to faster troubleshooting and predictive analytics.
The deployment part is definitely an area for improvement.
The client history in Cisco DNA Center can be longer than 10 days, perhaps extending to 15 or 20 days.
More work is required to integrate AI for troubleshooting, simplifying root cause analysis, and providing suggested solutions for network issues.
It needed to be a bit easier for new users and have slightly more customized reports.
Currently, the way I'm configuring it uses reactive alerts, which means alerts are triggered when an issue occurs. I would prefer more proactive alerts in the future.
The pricing is good and aligns with the market target.
Kentik’s pricing is competitive in the marketplace.
Later, the prices are very high to maintain all the functionality blocks.
The most valuable features include AI-driven insights which make troubleshooting much easier.
If there is a problem, I can inspect the situation and see what is happening, which is beneficial.
The best features that Kentik offers are the ability to identify traffic end-to-end and to know which transit is used, if it goes through any other transit, to see the entire flow, from the subscriber to the content provider and vice versa.
This allows for better understanding of whether there is a critical ongoing case related to incoming traffic, such as a DDoS event, which is crucial for a service provider dealing with numerous customers.
Kentik has positively impacted our organization because when something happens, we use Kentik to analyze the problem and it brings us a faster solution to the problem, and the troubleshooting is clearer.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| Kentik | 1.7% |
| Cisco DNA Center | 0.7% |
| Other | 97.6% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 12 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 9 |
| Large Enterprise | 24 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 7 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 4 |
| Large Enterprise | 10 |
Cisco DNA Center delivers powerful centralized security, automation, and comprehensive analytics for enhanced network management. With an intuitive dashboard and integration with Cisco devices, it reduces errors, boosts efficiency, and ensures seamless wired and wireless network operations.
Organizations leverage Cisco DNA Center for network management and automation, offering increased visibility into traffic flows and efficient device provisioning. It supports real-time data transmission, network segmentation, and integrates with ISE. Features like wireless assurance, centralized management, and AI-driven insights into network health promote an efficient network environment while addressing compliance issues. However, improvements are necessary for better third-party integration, affordability, and more user-friendly documentation.
What are the solution's most important features?In industries like healthcare, finance, and education, Cisco DNA Center's advanced features facilitate the management of complex network infrastructures and aid in achieving compliance efficiently. Its ability to manage LANs and WLANs supports diverse networking environments including greenfield projects and SPN setups.
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?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.
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