Cisco DNA Center vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG comparison

Cisco and NETSCOUT are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.0, while NETSCOUT is ranked #78. Cisco holds a 1.4% mindshare in NMS, compared to NETSCOUT’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of NETSCOUT users who would recommend it.

Cisco DNA Center

Read 42 Cisco DNA Center reviews

8,684 Views
1,910 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Read 13 NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG reviews

554 Views
548 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Cisco DNA Center

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Cisco DNA Center and NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG compete in network management and analytics. Cisco has an edge in ease of use, while NETSCOUT leads in advanced analytics capabilities.

Features: Cisco DNA Center leverages automation and AI-driven insights to enhance security and performance. It integrates well with Cisco products and ensures robust security measures. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG offers deep packet inspection, versatile data monitoring, and superior traffic analysis.

Room for Improvement: Cisco DNA Center could enhance integration across different vendor environments, improve the learning curve for complex features, and offer better analytics depth. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG might focus on improving user interface simplicity, refining support documentation, and optimizing deployment processes for easier accessibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco DNA Center integrates seamlessly within Cisco environments with extensive support documentation. Its customer service is highly responsive. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG provides a flexible deployment model with scalable options and comprehensive after-sales support, which can involve a steeper learning curve due to its complexity.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco DNA Center is considered affordable, offering good ROI by boosting operational efficiency. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG, with a higher initial investment, provides significant long-term benefits with its sophisticated analytics, justifying additional expenses for in-depth analysis.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco DNA Center vs. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center vs. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

July 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

Ranking in other categories

Network Management Applications (1st), Network Automation (2nd)

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

78th

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 1.4%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Ahmed Helmy

Sr. Director, Business Development & Sales Operations at connect professional services

Experience unified visibility and monitoring for enterprise campus and significant time savings and enhanced troubleshooting with reliable support

We have been working with Cisco DNA Center for ten years. Our clients use Cisco DNA Center for unified visibility/monitoring across Enterprise Campus both LAN & WLAN along with Access and fast technical issues troubleshooting The solution provides fast troubleshooting capabilities and fast…

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Michael Gideon Genita

Associate System Engineer at SMS Global Technologies, Inc.

Easy to set up with good documentation and helpful support

I'm using it for a customer The packet flow switch is the most valuable aspect of the solution. It's an easy product to set up. We can scale the solution if we need to. It's stable. The documentation is well-written and quite useful. It's compatible with other products. Under the pocket flow…

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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

"Cisco DNA Center provides operational support, compliance support, security vulnerability detection, and automatic scheduling."

"It is a stable solution."

"DNA Center is scalable."

"The most valuable feature of Cisco DNA Center is the AI (Artificial Intelligence) that provides us with valuable information."

"The most valuable features were the monitoring, maintenance, and configuration."

"Application Assurance works very well."

"The monitoring features are very useful for network engineers."

"What I found valuable in Cisco DNA Center is the Software-Defined Access Network, so the entire LAN network can be centralized and managed from a single dashboard. Cisco DNA Center is suitable for centralized management and lets you deploy switches in a centralized fashion. You can also do multiple switch port configurations simultaneously and segregate your traffic into multiple fabrics. Another valuable feature of Cisco DNA Center is enhanced security through Scalable Group Tags. Cisco DNA Center can be integrated with your Cisco ISE to enhance the port securities, and this paves the way for Software-Defined Networking in the LAN segment, which is the main advantage of Cisco DNA Center. I also like that you can use Cisco DNA Center for data assurance or correlation. The solution shows your network and client health parameters, which I find convenient for troubleshooting."

More Cisco DNA Center pros

"It's an easy product to set up."

"When we have mobile operators who are signal partners, where one is the roaming host and another is the roamer, we are able to see their traffic. Their packets are able to detect if any faults to develop, and at what point they fail."

"We use it for monitoring whenever we update a new circuit or site."

"It allows us to get quicker resolutions. We can see exactly what is using up the bandwidth, so we can assist end users."

"The technical support is really good. They will go above and beyond, if you are running into a problem. You can go to a sales engineer, who will engage technical support to help you out."

"It is very rock solid. We hardly have any hardware issues."

"The tool has the ability to look back within a month's data. It is very easy to navigate within the tool and troubleshoot the problem, compared to other solutions that we've used in the past."

"The product is stable. I have never had any issue where we have lost an InfiniStream, or visibility from that particular InfiniStream, throughout the bank."

More NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG pros

Cons

"When it comes to deploying wireless fields, integrating defaults into the DNS interface can be challenging."

"Requires more focus on the digital side of things."

"The solution's setup process needs enhancement."

"Cisco DNA Center was a new technology for us, at the beginning, it was not easy to do, but Cisco did a lot of training with us to a level we could handle everything. The team is managing itself now without the assistance of Cisco."

"The solution's integration feature can be better."

"The solution needs to improve the dashboard."

"What could be improved is the licensing cost of Cisco DNA Center. It's a little bit expensive."

"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."

More Cisco DNA Center cons

"The scalability has some limitations and quirks to it. I would like to be able to upgrade rather than replace the whole thing."

"The technology goes end-of-life on us every year, which is why I am looking forward to vSTREAM. I don't like when devices go end-of-life on us so quickly. If we can get more of an advanced notice of when an end-of-life is brought up, because our certification process within the organization takes a while."

"The NetFlow Collectors could handle more flows per minute."

"I would like to see an improved level of stitching between IPs."

"The single pane of glass feed still needs work."

"Being able to manage the packet flow switches in nGeniusONE would be great."

"The monitoring and reporting tool needs improvement. Users want more information, such as the level of detail when doing a packet analysis. They want more detail to be able to isolate down to a specific point."

"We don't use the single pane of glass view, even though we own it."

More NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We get a yearly license at the time we buy the product."

"Cisco DNA Center is a licensed product with multiple levels of licensing available such as basic, advanced, and essential. I don't have the exact figure, but Cisco DNA Center is costly. For example, the box has information about the essential license and costs a considerable amount of money. You need to pay extra to use advanced features in Cisco DNA Center. My company sees Cisco DNA Center as a solution that's worth the money, which is why it invested in the solution. If you want centralized management for your network, especially when upgrading it, Cisco DNA Center is perfect, but it's more suitable for a large-scale rather than a small-scale network."

"The tool's licensing may not come across as something that may be friendly for users."

"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."

"The solution is expensive."

"Cisco DNA Center is expensive."

"We have a three-year license with them."

"The price of the solution is expensive. The hardware is licensed on the device, but the hardware on the server is expensive."

More Cisco DNA Center pricing and cost advice

"It can be scalable. It just costs too much. With a company as big as ours, it gets too expensive to accommodate every single site."

"To capture more with the solution that we bought, you have to buy another InfiniStreamNG, and there are only four ports in the back."

"The scalability is good, but it comes at a cost. E.g., if you need 100 InfiniStream because you are sending gigs or terabytes of data to one InfiniStream, then you will have to purchase another InfiniStream, which are not cheap."

"I would like it to be more scalable with less spend."

"The price is a little high."

"This product could be cheaper."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Energy/Utilities Company

11%

Government

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?

After evaluating other solutions, we will provide feedback.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco DNA Center?

We have utilized the software-defined access (SDA) feature of Cisco DNA Center. The AI-driven needs enhancements and Integration and unification of visibility and monitoring to include other areas ...

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Comparisons

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Compared 14% of the time

Juniper Mist Wired Assurance vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 7% of the time

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 6% of the time

Fortinet FortiManager vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 6% of the time

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco DNA Center Competitors

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Compared 28% of the time

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Compared 23% of the time

Riverbed NPM+ vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Compared 19% of the time

cPacket cClear vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Compared 16% of the time

NIKSUN NetVCR vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

Compared 14% of the time

More NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center

August 2025

Download Cisco DNA Center product report

Buyer's Guide

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

August 2025

Download NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG product report

Also Known As

DNA Center

InfiniStreamNG, NETSCOUT ISNG, Infinistream

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

NETSCOUT’s new ISNG platform harnesses the power of IP intelligence by mining traffic in real-time to deliver accurate and actionable data for service assurance, cybersecurity and business intelligence applications. The InfiniStreamNG platform fully supports the nGeniusONE and Iris application suites.

NETSCOUT

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

U.S. Department of Defense

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center vs. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG

July 2025

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