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Cisco DNA Center vs OpenText Network Node Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 19, 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 DNA Center
Ranking in Network Management Applications
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (14th), Network Automation (2nd)
OpenText Network Node Manager
Ranking in Network Management Applications
16th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 24.5%, down from 29.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Network Node Manager is 2.3%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmed  Helmy - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
Qusai Abuomar - PeerSpot reviewer
Network performance optimization achieved with comprehensive visibility and effective event handling
The root cause analysis is valuable. The availability and event handling are also very good, as our team understands the events well. Overall, the tool helps maintain the health of the network. It provides visibility for the network device status, link status, and hardware status of devices such as switches and routers.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cisco VXLAN is a protocol that has been around for some time, but the practical implementation and operational capability of Cisco DNA Center bring it to life."
"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."
"The best feature of Cisco DNA Center is the visibility page, where you can see everything on the dashboard, and you don't have to be a technical person to view the issues."
"It gives us automation capabilities for pushing out the configuration to branch networks. It also provides visibility into the health of user network devices."
"It does a lot of things automatically, and that's the big thing with it. They're making the software so that you don't need to be as knowledgeable as me on the switching and routing side to get your work done. If you want, you can have DNA troubleshoot your problem for you and give you solutions or fix it itself, if it was something that's just a configuration issue."
"I think that their LAN automation is a very good feature."
"The solution has the capability to scale."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco DNA Center is the AI (Artificial Intelligence) that provides us with valuable information."
"If you install one node on Network Node Manager and want to scale it up, it's pretty easy to create more nodes."
"Our monitoring and network teams of less than 100 people use this solution. The availability and fault monitoring are good."
"You can utilize the main file from various vendors for integration."
"Most valuable function would have to the internal causal engine and its root cause analyzer which keep us updated on critical errors and incidents in our network environment."
"We do not have any issues stability-wise."
"A good enterprise-level solution."
"The best feature is the solution's entire credibility with all vendors."
"It is stable for fault and availability."
 

Cons

"The features of Cisco DNA Center and Cisco Prime could have more parity."
"One area that needs improvement is the upgrade process."
"They should include UTM features in the product."
"What I want to see in Cisco DNA Center in the future is more support for other platforms so that you can manage third-party products, such as Fortinet."
"An area that needs improvement is the integration with other vendors."
"Integration with analytic tools and API integrations would be ideal."
"In terms of the clustering part, there are some concerns."
"The product has many features that do not work properly."
"Micro Focus Network Node Manager is not the best when it comes to drilling down for more visibility, especially regarding traffic."
"The resources utilized could be a bit higher, and that is one of the challenges that isn't optimized"
"Only to improve the GUI."
"They should add AI options in the product's next release."
"We have not had a good experience with technical support from OpenText. Many cases take a month to be resolved."
"The way the solution currently works means I'm not able to customize my own reports."
"The dashboards are not customizable and it's not user-friendly."
"As the technologies evolve, also these solutions or the monitoring tools should evolve to cover the progress in technology, including capabilities related to monitoring of virtualized devices today, as the DNS is on the table in this way."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price could be better. It's a very expensive tool."
"We have a three-year license with them."
"The solution is expensive."
"I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"Cisco DNA Center is expensive."
"The solution is a little bit expensive but depends a lot on the customer's usage. If you use it in the right place, you can easily pay for it."
"We get a yearly license at the time we buy the product."
"The tool's licensing may not come across as something that may be friendly for users."
"The solution is quite expensive."
"It's an expensive solution."
"I wasn't involved in the pricing, but I think it's quite expensive."
"The solution is priced mid-range compared to the competition."
"It is more inexpensive than other products in the market."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
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.
What needs improvement with Cisco DNA Center?
The system is working fine for me currently.
What needs improvement with Micro Focus Network Node Manager?
The interface is outdated and needs to be more dynamic and faster. It would be better if the product was a single module rather than requiring additional modules and licensing for APIs and extra fe...
What is your primary use case for Micro Focus Network Node Manager?
We use OpenText Network Node Manager i ( /products/opentext-network-node-manager-i-reviews ) primarily for network monitoring and diagnostics in our organization. We use this product for fault and ...
 

Also Known As

DNA Center
Micro Focus Network Node Manager, Network Node Manager, HPE Network Node Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
IPC, Exelon, VivaCom, 
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco DNA Center vs. OpenText Network Node Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
858,435 professionals have used our research since 2012.