Cisco DNA Center vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

Cisco and VMware are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.0, while VMware is ranked #23 with an average rating of 8.8. Cisco holds a 1.4% mindshare in NMS, compared to VMware’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of VMware 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

vRealize Network Insight

Read 46 vRealize Network Insight reviews

1,401 Views
845 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Cisco DNA Center

vRealize Network Insight

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

vRealize Network Insight and Cisco DNA Center compete in the network management and visualization category. Cisco DNA Center seems to have the upper hand with its strong integration capabilities with Cisco devices and advanced network features.

Features: vRealize Network Insight offers comprehensive network visualization, microsegmentation, and visual data flow mapping. It supports various protocols, which supports application migration and firewall implementation. Cisco DNA Center provides centralized network management, incorporating Software-Defined Access and scalable group tagging, enhancing its security features. Additionally, it offers wireless assurance and automated configurations for improved simplicity and reliability in network management.

Room for Improvement: vRealize Network Insight users desire better third-party application integration, application identification features, and more intuitive interfaces with enhanced reporting capabilities. There is also a call for improved microsegmentation functionalities and extensive documentation. Cisco DNA Center's high pricing and deployment complexity are noted alongside a need for better third-party solution integration, licensing affordability, and intuitive reporting features. Broadened compatibility across diverse infrastructure products and expanded educational resources are areas both products could develop.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: vRealize Network Insight is mainly deployed on-premises, with users valuing its responsive and knowledgeable support. There are suggestions for more intuitive deployment practices, especially for beginners. Cisco DNA Center supports hybrid and cloud deployments, with customers satisfied with its comprehensive support, though some find it complex due to documentation and setup challenges.

Pricing and ROI: vRealize Network Insight, despite being expensive, enables efficient network management with significant ROI by reducing operational costs and time investments. It enhances network understanding and troubleshooting, contributing to labor reduction cost savings. Cisco DNA Center is criticized for its high pricing structure, posing challenges for smaller enterprises. However, it provides value for large-scale management needs, offering ROI through improved network efficiency and reduced deployment errors.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco DNA Center vs. vRealize Network Insight Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center vs. vRealize Network Insight

April 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 850,671 peers since 2012

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)

vRealize Network Insight

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

23rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (23rd)

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 vRealize Network Insight is 0.6%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

AvrahamSonenthal

Senior Network Engineer at Inside Global

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

NiteshKumar1

Principle consultant at Infosys

The tool's configuration is easy and artifacts are easily accessible through professional services and the web

The product is highly regarded, and many customers have been using it along with other VMware products like vSphere and VMware vCloud Usage Insight. However, recently, there's been a trend among customers, especially those using VMware for a considerable period, to explore the potential of migrating to the public cloud. The common concern among these customers is how the VMware products will perform in the public cloud environment. Migrating instances from VMware to different platforms is not easy, especially when dealing with many instances across multiple customers. Customers are keen to maintain the functionality of their existing VMware products but prefer to run them on the public cloud instead of on-premise servers. Our clients for vRealize Network Insight are enterprise businesses. I rate it a nine out of ten.

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 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."

"DNA Center is scalable."

"The solution has the capability to scale."

"We have many people from the team who manage a lot of devices. By using Cisco DNA Center, it has taken some of that burden away, we are impressed with it. We did the investment in CAPEX, but in the OPEX was very low."

"The solution helps in user microsegmentation."

"The product's most valuable feature is the visual representation of the switch's front panel."

"The product gives a consolidated view."

"I think that their LAN automation is a very good feature."

More Cisco DNA Center pros

"vRNI can trace the flow of each and every packet and it is easy for us to troubleshoot all the issues that we do have with the networking. We can trace down the packet to a point where it has been dropped."

"It helps a lot because, until now, we didn't have the tools to figure out the micro level, VM-to-VM kind of traffic; that was not in the current environment. We could not figure out VM-to-VM communication from the other tools. This is the tool which gives us end-to-end transparency."

"It allows us to go from virtual through NSX, up to the core, and see all of that in one pane of glass, it's pretty easy."

"It has really tightened down the security. That was something that we were lacking. It has also given us deep visibility into our network. We can really get down and see all of the traffic within the data center, between the VMs, between the applications, database servers, other application servers, web servers. We can identify everything that is communicating, and we can see it all on one product."

"The most valuable feature is being able to easily see the path that the VM traffic is taking, what ports are in use."

"It provides deep visibility into what is happening with traffic and helps us manage our network."

"We're a smaller company so it automates a lot of the tasks and lets us focus in on building out our own solution. It's quicker, there is less building of manual solutions, and less downtime. It allows our developers to quickly develop, get provisioning done, de-provisioning, etc; the stuff that you would expect to be able to make it streamlined."

"It has enabled us to set up and do application discovery, as far as network traffic is concerned, and set up the appropriate rules that we need to make sure we're compliant with our security frameworks."

More vRealize Network Insight pros

Cons

"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."

"The tool's deployment is complex. It also needs to improve its GUI."

"DNA Center has been on the market for a few years and they need to update it."

"The tool's IoT integration should be better."

"The solution’s security side could be improved."

"They can improve the network visibility. Licensing and its maintenance are also needed."

"The solution can be quite pricey."

"The network, data center, and SD-WAN are all being treated as different services, but I would like to have only one solution to manage all of them."

More Cisco DNA Center cons

"There are some random glitches in the Web UI, but they are usually pretty cosmetic in nature. I don't really seem to use any browser other than Chrome with it. I also get some weird errors from time to time on the hardware NetFlow Collectors, where it doesn't sync data."

"The only issue we have is that the solution does not always capture the host names."

"While it's not exactly a feature, what normally happens when we are trying to look at the VM flow portion is - although Network Insight does have options to integrate a few physical switches into it - we can't really get an end-to-end flow of the network. We might be using a few switches that are not supported by Network Insight. That is where they can improve, in the support for more physical switches and network devices."

"I want to see more in terms of microsegmentation. As of now, I can see the rules, but they are not in a readable format that I can convert to microsegmentation and can fit into NSX Manager."

"After Broadcom acquired VMware, I would rate their support at five or less in many cases. It's difficult to find necessary documentation, open tickets, and get support."

"The UI, even though once you get to know it, it's easier, still it's hard to figure out by yourself. You have to go read, watch videos. It has a lot of data on it. So that is an issue."

"I'd like to see better support for being able to search the hardware NetFlow data. It ingests fairly well, but you can't tell, in a lot of cases, what source the data came from. I'd like to see more support for picking specific sources. That way you could really make a compelling use case. There are also some difficulties where it can't exactly trace the path between source and destination but if you hit the reverse flow on the same search it shows the entire path."

"If it had some kind of plugins with vSphere, more effective plugins with Horizon View or other VMWare products, if it had interconnectivity, I think it would be more effective than it is today."

More vRealize Network Insight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I do know that Cisco does offer some really good promotions for DNA Center to bring the costs down."

"The solution is expensive."

"The product is very costly."

"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 tool is medium-priced."

"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."

"It is an expensive solution."

More Cisco DNA Center pricing and cost advice

"It's a little expensive, but for what you're getting out of the product, you often see the trade-off. It depends on the type of licensing you have. It might be a little too pricey for some."

"I rate vRealize Network Insight's pricing a seven point five out of ten."

"The solution has reduced the time that we spend on other products. For example, with NSX, we were able to quickly find things that we would normally spend days trying to figure out."

"They should include the product in NSX because it's important to have it for deployment."

"vRealize Network Insight is expensive."

"It reduces costs. It takes something that may be challenging and makes it more usable and visual by being able to bring in tools, seeing what their impact is, such as microsegmentation and application rationalization, and seeing it quickly."

"It's an expensive product because we have a lot of nodes."

"It has brought more money into our company."

More vRealize Network Insight pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

850,671 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

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?

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 do you like most about vRealize Network Insight?

The tool's ease of configuration and use and the availability of information and artifacts through professional services and the web are key factors that customers find valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vRealize Network Insight?

Broadcom is known for increasing product prices, making them expensive compared to what people used to pay. I liken the subscription model to not truly owning what you pay for.

See all answers

What needs improvement with vRealize Network Insight?

Right now, I do not see a specific area for improvement. My main concern is understanding the intentions of Broadcom, which has acquired VMware. Broadcom should improve by going back to what was wo...

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Catalyst Center vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 11% 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

Meraki Dashboard vs Cisco DNA Center

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco DNA Center Competitors

ThousandEyes vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 21% of the time

DX NetOps vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 17% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 16% of the time

DX Spectrum vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 13% of the time

ManageEngine OpManager vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 12% of the time

More vRealize Network Insight Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center

May 2025

Download Cisco DNA Center product report

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

April 2025

Download vRealize Network Insight product report

Also Known As

DNA Center

Arkin

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

VMware vRealize Network Insight delivers intelligent operations for software-defined networking and security. It helps customers build an optimized, highly-available and secure network infrastructure across multi-cloud environments. It accelerates micro-segmentation planning and deployment, enables visibility across virtual and physical networks and provides operational views to manage and scale VMware NSX deployments.

VMware

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

NTTi3, VCIX-NV, VMware Networking and Security Business Unit, Illumio, CompuNet

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center vs. vRealize Network Insight

April 2025

Free Report: Cisco DNA Center vs. vRealize Network Insight

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco DNA Center vs. vRealize Network Insight and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

850,671 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cisco DNA Center vs. vRealize Network Insight report.

See our list of best Network Monitoring Software vendors.

We monitor all Network Monitoring Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.