Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller and Cisco Secure Network Analytics compete in the network management and security space. Cisco Secure Network Analytics seems to have the upper hand with its robust analytics and threat detection features.
Features: Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller offers network automation, stability, and connectivity monitoring through a graphical interface. It integrates strongly across VDCs and simplifies management with extensive automation. Cisco Secure Network Analytics provides excellent visibility, NetFlow analytics, and encrypted traffic analysis for detailed network insights, enhancing security capabilities.
Room for Improvement: Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller is reported to have complex configuration and integration challenges. Users call for better reporting, improved VMware integration, and streamlined automation. Cisco Secure Network Analytics needs enhancements in integration, user interface, and reporting, with a particular focus on AI and machine learning improvements.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller offers on-premises and private cloud flexibility but has complex setup processes. Customer support varies, with good development support but operational support concerns. Cisco Secure Network Analytics is primarily on-premises, with generally satisfied users praising responsive and expert customer service, despite some past challenges.
Pricing and ROI: Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller is considered expensive, based on licensing and device counts, though users find value in its performance. Cisco Secure Network Analytics also incurs high costs with flow-based licensing. Users find ROI through enhanced performance, but opinions on pricing vary, with some considering it moderately priced and others finding it expensive.
The Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC) offers a comprehensive solution for managing Cisco NX-OS switches in hybrid-cloud environments, providing automation, visibility, and consistent operations. Designed to simplify and enhance data center management, NDFC integrates with Cisco Nexus Dashboard to streamline network connectivity, reduce deployment times, and ensure seamless transitions with minimal disruptions. Its modular architecture, new user interface, and support for non-Nexus OS platforms make it a robust tool for LAN, SAN, and IP Fabric for Media management. Additionally, NDFC enhances fabric reliability, automates workflows, and supports cloud connectivity with AWS and Microsoft Azure, making it ideal for businesses adapting to increasingly complex digital environments.
Cisco Secure Network Analytics is a highly effective network traffic analysis (NTA) solution that enables users to find threats in their network traffic even if those threats are encrypted. It turns an organization’s network telemetry into a tool that creates a complete field of vision for the organization’s administrators. Users can find threats that may have infiltrated their systems and stop them before they can do irreparable harm.
Cisco Secure Network Analytics Benefits
A few ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy Cisco Secure Network Analytics include:
Cisco Secure Network Analytics Features
Some of the many features that Cisco Secure Network Analytics offers include:
Reviews from Real Users
Cisco Secure Network Analytics is a solution that stands out even when compared to many other comparable products. Two major advantages that it offers are the way that it enables users to define the threshold at which the solution will issue a warning to administrators and the predefined alerts that it offers straight out of the box.
Gerald J., the information technology operations supervisor at Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc., writes, “StealthWatch lets me see the ports running in and out and the country. It has excellent reporting, telemetry, and artificial intelligence features. With the telemetry, I can set thresholds to detect sudden changes and the alarms go through the PLC parts. I can see all the ports running on that trunk.”
A senior security engineer at a tech services company, says, “Cisco Stealthwatch has predefined alerts for different types of security issues that might happen in the network. Whether it's PCs or servers that are used for botnets or Bitcoin mining we receive the alerts automatically. This functionality is what we receive from the solution out of the box.”
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