Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) vs Kentik comparison

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabri...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller and Kentik compete in network management and analytics. Kentik has the upper hand in network observability and real-time visibility tools.

Features: Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller is known for its stability, automation capabilities, and vendor-independent management. It integrates seamlessly with Nexus switches for improved data center management. Kentik offers a SaaS model with robust network analysis, real-time visibility through its Data Explorer, and traffic optimization capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Cisco users identify setup complexity, configuration, reporting, and third-party tool integration as key areas needing improvement, alongside pricing transparency. Kentik users suggest better API usability, a more intuitive interface, and more actionable intelligence instead of just data visibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco's on-premises deployment suits environments that need strict control, with mixed technical support reviews but commendable developmental support. Kentik's flexible deployment options require less technical support due to its simple SaaS model, although some see room for improvement in Cisco's operational support.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco's pricing is seen as high but offers good ROI through robust solutions, with complex licensing justified for larger setups. Kentik's pricing depends on data flow and device count, which could be steep for big networks, yet it provides discounts for educational institutions. The efficiency and comprehensive network insights contribute to its recognized ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) vs. Kentik Report (Updated: July 2025).

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) vs. Kentik

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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 Nexus Dashboard Fabri...

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

16th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Kentik

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

34th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (15th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kentik is 0.8%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Upul Abhayasena

Manager - Technology at a engineering company with 10,001+ employees

Robust management tool with an easy setup and room for more features

DCNM is used by one of the airline customers in Qatar to manage many data centers and rack switches running on normal Nexus or NX-OS mode. They required a controller platform to manage these Nexus switches, and thus, they utilized DCNM as a Fabric controller. Given that ACI deployment is very low…

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ADRIANA SALDARRIAGA TOBON

Sales Manager at IFX NEtworks

Client experience and cybersecurity have improved with an easy setup

The solution is valuable for client experience, especially in the financial sector. The most important feature is cybersecurity. The pricing is good, but the functionality is the most important aspect for clients. The solution is easy to deploy and requires only one person to set up, making it easy and quick. Overall, the ease of use and the fact that it meets client expectations are major positives.

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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

"I like running the scripts. With the help of a Python script, we deployed within the configuration and built up the code."

"Stability is not an issue."

"I like that is easy to work on and straightforward."

"The product makes the management of our environment simpler."

"The most valuable features of Cisco Data Center Network Manager are consistency and the core server. The teams have had a good experience."

"The feature I find most valuable, is the stability of the solution."

"We use the product to manage access points."

"It has a very nice dashboard so you can see what's currently happening in the network and the performance of the back story."

More Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) pros

"Having the API access allows us to do a great deal of automation around a lot of our reporting and management tools."

"Overall, the ease of use and the fact that it meets client expectations are major positives."

"The most important feature is cybersecurity."

"Kentik excels in telemetry within data centers and works well in multi-vendor environments."

"The most valuable features have been anything around traffic engineering: being able to determine the source or destination of a surge of traffic, whether it's DDoS-related, or a customer just happened to have a sudden uptick in traffic. Being able to tell where that's coming from or where it's going to enables us to do things based on that."

"We're also using Kentik to ingest metrics. It's a useful feature, and its response time, whenever we're pulling back the data, is higher than our on-prem solution."

"One of the valuable features is the intuitive nature of building out reports, and then triggering actions based on specific metrics from those reports. It has a really good UI and the ability to surface data through the reporting functions is pretty good. That's helped a lot in the security space."

"We're pretty happy with the API functionality. It's web, and it's very simple to set up queries. It has served us well and you don't need to be an expert on the API or the product to set these things up."

More Kentik pros

Cons

"It would be nice to have the ability to more easily collect information from other software when doing some types of analysis."

"The reporting is not very intuitive and has room for improvement."

"The visibility of applications is not great."

"We need better performance and reliability."

"One of the biggest challenges is that we aren't always able to push the configuration onto the target device. Whenever this happens, we have to do a factory reset, put on the script, and then reconfigure it again. In the next release, I would like to have a troubleshooting feature."

"The automation feature could be improved."

"Data Center Network Manager is a little complex because it includes a lot of hardware to be installed."

"The tool's pricing strategy could be improved to compete more effectively in the market, especially against competitors like Huawei, Aruba, and Juniper."

More Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) cons

"Sometimes, the tool has complications, so we must deal with the additional support from the tool's end."

"There is room for improvement around the usability of the API. It's a hugely complex task to call it and you need a lot of backing to be able to do it. I should say, as someone who's not in networking, maybe it's easier for people who are in networking, but for me that one part is not very user-friendly."

"We had faced some issues during an outage and were not able to get the desired results from Kentik tools. It took time to resolve these issues, which is why I give them eight points."

"We asked for a way, regarding the potential networks that exist, to hook Kentik up with external tools like peering DBs to correlate things together and see what we can do... This is all in the [next] beta now."

"I believe they're already working on this, but I would love for them to create better integrations from network flow data to application performance — tracing — so that we could overlay that data more readily. With more companies going hybrid, flow logs and flow data, whether it be VPC or on-prem, matched with application performance and trace data, is pretty important."

"The only downside to Kentik, something that I don't like, is that it's great that it shows you where these anomalies lie, but it's not actionable. Kentik is valuable, don't get me wrong, but if it had an actionable piece to it..."

"I consider the pricing model as an area for improvement."

"They're moving more in a direction where they are saying, "Hey, here's information that you may be interested in or may a need," before the question has to explicitly be asked. Continuing to move in that direction would be a good thing."

More Kentik cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When we purchase a Nexus box, the MDS CM license comes with it."

"The price of Cisco Data Center Network Manager is expensive compared to other vendors on the market."

"The product is licensed with contracts that work on a yearly basis rather than a monthly model."

"The solution is very expensive."

"We usually opt for a yearly plan, commonly for three or five years upfront. Some customers may not utilize all the features included in the product, and this can lead to them paying for functionalities they don't need."

"On average, Data Center Network Manager's pricing isn't too costly unless you choose a premier license."

"I would say that the pricing offers great value for the money."

"The tool is always expensive, but their service, product quality, and support are good. We're happy with it, but it's still an expensive solution. There are cheaper alternatives but no similar platform across all domains."

"We have an annual contract with Kentik that we renew each year for a set number of licenses. We also have some burstable licenses which we can spin up and spin down, and those are paid as they are used."

"The tool is cheaply priced."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Data Center Network Manager?

It uses push technology, which pushes the changes to all relevant devices to ensure they are updated accordingly.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Data Center Network Manager?

The tool is always expensive, but their service, product quality, and support are good. We're happy with it, but it's still an expensive solution. There are cheaper alternatives but no similar plat...

What needs improvement with Cisco Data Center Network Manager?

In a mixed architecture where Nexus switches are used as border devices and are connected to a Palo Alto firewall (e.g., version 9.1 or 10.1), you might encounter issues with BGP peering. For insta...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kentik?

I would say Kentik's pricing is not cheap. From my perspective as part of the technical team, I would not categorize it as expensive, but I know it is not cheap.

What needs improvement with Kentik?

There's always room for improvements and better relations when using any kind of product. We faced some issues with Kentik UI and alerting, which we asked them to fix, and they succeeded. They have...

What is your primary use case for Kentik?

We are using Kentik mostly for synthetic tests, and from one last year, network monitoring as well. We are using it for inter DC BGP tests and server monitoring as well.

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Product Reports

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

Download Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) product report

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) report

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Also Known As

Cisco Data Center Network Manager

No data available

Overview

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

Kentik's AIOps Network Traffic Intelligence platform unifies network operations, performance, security, and business intelligence.

With a purpose-built big data engine delivered as public or private SaaS, Kentik captures a high-resolution view of actual network traffic data and enriches it with critical application and business data, so every network event or analysis can be tied to revenue & costs, customer & user experience, performance & risk.

Sample Customers

Banco de Guayaquil, Cox Communications, Kuwait Petroleum Italia, Roper St. Francis, University of British Columbia

Pandora, Yelp, Neustar, Box, University of Washington, Zoom, Tata, and Cogent.

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) vs. Kentik