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

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
1.0
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller delivers consistent connections and high ROI, benefiting diverse sectors over a decade.
Sentiment score
2.5
Meraki Dashboard enhances global device management, reducing IT labor, and offering efficiency, though ROI tracking remains challenging for many.
Meraki Dashboard gives my whole team visibility into seeing what a network is doing or what devices they have.
Network Engineer at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Customer service is praised for responsiveness and expertise, though some operational cases take longer to resolve.
Sentiment score
7.1
Meraki Dashboard support is well-rated for fast, knowledgeable service, though some report wait times and access difficulties.
Cisco's support I would rate as a 10 compared to all other vendors.
Network Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The support response time can be slow, sometimes taking up to fifteen hours.
Senior Assistant Director Information Technology at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
I evaluate customer service and technical support as helpful when we need it; you call them, and they help you through everything.
Video Conference Manager at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
When I do have to use them, they are excellent.
Network Engineer at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller is scalable, supporting integration and expansion, with varied user experiences on upgrading and compatibility.
Sentiment score
5.0
Meraki Dashboard offers scalable, cloud-based management, easily supporting varying organizational sizes and seamless expansion with high user satisfaction.
Sometimes the new features do not clearly indicate whether there is an additional cost associated with my licensing level.
Principal Systems Engineer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
If you have flexibility in your network design, expansion is very easy.
Sr Ict Engineer at ICAD-KSA
Meraki Dashboard scales very seamlessly as integration is straightforward.
Technical Support Engineer at AlifCloud IT Consulting Pvt. Ltd.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
The Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller is praised for its stable performance and reliability, especially in managing data centers.
Sentiment score
7.2
Meraki Dashboard is highly rated for its stability, resilience, and ease of use despite occasional minor connectivity issues.
We have not encountered any downtime related to the Meraki cloud feature in the last five years.
Senior Assistant Director Information Technology at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
The network has been working for the past 2.5 years and is performing very well.
Sr Ict Engineer at ICAD-KSA
I rarely, if ever, have experienced any outage with Meraki Dashboard.
Technical Support Engineer at AlifCloud IT Consulting Pvt. Ltd.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Nexus Dashboard needs easier configuration, better integration, improved performance, intuitive reporting, and competitive pricing to enhance user experience.
Meraki Dashboard needs improved incident reporting, integration, user-friendliness, AI capabilities, and expanded functionalities for better user experience.
I do not believe it integrated well with different infrastructures for hybrid environments.
Network Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
A backup feature for devices in Meraki, including a way to back up and export backups of devices from the portal.
Principal Systems Engineer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
AI capabilities present a significant opportunity for improvement for Meraki Dashboard as well; anything that has to do with incident and reporting needs a proactive approach, not just a reactive one.
Director at PwC
There is a need for price reductions in developing countries, as the cost of Meraki is quite high.
Senior Assistant Director Information Technology at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller is costly but offers high value, transparent pricing, and excellent support and service.
Meraki Dashboard is premium-priced, reliable, and ideal for comprehensive network management but not suited for budget-sensitive firms.
The cost of the Meraki solution is high, which may not be affordable for smaller companies, especially in developing countries.
Senior Assistant Director Information Technology at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
If we involve a third-party vendor, the price will definitely go up.
IT Manager at Fawaz
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is very expensive.
Network Engineer at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

The Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller offers stability, ease of use, integration, and real-time insights for optimized network management.
Meraki Dashboard provides centralized cloud management, intuitive interface, scalability, and real-time monitoring, enhancing productivity and efficient network management.
People typically understand north-south traffic flows but usually miss the east-west traffic flows in data centers.
Network Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Meraki Dashboard positively impacts my organization by enabling live monitoring. If someone unplugs the power cable, if the switches are down, if there is an outage, or if there is any misconfiguration, we get an alert from Cisco in our mailbox.
System Analyst II at IT solutions consultings
Meraki Dashboard helps cut down on time because we're troubleshooting in a single pane of glass.
Network Engineer at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Meraki Dashboard offers an exceptional centralized management solution that allows easy updates and monitoring of various network features, including bandwidth usage and content filtering.
Senior Assistant Director Information Technology at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabri...
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
42nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Meraki Dashboard
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) is 0.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Meraki Dashboard is 0.8%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Meraki Dashboard0.8%
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)0.6%
Other98.6%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Jagdev Dhaliwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Flow monitoring has improved planning for east-west traffic and real-time capacity decisions
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) helps to understand the flows and data plane capacities, which are the primary use cases. Usually, people struggle with east-west traffic flow when they need to decide on firewalls or products. People typically understand north-south traffic flows but usually miss the east-west traffic flows in data centers. I was focusing more on this so that people can accordingly plan, such as after F5, the number of servers, the number of sessions needed, and whether we need to plan the interface for groups from the line capacity perspective. This kind of information was valuable to us. The real-time telemetry feature was beneficial. When experiencing performance issues, I could determine if there were any issues related to flows or areas where bottlenecks were occurring.
NF
IT Network Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Cloud-based management has simplified global Wi-Fi operations and improved daily troubleshooting
What I would like to improve in Meraki Dashboard is the template part, which is really helping me to manage at large scale. Integration with AI or native AI functionality would be interesting depending on the price, how far it goes, and how far it shares the information I have. For the rest, it is quite straightforward. The next tool maybe to be integrated, which I do not know if it exists today within Meraki, is IPAM management for IP address management. I do not know if it is part of the roadmap, but it is something I have to use on a dedicated platform, so integrating this would be interesting as well. Finally, I would rate Meraki Dashboard overall as a 9 out of 10. There are still some missing features, but there are also some considerations. I am familiar with the Chinese situation where there is a dedicated portal for China, so if I need to deploy access points in China, I have to connect to a dedicated portal due to the regulations in that country. However, this is not due to Cisco or company policy.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
15%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Construction Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise16
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise34
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your primary use case for Cisco Data Center Network Manager?
The main use case for URL filtering with PAN-DB is that it performs quite well. Earlier, when I started in 2012, there was a Blue Coat product available during that period. I am not certain whether...
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Data Center Network Manager?
I do not have experience with Cortex. I worked primarily with Strata firewalls, Global Protect, and Prisma. These are the three primary products I have worked on. I am familiar with Prisma Access b...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki Dashboard?
Regarding their pricing, the company I work for, Akkodis, was acquired by Adecco in 2022, so I am using the same technologies and I am somehow on the contract regarding Meraki purchase and so on. P...
What needs improvement with Meraki Dashboard?
The main aspect I would like to see improved in Meraki Dashboard is the dependency on cloud connectivity for centralized management. If the primary Internet or ISP connection goes down, access to t...
What is your primary use case for Meraki Dashboard?
We have deployed the Meraki Dashboard for centralized management and monitoring of all devices, appliances, and sensors across two shopping malls. The shopping malls are connected across different ...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Data Center Network Manager
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Banco de Guayaquil, Cox Communications, Kuwait Petroleum Italia, Roper St. Francis, University of British Columbia
Coop eG, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Priefert Manufacturing, Century Care Management, Clifton College, Zürs Ski Resort, Capital FM Arena, MAXI Autohöfe
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) vs. Meraki Dashboard and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.