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Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) vs New Relic comparison

 

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
6.1
New Relic effectively enhances application performance by quickly resolving issues, saving time, and improving customer satisfaction.
There is return on investment because since we reduced the downtime, we can definitely save a lot of money within that period.
System engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
There is a definite return on investment for New Relic, as we would not have invested in building its infrastructure if there were no returns.
senior software at Norton Lifelock
After implementing New Relic, we have decreased staffing requirements while saving time and money.
Senior Observability Engineer I at a computer software company with 51-200 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
7.3
New Relic's customer service is praised for its responsiveness and support, though some users desire quicker, clearer responses.
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
If I drop an email to them, they will respond quickly to my email.
Senior DevOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Customer support from New Relic is very good, and we rarely need to create support tickets.
senior software at Norton Lifelock
They are very polite and helped him out.
Cloud Engineer at TO THE NEW Digital
 

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
7.6
New Relic is highly scalable, supporting varied workloads and environments, aided by seamless AWS integration and a flexible SaaS model.
We currently use New Relic for tens of thousands of developers and hundreds of teams within our organization, and we have not encountered any scalability issues.
senior software at Norton Lifelock
It is also suitable for cloud native architectures, SaaS, or software as a service, and for high volume data ingestion also.
Cloud Engineer at TO THE NEW Digital
Regarding New Relic's scalability, it excels at the enterprise level for cloud integrations that can utilize tags.
Senior Observability Engineer I at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
 

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
7.9
New Relic is stable, reliable, and efficient, with swift issue resolution, though minor performance hiccups occur occasionally.
New Relic lags sometimes.
Cloud Engineer at TO THE NEW Digital
New Relic is stable based on my experience, as I have not seen any problems with the UI.
Contingent Worker at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Nexus Dashboard needs easier configuration, better integration, improved performance, intuitive reporting, and competitive pricing to enhance user experience.
Users request plugin enhancements, better data retention, third-party integration, improved interface, and optimized alerting, dashboards, and pricing.
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
If they could improve the customer support by reducing their SLA within three to five days, if they could remediate everything, that will be so much helpful.
System engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Using real-time data, if there are any malicious patterns or something happening, they can identify those.
Platform Software Engineer 4 at Nexthink
Because of the pricing model, organizations have experienced uncontrolled costs and were not able to afford New Relic.
Senior SRE Engineer at SentinelOne
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller is costly but offers high value, transparent pricing, and excellent support and service.
New Relic's pricing is often seen as high but justified by its comprehensive features, despite confusing models.
Considering the features New Relic offers, the pricing or cost setup has not been a blocker for our budget.
senior software at Norton Lifelock
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for synthetic monitoring is that minions used to cost a lot.
DevOps engineer at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
As we talk about pricing, it is not that much cheaper.
Senior Site Reliability Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

The Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller offers stability, ease of use, integration, and real-time insights for optimized network management.
New Relic offers real-time monitoring, easy dashboards, and alerting, enhancing performance insights with integration and predictive analytics.
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
Using New Relic speeds up troubleshooting and resolution, giving us a clearer picture of where issues are, thus saving time and effort.
Head of API at a marketing services firm with 11-50 employees
New Relic is very useful for teams that don't have much of a dedicated DevOps team but want to have observability for their platform, and it's an easy way to get started.
Senior SRE Engineer at SentinelOne
New Relic has positively impacted our organization by reducing errors, improving performance, and saving time.
senior software at Norton Lifelock
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabri...
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
22nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
New Relic
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
176
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (4th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (9th), IT Operations Analytics (3rd), Mobile APM (2nd), Cloud Monitoring Software (3rd), AIOps (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 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 New Relic is 1.5%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
New Relic1.5%
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)0.6%
Other97.9%
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.
BasilJiji - PeerSpot reviewer
System engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Real-time alerts have reduced server outage impact and support fast incident response
In the dashboard, if they could show a little more metrics regarding the application and related things, that would be how New Relic could be improved. Currently, there are things showing from the server level and application level, but it can be improved. That is what I felt. Regarding user interface, I do not feel much concern, but for some kind of issues when we are trying to get support from the New Relic team, their SLA seems to be long. They are taking seven to ten working days for resolving some kind of scenario or issue. That is a bit difficult for us. If they could improve the customer support by reducing their SLA within three to five days, if they could remediate everything, that will be so much helpful. When it comes to the customer support part, I felt they need to be a little more improved on that part. The support overall is good, but they can improve. That is the reason I have given it eight out of ten.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
 

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 Business65
Midsize Enterprise52
Large Enterprise79
 

Questions from the Community

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?
I do not believe it integrated well with different infrastructures for hybrid environments. I am uncertain because we have never attempted that in our environment, so they could perform better in t...
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...
Any advice about APM solutions?
There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems, the scope of implementation). Our goal was to consolidate APM and infra monitor...
What needs improvement with New Relic Insights?
I find New Relic to be somewhat expensive. Our team shares logins, contrasting with other applications where individual team accounts are standard. Pricing is a primary concern since New Relic can ...
What is your primary use case for New Relic Insights?
As an Application Monitoring Engineer, my primary responsibilities include ensuring the uptime of services, managing infrastructure, and monitoring transactions. I use New Relic to set up incidents...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Data Center Network Manager
New Relic Browser, New Relic Applied Intelligence, New Relic Insights, New Relic Synthetics, New Relic Servers, New Relic APM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Banco de Guayaquil, Cox Communications, Kuwait Petroleum Italia, Roper St. Francis, University of British Columbia
World Fuel Services, Verizon, FootLocker, McDonald's, Trainline, Mondia Media, Confused, Costa Coffee, Ryanair, Marks & Spencer, William Hill, Delivery Hero, Skyscanner, BASF, DAZN, Veygo, Virtuo, movingimage, talabat, Australia Post, Tokopedia, Seven Network, Virgin Australia, Zomato, BigBasket, Mercado Libre, Lending Club
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) vs. New Relic and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.