Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) vs Zenoss Cloud comparison

Cisco and Zenoss are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco is ranked #18 with an average rating of 8.2, while Zenoss is ranked #77. Cisco holds a 0.6% mindshare in NMS, compared to Zenoss’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zenoss users who would recommend it.

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabri...

Read 25 Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) reviews

821 Views
294 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Zenoss Cloud

Read 8 Zenoss Cloud reviews

690 Views
264 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabri...

Zenoss Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Zenoss Cloud and Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller are competing in network management. Zenoss Cloud has an advantage in monitoring capabilities and pricing, while Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller offers advanced infrastructure features justifying higher costs.

Features: Zenoss Cloud provides comprehensive monitoring, predictive analytics, and alerting capabilities, optimizing IT operations. Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller offers robust networking and fabric management, seamless Cisco integration, scalability, and detailed topology management.

Room for Improvement: Zenoss Cloud could enhance its networking features, scalability for larger enterprises, and integration within diverse environments. Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller might improve its usability for non-Cisco environments, simplify deployment for smaller teams, and reduce the need for hardware dependency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zenoss Cloud has a cloud-based deployment with fast implementation and minimal hardware needs, backed by reliable customer service with timely responses. Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller has more complex deployments due to hardware integration, and customer service involves extended support for deployment specifics.

Pricing and ROI: Zenoss Cloud offers cost-effective solutions with predictable pricing, providing positive ROI through efficient performance monitoring. Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller has higher initial costs but offers substantial ROI with strategic network management benefits and long-term savings for complex infrastructure.

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

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) vs. Zenoss Cloud

June 2025

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Helped 857,162 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 Nexus Dashboard Fabri...

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

18th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zenoss Cloud

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

77th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Infrastructure (30th), Event Monitoring (14th), Server Monitoring (26th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (52nd), Container Monitoring (10th), Cloud Monitoring Software (39th), AIOps (25th)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) is 0.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zenoss Cloud is 0.4%, down from 0.4% 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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ClaudiaChen

Cloud Architect - Senior Technology Architect at Telstra

Generates close to real-time alerts so users can resolve issues, but needs more integration and public cloud monitoring features

As Zenoss Service Dynamics is more for network-centric devices and you want to monitor, for example, a server, its services, IP addresses, and interfaces, if it's a network and you're going to monitor multiple items, you'll be charged multiple times. This is what Zenoss Service Dynamics needs to improve to make sure that customers pay just one fee to monitor the entire server. What I'd like to see in Zenoss Service Dynamics in the future is a public cloud monitoring feature, particularly for the Azure public cloud. Another additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is integration with the Azure public cloud because I know that there are some services from Azure that Zenoss Service Dynamics is currently unable to monitor.

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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

"We use the product to manage access points."

"Stability is not an issue."

"The most valuable feature is the connectivity monitoring."

"Data Center Network Manager is absolutely stable."

"Fabric suite automation is a great feature."

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

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

"The tool's most valuable feature is the consolidated dashboard, providing insights into parameters and overall usage of network features. It allows us to easily summarize insights through the dashboards. The solution offers automation capabilities, particularly in the context of connecting LAN sites with websites."

More Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) pros

"The custom built integration is one of the most valuable features because you can see all the especially critical items."

"The most valuable feature is the flexible discovery mechanism."

"What I like most about Zenoss Service Dynamics is that it monitors the devices and gives close to real-time alerts. For example, in case the device is not available, Zenoss Service Dynamics generates an alert so my team can resolve the issue."

"It's easy to use."

"The product offers good documentation that helps with initial training."

"Its Docker Container concept is mind blowing. It is the first monitoring tool which comes with Docker features."

"They have also accommodated many state-of-the-art technologies like Docker and ZooKeeper."

Cons

"The initial setup is challenging."

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

"In the next release, I would like to see it merged with Prime and I think that it should be more unified."

"It is not very easy to monitor or to browse."

"The tool should be more user-friendly and improve AI integration."

"The solution needs to improve reports."

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

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

More Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) cons

"There was a problem with Zenoss and storage monitoring."

"The inclusion of a feature to show a graphical view of the network would be a helpful improvement."

"There is room for improvement with the administrative part. They introduced Control Center to manage things in Zenoss 5. The services that Zenoss provides remained the same, but the administrative part, since they introduced Docker, etc., has become a little complex"

"It would be ideal if the product offered sound alerts."

"Now it is stable, but they should design threshold parameters in percentage instead of raw values."

"The AI aspect needs to improve."

"As Zenoss Service Dynamics is more for network-centric devices and you want to monitor, for example, a server, its services, IP addresses, and interfaces, if it's a network and you're going to monitor multiple items, you'll be charged multiple times. This is what Zenoss Service Dynamics needs to improve to make sure that customers pay just one fee to monitor the entire server. What I'd like to see in Zenoss Service Dynamics in the future is a public cloud monitoring feature, particularly for the Azure public cloud. Another additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is integration with the Azure public cloud because I know that there are some services from Azure that Zenoss Service Dynamics is currently unable to monitor."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

"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 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."

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

"The solution is very expensive."

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

"The pricing depends on the environment, the number of services, and the size of the data center. It can go from $100,000 to a million dollars."

"It is very cost-effective compared to the tools I worked with in the past. The company is gaining a lot with respect to the cost factor. It provides agentless monitoring and in a very cheap way."

"There are additional costs you'll have to pay apart from the license fee for Zenoss Service Dynamics. I can't remember exactly how much my company is paying because I don't handle the finance part, but the cost is paid annually. On a scale of one to five, with one being the cheapest and five being the most expensive, I'm rating the solution three out of five."

"It depends on the customer, what he wants."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Government

12%

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

22%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

In my experience, I worked with many monitoring software, but the one that gave me the most functionalities of a large-scale company is Zenoss, due to its ability to monitor completely hybrid and a...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 55% of the time

Zabbix vs Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

Compared 15% of the time

SolarWinds Network Automation Manager vs Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

Compared 13% of the time

Icinga vs Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

Compared 9% of the time

Marvis Virtual Network Assistant vs Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

Compared 7% of the time

More Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) Competitors

Zabbix vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 31% of the time

Nagios XI vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 28% of the time

SolarWinds AppOptics vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 11% of the time

Nagios Core vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 9% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Zenoss Cloud

Compared 7% of the time

More Zenoss Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM)

June 2025

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) report

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

Buyer's Guide

Zenoss Cloud

May 2025

Download Zenoss Cloud product report

Also Known As

Cisco Data Center Network Manager

Cloud Monitoring, Zenoss Service Dynamics

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

Zenoss Cloud revolutionizes IT infrastructure monitoring with a service-centric approach, prioritizing the overall health of services and applications. Harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AIOps), Zenoss Cloud offers end-to-end visibility across servers, networks, storage, and applications. Real-time monitoring, event correlation, and automated remediation ensure immediate insights and efficient issue resolution. The customizable dashboards empower users to tailor visualizations to their needs, while scalability accommodates diverse infrastructures. Zenoss Cloud guarantees improved application performance, reduced downtime, and enhanced IT efficiency, making it an ideal choice for businesses of all sizes, from small enterprises seeking simplicity to large corporations requiring advanced scalability. Experience unified monitoring and proactive management with Zenoss Cloud, a comprehensive solution that transforms IT infrastructure optimization in today's complex environments.

Zenoss

Sample Customers

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

2degrees, Rackspace, State of North Dakota, El Paso Independent School District, NWN Corporation

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (Formerly DCNM) vs. Zenoss Cloud

June 2025

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