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Cisco Prime [EOL] vs DX Spectrum comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Prime [EOL]
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
DX Spectrum
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
118
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (8th), Network Monitoring Software (18th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (19th), Network Troubleshooting (7th), DX NetOps (1st)
 

Featured Reviews

AR
Network Engineer at Edmonton Catholic School Board
Has an easy implementation process, but the performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive
The project implementation was easy overall. Adapting Cisco's solutions to our specific environment required effort, as their documentation only covers some network scenarios. The deployment didn't happen all at once; it was staged and controlled to ensure a smooth transition. We started with a small test environment before gradually rolling it out to all campuses. This gradual approach helped mitigate the risk of any issues arising across multiple locations simultaneously, especially on a critical day like Monday morning. We have a team of three executives working on the process. Their job roles included network specialists and a manager. It requires maintenance, which is included in the annual cost. We receive updates and support as part of the renewal process.
PinchasAlbalya - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Monitoring has become centralized and management now sees real‑time health of key network assets
The time investment required is significant, not because of difficulty but because of the need for free time to invest in it. We need to get the knowledge. We know there are many options, but we took an external vendor to install and make the customization. If we want to make others changes without paying for customization, we need to learn it deeply by ourselves. The tutorials are very complicated. They could work on that area. The tutorial part could be more simplified. I know there are many explanations, and you can get help or documents in one click on the current page in the product, but it is not very clear. If you want to do something new that you did not see from the vendor in the installation, it is not very simple. The documents are good for people that know how to operate the product well, but for new users, it is not simple.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution helps with the management and support of the enterprise network."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco Prime is the heat map."
"The installation is easy."
"Cisco Prime, from a management perspective, has good reporting."
"The customer service and support for this solution is good."
"We use the solution to control the physical service station that is part of the SCADA network. We connect and control them remotely."
"Enables oversight in order to tweak and tune."
"The solution's configuration management tool is amazing because it centralizes and pushes configurations which saves a lot of volume and effort."
"The product’s stability and robustness are valuable."
"The network monitoring features are the product’s most valuable, due to the lack of these capabilities in any other monitoring tool."
"It does correlation so instead of producing 20 alarms if a site goes down, it only creates one."
"We have removed all the duplicate tickets from our ticketing system; for example, if we have a store that is down, we get 20 tickets, but through CA Spectrum we are down to 1, so in the long term what we've done is less tickets, less people, more savings, etc."
"It is easy to navigate."
"The main thing is obviously notifications about alerts, getting ahead of the curve to make sure that we do not have system going down, or if it is down we get to know it earlier."
"What I like best is the configuration management functionality."
"It is a very stable solution."
 

Cons

"The solution is considered legacy and DNAC has overcome it because of centralized controls that allow a complete LAN network to be moved to centralized management."
"The solution needs to include centralized management that aligns with the Greenfield network and its focus on real-time, scenario-based applications."
"That is unacceptable and it's the biggest downfall of the solution."
"The solution has issues with real time monitoring of devices and NetFlow such as inadequate visualization for reports, sources, and destinations."
"Cisco Prime could improve the notifications in the system. Having more details about what is happening would be useful, such as traffic numbers or who is connected. We can see them through the firewall controller, but it would be better if you can see them from one place."
"The solution can be slow at times."
"It should be able to monitor Palo Alto, Juniper, and Check Point products - not just Cisco solutions."
"The reporting could be simplified and the information made clearer to the user."
"Technical support for this product is not so good. It's also not as good as it used to be."
"DX Spectrum needs better documentation on its complex features."
"There are a very few occasions when the system "barfs" and it looks like your infrastructure has gone dark, but it bounces back quickly (the system)."
"I would like to see improvement in the ability of the user to configure the maintenance mode more efficiently."
"I did not see the best level of usability."
"Reporting and network bandwidth monitoring features needs to be improved."
"I think it still has room for improvement as far as the application, but support could also be improved."
"Customer Service: It's poor. Technical Support: It's poor."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We update the license every five years."
"Cisco Prime is an expensive solution."
"I would rate the pricing of Cisco Prime a seven out of ten."
"I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
"The product's performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive."
"The price of Cisco Prime was reasonable because we purchased it as part of a Cisco One package. The package was a bundle of Cisco solutions together, such as Cisco ISE and CMX. The price is reasonable com compared to other solutions."
"If we have a license for Cisco DNA, we can use the same license for Cisco Prime."
"The price is very high."
"Spectrum is expensive."
"It’s a great tool, but an expensive one. Learn how to use it properly."
"It is very pricey. With the current trend of enterprises moving towards cheaper and more modern looking solutions like ManageEngine, SevOne, ServicePilot, and Paesller."
"DX Spectrum's pricing is neither expensive nor cheap."
"Since the acquisition by Broadcom, we have not had such a good experience with licensing and pricing. Since they were bought by Broadcom, every sales contract is getting complicated. It's very complicated, and it's much more expensive than before. It's not a good pricing strategy from Broadcom."
"It is expensive compared to other tools in the market."
"DX Spectrum's pricing depends on the license number. It is affordable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise90
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with DX Spectrum?
The time investment required is significant, not because of difficulty but because of the need for free time to invest in it. We need to get the knowledge. We know there are many options, but we to...
What is your primary use case for DX Spectrum?
The university purchased DX Spectrum, called ICE. DX Spectrum NAC is working for us only on Cisco 9200 switches. It is not working on any other switch like C1000 or HG or any 2960X. Even other Cisc...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Prime Infrastructure
CA Spectrum
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mohawk Industries, Universidad EAFIT, Halton Healthcare
National Informatics Centre India, Banese, Olympus, AlphaServe Technologies, Sicredi
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Fortinet, Skyline Communications and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: July 2026.
908,858 professionals have used our research since 2012.