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Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG comparison

Cisco and NETSCOUT are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco is ranked #40 with an average rating of 8.0, while NETSCOUT is ranked #78. Cisco holds a 0.9% mindshare in NMS, compared to NETSCOUT’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of NETSCOUT users who would recommend it.
Cisco Provider Connectivity...
Read 24 Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance reviews
  • 1,670 Views
  • 1,083 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG
Read 13 NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG reviews
  • 547 Views
  • 311 Comparison Views
92% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance and NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG compete in the network infrastructure management space. Cisco has an advantage in pricing and support, while NETSCOUT is preferred for its advanced feature set.

Features: Cisco offers proactive network monitoring and end-to-end assurance, enhancing issue resolution. NETSCOUT provides network traffic analysis, visibility, and packet-level insights, focusing on performance analytics. NETSCOUT’s deep network analysis gives it a competitive edge.

Room for Improvement: Cisco could enhance advanced traffic analysis, scalability, and detailed analytics. NETSCOUT may benefit from simplifying deployment, integration, and user interface complexity.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco provides straightforward deployment and strong customer service, ensuring efficient setup and continuous support. NETSCOUT offers comprehensive technical assistance despite complex deployment, helping organizations with their intricate setups.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco delivers competitive initial costs and good ROI with proactive features. NETSCOUT’s higher setup cost is justified by long-term ROI due to its advanced analytics, appealing to those valuing comprehensive information despite initial expenses.

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To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance vs. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG Report (Updated: April 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance vs. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG
April 2025
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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 Provider Connectivity...
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
40th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (45th)
NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
78th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance is 0.9%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Sylvain Germe - PeerSpot reviewer
Highly scalable, responsive support, but lacking new features
This solution is geared towards on-premise setups, and would not be useful if the company plans to move to the cloud within the next two years, such as Google Cloud for example. If the goal is to monitor bandwidth at remote sites and identify performance issues because the network is under the control, this solution is useful. However, if a company primarily uses cloud-based servers and does not manage the internet connection of its remote sites, the solution becomes less useful. I rate Accedian Skylight a seven out of ten. I have a positive opinion of the tool, but it can be challenging to set up. It is also limited in its applicability to certain use cases. I am familiar with the engineers behind the solution and have a good impression of them. However, I am not pleased with the fact that the company removed many features and raised prices after it was acquired by Accedian.
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Michael Gideon Genita - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to set up with good documentation and helpful support
I'm using it for a customer The packet flow switch is the most valuable aspect of the solution.  It's an easy product to set up. We can scale the solution if we need to. It's stable.  The documentation is well-written and quite useful. It's compatible with other products.  Under the pocket flow…
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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

"The ability to measure performance end-to-end across the cloud data center allows us to take corrective action to keep our channels online."
"This solution has helped to improve the interaction between our network, datacenter, and application teams. I have used other tools, but this tool can pinpoint the root cause of my application or network issue in the majority of the cases. So, it helps different divisions or groups in the IT department to troubleshoot together and get an issue resolved. This tool helps a lot in our day-to-day networking application and IT operations."
"The response times, with the performance, are really interesting too, where you can see the packet loss."
"If [the problem] is something related to HTTP or VoIP, then I can have a quick look into the protocols, a process which gives me some good ideas..."
"Capturing traffic [is very interesting]. Currently, with our configuration, we don't capture the payload of the packets, just the header. But when we want the body, the payload of the packets, we can do a PCAP, and then analyze it within Wireshark."
"One valuable feature we have is real-time monitoring for connection issues."
"For us, the most valuable feature is something called TWAMP that allows for real-time traffic in a way that is 10 times lighter than things like SolarWinds. It's in the sub-milliseconds of accuracy, and you can divide tasks so that you can literally see things like the tagging for Quality of Service. That had been incorrect with the carrier, but there was no way on this planet you'd be able to tell a carrier that they're wrong. I have dozens of scenarios where we found "No, that's not right," and got it resolved instantly."
"The feature I used to like the most was its ability to decode layer seven protocols, although this is becoming less useful now that encryption is so widespread."
More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance pros
"It allows us to get quicker resolutions. We can see exactly what is using up the bandwidth, so we can assist end users."
"The technical support is really good. They will go above and beyond, if you are running into a problem. You can go to a sales engineer, who will engage technical support to help you out."
"The ability to troubleshoot customers' connectivity has been very beneficial."
"The most valuable features are speed and cost."
"It helps us to assist our customers to isolate problems. If it is us who is having the problem, then we can use it to streamline the process."
"When we have mobile operators who are signal partners, where one is the roaming host and another is the roamer, we are able to see their traffic. Their packets are able to detect if any faults to develop, and at what point they fail."
"The tool has the ability to look back within a month's data. It is very easy to navigate within the tool and troubleshoot the problem, compared to other solutions that we've used in the past."
"It is very rock solid. We hardly have any hardware issues."
More NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG pros
 

Cons

"The UI interface of Accedian Skylight could improve."
"If you want a new version, you go to the website. The hardest part is finding the link, where is that .bin file? Sometimes it's pretty hidden in a document... it's hidden in the release notes or in another file somewhere. And it's usually not on the first page either."
"Human resource costs can be high when dealing with connection issues."
"There should be an option to update and upgrade the solution to the new version without having to re-buy it. I have clients switching to other solutions. The old solution is great, but if you change your license to a new one, you have to almost re-buy it completely."
"For the PVX, they are in the process of getting the results to export to cloud and SaaS for analytics. They told me that this will happen later this year. Right now, for the most part, I create that data myself."
"It needs the possibility to export data because it is not easy to see larger data sets, e.g., for one month. It would be interesting to export data into a PDF or dashboard to keep a history of the situation."
"Some of the Skylight applications are a little newer, and they're still moving through initial revs. There are certain bugs, but nothing is insurmountable... It will just take a little bit of time for their user interface to get a little bit better."
"I would like to see some improvements in parts of their synthetic transactions, which includes all the latency, jitter, and throughput. I would like to see some Layer 7 analytics in there. I want to be able to do a DNS request, HTTP GET request, or even SIP call point-to-point or via registration."
More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance cons
"There is a timeout feature that we have been asking for awhile."
"The technology goes end-of-life on us every year, which is why I am looking forward to vSTREAM. I don't like when devices go end-of-life on us so quickly. If we can get more of an advanced notice of when an end-of-life is brought up, because our certification process within the organization takes a while."
"The monitoring and reporting tool needs improvement. Users want more information, such as the level of detail when doing a packet analysis. They want more detail to be able to isolate down to a specific point."
"The single pane of glass feed still needs work."
"It's not able to communicate with our probes."
"Only problems that we have had are fiber issues going into the TAPs or vSTREAMs, which are usually local site issues."
"Being able to manage the packet flow switches in nGeniusONE would be great."
"The scalability has some limitations and quirks to it. I would like to be able to upgrade rather than replace the whole thing."
More NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It provides value and the cost is not huge."
"The pricing is cheaper than other competing products, which is better for our budgets."
"The price is competitive overall, depending on the type of customer."
"We understand there's a significant cost difference, but have yet to investigate fully."
"The solution was previously well-regarded, but after being acquired by Accedian, the prices have significantly increased. This has made it challenging to sell the product due to its high cost. It is an expensive solution."
"If you look into Riverbed, it's a licensing nightmare. You need to pay for every type of analysis... If you don't look into licensing, Riverbed and SolarWinds are pretty comparable. But if you look into licensing it would not be smart to go for either of them. On the pure, bare-metal basis, it's the same. But when you get the bare metal and a few basic licenses, then you need all those other licenses just to be sure that there's no issue... One of the great things about Skylight is you have them all, and you actually need them all."
"It's not for free, clearly. But on the other hand, it offers very interesting functionality. We pay around €100,000."
"Pricing is a little bit expensive."
More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance pricing and cost advice
"It can be scalable. It just costs too much. With a company as big as ours, it gets too expensive to accommodate every single site."
"The scalability is good, but it comes at a cost. E.g., if you need 100 InfiniStream because you are sending gigs or terabytes of data to one InfiniStream, then you will have to purchase another InfiniStream, which are not cheap."
"The price is a little high."
"To capture more with the solution that we bought, you have to buy another InfiniStreamNG, and there are only four ports in the back."
"I would like it to be more scalable with less spend."
"This product could be cheaper."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
39%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
11%
Energy/Utilities Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Accedian Skylight?
Human resource costs can be high when dealing with connection issues. I require more tools to file and resolve these issues efficiently.
See all answers
What is your primary use case for Accedian Skylight?
I had prepared for COC and the client. I work as a vendor for a client using Flow Mount for network performance monitoring. I focus on resolving client-side issues related to Packy Performance and ...
See all answers
What advice do you have for others considering Accedian Skylight?
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
See all answers
Ask a question
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Comparisons

ThousandEyes vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance Logo
ThousandEyes vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance
Compared 43% of the time
SolarWinds NPM vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance Logo
SolarWinds NPM vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance
Compared 15% of the time
NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance Logo
NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance
Compared 11% of the time
Dynatrace vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance Logo
Dynatrace vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance
Compared 9% of the time
Zabbix vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance Logo
Zabbix vs Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance
Compared 5% of the time
More Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance Competitors
Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG Logo
Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG
Compared 35% of the time
NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG Logo
NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG
Compared 29% of the time
Riverbed NPM+ vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG Logo
Riverbed NPM+ vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG
Compared 19% of the time
cPacket cClear vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG Logo
cPacket cClear vs NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG
Compared 17% of the time
More NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance
May 2025
Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance reportDownload Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance product report
Buyer's Guide
NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG
April 2025
NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG reportDownload NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG product report
 

Also Known As

Accedian Skylight, Accedian SkyLIGHT PVX, SkyLIGHT PVX, SecurActive, Performance Vision
InfiniStreamNG, NETSCOUT ISNG, Infinistream
 

Overview

Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance offers real-time application and network performance monitoring, VPN management, and network diagnostics across multiple sites.

Organizations use Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance for active and passive monitoring, stress testing, and troubleshooting performance issues. Deployed both on-premise and in the cloud, it supports IT infrastructure, security, and analytics with end-to-end performance measurement across cloud data centers. The modern, intuitive interface features TWAMP for real-time traffic accuracy and standardized reports, along with insightful dashboards for circuit performance, latency, jitter, and throughput monitoring.

What are the most important features?
  • TWAMP: Provides real-time traffic accuracy and standardized reporting.
  • Insightful Dashboards: Monitor circuit performance, latency, jitter, and throughput.
  • Security Integration: Compatible with tools like Splunk for enhanced security.
  • Application Support: Facilitates comprehensive network performance analysis.
What benefits or ROI should users look for in reviews?
  • Quick Corrective Actions: Immediate response capabilities for performance issues.
  • Easy Navigation: User-friendly layouts simplify monitoring and troubleshooting.
  • Comprehensive Analytics: Advanced tools for in-depth network performance insights.
  • Cloud and On-Premise Options: Flexible deployment to meet different needs.

In industries like finance and healthcare, Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance ensures robust performance monitoring and quick diagnostics for VPNs and internet lines. It aids in maintaining the integrity and security of data transference, facilitating active and passive monitoring, stress testing, and performance troubleshooting across geographically dispersed locations, ensuring seamless operation and compliance with industry standards.

Cisco

NETSCOUT’s new ISNG platform harnesses the power of IP intelligence by mining traffic in real-time to deliver accurate and actionable data for service assurance, cybersecurity and business intelligence applications. The InfiniStreamNG platform fully supports the nGeniusONE and Iris application suites.

NETSCOUT
 

Sample Customers

T-Systems, Thomson Reuters, Bordeaux Metropole, CGI, Citadelle Regional Hospital Center, Lorraine Institute of Oncology, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Groupe BPCE, Group S, Splitpoint, Horus-Net, Audatex, Indexis, Province de Liège, EASI, Spie Batignolles, Faymonville
U.S. Department of Defense
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance vs. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG
April 2025
Free Report: Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance vs. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Provider Connectivity Assurance vs. NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
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