Cisco UCS Manager vs FortiMonitor comparison

Cisco and Fortinet are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Cisco is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.4, while Fortinet is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.3. Cisco holds a 1.4% mindshare in IM, compared to Fortinet’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Fortinet users who would recommend it.

Cisco UCS Manager

Read 27 Cisco UCS Manager reviews

1,710 Views
1,429 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

FortiMonitor

Read 15 FortiMonitor reviews

1,055 Views
577 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS Manager

FortiMonitor

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Cisco UCS Manager and FortiMonitor compete in IT infrastructure optimization and monitoring capabilities. Cisco UCS Manager has the upper hand in comprehensive infrastructure management due to its tight integration with Cisco hardware, while FortiMonitor is preferred for advanced monitoring functionalities.

Features: Cisco UCS Manager offers unified management of computing, networking, and storage resources, including integration with Cisco hardware, centralized management capabilities, and advanced configuration options. FortiMonitor provides robust network performance monitoring, alerting capabilities, and diverse integrations, along with advanced analytics and a customizable dashboard.

Room for Improvement: Cisco UCS Manager could enhance its cloud integration, simplify the user interface, and improve multi-vendor support. FortiMonitor might improve its on-premises deployment options, expand integration with proprietary systems, and refine its user-centric customization capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: FortiMonitor features a streamlined deployment process with flexible cloud options and is known for responsive customer service. Cisco UCS Manager requires on-premises setup, which may lengthen deployment times for those committed to Cisco hardware.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco UCS Manager involves higher initial setup costs due to specialized hardware but offers strong ROI within Cisco environments. FortiMonitor is more competitively priced, offering scalable cloud-based plans and solid ROI, particularly beneficial for IT environments not reliant on Cisco hardware.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS Manager vs. FortiMonitor Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. FortiMonitor

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 UCS Manager

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

19th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

FortiMonitor

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

15th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (14th), IT Alerting and Incident Management (8th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS Manager is 1.4%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FortiMonitor is 0.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Edwin Mwosa

IT Infrastructure Manager at KTDA

Enhanced network oversight with rapid issue identification and good efficiency

We mainly use Cisco UCS Manager to integrate and manage our Cisco switches across the building. We also utilize it for network integration. It provides an integrated solution for our Cisco environment, streamlining our operations and managing multiple Cisco devices like switches and routers Cisco…

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JaimeVasquez

Commercial Manager at IT-Experience

Monitoring capabilities keep operations running smoothly and alerts enhance proactive system management

We use FortiMonitor to monitor the infrastructure of our customers. We check on what is happening with their operations, monitor bandwidth, ensure configurations are appropriate for the customer, and identify if anything is going wrong The most valuable features of FortiMonitor are its redundancy…

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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

"Cisco UCS Manager is overall a good package because it gives a GUI interface and a CLI."

"The hardware is very powerful and it is a stable solution."

"The solution is highly scalable, mainly because of the templates that make it easy for you to actually edit on the system."

"For the blade architecture and ease of use, I consider Cisco UCS Manager the best option on the market at the moment."

"What I like most about Cisco UCS Manager is the ease of administration. It also allows the central management of maintenance, installation, and configuration activities."

"Ease of management is certainly the most valuable feature in this product."

"Cisco Infrastructure is one of the top vendors and no one can beat them in terms of switching and routing."

"I can quickly manage the provisioned servers."

More Cisco UCS Manager pros

"With FortiMonitor, you can get all the logs of the traffic information of the destination or the source."

"The most valuable feature of FortiMonitor is user monitoring. We are able to see if the user is following the policy or not from their system. Additionally, the solution integrates well with Fortinet FortiGate and has centralized management."

"FortiMonitor is really easy to use for monitoring the logs on FortiGate...It is a stable product."

"In FortiMonitor, we're linked up with our Netgear, CactusServer, and NOC. It's really valuable because everything's migrating to one dashboard for us system engineers. We can keep an eye on traffic, blocked sites, and the health of our hardware. That last part, about knowing if something's going to fail soon, is super important. It gives us time to sort things out before any big problems happen. As a system engineer, I need to keep tabs on everything – temperature, monitoring systems, and network operations. This data is really handy because it helps me ensure our site runs smoothly, whether it's turning systems on or off. Just last night, there was a system failure, but thanks to real-time monitoring, I quickly identified the problem and got the necessary replacement parts."

"Fortinet's customer support is very good."

"The solution helps to see client infrastructure. It has many boxes and blinks green or red when the station goes up or down. We have different domains for the device groups that we monitor."

"The product's initial setup phase is easy."

"FortiMonitor offers comprehensive monitoring capabilities, allowing me to track network traffic in and out effectively."

More FortiMonitor pros

Cons

"There is room for improvement in the software part of Cisco UCS Manager. It should be more user-friendly, especially when creating policies."

"The pricing can be better."

"I would like to see Cisco UCS optionally work as a hyper-converged system because right now, it only operates as a converged system."

"The installation and upgrade sytems need to be improved."

"We have three data centers and if we could manage all three data centers using one interface, it would be great."

"The pricing aspect should be addressed."

"The automation within the solution needs to be simplified."

"Upgrading the firmware is a difficult procedure."

More Cisco UCS Manager cons

"Sometimes, during high CPU usage, we cannot access FortiMonitor and must refresh it."

"The tool's price in Vietnam is high, making it an area of concern where improvements can be made."

"The solution's initial setup process is time-consuming."

"I think the current features are really good for me, nothing else comes to mind right now. Maybe some small improvements could be made in the customization and configuration part of the UI to make it easier or more intuitive. Customizable UI options, like we saw in the demo, could be helpful for everyone. But in our operational environment, having clear health status and system details is crucial for us system engineers. One feature I'd really like to see is a credential management system. It would help us keep track of who's logged in and how many times, which is important due to user restrictions. Sometimes, we need to manage logins more efficiently, like logging off other users to free up credentials. So having a feature like that would be really helpful."

"FortiMonitor's monitoring could be much better. It should be like, in Palo Alto."

"There is room for improvement in the FortiMonitor report. It is not ideal for showcasing to tech customers or managers, especially when trying to display high CPU usage from logins within a specific range of months or the most recent month."

". Enhancements in the dashboard, such as clearer alerting, maintenance window management, software version tracking, and better visualization, would be beneficial."

"FortiMonitor could be improved by making it more convenient for smaller workloads, such as when configuring a few branches."

More FortiMonitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We need to take a license for each port, which amounts to a big sum."

"The pricing for Cisco UCS Manager is okay for its market, so it's a four out of five for me."

"With product discounts which can be negotiated, the product is a great value."

"You buy the hardware and then you get Cisco UCS Manager for free."

"Cisco UCS Manager’s annual licensing fee is expensive."

"Cisco UCS is more expensive than Dell and HP, but it is more reliable. I see less issues and it's quite stable."

"FortiMonitor's price is very high."

"Compared to other solutions, FortiMonitor is a very expensive solution."

"We have a large customer base for Fortinet, and the additional buying power got us really great discounts."

"On a scale from one to ten, I rate the pricing a nine since it is a good solution that is available at a cheap price."

"The price of FortiMonitor is approximately $200 annually for 225 users. The price is competitive."

"The tool's pricing model in Vietnam is a bit high. I rate the product price as an eight out of ten."

"In terms of licensing, while it may not be the most expensive option on the market, it's relatively cost-effective. You can obtain licenses at a lower cost, with the calculation being straightforward. For example, if you onboard around 5,000 devices, you'll need approximately 5,000 licenses, as each device typically counts as one license."

"There are additional costs needed for certain functionality, such as scalability."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

26%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

29%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco UCS Manager?

When one server fails, we can attach the service profile to a new server, which saves a lot of time.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS Manager?

My experience with the pricing of Cisco UCS Manager ( /products/cisco-ucs-manager-reviews ) is that it is reasonable. Recently, we acquired an excellent bundle with significant discounts, with offe...

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What needs improvement with Cisco UCS Manager?

For improvements, while the current graphical user interface is satisfactory, it could be further simplified for different tasks. While it has been improved from using Java to HTML, simplifying the...

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What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

I have a clear bias because I work for Panopta. We aren't a fit for everyone, but I can confirm that Panopta is a lot less work to stand up and maintain. It's also a lot easier to use and onboard n...

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What do you like most about FortiMonitor?

In FortiMonitor, we're linked up with our Netgear, CactusServer, and NOC. It's really valuable because everything's migrating to one dashboard for us system engineers. We can keep an eye on traffic...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiMonitor?

FortiMonitor does save time but not significantly on costs, as there are still expenses related to procurement, installation, and licensing.

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Intersight vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 83% of the time

Nutanix Prism vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 9% of the time

HPE OneView vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 5% of the time

Zabbix vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 3% of the time

More Cisco UCS Manager Competitors

ThousandEyes vs FortiMonitor

Compared 21% of the time

Datadog vs FortiMonitor

Compared 19% of the time

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor vs FortiMonitor

Compared 17% of the time

Zabbix vs FortiMonitor

Compared 15% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs FortiMonitor

Compared 10% of the time

More FortiMonitor Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager

May 2025

Download Cisco UCS Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)

April 2025

Download FortiMonitor product report

Also Known As

No data available

Panopta

Overview

Cisco UCS Manager helps significantly reduce management and administration expenses by automating routine tasks to increase operational agility. Customers can extend the benefits of Cisco UCS Manager globally across an enterprise to thousands of servers in multiple domains with Cisco UCS Central Software.

Cisco

FortiMonitor is a comprehensive, SaaS-based digital experience monitoring (DEM) platform that helps organizations modernize their performance-monitoring tools. It provides visibility into endpoint application performance and digital experience—no matter where the user resides or where the application is hosted.

Fortinet

Sample Customers

Management Science Associates, Peak 10, Virtual Consulting Professionals

SONY, GoDaddy, HCL, ING, ARMOR, billboard

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. FortiMonitor

April 2025

Free Report: Cisco UCS Manager vs. FortiMonitor

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