Cisco UCS Manager vs Grafana Enterprise Stack comparison

Cisco and Grafana Labs are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Cisco is ranked #30 with an average rating of 8.8, while Grafana Labs is ranked #20 with an average rating of 8.6. Cisco holds a 1.3% mindshare in IM, compared to Grafana Labs’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Grafana Labs users who would recommend it.

Cisco UCS Manager

Read 27 Cisco UCS Manager reviews

4,513 Views
4,242 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Grafana Enterprise Stack

Read 14 Grafana Enterprise Stack reviews

2,681 Views
2,654 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS Manager

Grafana Enterprise Stack

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Cisco UCS Manager and Grafana Enterprise Stack compete in the IT management category. Cisco UCS Manager has the upper hand in simplicity and customer support, while Grafana Enterprise Stack is superior in data handling and visualization capabilities.

Features: Cisco UCS Manager provides unified management for compute, network, and storage resources, streamlining operations within data centers. It offers real-time system monitoring and automated resource allocation, enhancing operational efficiency. Grafana Enterprise Stack focuses on data visualization with powerful dashboards, real-time analytics, and extensive integration with data sources, facilitating complex data interpretations.

Room for Improvement: Cisco UCS Manager could improve its interface design to be more user-friendly, enhance third-party integrations, and expand customization options. Grafana Enterprise Stack needs to streamline its deployment process, enhance scalability for larger data sets, and improve support for non-developer users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco UCS Manager is easily deployed within Cisco environments, supported by strong vendor assistance, ensuring a smooth setup experience. Grafana Enterprise Stack provides robust integration with multiple data sources, but its deployment may require significant customization for optimal use, though it does offer comprehensive support services.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco UCS Manager involves higher setup costs due to hardware requirements, yet it offers good ROI through efficient resource management within existing Cisco environments. Grafana Enterprise Stack presents competitive pricing, with substantial value through advanced analytics, offering a high ROI particularly in data-driven operations.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS Manager vs. Grafana Enterprise Stack Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. Grafana Enterprise Stack

August 2026

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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

30th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Grafana Enterprise Stack

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

20th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS Manager is 1.3%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Grafana Enterprise Stack is 0.8%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Grafana Enterprise Stack	0.8%
Cisco UCS Manager	1.3%
Other	97.9%

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Rob-Croxford

Consultant at rcnss

A market leader with an enhanced user interface for seamless experience

There is room for improvement in terms of cost and complexity to set up. It doesn't work straight out of the UCS, so someone who knows what they're doing is needed immediately, and it can be quite confusing. Some settings are still fairly well hidden, even the basic ones. Companies don't really understand how long it takes to set up. Also, when changes are pushed, it can take their phone line off the system for twenty minutes to half an hour. Out-of-the-box functionality is an issue, too. I know that my company is different, however, the basics are always the same. You do your tap lines, zip lines, and stuff like that, then you get your internal phone line system. That can all be automated and scripted, and it's probably part of the automation process. However, I haven't really seen it.

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Rajan M

Test Lead at Calpine Group

Efficient monitoring and alerting enhance operational insights

With Grafana Enterprise Stack, we can identify issues that New Relic cannot help with. While New Relic requires purchase and supports frontend and backend components, Grafana Enterprise Stack helps identify where issues are occurring. When we need to deep dive into issues, we use New Relic to trace transactions and determine where maximum impact occurs, whether in core size, DB side, or frontend components that slow performance. We first evaluate with Grafana Enterprise Stack, then move to New Relic if we identify performance degradation, such as DB queries taking too much time. Grafana Enterprise Stack responds to queries within 6 to 12 hours. They contact users through email immediately when available. Similarly, New Relic follows the same pattern, responding immediately when requests are raised and resolving issues promptly.

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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

"A main feature of Cisco UCS Manager is its reliability, as all of the computing blades are in cluster mode, so we experience high availability and can easily add compute resources and beef up the computing solution."

"The interface is ergonomic and native. We can use UCS Manager to do all the configurations for the servers, including storage, networking, and all the other components we need inside the fabric. It's simple and flexible."

"Cisco UCS Manager is a very useful product for managing our entire ecosystem for Cisco products."

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

"Cisco is globally renowned, which is why it sells so well."

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

"Creating UCS service profiles for quickly deploying servers and replicating that configuration to another server makes it easier for deployment."

"If I had to choose between other submissions, I would choose the Cisco UCS every time."

More Cisco UCS Manager pros

"Grafana's most valuable feature is its ability to provide a graphical representation of data collected from various sources."

"The dashboards are pretty good."

"It is very easy to deploy and integrate with any application or infrastructure layer."

"It is truly reliable."

"The most valuable features for us are dashboards; we can dashboard anything that we can think of, we can dashboard and measure."

"Grafana Enterprise Stack is a powerful open-source platform with robust capabilities in data visualizations, dashboard creations, and alerting."

"Compared to other packages, Grafana Enterprise Stack is user-friendly and easy to configure quickly."

"Our productivity has improved with its use."

More Grafana Enterprise Stack pros

Cons

"The pricing can always be better, so I would like to see that being improved."

"We faced issue with Nexus vem licensing issue which makes our complete DC went isolated in connect"

"What's lacking in Cisco UCS Manager is the performance dashboard. If a blade has any performance issues, you should be able to create a dashboard on Cisco UCS Manager. Currently, this feature isn't present."

"Cisco depends on other vendors like IBM and HP for the hardware. Cisco should improve its hardware manufacturing in regards to the UCS and the use of other vendor's hardware."

"I found it a bit of a challenge to get training on UCSM. I've been trying to get that for some time now. I feel like I have to figure it out a lot of things myself. For years I've to log calls with support whenever I've got challenges that I cannot resolve. If I had some training or more manuals, I'd be better able to handle more things on my own."

"Cisco UCS Manager is not a scalable solution because once you have 160 blades, it cannot be expanded more."

"The interface and the way it is constructed is very complex. They should work to simplify it. It's quite difficult for somebody who doesn't know the product very well. Users should be able to get proficient with it faster. There's definitely room for improvement there."

"Some settings are still fairly well hidden, even the basic ones."

More Cisco UCS Manager cons

"They could use more small tutorials to explain a bit about how Grafana works."

"Productivity has been improved with the use of Grafana Enterprise Stack, but cost savings or return on investment specifics are not clear."

"I have encountered occasional issues with false inputs or incorrect data in Grafana."

"In terms of what Grafana provides, it just provides the charting tools. Everything else is third-party."

"The solution should include integration with Power BI."

"Grafana Enterprise Stack is complex and not easy or simple."

"Integrating AI capabilities for automated self-healing and reduced manual interventions would be valuable."

"I find Grafana really hard to configure. It's difficult to build the dashboard, and it's non-intuitive. In my opinion, it's very difficult to work with Grafana."

More Grafana Enterprise Stack cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I use the tool's free license."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Outsourcing Company

Comms Service Provider

Energy/Utilities Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	19

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

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...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cisco UCS Manager?

Our primary use case involves working with Cisco UCS B-Series ( /products/cisco-ucs-b-series-reviews ), specifically the UCS X modular deployment. We are setting up a new deployment shortly.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Grafana Enterprise Stack?

I am trying to think about its advanced alerting features; we do not use it too much for that. We do get it to report through to our help desk system and if a threshold gets broken, then a ticket i...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Grafana Enterprise Stack?

I have switched to a different suite, focusing on customer edge solutions that are mostly Fortinet. To manage it, I use Grafana Enterprise Stack and a whole bunch of tools that we wrote ourselves. ...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Grafana Enterprise Stack?

We use Grafana Enterprise Stack in all of our clients. I rate this product an eight out of ten.

See all answers

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Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 20% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

LiveNX vs Grafana Enterprise Stack

Compared 5% of the time

VMware Aria Operations for Applications vs Grafana Enterprise Stack

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager

August 2026

Download Cisco UCS Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

Grafana Enterprise Stack

August 2026

Download Grafana Enterprise Stack product report

Overview

Cisco UCS Manager enables streamlined operations through unified storage, networking, and computing management, offering enhanced reliability and flexibility.

Cisco UCS Manager provides enhanced management capabilities for infrastructures, simplifying server deployment and operations. Its user-friendly interface aids in easy configuration and visibility, including robust reporting. UCS Manager supports efficient firmware and OS updates for large deployments, ensuring smooth operations across physical and virtual environments.

What key features does Cisco UCS Manager offer?

Hardware Profile Association: Ensures seamless hardware configurations.
Unified Management: Centralizes control of storage, networking, and computing resources.
Service Profiles: Simplifies server deployment and management.
User-Friendly Dashboards: Provides intuitive interface and strong reporting.
High Availability: Facilitates resource expansion and stability.

What benefits are important when considering Cisco UCS Manager?

Operational Efficiency: Reduces downtime and enhances deployment speed.
Centralized Control: Streamlines management across blades and configurations.
Scalability: Supports mass deployments and expansion.
Visibility and Reporting: Improves infrastructure monitoring and analytics.

In industries managing extensive IT infrastructures, such as healthcare and finance, Cisco UCS Manager is crucial for optimizing server and network operations. It enables efficient creation of server profiles, integration with networking systems, and comprehensive monitoring, ensuring high availability and reduced setup time for complex environments.

Cisco

Grafana Enterprise Stack is a powerful tool for real-time data monitoring and visualization. With its flexible and scalable features, it is widely used for creating dashboards, analyzing metrics, and gaining insights into infrastructure, databases, and applications.

Its valuable features include powerful visualization capabilities, extensive data source integrations, customizable dashboards, a user-friendly interface, and a robust alerting system. Users appreciate its flexibility, scalability, and ability to integrate with different data sources, making it suitable for a wide range of industries and use cases.

Grafana Labs

Sample Customers

Management Science Associates, Peak 10, Virtual Consulting Professionals

1. Uber 2. PayPal 3. eBay 4. Sony 5. Red Hat 6. IBM 7. Cisco 8. Adobe 9. Expedia 10. Booking.com 11. Airbnb 12. LinkedIn 13. Twitter 14. Netflix 15. Spotify 16. Pinterest 17. Slack 18. GitLab 19. Docker 20. Atlassian 21. Salesforce 22. Microsoft 23. Google 24. Amazon 25. Facebook 26. Apple 27. Intel 28. Oracle 29. SAP 30. VMware 31. HP 32. Dell

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. Grafana Enterprise Stack

August 2026

Free Report: Cisco UCS Manager vs. Grafana Enterprise Stack

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