Cisco UCS Manager vs SolarWinds AppOptics comparison

Cisco and SolarWinds are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Cisco is ranked #18 with an average rating of 8.8, while SolarWinds is ranked #58. Cisco holds a 1.3% mindshare in IM, compared to SolarWinds’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

Cisco UCS Manager

Read 27 Cisco UCS Manager reviews

2,065 Views
1,859 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

SolarWinds AppOptics

Read 9 SolarWinds AppOptics reviews

1,452 Views
653 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS Manager

SolarWinds AppOptics

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Cisco UCS Manager and SolarWinds AppOptics compete in infrastructure management solutions. While both products have their strengths, Cisco UCS Manager seems to have the upper hand for larger enterprises requiring comprehensive infrastructure management, whereas SolarWinds AppOptics is more advantageous for application performance-focused users.

Features: Cisco UCS Manager manages complex network, storage, and compute environments and offers centralized management, making it suitable for larger enterprises. It provides flexibility through its comprehensive infrastructure solutions. SolarWinds AppOptics delivers robust application performance management and network monitoring capabilities. It also offers diagnostic visibility and flexibility in deployment options.

Room for Improvement: Cisco UCS Manager could improve its upgrade process, simplify usability, and enhance integration with external systems. SolarWinds AppOptics could benefit from better integration, a more centralized monitoring view, and adjustments in pricing to improve competitiveness.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco UCS Manager primarily supports on-premises deployments, with highly rated global technical support. SolarWinds AppOptics offers flexible deployment options, including on-premises and public cloud, but its technical support quality varies by region, favoring U.S. support.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco UCS Manager's pricing is higher, reflecting its feature set, but offers increased stability with reduced hardware failures that justify costs. SolarWinds AppOptics is considered reasonably priced within its category, using a licensing model based on elements rather than nodes. Both solutions provide good ROI with careful project alignment.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS Manager vs. SolarWinds AppOptics Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. SolarWinds AppOptics

January 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

18th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SolarWinds AppOptics

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

58th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (55th), Cloud Monitoring Software (47th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS Manager is 1.3%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds AppOptics is 0.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco UCS Manager	1.3%
SolarWinds AppOptics	0.7%
Other	98.0%

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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John Yuko

Assistant Manager ICT - Projects at I&M Bank Ltd

Unique features allow consolidating and combing metrics into a single dashboard, but don't monitor mobile solutions

I would like to see more granular information provided on Unix applications. Also, the integration with Unix services should be a bit more straightforward in terms having an agent to retrieve your credentials rather than having to enter or save them for SSH on SolarWinds. From the outset, we had to set some commands to log into the search console, and they are saved on the solution, which presents a challenge in terms of exposure. The solution is unable to monitor APK solutions completely because we'd then be forced to break down the APK and provide the APIs or go through the source code. They don't have a module that can analyze an application that is maybe under-used.

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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

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

"The flexibility and the ease in which the features can be expanded are the solution's most valuable aspects."

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

"The management is one of the most valuable features of this solution."

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

"We can configure the Cisco UCS Manager, the profiles and interactions with the resource we manage."

"I can quickly manage the provisioned servers."

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

More Cisco UCS Manager pros

"The product has a great dashboard."

"I have found the most valuable feature is application performance management."

"Technical support is always live and they're supportive."

"Some of the most valuable features of SolarWinds are the topology discovery and network performance analysis."

"The sum solution, NTA, and DPA."

"The reporting of the solution is very good."

Cons

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

"Cisco UCS Manager should have a simplified deployment in the sense of not having multiple machines, demilitarized zones, and on-premise options."

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

"I want to be able to schedule multiple sequential updates in one go."

More Cisco UCS Manager cons

"I would like to see more integration with other tools that are available on the market."

"In terms of the technology, I think they need to put some more advanced troubleshooting into SolarWinds, in terms of AI capabilities. That's the next generation, especially in the cases of APIs which have already adopted AI capabilities into their products."

"The implementation needs improvement. It needs to get modernized with the newer cloud scenario in both public and private deployment models."

"The solution should be more user-friendly."

"AppOptics would benefit from having a much more centralized view."

"The integration with Unix services should be a bit more straightforward."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

"Mostly, it's a perpetual license. We don't have any customers using the subscription right now—it's mostly a perpetual license that the customers purchase. The licensing is based on the number of elements, whereas other solutions are node-based."

"I believe the current licensing cost is reasonable."

"Since it's a negotiable rate, I would rate the pricing as a five out of five."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	18

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	7

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...

See all answers

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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Comparisons

Cisco Intersight vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 64% of the time

Nutanix Prism vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 5% of the time

HPE OneView vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 4% of the time

Splunk Observability Cloud vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 4% of the time

Datadog vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 3% of the time

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New Relic vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 16% of the time

Dynatrace vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 15% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 9% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 8% of the time

IBM Instana Observability vs SolarWinds AppOptics

Compared 5% of the time

More SolarWinds AppOptics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager

January 2026

Download Cisco UCS Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

January 2026

Download SolarWinds AppOptics product report

Also Known As

No data available

AppOptics, SolarWinds TraceView, Librato

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

AppOptics is a SaaS-based simple, powerful and affordable Infrastructure & Application monitoring for custom on-premises, cloud, and hybrid systems.

Your business runs on applications, and when they go down or run slowly, it can impact the business in lost productivity, customers, or revenue. To add to the complexity, your IT environment is changing, and workloads can be spread across data centers, and cloud resources. You need to monitor the availability and performance of applications and infrastructure, regardless of where they are, so you can identify potential issues early and address them before they impact users

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Management Science Associates, Peak 10, Virtual Consulting Professionals

TraxoCovea Insurance BTE TechnologyDatarista

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. SolarWinds AppOptics

January 2026

Free Report: Cisco UCS Manager vs. SolarWinds AppOptics

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS Manager vs. SolarWinds AppOptics and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.

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