Cisco UCS Manager vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Cisco and Broadcom are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Cisco is ranked #28 with an average rating of 8.8, while Broadcom is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.8. Cisco holds a 1.4% mindshare in IM, compared to Broadcom’s 1.4% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

Cisco UCS Manager

Read 27 Cisco UCS Manager reviews

5,800 Views
5,510 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Read 14 VMware Aria Operations for Applications reviews

9,088 Views
4,817 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS Manager

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Cisco UCS Manager and VMware Aria Operations for Applications compete in IT infrastructure management. Cisco has an advantage in networking and compute integration, whereas VMware stands out for its monitoring capabilities.

Features: Cisco UCS Manager includes comprehensive network, storage, and compute unification, ease of server deployment and management, and robust support for enterprise environments. VMware Aria Operations for Applications provides strong application monitoring, extensive metrics for cloud environments, and container platform support.

Room for Improvement: Cisco UCS Manager needs improvements in firmware upgrade processes, user interface complexity reduction, and streamlined update procedures. VMware Aria Operations for Applications could offer enhanced integration with Kubernetes, improve predictive abilities, and simplify licensing complexities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco UCS Manager typically involves on-premises deployment with highly rated technical support. VMware Aria Operations for Applications supports both on-premises and hybrid cloud deployments and is praised for its proactive support model.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco UCS Manager is regarded as expensive but offers good ROI with fewer hardware failures. VMware Aria Operations for Applications involves high licensing costs yet is valued for its comprehensive capabilities, offering efficient management that can save development time. Both products ensure good ROI when suited to the organizational needs, though Cisco may have higher initial costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS Manager vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications Report (Updated: November 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

November 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 920,939 peers since 2012

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

28th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (18th), Container Monitoring (6th), Cloud Monitoring Software (13th)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS Manager is 1.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Operations for Applications is 1.4%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
VMware Aria Operations for Applications	1.4%
Cisco UCS Manager	1.4%
Other	97.2%

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.

Read full review

Ajay Shukla

Consultant at HCLTech

Automation and insightful diagnostics elevate operations while improvements are welcome

The new version 8.18 has brought significant improvements. The main purpose of using this tool is having a single console to manage all entities. The cloud integration capabilities, including private, public, and hybrid, are already well-implemented. The ability to manage multiple vCenters across different geographical locations is very effective. The new Skyline health feature and certificate and licensing management are particularly useful improvements. The dashboard's overview tab provides comprehensive information about current vCenter status, resizable amounts, reclamation opportunities, anomalies, diagnostics, licensing, and certificates. However, there is room for improvement in application analysis. The current functionality lacks detailed monitoring at the kernel level, focusing mainly on CPU, memory, and storage matrices. Enhanced application monitoring capabilities, including tracking downtime for specific types of applications such as transactional or e-commerce applications, would be beneficial.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the valuable features is the user interface base."

"I can deploy something in my 50-odd servers all in one go, in parallel, whereas if I was to do that individually, it could be a nightmare."

"The most valuable features are flexibility and management."

"Cisco UCS has different layers of security, and you can do multiple installations of your LIAMs on top of the server and Blade. You can install VMware, Windows Server, Hyper-V, etc."

"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 reporting functionality will give you any report you want."

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

"It's robust."

More Cisco UCS Manager pros

"This solution allows me to have true visibility for any metrics when it comes to my cloud, and private."

"I find VMware Aria Operations for Applications to be very stable, and I would rate it a ten out of ten."

"People are very pleased with the implementation."

"The features I find most valuable is the querying and alerting capabilities."

"Wavefront gives us the complexity we need, instead of spending time coming up with a nice dashboard from some other means, or just creating and coding our own app."

"VMware Aria Operations for Applications offers significant features such as real-time statistics, the ability to identify possible issues within the VM environment, and helpful heat maps."

"The stability of Aria Operations for Applications has improved significantly over the years."

"I gladly recommend VMware Aria Operations for Applications because it is cost effective and has commendable AI response capabilities."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications pros

Cons

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

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

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

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

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

"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."

"The primary challenge we face is identifying the correct version to deploy during firmware upgrades or compute updates."

"Improving functionalities similar to InterSite within UCS Manager would be beneficial."

More Cisco UCS Manager cons

"It could use a URL document server. Everything in the market is moving towards automation and everybody's looking for the single click operations as well relational data locality."

"The implementation is a long process that should be improved."

"The return on investment is best suited for organizations that do not have the resources for a dedicated VM environment team. However, the cost of the product doesn't show significant benefits."

"So far, the solution's learning curve has been pretty high."

"However, it is still not a very mature product."

"The solution could be expensive, which might be a limiting factor."

"The support from VMware is not very helpful. This is because you always receive many questions from the support service but few actual solutions."

"VMware technical support has declined since the Broadcom acquisition. Previously, they were more focused on issue resolution, but now they prioritize licensing verification before providing support."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I don't have the details. In our case, there is a mixture in place. We have production usage, and we are also doing training for VMware. So, we also have a training instance. It is worth the money you would spend on it. That's because if you were to build all of this yourself by using some of the open source tools, then you would need a lot of time."

"Different locations require different setups. In your terms, around 300 to around 400K USD."

"I would rate the pricing as three out of five."

"The licensing costs are very high, particularly when you consider that we have to purchase a level 1 license for every integration, such as the load balancer, HAProxy, and the MSSP. And if you want to use vSAN, that's another license. Then, of course, Tanzu Observability has its own separate license."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which IT Infrastructure Monitoring solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Outsourcing 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	4
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	10

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...

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...

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

The solution includes cost drivers that can be configured according to your environment. You can input server-wise, CPU-wise, storage, and memory costs per hour or day. Once cost drivers are provid...

See all answers

What needs improvement with VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

I have been involved in several projects where I had to implement automation and monitoring alerting. I performed automation using VMware Aria Operations for Applications. There is an automation ta...

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Intersight vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 58% of the time

HPE OneView vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 4% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 3% of the time

Nutanix Prism vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 3% of the time

Zabbix vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 1% of the time

More Cisco UCS Manager Competitors

Datadog vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 5% of the time

OpenText Real User Monitoring vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 4% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 4% of the time

Splunk Observability Cloud vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 4% of the time

LogicMonitor vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 3% of the time

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager

November 2026

Download Cisco UCS Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Operations for Applications

October 2026

VMware Aria Operations for Applications report

Download VMware Aria Operations for Applications product report

Also Known As

No data available

Tanzu Observability, Wavefront, Wavefront by VMware, VMware Tanzu Observability

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

VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront is a powerful tool for monitoring and analyzing the performance and availability of applications and infrastructure in real-time.

With its comprehensive monitoring capabilities, visualizing and analyzing data becomes effortless. The real-time alerting system ensures timely issue resolution, while scalability and a user-friendly interface provide a seamless experience for smooth operations.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Management Science Associates, Peak 10, Virtual Consulting Professionals

1. Atlassian 2. Cisco 3. Databricks 4. DigitalOcean 5. Equinix 6. Fidelity Investments 7. Google 8. Hewlett Packard Enterprise 9. Honeywell 10. IBM 11. Intel 12. JetBlue Airways 13. LinkedIn 14. Lyft 15. Mastercard 16. Microsoft 17. MongoDB 18. Netflix 19. Nvidia 20. Oracle 21. PayPal 22. Pinterest 23. Qualcomm 24. Red Hat 25. Salesforce 26. SAP 27. Spotify 28. Square 29. TMobile 30. Twitter 31. Uber 32. VMware

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

November 2026

Free Report: Cisco UCS Manager vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS Manager vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cisco UCS Manager vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications report.

See our list of best IT Infrastructure Monitoring vendors.

We monitor all IT Infrastructure Monitoring reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.