Cisco UCS Manager vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

Cisco and VMware are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Cisco is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.4, while VMware is ranked #23 with an average rating of 8.8. Cisco holds a 1.4% mindshare in IM, compared to VMware’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of VMware 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

vRealize Network Insight

Read 46 vRealize Network Insight reviews

848 Views
509 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS Manager

vRealize Network Insight

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

vRealize Network Insight and Cisco UCS Manager are prominent solutions within the networking and computing infrastructure management category. vRealize Network Insight appears to have the upper hand in pricing and support, while Cisco UCS Manager stands out with comprehensive features that justify its higher cost.

Features: vRealize Network Insight offers advanced network visualization, flow analysis, and troubleshooting capabilities. It aids in microsegmentation and capacity management, providing an interactive and intuitive interface for identifying network patterns. Cisco UCS Manager excels in consolidating storage, networking, and computing resources, offering robust management capabilities and seamless updates valuable for hardware management.

Room for Improvement: vRealize Network Insight should enhance third-party integration, reporting, and ease of use while addressing pricing concerns. Cisco UCS Manager could improve automation features, simplify its user interface, and offer better licensing options. Usability enhancements are needed for both but target different refinement areas.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both solutions offer satisfactory technical support but may require technical expertise for initial deployment. vRealize Network Insight is noted for ease of use post-deployment. Cisco UCS Manager requires more experienced handling during setup but both companies provide reliable support, with vRealize Network Insight having a more streamlined customer service experience.

Pricing and ROI: Users find vRealize Network Insight's pricing high but appreciate its value in reducing operational time and improving efficiency. Cisco UCS Manager, though more expensive, offers features that contribute to its value. ROI from both comes through time-saving efficiencies, with Cisco's hardware reliability being a critical value driver.

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

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. vRealize Network Insight

April 2025

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Helped 850,349 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

19th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

vRealize Network Insight

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

23rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (23rd)

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 vRealize Network Insight is 0.5%, down 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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NiteshKumar1

Principle consultant at Infosys

The tool's configuration is easy and artifacts are easily accessible through professional services and the web

The product is highly regarded, and many customers have been using it along with other VMware products like vSphere and VMware vCloud Usage Insight. However, recently, there's been a trend among customers, especially those using VMware for a considerable period, to explore the potential of migrating to the public cloud. The common concern among these customers is how the VMware products will perform in the public cloud environment. Migrating instances from VMware to different platforms is not easy, especially when dealing with many instances across multiple customers. Customers are keen to maintain the functionality of their existing VMware products but prefer to run them on the public cloud instead of on-premise servers. Our clients for vRealize Network Insight are enterprise businesses. I rate it a nine out of ten.

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

"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."

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

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

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

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

"I can quickly manage the provisioned servers."

"A main feature of Cisco UCS Manager is its reliability, as all of the computing blades are in cluster mode."

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

More Cisco UCS Manager pros

"compare-to-competition; I would recommend the product. I don't think there is any other product like this on the market right now."

"It's very user-friendly in the sense that the querying is just regular language like you and I speak or write. You don't need to know any SQL-query type of language to be able to get what you want out of it."

"A lot of time is saved when you use this type of software solution for the network. We have moved systems into the new data center and the servers and systems are much faster because of the very low latency between virtual machines."

"Also, the ability to troubleshoot all the way across the NSX part of it to the physical and actually watch the packets go through and then see where the bottleneck is or where the interruption is. We run queries on the network flows within the application to find where they are in it and it graphically tells us how the packets are actually going through the system."

"We can see everything going on in NSX and get a good picture of our environment."

"The best feature of this application is its ability to capture everything within the same application, as well as capture all the traffic."

"It helps a lot because, until now, we didn't have the tools to figure out the micro level, VM-to-VM kind of traffic; that was not in the current environment. We could not figure out VM-to-VM communication from the other tools. This is the tool which gives us end-to-end transparency."

"It has enabled us to set up and do application discovery, as far as network traffic is concerned, and set up the appropriate rules that we need to make sure we're compliant with our security frameworks."

More vRealize Network Insight pros

Cons

"The integration with other solutions could be better. I think Cisco can only integrate using Intersight. There is a second interface available as a SaaS platform, in the cloud, or on-premise. It's based on the Redfish protocol, which is standard for all the B-series servers in the market. We can integrate other solutions using API."

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

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

"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."

"For improvements, while the current graphical user interface is satisfactory, it could be further simplified for different tasks."

"Getting a CLI report on routers, switches, or any other CLI configuration device is difficult."

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

"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."

More Cisco UCS Manager cons

"There are some random glitches in the Web UI, but they are usually pretty cosmetic in nature. I don't really seem to use any browser other than Chrome with it. I also get some weird errors from time to time on the hardware NetFlow Collectors, where it doesn't sync data."

"After you use it for a little while you become accustomed to it but the layout doesn't feel very intuitive. You have to dig around and find the exact place where you can find the information, where you can actually see your east-west traffic, etc. I would like them to bring that information more to the forefront, instead of having to find it."

"The solution is very much viewer centric and it would be nice if it would transcend just the virtual infrastructure."

"I would like to see more reporting features, more dashboards."

"While it's not exactly a feature, what normally happens when we are trying to look at the VM flow portion is - although Network Insight does have options to integrate a few physical switches into it - we can't really get an end-to-end flow of the network. We might be using a few switches that are not supported by Network Insight. That is where they can improve, in the support for more physical switches and network devices."

"I want to see more in terms of microsegmentation. As of now, I can see the rules, but they are not in a readable format that I can convert to microsegmentation and can fit into NSX Manager."

"The solution can be improved by making it more compatible with other brands, allowing for better integration."

"I'd like to see better support for being able to search the hardware NetFlow data. It ingests fairly well, but you can't tell, in a lot of cases, what source the data came from. I'd like to see more support for picking specific sources. That way you could really make a compelling use case. There are also some difficulties where it can't exactly trace the path between source and destination but if you hit the reverse flow on the same search it shows the entire path."

More vRealize Network Insight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"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."

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

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

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

"The solution has reduced the time that we spend on other products. For example, with NSX, we were able to quickly find things that we would normally spend days trying to figure out."

"vRealize Network Insight is expensive."

"It reduces costs. It takes something that may be challenging and makes it more usable and visual by being able to bring in tools, seeing what their impact is, such as microsegmentation and application rationalization, and seeing it quickly."

"The solution has helped us to reduce time, increase performance, reduce costs, and even easily manage networks. We are probably seeing 10 to 20 percent labor savings because we are able to be very specific and focused on what we want to do. It ends up saving the customer money and makes us be more efficient on our cost deliveries."

"We have spent less time investigating network flows, so it is absolutely cost-effective."

"It's an expensive product because we have a lot of nodes."

"I rate vRealize Network Insight's pricing a seven point five out of ten."

"They should include the product in NSX because it's important to have it for deployment."

More vRealize Network Insight pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

26%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

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...

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 do you like most about vRealize Network Insight?

The tool's ease of configuration and use and the availability of information and artifacts through professional services and the web are key factors that customers find valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vRealize Network Insight?

Broadcom is known for increasing product prices, making them expensive compared to what people used to pay. I liken the subscription model to not truly owning what you pay for.

See all answers

What needs improvement with vRealize Network Insight?

Right now, I do not see a specific area for improvement. My main concern is understanding the intentions of Broadcom, which has acquired VMware. Broadcom should improve by going back to what was wo...

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

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ThousandEyes vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 21% of the time

DX NetOps vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 17% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 16% of the time

DX Spectrum vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 13% of the time

ManageEngine OpManager vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 12% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager

May 2025

Download Cisco UCS Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

April 2025

Download vRealize Network Insight product report

Also Known As

No data available

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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

VMware vRealize Network Insight delivers intelligent operations for software-defined networking and security. It helps customers build an optimized, highly-available and secure network infrastructure across multi-cloud environments. It accelerates micro-segmentation planning and deployment, enables visibility across virtual and physical networks and provides operational views to manage and scale VMware NSX deployments.

VMware

Sample Customers

Management Science Associates, Peak 10, Virtual Consulting Professionals

NTTi3, VCIX-NV, VMware Networking and Security Business Unit, Illumio, CompuNet

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. vRealize Network Insight

April 2025

Free Report: Cisco UCS Manager vs. vRealize Network Insight

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS Manager vs. vRealize Network Insight and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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