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Cisco ACI vs Symantec Data Center Security comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 14, 2024

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 ACI
Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
103
Ranking in other categories
Network Virtualization (1st), Software Defined Networking (SDN) (2nd)
Symantec Data Center Security
Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security
10th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
4.9
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Cloud and Data Center Security category, the mindshare of Cisco ACI is 4.0%, down from 5.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Data Center Security is 2.8%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud and Data Center Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco ACI4.0%
Symantec Data Center Security2.8%
Other93.2%
Cloud and Data Center Security
 

Featured Reviews

Rahul Khandelwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Technical Manager at KPMG
Enables streamlined data center management with automation and application-centric design
The main features of Cisco ACI that I really appreciate are the application-centric and network-centric designs, allowing you to create your network according to your application. That's helpful, and it's good for one-time implementation. The automation capabilities are really helpful. We deployed one data center using Terraform, and after deployment, many automation features are available, which can be very helpful. Based on my experience, Cisco ACI provides substantial capability; you can design your network accordingly and it's part of the SDN family, providing many benefits to the organization, especially when moving from traditional network infrastructure. Many organizations are actually using the old traditional Nexus infrastructure or some old data center devices. It gives you significant control and one-time implementation capabilities, and it also provides better performance and security. Functionality-wise, Cisco ACI provides integration using automation. We implemented it through Terraform, which was easy. Those features are available, so I don't think any new features are needed right now; something new could come up, but they have implemented many improvements over the years.
Muhammad Ejaz ul Hassan - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Continuous server hardening has protected critical legacy workloads and simplified security control
Symantec is lagging on the reporting side. I have been working for 10 years and I have identified many gray areas. As a user protecting your infrastructure, you need to sell the value to your management. Management buys the tool for preventing threats, and it works for them. However, you cannot sell it because every solution needs to show what happened in the last few years or how you will be protected in the future. Reporting is the most important thing for the CIO level, not the admin level. I have seen Symantec really lag in this area. I am creating my own tool to build a dashboard to share with the CIO level because they want to know what happened last week, last month, and last year. These reports will tell you about activities. Symantec changed the licensing when Broadcom acquired the company. The question of who will provide support became unclear. Support has now changed and they are making money. I have seen that most of the time when you ask implementation questions, they do not answer you. If you have a problem, they give you a low-level engineer at the first level. This delays resolution. Support has to be better.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The scalability is perfect, and it is one of the main reasons that we install it."
"With Cisco ACI, I can deploy things with a script, then run it in five minutes."
"Cisco ACI was the first product in the market, offering stability with a significant install base."
"Technical support for this solution is great. The ACI guys have been some of the best technical support people that I've worked with at Cisco."
"Automation is its most valuable feature."
"It is very stable, allowing us to update firmware on the go without any downtime, which we couldn't do before, with everything redundant so if you shut down one system then another one takes over."
"It is very easy to do the configuration after you know how to work with the product. It is global, so you change one interface, and changes are reflected on every switch."
"It has saved me a couple of times, as just a backup feature. It can easily do a snapshot before you do any change, and if something goes wrong, you can just rollback."
"Overall, this is a pretty good product."
"Good file integrity monitoring features."
"We use the product to prevent unauthorized access to data, systems, and servers. It provides essential features for data center security."
"The ability to finely control permissions and restrictions on servers or assets through a customizable rule set is a key strength."
"Symantec Data Center Security, as a name, represents the perfect solution if you want to harden your servers."
"The real strength lies in its straightforward approach, offering just two key policies: prevention and detection."
"We have not reduced manpower, the number of servers has gone up, but the number of incidents has tricked down to single digits."
"The file integrity monitoring features are the most valuable features of this product."
 

Cons

"It would be great if ACI would include the next generation firewall feature."
"The CLI needs to be improved."
"It's a very complex system, as it should be. It's a new way of thinking about networking. Cisco ACI adds complexity. Cisco ACI is extremely complex. That's not necessarily a complaint, as much as it is a fact."
"It needs to be able to function on the cloud."
"The initial setup was a bit complex. ACI was just out at that time, and there wasn't support at that time."
"I have been a bit disappointed with technical support from Cisco. They will often take some time to respond."
"It is still not mature and has room to grow."
"The initial setup was a bit complex."
"Adding more compatibility with common products like Microsoft would be a plus."
"There is room for improvement in enhancing its graphical user interface for a more user-friendly experience."
"It would be advantageous if Symantec or Broadcom, given the rebranding, could simplify the process, enabling users to leverage the antivirus functionality more easily."
"The product blocks certain processes, even after allowlisting them."
"Could have better reporting capabilities and better support."
"They need to develop a more flexible product that can be scaled such that it fits well into a small business or a bigger, enterprise-level solution."
"This solution clashes with Microsoft defender, which results in performance degradation on the machine."
"I think that technical support in general is not really capable of doing their work. They don't have enough knowledge to provide quick solutions, so we usually try to resolve problems within our team."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Yearly, we pay around one point two million for the solution."
"The licensing cost for ACI is expensive - I would rate its price 2.5 out of five."
"We used Cisco Professional Services for the deployment. They were outstanding, but very expensive."
"This is an expensive solution."
"The pricing and licensing are both high, particularly if you want a high level of functionality. It would be great if the price and licensing cost could be decreased."
"The thing that I like the most from Cisco is the support and all the documentation that they have. We do have to pay for it though."
"Price is always an issue."
"The product is not cheap."
"The product is a bit costly."
"Compared to some other solutions, such as CrowdStrike, Symantec is more expensive."
"It is notably more expensive when compared to other solutions."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise87
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
There are some very major differences between both the Products and to name a few. -Cisco ACI have physical network gear (9K Switches) where the Code runs in ACI Policy Mode & the UCS server wh...
What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
Once you know your way around the Cisco ecosystem, using Cisco ACI is not so difficult. It is a global product, so when you change one interface, changes are automatically reflected on every switch...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco ACI?
Cost is one thing that could be improved, as it is heavy for an emerging market like ours.
What needs improvement with Symantec Data Center Security?
Symantec is lagging on the reporting side. I have been working for 10 years and I have identified many gray areas. As a user protecting your infrastructure, you need to sell the value to your manag...
What is your primary use case for Symantec Data Center Security?
As a partner support, we handle all Symantec products for various clients. Currently, we work with DLP, Symantec Endpoint Protection, Data Loss Prevention, Data Center Security, Email Security, and...
What advice do you have for others considering Symantec Data Center Security?
I am still a Symantec partner. Price rating is five out of ten. Symantec Data Center Security is a perfect solution, but it needs to elaborate its functionalities and functions to the market. Peopl...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bowling Green State University, du, Qatar University
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Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco ACI vs. Symantec Data Center Security and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.