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Cisco Catalyst Center vs DX Spectrum comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.3
Cisco Catalyst Center improves network stability and efficiency, offering significant cost benefits and ROI despite high adoption costs.
Sentiment score
7.1
DX Spectrum offers significant ROI and value through cost savings, automation, improved accuracy, and long-term process efficiency.
They have a long life.
Network Administrator at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
Imagine if you are troubleshooting an issue where traditionally it would take one hour and out of that one hour, 15 to 20 minutes was just to identify the area of concern rather than the issue itself.
Principal Solution Architect at EchoStor
The best feature is its availability, easy deployment, and good support for the solution.
Consultant at TECVA
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.8
Cisco Catalyst Center is praised for its reliable customer service and effective technical support, despite occasional hardware replacement delays.
Sentiment score
7.1
DX Spectrum's customer service ratings vary, with praise for expertise but criticism for response time and inconsistent support.
I had a situation where they were present with us overnight to fix an issue for a customer, demonstrating their dedication.
Cyber Security Architect at Spie Ics
I would rate technical support nine to nine and a half out of ten.
Lead Network Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees
For example, when I had some troubles with a customer's Cisco ISE, I created a task at eight p.m. and the customer had a maintenance window at eleven p.m. A TAC engineer called me one hour after creating the ticket.
Senior Network System Engineer at Soitron
Broadcom technical support is very good.
Senior Program Manager at Tata Consultancy Services
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.3
Cisco Catalyst Center offers highly rated scalability, supporting diverse needs and seamless expansion, despite some integration limitations.
Sentiment score
8.0
DX Spectrum is praised for scalability, handling large networks, easy server addition, and supporting numerous devices efficiently.
They have a feature that allows stacking switches together.
Network Administrator at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
Cisco Catalyst Center is scalable and quite flexible, allowing for specific model choices like the 9,000 or 2,000 series based on the clients' performance requirements and bottlenecks.
Solution Architect at HCLSoftware
It effectively manages all the devices I have, demonstrating its capability to scale.
Lead Network Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco Catalyst Center is highly stable, with minimal downtime, though some users note occasional glitches and documentation issues.
Sentiment score
7.2
DX Spectrum is stable with minimal downtime, quick bug fixes, enhanced performance, and valued for its long-standing market presence.
They are very stable, not power cycling, and basically maintaining their stability.
Network Administrator at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
I have not experienced any downtime, crashes, or other problems with Cisco Catalyst Center.
Network Engineer at CHEROKEE NATION
They provide a robust and secure solution for critical workloads.
Product Manager at Uop Ipl
We found the process of DX Spectrum down from time to time, and we need to interfere manually to restart.
Network Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Catalyst Center struggles with complexity, limited integration, and needs improvements in documentation, security, deployment, and user accessibility.
DX Spectrum needs simpler documentation, modern interface, improved user-friendliness, and better integration with third-party tools and HTML5.
Current pricing is too expensive for features that users may not be sure they will use, pricing the company out of the market.
Network Engineer at Edmonton Catholic School Board
Cisco Catalyst Center is not integrated well with third-party vendors because it can only work with Cisco products.
Systems Technician. IT Office at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would also appreciate some unification, or unifying GUI, that would be similar for all Cisco products.
Senior Network System Engineer at Soitron
Currently, they appear as pop-up messages, but I would prefer having alarm messages shown as a scrolling bar at the taskbar for easier visibility.
Solution Architect at SA Consulting
The event management should have more deduplication and alert correlation and check the bidirectional communication with ServiceNow.
Senior Program Manager at Tata Consultancy Services
If we want to make others changes without paying for customization, we need to learn it deeply by ourselves.
Network Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Catalyst Center is costly, with varied pricing views, complex licensing, and potential alternatives despite reliable service.
DX Spectrum's pricing is high, more suitable for large enterprises, with robust features justifying the cost despite concerns.
They are also facing competitive pricing challenges from Huawei.
Deputy Director at NITDA
Cost is a major factor when any company is buying, and Cisco's products are pricier even compared to other US-based solutions.
Sr. Executive Design Engineering Team at Wateen Telecom (pvt.)
For a hardware refresh, the site switched to Fortinet switching because the cost difference was approximately six thousand dollars per device compared to other solutions.
Network Engineer at Edmonton Catholic School Board
The price of DX Spectrum is not competitive when compared to other solutions, such as SolarWinds.
Solution Architect at SA Consulting
The price is very, very high.
Network Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Catalyst Center enhances network performance and user convenience through automation, scalability, security, and seamless management integration.
DX Spectrum offers scalable monitoring, robust fault management, user-friendly interface, and seamless integration with CA Service Desk.
There is a very wide user base providing support, so I almost never have to contact Cisco support due to the vast accessible knowledge base.
Network Administrator at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
Their threat intelligence platform is excellent, including Talos Intelligence, which provides a good database and strong threat insights.
Analyst at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
This dual functionality is crucial for monitoring large enterprises, providing a robust solution for IT teams.
Product Manager at Uop Ipl
The interface has the needed configuration for visualization, and it's effective in providing a complete diagram of network links and connections across various stations globally.
Solution Architect at SA Consulting
DX Spectrum uses an SNMP Trap to accept all the details, especially for device monitoring of faulty devices, allowing me to use Spectrum effectively.
Senior Program Manager at Tata Consultancy Services
We do not know everything about how to build the dashboard, but for what the management requires, it is very simple.
Network Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Catalyst Center
Ranking in Network Management Applications
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
DX Spectrum
Ranking in Network Management Applications
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
118
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (16th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (18th), Network Troubleshooting (7th), DX NetOps (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Cisco Catalyst Center is 4.2%, down from 9.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of DX Spectrum is 5.0%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Catalyst Center4.2%
DX Spectrum5.0%
Other90.8%
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

AadishBahati - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Solution Architect at EchoStor
Unified automation has transformed network operations and simplifies multi‑site management
The learning curve is better with Cisco compared to other products. Everyone has a learning curve because everyone is bringing new technologies, new interfaces, and new ways of doing things. The other products have a steeper learning curve. When comparing Cisco with VMware, I am not comparing Cisco with Arista, Juniper, or HP because those are companies which are doing a very basic level of automation. Cisco is doing way more advanced things. In terms of advanced handling and the advanced orchestration and advanced management plane control that Cisco is delivering, the only competitiveness in advancement is VMware NSX. However, it is really complex. Cisco's platforms are much easier to understand and learn compared to VMware.The only disadvantage with Cisco would be their services and licensing, which is a bit complex and a bit too expensive. Because their services are so expensive, companies end up buying Cisco, but they end up not buying Cisco services to do it. When they turn to external partners, not many people outside know the technology as well as Cisco does. People deploy it, but they do not get the right resources to deploy it.
PinchasAlbalya - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Monitoring has become centralized and management now sees real‑time health of key network assets
The time investment required is significant, not because of difficulty but because of the need for free time to invest in it. We need to get the knowledge. We know there are many options, but we took an external vendor to install and make the customization. If we want to make others changes without paying for customization, we need to learn it deeply by ourselves. The tutorials are very complicated. They could work on that area. The tutorial part could be more simplified. I know there are many explanations, and you can get help or documents in one click on the current page in the product, but it is not very clear. If you want to do something new that you did not see from the vendor in the installation, it is not very simple. The documents are good for people that know how to operate the product well, but for new users, it is not simple.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Government
11%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise90
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Catalyst Center?
Cisco is always expensive. Cisco Catalyst Center's price rating is eight.
What needs improvement with Cisco Catalyst Center?
There are areas for improvement with Cisco Catalyst Center, and I can discuss what could be improved. Additional features could be added to Cisco Catalyst Center in the future, and it is unclear wh...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Catalyst Center?
As a customer, the major use case for Cisco Catalyst Center is that it is easy to configure and troubleshoot, which are definitely the advantages of the product. If there are any specific challenge...
What needs improvement with DX Spectrum?
The time investment required is significant, not because of difficulty but because of the need for free time to invest in it. We need to get the knowledge. We know there are many options, but we to...
What is your primary use case for DX Spectrum?
The university purchased DX Spectrum, called ICE. DX Spectrum NAC is working for us only on Cisco 9200 switches. It is not working on any other switch like C1000 or HG or any 2960X. Even other Cisc...
 

Also Known As

No data available
CA Spectrum
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
National Informatics Centre India, Banese, Olympus, AlphaServe Technologies, Sicredi
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Catalyst Center vs. DX Spectrum and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.