No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Cisco Catalyst Center vs OpenText Network Node Manager comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

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 Catalyst Center
Ranking in Network Management Applications
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
OpenText Network Node Manager
Ranking in Network Management Applications
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Cisco Catalyst Center is 3.8%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Network Node Manager is 5.4%, up from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Catalyst Center3.8%
OpenText Network Node Manager5.4%
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.
Ahmed-Salman - PeerSpot reviewer
Performanc Monitoring and Application Architect at Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Reliable network monitoring and proactive analytics enhance decision-making with areas for configuration improvement
NNMi is an OpenText product and serves as the OpenText Network Node Manager monitoring tool. OpenText Network Node Manager is used for network monitoring of switches, routers, firewalls, load balancers, and all network devices. It can support any SNMP protocol. The advantages of OpenText Network Node Manager stand out because it can build the topology, Layer 2 topology, and Layer 3 automatically once devices are added, connecting them together, such as device one, for interface one, connected with interface one on another device. The integration capability of OpenText Network Node Manager is excellent because it integrates directly, and I can configure the integration to feed the CMDB, from where I can get all information from network monitoring into the CMDB, linking it with the infrastructure and correlating events. I use advanced fault monitoring and management features in OpenText Network Node Manager for topology and fault monitoring, as it can alert or generate an event if the value exceeds or falls below a predefined threshold for SNMP traps. The predictive analytics impact planning and optimization strategies because the product can be linked with another product for analytic analysis, allowing me to see the interface utilization trend and proactively take action if the utilization increases. The automated network discovery features and topology mapping in OpenText Network Node Manager have a positive impact. It supports a bundle with another product for NetFlow to monitor traffic, ports, protocols, and SLAs, and I can build compliance reports to address security vulnerabilities, such as identifying all devices using outdated protocols.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The features I appreciate most about Cisco Catalyst Center are user accessibility."
"The analytics feature is quite good, and the hardware is very performant."
"The integration of Cisco Catalyst Center is fine"
"Cisco Catalyst Center has been pretty smooth with scaling the growing needs of my organization, and it is scaling; we are about to replace all of our switches, so we are anticipating that it will help a lot with that."
"The benefits and advantages I see in Cisco Catalyst Center that really stand out to me is its ability to access all devices from here."
"Cisco Catalyst Center was flexible in terms of scalability, offering advanced security features and reliable performance."
"Technical support from Cisco is very good."
"One of the most significant features of Cisco Catalyst Center that has improved our network performance is the wireless assurance, which helped us identify issues in the wireless; thanks to the help of Cisco Catalyst Center, we migrated from 2.4 to 5G as we understood where the maximum service interruptions were happening, leading to significant improvement in customer satisfaction, better connectivity, better strength, and better onboarding."
"Because of the topological network mapping, our management can quickly take action when there's a network problem."
"Our monitoring and network teams of less than 100 people use this solution, and the availability and fault monitoring are good."
"It is a good network monitoring, enterprise solution, and a meta-monitoring solution with good visualization."
"The Network Manager has improved incident tracking and speed of response to trouble tickets."
"Most valuable function would have to the internal causal engine and its root cause analyzer which keep us updated on critical errors and incidents in our network environment."
"We do not have any issues stability-wise."
"If you install one node on Network Node Manager and want to scale it up, it's pretty easy to create more nodes."
"The best feature is the solution's entire credibility with all vendors."
 

Cons

"The price to get in the door is quite high."
"I have not seen ROI at all."
"There are areas for improvement with Cisco Catalyst Center, and I can discuss what could be improved."
"There is a disadvantage in Cisco Catalyst Center that I see, which is the same as Cisco's disadvantage, being a bug issue."
"The only disadvantage with Cisco would be their services and licensing, which is a bit complex and a bit too expensive."
"The main drawback of Cisco Catalyst Center is that it can only manage and monitor Cisco devices with a DNA license, specifically the Catalyst 9000 series."
"For someone new, the documentation is not very clear."
"The initial setup of Cisco Catalyst Center is complex."
"Configuration was a bit cumbersome for SNMP traps on the routers and configuration of the SPIs was a little complicated."
"Sometimes technical support is not so amazing. We need to wait a long time to get a solution for a ticket."
"We had some issues with some of the features, some modules are not meeting expectations."
"Only to improve the GUI."
"When I open a ticket, usually they respond very late. Some of the people I negotiate with seem undertrained."
"We have not had a good experience with technical support from OpenText. Many cases take a month to be resolved."
"I haven't had a great experience with this solution because the dashboards are not customizable and it's not user-friendly."
"The technical documentation takes experience and much reading to master."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The solution is priced mid-range compared to the competition."
"I wasn't involved in the pricing, but I think it's quite expensive."
"It is more inexpensive than other products in the market."
"The solution is quite expensive."
"It's an expensive solution."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Management Applications solutions are best for your needs.
920,574 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Government
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Outsourcing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Catalyst Center?
We did not purchase Cisco Catalyst Center through the AWS Marketplace as we used the Cisco DevNet always-on sandbox which gave us temporary access to a hosted Catalyst Center environment for testin...
What needs improvement with Cisco Catalyst Center?
I think Cisco Catalyst Center can be improved overall by making the sandbox setups and documentation more straightforward, as it was a little confusing because the DevNet page documentation, contro...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Catalyst Center?
My main use case for Cisco Catalyst Center in the sandbox is to test APIs and integrate network data into the FloodGaurd project, where I tested device inventory, device health, network health, sit...
What needs improvement with Micro Focus Network Node Manager?
The disadvantage of OpenText Network Node Manager is related to configuration, which is straightforward since it is agentless and solely relies on SNMP protocol, and although it requires some effor...
What is your primary use case for Micro Focus Network Node Manager?
I remember working with OpenText Network Node Manager at my previous company. I am now working at a different company focusing on data center migrations and DR preparation. In my current role, I ha...
What advice do you have for others considering Micro Focus Network Node Manager?
I would rate OpenText Network Node Manager an eight out of ten, as it is very good, and I appreciate its ability to link faults with network configuration management, allowing me to identify root c...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Micro Focus Network Node Manager, Network Node Manager, HPE Network Node Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
IPC, Exelon, VivaCom, 
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Catalyst Center vs. OpenText Network Node Manager and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,574 professionals have used our research since 2012.