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Cisco DNA Center vs DX Spectrum comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

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
6.5
Cisco DNA Center enhances efficiency by reducing configuration time, despite licensing costs, with positive but varied ROI evaluations.
Sentiment score
7.1
Organizations experienced significant ROI with DX Spectrum, noting enhanced automation, cost savings, efficiency, and effective integration despite high costs.
Although Cisco DNA Center is expensive, we have seen a return on investment in terms of time savings.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
Cisco's DNA Center support is praised for responsiveness but criticized for slow responses and challenges with complex issues.
Sentiment score
7.1
Customer service excels with high ratings, but technical support varies; Broadcom acquisition raised concerns over response times.
Overall, Cisco DNA Center rates eight out of ten as a complete solution.
Broadcom technical support is very good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cisco DNA Center is highly scalable, effectively supports small to large networks, but licensing costs can be high.
Sentiment score
8.1
DX Spectrum is highly adaptable and scalable, effectively supporting growth in diverse environments from small businesses to large corporations.
The solution is designed for large enterprise companies.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cisco DNA Center is generally stable, with some users reporting occasional bugs and needed updates affecting stability.
Sentiment score
7.3
DX Spectrum is praised for its stability and reliability, with minor issues usually due to incorrect configurations or updates.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco DNA Center needs better integration, user-friendliness, and support, with pricing, scalability, and compatibility issues impacting its effectiveness.
DX Spectrum users seek a modern interface, enhanced integration, simplified processes, better analytics, and improved support for device certification.
The AI-driven insights have contributed significantly to faster troubleshooting and predictive analytics.
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.
The event management should have more deduplication and alert correlation and check the bidirectional communication with ServiceNow.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco DNA Center is costly, justified for enterprises, challenging for mid-market, with SaaS and promotions occasionally aiding affordability.
DX Spectrum's pricing favors large enterprises, offering flexible but complex licensing, with high costs impacting smaller businesses.
The price of DX Spectrum is not competitive when compared to other solutions, such as SolarWinds.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco DNA Center provides centralized management, security, AI-driven insights, and automation, enhancing network control and operational efficiency.
DX Spectrum offers comprehensive network monitoring, fault management, scalability, and seamless integration, ideal for managing extensive IT infrastructures.
The most valuable features include AI-driven insights which make troubleshooting much easier.
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.
DX Spectrum uses an SNMP Trap to accept all the details, especially for device monitoring of faulty devices, allowing me to use Spectrum effectively.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco DNA Center
Ranking in Network Management Applications
1st
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Network Automation (2nd)
DX Spectrum
Ranking in Network Management Applications
7th
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
20th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
117
Ranking in other categories
IT Infrastructure Monitoring (22nd), Network Troubleshooting (6th), DX NetOps (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 24.0%, down from 29.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of DX Spectrum is 2.9%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmed  Helmy - PeerSpot reviewer
Experience unified visibility and monitoring for enterprise campus and significant time savings and enhanced troubleshooting with reliable support
We have been working with Cisco DNA Center for ten years. Our clients use Cisco DNA Center for unified visibility/monitoring across Enterprise Campus both LAN & WLAN along with Access and fast technical issues troubleshooting The solution provides fast troubleshooting capabilities and fast…
DickBaker - PeerSpot reviewer
An all-inclusive monitoring solution that adapts to emerging technologies
The product helps to correlate events.  The solution's most valuable features are its integration with Broadcom tools and scalability. DX Spectrum needs better documentation on its complex features.  I have been using the product since 2005.  I rate DX Spectrum's stability an eight point five…
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Management Applications solutions are best for your needs.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco DNA Center?
The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it gives some kind of ease in operations, especially since our company is moving from CLI to GUI-based configuration.
What needs improvement with Cisco DNA Center?
The system is working fine for me currently.
What do you like most about DX Spectrum?
The solution's most valuable features are its integration with Broadcom tools and scalability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DX Spectrum?
The price of DX Spectrum is not competitive when compared to other solutions, such as SolarWinds. The high price has caused us to lose many deals.
What needs improvement with DX Spectrum?
I would like to see improvements in making the interface more user-friendly. Many people find it not simple to use. One of the common customer complaints is about the alarm notifications. Currently...
 

Also Known As

DNA Center
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 DNA Center vs. DX Spectrum and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.