Cisco DNA Center vs IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) comparison

Cisco and IBM are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Cisco is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.0, while IBM is ranked #37 with an average rating of 8.0. Cisco holds a 1.4% mindshare in NMS, compared to IBM’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Cisco DNA Center

Read 41 Cisco DNA Center reviews

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1,076 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

IBM SevOne Network Performa...

Read 54 IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) reviews

1,885 Views
1,064 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Cisco DNA Center

IBM SevOne Network Performa...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

IBM SevOne NPM and Cisco DNA Center compete in the network performance management category. Cisco DNA Center may have the upper hand due to its advanced automation capabilities and secure integrations.

Features: IBM SevOne NPM offers comprehensive infrastructure visibility, real-time accurate data reporting, and scalability, making it advantageous for managing a wide range of devices. Cisco DNA Center presents centralized management, seamless device integration, and excellent automation capabilities, particularly beneficial for Cisco infrastructure.

Room for Improvement: IBM SevOne NPM needs better data migration during upgrades, enhanced reporting features, and more intuitive configuration management. Cisco DNA Center could enhance its pricing, UI, and reduce upgrade times, alongside better support for non-Cisco devices.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM SevOne NPM supports on-premises, hybrid, and private cloud deployments, providing flexibility for diverse needs, while customer service is praised for its knowledgeable support. Cisco DNA Center supports on-premises and hybrid cloud deployments. Customers note its high complexity but technical expertise and responsive service are appreciated.

Pricing and ROI: IBM SevOne NPM's pay-as-you-grow model and scalable licensing offer flexible cost management, although prices can escalate quickly. Its ROI is seen in operational efficiencies and cost savings. Cisco DNA Center's pricing is high, potentially weighing more on smaller enterprises, but offers significant ROI through network management enhancements.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco DNA Center vs. IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center vs. IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM)

April 2025

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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 DNA Center

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

12th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Management Applications (1st), Network Automation (2nd)

IBM SevOne Network Performa...

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

37th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (18th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (43rd), Log Management (44th), Cloud Monitoring Software (29th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 1.4%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) is 1.0%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

AvrahamSonenthal

Senior Network Engineer at Inside Global

Efficiently manages our wireless network and provides valuable monitoring features

The platform's biggest benefit has been in managing our wireless network. Having a single pane of glass to control all wireless controllers and access points and to monitor activity has been a significant advantage. We're a small federal agency with around 300 network devices, so automation is a minor focus. It's more relevant for larger networks. The main benefits we've seen are in inventory management and the potential for configuration automation. However, I recommend using the DNA Centre only for larger networks with over a thousand devices; otherwise, it may not be cost-effective. Before proceeding, ensure that your devices are compatible with DNA Center, as not all Cisco devices are supported. Also, investing in proper training is different from plug-and-play. I rate it an eight.

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Grzegorz Nowak

Solution Architect at Wingu

Improves infrastructure planning by helping us analyze network traffic

We use SevOne to collect and report on network flows SevOne improves infrastructure planning by helping us analyze network traffic. We can look at bandwidth for specific endpoints on the customer's network and analyze traffic to identify issues. For example, maybe some connectors are unavailable.…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It offers automation, security enforcement, analytics, and integration with other Cisco technologies, making it a key driver for efficient network operations and compliance with security protocols."

"It does a lot of things automatically, and that's the big thing with it. They're making the software so that you don't need to be as knowledgeable as me on the switching and routing side to get your work done. If you want, you can have DNA troubleshoot your problem for you and give you solutions or fix it itself, if it was something that's just a configuration issue."

"It enables monitoring of various components such as access points, switch cards, and other elements within the company's solutions."

"The product offers an intuitive and automated way to manage user networks. It gives me an insight into the network health."

"What's most valuable in Cisco DNA Center is the ability to manage any Cisco infrastructure and device through it. Setup was straightforward."

"I like the visibility, instant build, network, policies, and the ability to control access. I also like that you can visualize your whole network."

"The most valuable features of the solution are all of its security features...It is a highly scalable solution."

"The most valuable feature of Cisco DNA Center is the AI (Artificial Intelligence) that provides us with valuable information."

More Cisco DNA Center pros

"Based on my experience, the stability of IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) is excellent."

"SevOne has rich API capabilities, giving us the flexibility to control what we collect and customize the collection, creation, and manipulation of now metrics as necessary."

"In 90% of the cases, new devices are plug-and-play, so when a new version comes out then SevOne has support for it out of the box."

"The modules and the performance management reports that come with data insights are two of the most valuable features. I also find the reports for Wi-Fi, Netflow, LAN, and WAN for monitoring to be very good."

"The feature that I have found most valuable is the scale-up and scale-down. The scale-up is an operation where the CPU boosts-up and then the memory will boost-up. That works awesomely."

"We've had great feedback from our customers about SevOne support. They're willing to set up a remote session upon request. You have to go through three tiers of support with most vendors, and they ask a lot of screening questions before they will do a remote session. You need to spend a lot of time before an engineer will host a remote session to look at your problematic system."

"We find that the reporting is particularly valuable in terms of not only communicating with our peer teams but also with the executives."

"SevOne’s data collection functionality is very good. From a collection point of view, we pull SNMP data, which is simple. It is easy to manipulate the pull in the estate. It is really simple compared to some of the other products that we have used. However, for deferred data, i.e., things that we import or don't pull directly, we tend to have a preplanned integration. So, its Universal Collector is really useful."

More IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) pros

Cons

"Cisco DNA Center was a new technology for us, at the beginning, it was not easy to do, but Cisco did a lot of training with us to a level we could handle everything. The team is managing itself now without the assistance of Cisco."

"The solution can be quite pricey."

"DNA Center has been on the market for a few years and they need to update it."

"From the recent DNA point of view, there are some stability challenges with Cisco, but very minor."

"The solution's technical support is an area with which my company's clients have a problem. Cisco doesn't provide good technical support unless a user has a big account that Cisco wants to retain."

"The tool's IoT integration should be better."

"When it comes to deploying wireless fields, integrating defaults into the DNS interface can be challenging."

"Integration with analytic tools and API integrations would be ideal."

More Cisco DNA Center cons

"NMS has several areas for improvement. It should be more user-friendly inside of NMS for some of the functionality in there. It's been getting better the last version or two, but the there have been bugs in there whenever I've gone to new versions."

"The GUI: both the dashboard/user view and the admin tool."

"You need to plan integrations. That has been the biggest bug with SevOne so far. For the things that SevOne pulls directly, those are easy to understand, modify, and put into the database. For things that need to use the Universal Collector or xStats, you need to plan that stuff well in advance."

"Telemetry is hot these days, and IBM can improve SevOne's support for telemetry correction. Reporting is another feature that could be better. It provides the bare minimum functionality, which is good enough for most engineers, but the management isn't advanced. The new portal provides a much lighter view and better visualization, but the management is not so good."

"With the administrative management of the appliance, if some object appears from SevOne because something changed in the network or whatever, then as an administrator you will not be aware. If you are using this object in a report, this object will disappear from the report and you will not be aware of it. So, if you have 1,000 reports, you cannot always check these reports everyday to see if objects are missing or information has disappeared. We don't have any information on alerts, saying that something is happening there and maybe we need to take action. If an object was replaced by another one, or if a link was replaced by another one, then the graph needs to be changed because it doesn't exist in the graph anymore. However, we don't have this information."

"There is room for improvement in the integration with different vendors and the reporting capabilities."

"SevOne could improve its flexibility because it isn't fully customizable and its out-of-the-box configuration doesn't cover all use cases."

"We need to be thinking about streaming telemetry protocols. They already have the port for enhanced visualization, which they already have through Data Insight."

More IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is medium-priced."

"The solution is expensive."

"We get a yearly license at the time we buy the product."

"Cisco DNA Center is too expensive."

"It is an expensive solution."

"Cisco DNA Center is expensive."

"The partnership price is notably high, but it ultimately depends on the chosen business model."

"I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive."

More Cisco DNA Center pricing and cost advice

"Prices per license are not huge, but they exist."

"The pricing has not evolved with the market, which is one of the reasons we are moving to a new product."

"Although I don't have exact details in terms of cost, my experience has been that SevOne is willing to make a deal with the customer."

"It is inexpensive compared to other monitoring tools."

"Many tools price things based on the number of KPIs that you're collecting around a device. In many cases, there could be hundreds of metrics that you need to collect. SevOne provides device-level pricing. That gives us the flexibility to turn on, and expand on, the metrics that we're collecting around those devices, without taking a financial hit."

"There are cheaper solutions available."

"The pricing has been fair."

"Have a bank of licenses, because it is about the number of objects (RAM, ports, CPU, etc.)."

More IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

16%

Computer Software Company

14%

Legal Firm

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco DNA Center?

The cost is very high.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco DNA Center?

The system is working fine for me currently.

See all answers

What do you like most about SevOne Network Data Platform?

I like the tool’s scalability and real-time reports. Earlier, we struggled to give real-time reports to clients. I also like the tool’s deployment model where we can deploy it either on-premises or...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SevOne Network Data Platform?

The tool is not expensive. We were able to negotiate with SevOne on pricing.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SevOne Network Data Platform?

SevOne could improve its flexibility because it isn't fully customizable and its out-of-the-box configuration doesn't cover all use cases.

See all answers

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NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM)

Compared 10% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center

April 2025

Download Cisco DNA Center product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM)

March 2025

IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) report

Download IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) product report

Also Known As

DNA Center

SevOne

Overview

Cisco DNA Center offers a comprehensive platform for network automation and management, providing detailed analytics, enhanced security, and streamlined operations for both wired and wireless networks.

Cisco DNA Center integrates with Cisco infrastructure to deliver efficient network automation and management, helping organizations improve network visibility, security, and control. It supports AI-driven analytics and automated workflows to enhance operational efficiency and reduce errors. Challenges include compatibility with third-party systems, steep learning curve, and complex deployment. Its interface facilitates centralized control, vital for troubleshooting, policy management, and configuration management, with support for zero-touch provisioning and SD-Access.

What are the key features of Cisco DNA Center?

Robust Analytics: Provides detailed insights into network health with AI-driven analytics.
Centralized Security: Integrates with ISE for comprehensive security management.
Automated Device Management: Simplifies device provisioning and configuration transfers.
Wi-Fi Analytics: Offers deep insights into wireless network performance.
Zero-Touch Provisioning: Streamlines new device deployments with minimal human intervention.
Scalable Segmentation: Efficiently segments network traffic ensuring security and performance.

What benefits should users consider?

Operational Efficiency: Automation reduces potential errors and streamlines workflow.
Enhanced Security: Integration with Cisco ISE bolsters security capabilities.
Network Visibility: Comprehensive dashboards and analysis tools enhance monitoring.
Troubleshooting: Real-time monitoring aids in identifying and resolving issues swiftly.

In sectors such as healthcare, finance, and retail, Cisco DNA Center is utilized for its ability to enhance security and compliance, manage large-scale networks, and provide detailed analytics for better operational decision-making. Its support for location tracking and policy automation ensures efficient network management across diverse environments.

Cisco

The IBM® SevOne Network Performance Management (IBM SevOne NPM) solution helps you spot, address, and prevent network performance issues early with machine learning-powered analytics from a single source. Boost network performance and improve your user application experience by proactively monitoring your multivendor end-to-end network across enterprise, communication, and managed service provider networks.

Transform raw network performance data into intelligent and actionable insights. The IBM SevOne NPM solution goes beyond detection, combining industry-leading expertise and advanced technology to help your IT team plan and optimize your network and act on what matters: improving network performance to provide an exceptional customer experience.

For further information, please visit www.ibm.com/cloud/sevo...

IBM

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

ATOS, Devereux, Spark New Zealand, Access4, Rogers Communication, Lumen (formerly known as CenturyLink)

Buyer's Guide

Cisco DNA Center vs. IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM)

April 2025

Free Report: Cisco DNA Center vs. IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM)

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