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Cisco Prime [EOL] vs DX Spectrum comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Prime [EOL]
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
DX Spectrum
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
118
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (7th), Network Monitoring Software (17th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (18th), Network Troubleshooting (6th), DX NetOps (1st)
 

Featured Reviews

AR
Network Engineer at Edmonton Catholic School Board
Has an easy implementation process, but the performance monitoring feature could be more intuitive
The project implementation was easy overall. Adapting Cisco's solutions to our specific environment required effort, as their documentation only covers some network scenarios. The deployment didn't happen all at once; it was staged and controlled to ensure a smooth transition. We started with a small test environment before gradually rolling it out to all campuses. This gradual approach helped mitigate the risk of any issues arising across multiple locations simultaneously, especially on a critical day like Monday morning. We have a team of three executives working on the process. Their job roles included network specialists and a manager. It requires maintenance, which is included in the annual cost. We receive updates and support as part of the renewal process.
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The hardware Cisco provides is excellent. It's a well-made product."
"The solution helps with the management and support of the enterprise network."
"The dashboard is a valuable feature. It's very clear, and the metrics make it easy to see the current network situation."
"The customer service and support for this solution is good."
"It helps us manage and monitor analytics and fix issues."
"The most valuable is the assistance for network support."
"When you have a central management plan, it saves a lot of costs."
"Cisco Prime allows us to do a lot of functions with the users and it is flexible."
"It gives an depth report of availability and outages, and by using it you can further analyze and find exactly where the bottlenecks lie."
"Spectrum is very useful for us, because the product lets us monitor and control all the various components of our infrastructure that support our business from an IT perspective."
"It is easy to understand and determine when and/or where the network is failing."
"The most valuable feature is that after setup, using it is very straightforward."
"The automation we have in place saves us some head count and data is now more accurate."
"Discovery: Scheduled, on-demand, synchronized with eHealth."
"It will aid in troubleshooting and daily operations, and is invaluable in fault resolution."
"We can plan changes and replacement of end-of-life products in our environment very well because it's very accurate."
 

Cons

"Cisco needs to improve Prime's monitoring tab. If any device goes down, there is a 15-second lapse before we know. It would be much better if we were alerted two or three minutes before a device is about to fail, so we can dispatch a field engineer and avoid network downtime. I would like to see a feature that allows you to access the devices directly from Prime's monitoring tab. That would make work easier for us."
"The product's pricing can be cheaper."
"This solution could be improved if it could monitor configuration changes."
"Lacking in integration with a SIEM tool."
"Cisco can only be used for Cisco environments and is not compatible with other vendors."
"Cisco Prime needs to have lower prices and more customization options."
"The onboarding process could be improved and developed to enhance compatibility for non-Cisco devices."
"Cisco Prime could improve the graphical user interface."
"It takes some time to learn how to use this solution."
"It's not the best product for availability and outages reporting."
"The visual is good but it's a little archaic."
"I would like to see easier use in some things, such as trying to configure certain correlations I've been working on. It's been a little bit of a hassle, because I'm not super familiar with their products and the best way to go about things."
"Make it easier to certify devices."
"Since the acquisition by Broadcom, we have not had such a good experience with licensing and pricing. Since they were bought by Broadcom, every sales contract is getting complicated."
"Stability could be improved. I find on a regular basis that those of us on-call tend to usually have to go in and restart or reboot a Spectrum server because the landscape's gone down."
"For us, the implementation was quite complex but it's because of the large number of different environments we're dealing with."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the pricing of Cisco Prime a seven out of ten."
"You need to get special quotes from the company for each order."
"If we have a license for Cisco DNA, we can use the same license for Cisco Prime."
"The cost is quite high."
"The product is expensive compared to other vendors in the market."
"The price of Cisco Prime was reasonable because we purchased it as part of a Cisco One package. The package was a bundle of Cisco solutions together, such as Cisco ISE and CMX. The price is reasonable com compared to other solutions."
"I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"It is expensive compared to other tools in the market."
"Currently, a perpetual license but some services are moving to a subscription"
"The cost of some of these products are a little cost prohibitive, which is unfortunate. We have to find lower cost solutions for some of the things that we have to pull in. For the most part, CA has capabilities in pretty much everything that you would need. You just have to figure out where are you going to spend the most money for what you have to actually get done. You can do all these things but, which ones do you have to do? And that's hard to choose sometimes because you want to do them all."
"The price is very high."
"It’s a great tool, but an expensive one. Learn how to use it properly."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"Spectrum is expensive."
"DX Spectrum's pricing is neither expensive nor cheap."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise90
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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

Cisco Prime Infrastructure
CA Spectrum
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mohawk Industries, Universidad EAFIT, Halton Healthcare
National Informatics Centre India, Banese, Olympus, AlphaServe Technologies, Sicredi
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Fortinet, Skyline Communications and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: October 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.