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DX Spectrum vs ExtraHop Reveal(x) for IT Operations 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

DX Spectrum
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
18th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
118
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (8th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (19th), Network Troubleshooting (7th), DX NetOps (1st)
ExtraHop Reveal(x) for IT O...
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
71st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Network Diagnostics (10th), IT Operations Analytics (13th), Network Packet Capture (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of DX Spectrum is 1.6%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ExtraHop Reveal(x) for IT Operations is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
DX Spectrum1.6%
ExtraHop Reveal(x) for IT Operations0.7%
Other97.7%
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Out West - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager and IT Management Consultant at a integrator with 1,001-5,000 employees
Great for identifying application interdependencies with helpful support but needs better visualizations
We're just trying to identify the application interdependencies, which normally reside on different servers, including web servers, database servers, enterprise service bus, et cetera, up to your presentation layer before we start moving stuff around. Normally, the reason why we use these tools is to understand what assets we have, where they're deployed, and how they enter and operate before we decide to go move something from point A to point B. The solution is going to allow me to establish a wave or migration plan where you have different waves of migration and then you actually have move groups to try and get your application moved from A to B seamlessly. A to B could be on-premise to on-premise. It could be on-premise to cloud. Et cetera. The solution can tell me what components can I deploy, for example, into a cloud space, without having to refactor my applications since that can be quite time-consuming and costly.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The quick notification of issues, quick alerting because timeliness is always valuable, it's very important for us."
"Reliability and stability are valuable because of the integration with CA Service Desk and the application of incident and event management in our environment."
"This tool makes it more transparent to the customers, and they can be alerted and be proactive based on the data we are getting."
"It is a very stable solution."
"It does correlation so instead of producing 20 alarms if a site goes down, it only creates one."
"This is a very good, refined product that, in the fault-tolerant configuration, approaches being bulletproof."
"What I like best is the configuration management functionality."
"I have found the cross analysis feature to be the most valuable."
"This is a must-try product."
"There are many valuable features in this product, but probably the biggest is the customization capability it has."
"ExtraHop came out with the best price, and I think that it gives us a broader view of our network."
"We have been able to improve the mean time to resolution by several hours in some cases."
"It gives you full 360-degree visibility into your entire infrastructure."
"Wire data analytics."
"The most valuable feature is the way it handles data, from Layer 2 up to Layer 7. We can see everything that happens in the network."
"It's a must-have solution for large IT Operations, providing the ability to analyze infrastructure and application-related performance and data from the wire perspective."
 

Cons

"I would like to see CA move Spectrum, Performance Manager, and some of their other tools moved to a SaaS based model. You see a lot of other manufacturers which are moving toward SaaS based models."
"Currently, it's using BOXI/CABI, which is terrible as it’s unclear and I don’t like this."
"This solution is too complicated to use for us, especially if you have many components."
"The GIS map feature needs to be enhanced and synced with topology views of containers and global collections."
"Only if the server that hosts the application is restarted without bringing down Spectrum. If this occurs it corrupts the database and has to be restored from the backup."
"HTML5. Right now, it is a very Java driven application. We have lots of issues."
"Sometimes the front-line people need to push it up to the second-level quicker."
"The price is high enough to expect an ideal solution."
"Additional out-of-the-box solutions and use cases would be nice."
"We'd like to see a local presence within the region in order to have seamless service whether it's the support, the implementation, or professional services."
"I would improve the Rule-Based Access Control (RBAC) by providing granular access control to the data."
"They either have to go broad or decide what their bread and butter is and get really good at that."
"The improvement that would make the most impact would be expanding on the new EXA big data back end."
"There is room for improvement in the security part. They have a new solution, ExtraHop Reveal(x), and I think it needs improvement."
"We've had some struggles getting it to see everything that we want to see. Network visibility is something that needs to be improved."
"This solution would be improved if it had the ability to retain data longer."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Spectrum is expensive."
"DX Spectrum's pricing is neither expensive nor cheap."
"In general, the license cost will be about 30% of the total TCO for this tool (hardware/support team, OS costs, and OS management)."
"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. It's very complicated, and it's much more expensive than before. It's not a good pricing strategy from Broadcom."
"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 solution's pricing could be better."
"It is very pricey. With the current trend of enterprises moving towards cheaper and more modern looking solutions like ManageEngine, SevOne, ServicePilot, and Paesller."
"DX Spectrum's pricing depends on the license number. It is affordable."
"The price of this solution for our environment is about £650,000 ($855,000 USD) for three years."
"The pricing is fair considering the value provided."
"The pricing is higher than other solutions, but with such good features, I think it's worth it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Construction Company
12%
Healthcare Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise90
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

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...
Ask a question
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Also Known As

CA Spectrum
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

National Informatics Centre India, Banese, Olympus, AlphaServe Technologies, Sicredi
Alaska Airlines, bet365, Concur, McKesson, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Practice Fusion, Seattle Children's Hospital, Steward Health Care System
Find out what your peers are saying about DX Spectrum vs. ExtraHop Reveal(x) for IT Operations and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.