Cisco Catalyst Center

The main use case for us is to centralize managing our switches in one spot. We have a lot of switches to manage, so it's very easy to find that useful.

I appreciate that Cisco Catalyst Center gives you notifications when the switches go down. When there's downtime for a switch, we get updates very fast.

I work in the manufacturing industry, so any downtime is losing money. Whenever something goes down, it's easy for us to look into a problem. We won't know that we have to fix the problem unless we've identified it. Before even teammates reach out to us saying they're not getting to the internet or whatever, we already know there's a problem because of Cisco Catalyst Center. So it's very useful and helps us have less downtime.

I think Cisco Catalyst Center addresses the challenges we face with hybrid and distributed enterprise networks pretty well because now I can bring a switch out of the box and configure it through Catalyst instead of manually spending time doing it. So it saves me a lot of time, and I can focus on something more important.

I would say Cisco Catalyst Center's PNP functionality is not as good as it could be. When the switches come out of the box and we try to configure it, the onboarding is kind of hard where I assign it an IP address and it loses connection right away. So that could be improved. I don't think our Catalyst is absolutely up-to-date. It's pretty up-to-date, but I don't think it's the latest version, so maybe it's already fixed.

I have been using Cisco Catalyst Center for about a year to a year and a half.

My experience with deploying Cisco Catalyst Center had one challenge where we couldn't find enough documentation because one of our nodes went down. So we had to rebuild our entire Catalyst. That was hard. We figured it out, but it took us a long time. The good part about that was we called a Cisco rep, and they helped us throughout the process. We were back and forth with emails and calls with them. So that was helpful. But I found it hard to find any good documentation for building a DNA.

I would evaluate customer service and tech support as great. I would give that a nine out of ten. It's very good.

Prior to adopting Cisco Catalyst Center, we were not using anything to address similar needs.

The operational efficiency of Cisco in my IT environment is pretty good. There have been a few problems with hardware, like one of the nodes stops working, but I don't expect it to run perfectly. I would say it gives us overall good visibility, so that's how I would assess it. It's good visibility for what we have out there.

My impression of the end-to-end visibility is that it's great. I'm able to build agents and use Cisco Catalyst Center to give me a lot of information. So now I don't even have to log into Catalyst. I get better visibility if something goes down, like if an endpoint goes down, I can identify the switch, or it will identify it for me and give me troubleshooting tips and advice through Catalyst. So the visibility is very good in that regard.

I rate Cisco Catalyst Center overall as an eight out of ten.

For Cisco Catalyst Center, my main use cases involve monitoring switches, access points, and performance.

The most important features for me that I prefer are switch monitoring and configuration backup.

Storing the configs with Cisco Catalyst Center benefits my organization because if there is a failure, I can restore directly from it.

My impression of the end-to-end visibility offered by Cisco is that it is somewhat clunky; it is not in a single dashboard and is not easily visible, especially from a time-sensitive standpoint.

To improve Cisco Catalyst Center, I would prefer to see better integration with Meraki and visibility into both Meraki and traditional Catalyst product lines on the same interface, achieving end-to-end visibility from a single pane of glass and ensuring that all metrics are included, as sometimes there are blanks and information is missing.

I have been using Cisco Catalyst Center for three years.

I assess the stability and reliability of Cisco Catalyst Center as mostly reliable; I have had to restart it a couple of times when it was hanging, but other than that, it has been quite stable.

Cisco Catalyst Center scales with the growing needs of my organization, but I have really only scaled with the amount of equipment, adding more access points and more switches, while my Catalyst switch count is going down as I migrate to Meraki switches, and because there is not a tight integration between the two yet, I do not have visibility in Cisco Catalyst Center for that, so I am actually scaling down instead of scaling up.

I evaluate customer service and tech support as sometimes being questionable; if it is not labeled as a high priority, it is not treated as such, so if it does not require a very fast response, I can go weeks without hearing anything on a ticket, and I sometimes have to put things in as higher priority to get an initial response, but it always gets changed down to a lower priority.

Before adopting Cisco Catalyst Center, I was using Prime Infrastructure, but I considered a change because Cisco stopped putting development into Prime Infrastructure and moved to Cisco Catalyst Center, with all new devices coming with at least Essentials level Catalyst Center licensing required upon purchase when I buy the equipment.

My experience with deploying Cisco Catalyst Center is that the deployment was simple, as getting all of my devices to join was straightforward, but there were some features that were supposed to function, especially when it came to adding in Meraki Dashboard; devices were not populating, and although it was advertised as being able to do that, when I talked to Cisco TAC, they said that was not possible.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that licensing is always a pain, as everything involves levels of licensing, so when there are specific features I am looking for, they are usually bundled with a more expensive license that includes features I do not need, and trying to determine which license is needed can sometimes be difficult.

I did not consider any other solutions before selecting Cisco Catalyst Center.

I have not faced any specific challenges with hybrid and distributed enterprise networks that Cisco addresses.

Since I am all Cisco, I assess the operational efficiency in my IT environment as being at the same level.

I provide an overall review rating of 8 for Cisco Catalyst Center.

Cisco Catalyst Center will be used for deployment, scalability, and compliance.

The features I appreciate most with Cisco Catalyst Center are the net operations and security operations, or SecOps.

Mostly, it is the compliance portion of Cisco Catalyst Center that stands out. The traditional way I managed switches required me to configure them individually. With Cisco Catalyst Center, it is now controlled in one location and I can easily manage them, ensuring they are all up to date with compliance checks and other requirements. This makes the process much simpler for me.

One of the considerations that led us to change prior to adopting Cisco Catalyst Center was the management approach. Because it is easier, and as I mentioned before, we had to configure switches individually. With Cisco Catalyst Center, it has made my life significantly easier.

When I first installed Cisco Catalyst Center, it required a lot of hardware resources during the installation process. It does not use that much after installation, but it seems to use a considerable amount in my virtual environment. Perhaps there will be a lighter version in the near future.

I have been in the IT industry since 2004.

Cisco Catalyst Center scales with the growing needs of my organization at a level of 10.

I have not contacted tech support yet. However, based on my previous experience with other switches, I would rate customer service and tech support at 10. They are very helpful and supportive.

We always used CLI before, so Cisco Catalyst Center is a fairly new solution for us to manage switches.

We just started implementing Cisco Catalyst Center last year, so this is fairly new to us. I had the great opportunity to install and configure it for the first time, and I am learning quite a lot, especially from attending Cisco Live.

Regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing, my boss would know those details. I do not have that information as it does not really apply to me. I am simply the person he tells to go ahead and configure it. I do not know the details on the price.

In my type of environment regarding hybrid and distributed enterprise networks, I do not work with a hybrid type of environment, so I do not have any challenges in that area.

Cisco Catalyst Center addresses a lot of my security concerns, especially in the world of cybersecurity where there is a lot of risk. It does address many of those concerns.

My impression of the end-to-end visibility is that it is excellent. The new implementation of AI has made it easier, and it can find things that I could not see on my own. I have given this product a review rating of 10.

Most of our use for Cisco Catalyst Center is for connection between our network and our employees.

The features I appreciate most about Cisco Catalyst Center are user accessibility.

My impression of the end-to-end visibility offered by Cisco Catalyst Center is that it is quite good.

The end-to-end visibility from Cisco Catalyst Center affects my organization's troubleshooting capabilities significantly. Without it, we would not be able to connect to anything.

Learning the newer features has been the only issue.

The company has been using Cisco Catalyst Center for probably eight years.

I assess the stability and reliability of Cisco Catalyst Center as quite good. I have not experienced any problems.

Cisco Catalyst Center scales with the growing needs for my organization quite well.

Customer service and technical support are good.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate customer service as nine or ten.

My experience with deploying Cisco Catalyst Center was positive, as it worked well and seemed quite good.

My experience with deploying Cisco Catalyst Center was positive, as it worked well and seemed quite good.

I have not seen ROI at all.

My experience with deploying Cisco Catalyst Center was positive, as it worked well and I have not encountered too many problems.

Cisco Catalyst Center scales with the growing needs for my organization quite well.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Cisco Catalyst Center as definitely ten. I would rate this review as a ten overall.

Cisco Catalyst Center is used for monitoring, troubleshooting, and management as the core of the network, and everything we do is in Catalyst.

The most valuable functions in Cisco Catalyst Center are its monitoring capabilities, as it has a very valuable dashboard that allows me to monitor everything and catch every issue in my network.

I am satisfied with the analytics part of Cisco Catalyst Center as I can get statistics about everything in my network, including clients, operating systems, MAC addresses, and switches, which is very good.

The main benefits I receive from Cisco Catalyst Center include management, monitoring, and troubleshooting of the network, and these are very good benefits. However, if I compare it with tools we had before Catalyst, there is no way to compare it. You cannot save money with Cisco.

My feedback about the web-based interface of Cisco Catalyst Center is that it is very good with no issues, but for some reasons, it is working poorly in Google Chrome, so I must use Firefox for better performance.

When I log into Cisco Catalyst Center using Google Chrome, some links inside it stop working, and I need to move to Firefox to make it better.

Cisco Catalyst Center does not integrate well with security products because we do not have Cisco ISE, the Cisco security product. We run another NAC solution, but it is acceptable to integrate Catalyst Center with another security product, although we did not.

Cisco Catalyst Center is not integrated well with third-party vendors because it can only work with Cisco products.

I have been working with Cisco Catalyst Center for about one year as it is a new product. Before that, we used Cisco Prime Infrastructure.

I would give Cisco Catalyst Center a rating of ten for stability.

I also give Cisco Catalyst Center a rating of ten for scalability.

I give technical support from Cisco a rating of ten.

The support is excellent.

I moved from Cisco Prime to Catalyst Center.

The initial setup for Cisco Catalyst Center is not a simple process. You must follow the exact recommendations from Cisco to get it set up correctly at the end; otherwise, you will face many issues. It is not complex, but at the same time, it is not simple.

We did not set it up with an integrator. Cisco provided a setup guide with videos and everything, so we followed the setup guide.

It is not a story from Cisco to save money.

I am totally satisfied with the functionality, but we cannot discuss prices with Cisco.

I can compare Cisco Catalyst Center with other products in terms of scalability, compatibility with Cisco products, management, monitoring, analyzing of the network, and AI function. Catalyst Center has a built-in AI function that can analyze data and provide troubleshooting help, which we do not have on our other platform.

I am using switching, wireless, and Catalyst Center from Cisco, and of course, Cisco controller as well. I work with Cisco tools, specifically Cisco Catalyst Center and DNA Center. We use an automation feature in Cisco Catalyst Center called PNP, or Plug and Play feature.

The Plug and Play feature reduces some manual work for me because when I want to set up a new switch, Cisco Catalyst Center takes over all the configuration and pushes out all the configuration to the new switches.

I can absolutely recommend it to other users.

The product was used with Catholic schools because that was their primary infrastructure. This is an enterprise-level product rather than an SMB-grade solution.

Cisco Catalyst Center's reporting is one of the best features, providing graphs and quick hit analysis in one place instead of having to search elsewhere. Historical data can be stored in Cisco Catalyst Center, and dashboards and widgets can be configured to personal preference.

Device deployment can be automated to the point where all someone needs to do is plug it in. Zero Touch Provisioning, while requiring some initial work to set up properly, provides significant benefits. Once configured, it reduces the need for travel by specific network personnel, allowing on-site or other staff to handle device deployment by simply plugging in the cable.

Cisco Catalyst Center's reporting is one of the best features, providing graphs and quick hit analysis in one place instead of having to search elsewhere. Historical data can be stored in Cisco Catalyst Center, and dashboards and widgets can be configured to personal preference.

The web-based interface for managing network and data tasks is functional, though some users still prefer CLI management.

Cisco Catalyst Center was used with Catholic schools as their primary infrastructure.

Cisco Catalyst Center would benefit from different licensing tiers instead of an all-or-nothing model. Some tiers could focus on monitoring and tracking licenses with minimal configuration automation. Current pricing is too expensive for features that users may not be sure they will use, pricing the company out of the market. More à la carte options or different tiers would allow customers to select products that fit within their operational expenditure budget.

The Cisco Catalyst Center has been used for a total of four years.

Support is easy to deal with and requests for information are clearly communicated, making it straightforward to provide what is needed.

Cisco Catalyst and Nexus remain in the data center. When sites moved off Catalyst switching to Fortinet during a refresh, it was at the time when they moved to Catalyst.

During license renewal, the pricing for Catalyst licensing increased significantly. For a hardware refresh, the site switched to Fortinet switching because the cost difference was approximately six thousand dollars per device compared to other solutions.

Cisco Catalyst switching and the management of Cisco Catalyst switching were used with 9300 switches, as well as 2960s and 3560s. For management, Cisco Catalyst Center can be used or command line interface can be used directly, whichever is preferred.

Cisco Catalyst Center is customizable to a point. Configuration distribution can be done through Cisco Catalyst Center or through scripting or a combination of both, with a combination of both being recommended.

Automation features can be complex at first. Security integrations were not utilized as that work was segmented to other vendors and products and was not a project on the horizon at the time for the network team, with different groups and budgets involved.

The overall review rating for this product is ten out of ten.

We are primarily using Cisco Catalyst Center for two purposes: LAN automation, which we deployed for two sites, and wireless assurance for all 17 sites.

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. This migration has led to significant improvement in customer satisfaction, better connectivity, better strength, and better onboarding.

The dashboards have been instrumental in identifying problems through a problem management model and allowed us to resolve issues at the LAN level.

The area for improvement in Cisco Catalyst Center is the spectrum analyzer, as I find it difficult to identify which type of device is causing a problem. Additionally, the accuracy of reports can be improved; while pulling accurate data for one day is fine, I struggle to get proper data for seven days due to the heavy logs.

There might be a need for compressing data since we do not have a syslog server in our environment, relying on the DNAC database, which has made it challenging to get reliable data beyond a short period.

I have been working with Cisco Catalyst Center for three years now.

It was difficult to deploy Cisco Catalyst Center in the beginning, three years back. Now we are familiar with it and are working on another site for the deployment, which is awaiting final confirmation. We are not facing any challenges, and we have done the LAN and WAN automation for this.

I rate the stability of Cisco Catalyst Center at almost nine, as there is only one issue related to reporting, otherwise it is quite stable.

I rate the scalability of Cisco Catalyst Center at nine.

In terms of technical support from Cisco, I had very few tickets open for DNAC and my experience is not so bad, but not so good either. Each case's situation can be different, and I believe the team should have better analytical skills, as the cases I raised went to the BU level. I would give it a rating of seven, due to challenges in getting the right engineer at the right time and issues related to different time zones.

I have given feedback on the Cisco Prime product, but now we are not using Cisco Prime as we have already migrated to Cisco Catalyst Center. We have upgraded from Prime to Catalyst and are already going forward with it.

The deployment for Cisco Catalyst Center took a long time, and I am not able to recollect exactly how much time was required for installation, as it depended on the customer and happened in a phase-to-phase manner during COVID. However, for the new site we have planned for execution, we expect to complete everything, including deployment, testing, and UAT sign off, within a 15-day period.

Overall, five people were involved in the process of deploying and configuring Cisco Catalyst Center, consisting of one L3, three L2s, and one L1.

Because we have not fully implemented Cisco Catalyst Center across all sites, I have seen a return on investment primarily at the two sites where we have implemented it. The network's stability at those two sites has been excellent, and that definitely translates to cost benefits, as there is less compliance needed compared to the past.

I am familiar with Cisco Catalyst Center and this particular solution.

I am not able to recollect the exact version of Cisco Catalyst Center, but it is somewhere around 20.7, although I have been out from that project for almost six months. However, I am sure it is in the N minus one.

We have not extensively utilized the security features of Cisco Catalyst Center, but the compliance area has helped us identify vulnerabilities. We upgrade the OS regularly, and using the rogue APs from a wireless point of view has also been beneficial.

We have not yet fully started using the AI capabilities in Cisco Catalyst Center; we just planned for it. I have seen the AI button, enabled it, and kept it there, but I have not used it much, so it is too early to comment on that feature.

I would definitely recommend Cisco Catalyst Center to other organizations because it provides visibility that was not there in the past and makes it easier to figure out what is going on in my network. Troubleshooting is simpler compared to logging into the device, and it gives solutions for most cases. Once the devices are stable, especially if they are legacy devices such as the 9000 series, the output along with its solutions is very helpful. The wireless assurance part is fantastic, providing about 90% accuracy, and I strongly recommend this system to my connections as it is one of the best tools I have encountered in Cisco. I rate Cisco Catalyst Center a nine out of ten.