BlueCat Gateway is an enterprise automation platform that turns business logic into automated DDI workflows, and integrates with adjacent systems & technologies.
N/A
Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Cisco Prime LAN Management Solution is discontinued. Current users are encouraged to explore Cisco Catalyst Center as a modern solution.
It is well suited for quick manual updates, not too many as the interface could stand an overhaul. Not an easy interface to use when doing research - reverse lookups. Results aren't always accurate. The search capability could be a bit more robust, expanding the search capability into the comments area would help.
Cisco Prime can monitor faults and performance, generate heat maps, manage device configuration, and alert. The tools that we find will help us identify wireless access points, network switches, and everything in between. It's simple to manage a dozen devices, but hundreds or thousands require a platform like Cisco LMS. Its bulk configuration and backup configuration features are crucial. We can also access dashboards that show admins and technicians the network's health at a glance.
You can deploy from simple snippets of config to a whole template to multiple devices at the same time. That saves us a lot of time (remember that time is money) when we need to change some setting globally, like adjust a ACL or add new global policy. Doesn't matter how many models of the same equipment you have.
The Network Topology map is also a great tool for troubleshooting. You can check several aspects of the topology, the connection between the equipment, the status of the connections and even check specific alarms related to that part of the topology (or map). Again, consider that in a multi site, global environment and you'll see the benefits.
Inventory and firmware updates are also great tools inside the solution. You have check exactly what equipment is outdated and schedule an update with a couple of clicks. You can do that also in a batch, saving a lot of time (and money) and avoid to go handle the equipment one by one, sometimes even needing to have physical access to those equipment.
We are very happy using Cisco Prime LAN Management Solution for the following reason: 1- Ease of use with the GUI. 2- Very well organized dashboard which can view many statistics on your devices. 3- Customized dashboard for different views ( for technical team and executives ) 4- Schedule configuration templates to use whenever we need on whatever device we want.
BlueCat is the only DNS manager platform that I've had experience with. We had one prior to this, but it was before I had the need to interact with it doing one of the tasks I do now. I remember the switchover to BlueCat - not everyone was impressed with it, but so far my experience with it has been positive.
Although there are many powerful tools available in the market such as Solarwinds, Micro Focus, CA Spectrum with advanced configuration options and customization options available still Cisco Prime [LAN Management Solution] is the preferred tool for following reasons - 1. If you have only Cisco Infrastructure then go for Cisco Prime Blindly. 2. Extensive information on network devices mapping layout. 3. Devices configuration management specially for wireless.
It has helped us with our quarterly wireless security testing by pinpointing the location of non-approved access points vs. hunting for them via signal strength.
Saves time by helping to identify network health issues before they become a definitive problem causing downtime.
With errors detected early, we have noticed our wi-fi network is much more stable thus freeing up our engineer's time elsewhere.
