#1 most frequent
United States of America
61.1%390 installations of 638
What is Cisco Catalyst Center?
Cisco Catalyst Center provides an intent-based platform for managing enterprise networks across campus, branch, and edge environments. It combines automation, analytics, and assurance to streamline IT operations, improve security posture, and reduce manual tasks. With integratedAI/ML-driven insights, policy-based controls, and end-to-end visibility across wired and wireless infrastructures, Catalyst Center empowers IT teams toproactively detect issues, enforce compliance, and accelerate troubleshooting from a centralized interface. Designed for scalability and agility, it enables organizations to simplify complex network management inhybrid and multicloud deployments.
Categories & Use Cases
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Who Buys & Uses Cisco Catalyst Center
#1 most frequent
Manufacturing
16.3%104 installations of 637
“The ability to scale your network on-demand”
#2 most frequent
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
14.8%94 installations of 637
#3 most frequent
Health Care and Social Assistance
12.4%79 installations of 637
“The test on devices before upgrades”
#2 most frequent
Canada
6.6%42 installations of 638
#3 most frequent
Sweden
4.4%28 installations of 638
Pros
- Automated Software and Image Management (SWIM) for IOS XE upgrades and firmware tracking.
- Comprehensive network Assurance and Monitoring with detailed health insights.
- Standardized Configuration Management via templates and automated pushing.
Cons
- Challenges integrating with other Cisco tools and third-party solutions.
- Configuration template management requires better examples and tutorials.
- System stability issues and bugs, particularly after upgrades.
Digital Transformation See my review of Cisco Catalyst Center
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
At our Engineering team, we adopted Cisco Catalyst Center as the central platform to help us in the task of network management. This solution has helped us in automating operational processes, ensuring end-to-end security, and enhancing user experience across our corporate environments. Before implementing Cisco Catalyst Center, we faced challenges such as manual device configuration, limited visibility into network health, and very long resolution times for incidents which extra hours of work was wasted. With Cisco Catalyst Center, we’ve been able to reduce troubleshooting time and monitor network and application performance in almost real time.
Pros
- On the process of automate provisioning of switches and access points
- On the process of enforcing identity-based access policies
- Reducing troubleshooting time with AI-powered diagnostic tools
Cons
- Could be possible, activate or deactivate features on the templates wizard
- Improve documentation, like for templates deployment and creation
- Improve the backup related tasks, for example more options for cleanup
Return on Investment
- Configuration changes that took days can now be implemented in minutes or hours, which saves money
- Improved troubleshooting and root cause analysis fast with online solutions
- Access policies and segmentation makes network more secure
Other Software Used
Cisco Meraki Dashboard, Cisco ThousandEyes, Microsoft Teams
Catalyst Center DNAC
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We are trying to level up our use of CatC more and more. Currently we are using it for network maps and AP placements, basic assurance, and troubleshooting. I am currently in the process of trying to get our alerting setup to run completely through CatC over to Webex. We eventually want to use it for dashboards for each facility we support (hospitals).
Pros
- Device issue logging and tracking
- AP mapping
- Template editing
- Access management for different categories of users
Cons
- IPAM! This is sorely needed. The basic IPAM interface is terrible, seems like an oversight to simply have an IPAM UI similar to Solarwinds' basic tree. I cannot stress this one enough.
- Event alert customization to really tweak and tailor how alerts are sent and when and with which frequency.
- Training for CatC. It isnt particularly new user friendly or organized or comprehensive. A lot of marketing terms and not necessarily real world application or use cases.
- Some of the menu layouts in the UI are not always as intuitive as one would expect. Sometimes they are counter intuitive.
Return on Investment
- Not a ton yet to be honest. The AP mapping and integration with 9800 WLC's has been nice but a minor ROI change. Still a positive change.
- Network scaling
- Centralization of management
- Countless hours saved with configuration templating for several large batch projects we have had. Not to mention the potential mitigation of problems related to typos.
Other Software Used
OneDrive, Atlassian Confluence, PyCharm
Cisco Catalyst Center GO
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Our organization leverages Cisco DNA licensing to enable comprehensive wireless support capabilities and advanced network automation functionality. This platform serves as the foundation for managing wireless access point infrastructure, conducting systematic troubleshooting procedures, performing thorough deployment evaluations, and implementing corrective measures to optimize network performance.
The system facilitates automated daily scheduling of access point reboots to maintain optimal device performance and prevent connectivity issues. Additionally, integrated map aggregation features provide enhanced visibility across the wireless infrastructure, enabling all team members to efficiently execute their assigned responsibilities while conducting comprehensive health assessments of field-deployed access points. This unified approach ensures consistent monitoring, proactive maintenance, and collaborative problem resolution across the entire wireless network environment.
Pros
- Scheduling AP reboots
- Map visibility
- Building view
- Monitoring
- Troubleshooting
Cons
- Scheduled task window blocking other buttons
- Double click to expand building view
- I have noticed that connectivity logs are not always show up in event view, but I have to export that to view the logs
Return on Investment
- AP deployment
- Troubeshooting
- Visibility
Alternatives Considered
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Other Software Used
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers, Cisco Firepower 9300 Series, Cisco Duo
Cat Centre in managing wireless network.
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use the Catalyst Centre to manage the wireless network, perform IOS upgrades on all access switches and routers, and wireless LAN controllers using SWIM, as well as for assurance purposes. Managing multiple WLCS is very easy, and SWIM is the use case and monitoring of wireless networks.
Pros
- Managing WLC's.
- IOS upgrades using SWIM.
- Assurance and monitoring network.
Cons
- Cat center is very slow very more than 2 tasks are running at the same time.
- WLC provisioning takes more than 1.5 hrs for 1000 AP managed sites.
- Provisioning multiple wlcs is very slow.
- Assurance service keeps going down.
- Not all 9800 wlc intent config is available in Cat centre.
Return on Investment
- We are able to the scale the wireless network and managing multiple wlc's.
- IOS upgrades.
My View - Cisco Catalyst Center
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We heavily use Cisco Catalyst Center 9300 platform switches in our organization. It is a great and stable product and very rugged. Mines is a enterprise network and we use 9300 for our switching solutions managed in Cisco Catalyst Center
Pros
- Assurance
- Observability
- Troubleshooting
- Configuration Management
- Backup
Cons
- Pricing
- Simplicity
- User Friendly (Meraki Dashboard Like)
Return on Investment
- Little Expensive
- Too Technical
- Non availability of Simplicity
Alternatives Considered
Cisco Meraki Dashboard
Other Software Used
PRTG Network Monitor
