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Cisco APIC-EM [EOL] vs VMware NSX comparison

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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 APIC-EM [EOL]
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware NSX
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Network Virtualization (2nd), Cloud and Data Center Security (5th), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (7th), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (8th), Network Automation (5th), Microsegmentation Software (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

it_user817026 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. IT & Business Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Enabling business agility and accelerated time to market with the automated service delivery
Infrastructure as a Service for managed services and other customers, including computing, storage, and networking Business agility and accelerated service delivery Automated processes/workflow automation Better manageability Eliminating the IT administration silos for our datacenter and…
Mahesh Bhadoriya - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Manager at Allianz Cloud Private Limited
Micro segmentation has strengthened zero trust security and isolates production from test environments
The advantages of VMware NSX include its micro-segmentation for internal security at the firewall and VM levels, which is very powerful and helps us comply with complete Zero Trust security models. We are able to achieve this and configure network level virtualization with no dependency on VLANs. Micro-segmentation helps improve our security significantly. We are not totally dependent upon our physical upfront firewall, and it makes sense to configure everything using VMware NSX, leading to multiple improvements in our organization. We moved from traditional networking such as VLANs from the firewall and switches to VMware NSX segmentation. We achieve one firewall per VLAN and can stop lateral movement such as ransomware control. The Zero Trust model is the main functionality and architecture it offers, allowing application isolation, such as having a separate production and test environment. Consistent networking and security policies across different environments have a major and very positive impact on our business operations, allowing us to achieve the security posture we want with compliance and regulations.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Eliminating the IT administration silos for our datacenter and infrastructure by providing a single managed and converged infrastructure which provides unified compute, storage, and networking environment with a single point of management."
"The environment enables a DevOps culture, continuous delivery, and automated processes."
"Enabling business agility and accelerated time to market with the automated service delivery."
"Technically, VMware NSX is more advanced technology-wise when compared to others. We have been studying it and so far, so good. We know that the NSX product is superior when it comes to software virtualized networks. </p> <p>If you are looking to work with new and future technologies, then NSX is one of the best options. It costs less for power consumption since it will be a virtual network and not a pure physical network that consumes more energy."
"The initial setup was straightforward. You just have to click it and follow the manuals."
"VMware NSX's overlay network is its most valuable feature, as it aligns with any network philosophy and allows for efficient addressing mechanisms. Additionally, the ability to extend the on-premise network into the provider space is beneficial. There are many features provided."
"Every time my coworker talks to customer support, they're easy to get a hold of, very knowledgeable, and they solve his issues right away."
"NSX gives us the ability to put our network, NSX, onto any network there is, which allows us not to have to go to the network team to create networks or VLANs for networks, and we can just create all our networks right from the start."
"The ease in which to install this product and make it work straight away without minimum changes in your physical network is simply astonishing."
"The solution is valuable in that it makes it very easy to protect virtual machines"
"It is helping me get an entire blueprint done of the source and the target, I was able to make it into a catalog and can set up anything on the cloud quickly."
 

Cons

"Need a better workflow definition tool with tracking on existing provisioned services, and to improve multitasking in the workflow automation."
"If you start with a new or greenfield environment, it is okay to implement. However, if there are other solutions already in place, it can be difficult to implement."
"There were some issues with finance and other accounting."
"The scalability is not perfect."
"The setup of the solution could be simplified."
"I would rate this product an eight because it's a good product but it needs more work. They should fix some of the bugs."
"Sometimes we face issues when a server is compromised or we have an infection. The isolation feature helps, but we need to work more on this aspect."
"VMware NSX should be able to scale for different customers, even the big ones. Its scalability needs improvement. Stability for it should also be improved."
"If you compare NSX to a similar solution you might find it to be a bit more complex."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The solution is very expensive."
"The price of VMware NSX is reasonable."
"We can't go without NSX, so it's invaluable from this perspective."
"The cost of the solution is a bit high."
"The licensing is renewed every three years. The cost for implementation and renovation are a huge portion of that price."
"The tool's pricing is reasonable."
"VMware NSX is expensive and everything is licensed. We have to pay for each individual feature."
"The subscription is on a yearly basis."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise70
 

Questions from the Community

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What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
There are some very major differences between both the Products and to name a few. -Cisco ACI have physical network gear (9K Switches) where the Code runs in ACI Policy Mode &amp; the UCS server wh...
What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
Once you know your way around the Cisco ecosystem, using Cisco ACI is not so difficult. It is a global product, so when you change one interface, changes are automatically reflected on every switch...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware NSX?
When measuring complexity and costs for our organization, we consider some parameters for effectiveness. In terms of effectiveness in reducing operational complexity, I measure it to be high on the...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module
VMware Nicira, Lastline Defender
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
City of Avondale, Lumeta, Kroll Ontrack, Heartland Payment Systems, Baystate Heallth, Exostar, Tribune Media, iGATE, NTT Communications, Synergent, California Natural Resources Agency, Bloomington Public Schools, Columbia Sportswear, Join Experience S.A, Schuberg Philis
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Broadcom, ZeroTier, Inc. and others in Network Virtualization. Updated: October 2026.
921,523 professionals have used our research since 2012.