Cisco Catalyst Center vs ONOS
Cisco Catalyst Center
cisco.comONOS
onosproject.orgSide by side
| Figure | Cisco Catalyst Center | ONOS |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Data Center Fabric Software | 7.8 (#2) | 8.2 (#1) |
| Spec score · Software-Defined Networking Software | 7.8 (#4) | 8.2 (#2) |
| Spec score · Network Automation Software | 7.8 (#10) | 8.1 (#6) |
| Deployment | Cisco describes hardware and virtual appliance deployments, including current guides for VMware ESXi and Ubuntu KVM. | µONOS is composed of microservices deployable on cloud and data-center infrastructure using Kubernetes, with Docker images and Helm charts listed as deployment tools. |
| Purpose | Cisco Catalyst Center is a centralized network controller and management dashboard for enterprise network operations. | ONOS provides the control plane for software-defined networks, managing network components and running software modules that provide communication services. |
| Security | Catalyst Center supports FIPS 140-2-compliant cryptography modules, and Cisco recommends deploying it behind a firewall on a private internal network. | The project wiki describes a Security Mode feature intended to restrict application access to northbound APIs. |
Plans
Cisco Catalyst Center
- Cisco DNA AdvantagePriced on request
- Cisco DNA EssentialsPriced on request
In their own words
Cisco Catalyst Center
Cisco Catalyst Center has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
ONOS
ONOS is an open-source software-defined networking platform that provides a control plane for managing network components and running communication-service modules. Its µONOS architecture supports device configuration, monitoring and maintenance, forwarding-plane programming, topology validation, and fine-grained performance metrics. A symmetric cluster of identical instances distributes work across servers and is designed to handle instance failures; the architecture is described as highly available and dynamically scalable. Control and configuration interfaces include P4/P4Runtime, gNMI/OpenConfig, and gNOI, with gRPC connecting modular microservices. OpenFlow is the primary southbound protocol, and OVSDB, NETCONF, and SNMP are also named for device configuration. The microservices are designed for cloud and data center infrastructure using Kubernetes, with Docker images and Helm charts listed as deployment tools. A cloud-native web GUI uses Angular and gRPC Web to access backend modules. ONOS is free and published under the Apache License 2.0. It is aimed mainly at service-provider networks, with data-center and campus networks also identified as possible uses. Production downloads are recommended as a release tar.gz package or Docker image; the listed LTS release is X-Wing 2.7.0, dated July 16, 2021.