Cisco Catalyst Center vs OVN-Kubernetes
Cisco Catalyst Center
cisco.comOVN-Kubernetes
ovn-kubernetes.ioSide by side
| Figure | Cisco Catalyst Center | OVN-Kubernetes |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 0 |
| Spec score · Microsegmentation Software | 7.7 (#9) | 7.4 (#13) |
| Deployment | Cisco describes hardware and virtual appliance deployments, including current guides for VMware ESXi and Ubuntu KVM. | It can be deployed on Kubernetes with Helm or kubeadm, run in Kind for development and testing, and installed with DPU acceleration. |
| Founded | 1984 | 2014 |
| Purpose | Cisco Catalyst Center is a centralized network controller and management dashboard for enterprise network operations. | OVN-Kubernetes is an open-source Kubernetes networking solution and CNI-conformant plugin built on OVN and Open vSwitch. |
| Support | Cisco says Catalyst and Cisco DNA software subscriptions include embedded software support and downloads; opening a support case requires a Cisco Service Contract. | The project holds open community meetings on alternate Mondays at 5:00 PM CET/CEST using CNCF Zoom. |
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.
OVN-Kubernetes
OVN-Kubernetes is a free, open-source networking solution and CNI-conformant plugin for Kubernetes, built on OVN and Open vSwitch. It handles pod IP allocation and interfaces, GENEVE overlays, Kubernetes Services, EndpointSlices, network policies, and IPv4/IPv6 dual-stack clusters. OVN ACLs enforce NetworkPolicy, AdminNetworkPolicy, and EgressFirewall rules; EgressIP, EgressService, and EgressQoS govern outbound traffic. Pods can join multiple networks, and the project also supports multicast, traffic shaping, BGP route advertisements, and SmartNIC or DPU offload. For KubeVirt, it provides persistent IPs during live migration; Hybrid Overlay enables mixed Windows and Linux networking. Deployment documentation covers Kind, Helm, DPU acceleration, kubeadm, and source builds. Requirements depend on OVN, nft, Multus, CNI, and Kubernetes versions; the master branch lists Kubernetes 1.33 or newer. Secondary User Defined Networks currently lack north-south traffic and core Kubernetes Services support. AdminNetworkPolicy APIs remain alpha and may change before stable v1.