Cisco DNA and licenses

[ironising84]

First off, in Cisco DNA essentials training, and holy **bleep**, this is the worst training I've ever been in. The labs are just godawful, and to be honest, I'm not impressed with the product either. We've pretty much decided we're not interested in DNA.

For the licensing, the Cisco slides show what things are included with Network Essentials vs Network Advantage, and DNA essentials vs DNA advantage. Our VAR tells us they are tied together, so if you want the advanced network features, you must also buy the advanced DNA feature set.

Anyone confirm this is true? The product seems bad and we don't want it...

[jsicuranza]

As a long time Cisco supporter since 1992 - I studied ACI, DNA, HCI Cisco's related products over the years from reading many Cisco Press books etc. Though these recent solutions are compelling they are very confusing, overlapping and provide so many "knobs" it is just baffling to look at times. Then sprinkle all the SD, SASE and other buzzwords across those products and it is confusing. I mean Does DNA run the whole thing? ACI or Multi-Site Orchestrator (MSO) etc, do they overlap and so on. And that is just the DC/Enterprise stuff let along the security portfolio they offer.  Just a confusing mess it seems. Now  don't get me wrong unifying their ASR/ISR line under the catalyst line name makes things simpler but still. Just my two cents.