Observability benefits of Cisco Catalyst Center integration
LogicMonitor's agentless collection has long provided customers with many benefits for collecting telemetry data directly from network devices. Recently, LogicMonitor added another feature, enabling the discovery of devices/sites and the collection of telemetry data from the Cisco Catalyst Center. Retaining options is essential due to the pros and cons associated with each approach.
Network teams have never had more devices to manage or more ways to monitor them. In 2024, the number of IoT devices worldwide surpassed 15 billion and it’s projected to double by 2030. As networks grow in scale and complexity, traditional monitoring methods can quickly become inefficient. That’s why LogicMonitor helps simplify device management through agentless collection, pulling telemetry directly from network devices without the overhead of installing agents on each one.
Now, there’s an even smarter option: LogicMonitor can also collect data directly from Cisco Catalyst Center. For teams that already rely on Catalyst Center as their source of truth, this integration offers faster discovery, fewer redundant SNMP polls, and reduced strain on devices that weren’t designed for constant polling.
In this post, we’ll explore how the integration works, how streaming telemetry fits in, and why it’s a major improvement for monitoring modern, cloud-managed networks.
TL;DR
Direct integration between LogicMonitor and Cisco Catalyst Center eliminates redundant SNMP polling
Streaming telemetry delivers real-time visibility without overloading devices
Wireless and hybrid environments benefit from centralized control and automation
Using Catalyst Center and SNMP together gives you real-time visibility along with detailed device-level diagnostics, all in one platform
Streaming telemetry: A powerful new approach to Network Monitoring
Historically, most telemetry has been pulled from devices by SNMP polling. LogicMonitor supports this widely adopted and proven approach.
Network operations teams face a trade-off between the speed of device changes being visible and the duration of the polling interval. A short polling interval leads to rapid visibility of changes yet increases data collection and puts a heavier processing load on networking devices. Conversely, a longer polling interval prolongs the time required to detect changes.
In response to these tradeoffs, the network industry has developed streaming telemetry. This enables the immediate transmission of telemetry data without any polling from a network manager. As streaming telemetry is not yet uniform across all devices, it can be beneficial for a network equipment vendor to provide a manager that collects streaming telemetry from its own devices.
An example of this is Cisco Catalyst Center.
Streaming telemetry has found compelling applicability within cloud-managed networking (CMN)—devices managed from a cloud-based solution—as polling often has cost implications for the SaaS provider.
Cisco Catalyst Center integration
Cisco Catalyst devices, including access points and wireless LAN controllers, establish sessions with Cisco Catalyst Center. LM Envision receives metrics and events through Cisco’s intent-based API.
Note: LM Envision expands coverage of different Cisco device types continuously.
Cisco Catalyst Integration Benefits
Integrating Cisco Catalyst Center with LogicMonitor makes it faster and easier to get devices into your monitoring platform, often in under an hour, without extra setup. By pulling telemetry directly from the Catalyst Center, teams reduce SNMP load, simplify discovery, and gain more accurate visibility across wireless environments.
Here are some of the key benefits Cisco Catalyst integration brings to your monitoring strategy.
Rapid onboarding: New devices are discovered quickly using Catalyst Center’s built-in processes
Reduced SNMP strain: Devices aren’t overloaded with frequent polling
Support for modern wireless platforms: Includes 9800 Series Wireless Controllers, optimized for model-driven telemetry
Smarter controller tracking: Avoids confusion between primary/secondary controllers by centralizing data in Catalyst Center
For network operations teams, this means fewer blind spots and less time chasing down inconsistent metrics.
Wireless Observability + Real-Time Security
Catalyst Center enhances wireless monitoring by mapping devices, access points, and roaming behavior into one centralized view.
No more bouncing between tools to diagnose dropped connections or spotty Wi-Fi. With integrated policy enforcement via Cisco identity services, security becomes proactive rather than reactive.
And when all of that data flows into LogicMonitor, it doesn’t stop at visualization. You gain real-time alerts, correlated insights across your full stack, and faster root cause analysis, especially in complex or hybrid networks.
Better Wi-Fi and stronger security don’t have to be a trade-off. With the Catalyst Center, you get both.
Cisco Catalyst Center integration differences
The information available via Cisco Catalyst Center is not as granular as that used by SNMP. For example, the Cisco Catalyst Center intent API may not deliver detailed information about each fan or interface, but it reports on health and generates alerts when issues arise.
The integration’s overall high availability characteristics depend on the setup of Cisco Catalyst Center. Without a high-availability configuration, LogicMonitor could lose temporary visibility. However, with high availability configured, Cisco Catalyst Center is no longer a single point of telemetry failure.
LM Envision customers can use the Cisco Catalyst Center integration and SNMP polling simultaneously. The former might be leveraged to rapidly discover infrastructure and gain insights into health, performance, and issues, whereas the latter can be layered on, as needed, for additional granularity.
LM Envision for all Network Monitoring needs
LogicMonitor is pleased to add another monitoring option for Cisco customers. In addition, LM Envision enables monitoring of a wide range of switches, routers, SD-WAN devices, firewalls, and more from multiple vendors, including Cisco Catalyst Center as another option.
LogicMonitor continues to support a wide range of network equipment and vendors through multiple approaches. Now, with the addition of Cisco Catalyst Center, LM Envision is a leading solution for all hybrid network monitoring needs and hybrid observability. Learn more about the Network Monitoring solution here.
