NetBrain Reviews

We were originally using NetBrain for mapping and that was our primary purpose. Since then, I have developed a couple of unique functions inside NetBrain that go out across the network and locate specific pieces of equipment. The parameters for that equipment is a very unique state of interface, a switch port interface, drawing on POE power. The devices I'm looking for are Primex clocks and they continue pulling POE power, but they shut down the interface for data. It creates a down interface state, but a POE up state which is very unusual. I use NetBrain to crawl through the site, particularly where we had a bunch of these installed and were looking for those two conditions. It was a matter of pulling and comparing to get a final result value. That was very helpful. I'm a senior systems engineer and we are customers of NetBrain. 

The original case was mapping and the solution enabled us to draw out our maps instead of hand draw the maps with the links and everything else. It's okay on the value, a bit expensive for just maps, but makes it a lot easier to see things visually and take it from there.

We used NetBrain for troubleshooting our network. For example, it would show an example of latency and then identify where in the process there's a breakdown. We could also see the network traffic, network load, and other statistics.

This product has good network monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities.

• On-Demand
• Full-map
• L2 troubleshooting

They will show more errors than you think! Fix them as you find them and the network gremlins just go away.

On-Demand Mapping of what’s actually configured vs. what the network architect intended at build is incredibly valuable. Things change over time. Subtle changes can be significant.

Crowd-sourced network documentation is a huge time-saver. It’s incredibly simple and level-sets your documentation.

When a trouble ticket comes in, for source and destination protocol, we can map out the environment, and at a glance see if there’s lower layer issues (CRC’s, negotiation, etc.), check routes, and see if there were any changes in minutes. This is an incredible time saver.

Having engineers update their documentation as they work on projects, on-call engineers can instantly see what’s actually there at a moment’s notice. This has greatly reduced our MTTI and MTTR scoring. Having the updated documentation means every engineer can pull up what’s really there, what’s changed and what’s broken in seconds, this is versus having every engineer with varied backgrounds manually tracing paths and figuring out whatever they stumble across.

Our primary use for this solution is providing services for layer 2 and layer 3 network mapping. We go into companies that have engaged us for some type of network product in the collation and we map out the network to do analysis. Because we are mostly using the product for the mapping feature, we have the Consultant Edition of the program which is portable and fits our needs perfectly for servicing clients.

We are managed-service providers, so we get engaged at a project level to make network changes on networks that we've never seen before. NetBrain provides us an overview and background on the network as it currently stands so that I can do a security analysis and move the project forward using an accurate picture of the network. It eliminates the possibilities that the picture will be inaccurate and saves time.

The enterprise edition NetBrain is fine. It's gotten a little more complicated in the last few years to use, but I've never had a problem with either version actually not performing its job.

NetBrain is a very simple tool.

It is very good when it comes to network mapping, as it looks for different assets within the network available, so router, firewall, applications, et cetera, and it gives you the full mapping, asset mapping along with the full range including the firmware software update and all those things. 

NetBrain is not an NDR solution. It's very strong doing at layer seven. NDR, looks at seven layers, including application level. NetBrain is stronger at layers three and four and that's it. NetBrain can be very useful if there is any misconfiguration on the firewall or unused policies on the firewall, which could be a triggering point to open back doors for an attacker to come from the internet to exploit vulnerabilities. 

The solution is stable.

It can scale well.

We had no problem setting it up. 

The solution is pretty economical. 

NetBrain is a very simple tool, however, it's not an NDR. It doesn't have the capabilities to run PCAPs and so on.

The solution could integrate more automation.

If the product has to be evolved, it should have more added functionality in the sense of adding PCAPs functionality and looking at the L7 kind of traffic. Also, NetBrain could be very useful if it supported OT (operational technology). I hear a lot of industrial customers, mainly belonging to oil and gas, running the SCADA systems. NetBrain is very good when it comes to IT, however, if they built in the OT part as well, so that we can look at some SCADA systems, HMI, PLCs, and things like that, it would be ideal. It would also give full visibility of what is happening in and around the OT side. Maybe down the line, they will need to add these capabilities. 

The most valuable feature of the solution is that you can click once and have a link test. I can see my network. It gives me an overall view of my network and the state of how it is. 

Chain management is a good feature. I don't get it on other solutions.

The interface is very user-friendly.

The pricing needs to be improved.

It would be nice if the setup was a little simpler. Also, if the solution could provide more training materials for new people coming into our company so they can quickly learn how to use the functionalities.