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Engineer at University of California, Irvine
Real User
Makes it easy to track all our devices and find problems
Pros and Cons
  • "The topology map is good. It shows each device and whether it has a safe connection, how long it has been connected, and its activities. That's really helpful. Knowing the map helps our efficiency."
  • "Their system is a little difficult because it shows a lot of LANs and it's a little difficult to find each device. In our system, we have over 20 devices showing and it really takes a long time when I want to find a particular device. If it's easier to use, it will improve work efficiency."

What is our primary use case?

I use it to monitor all the activities in our office, including printers and the internet. It gives notifications for each device.

How has it helped my organization?

As a single, integrated platform, it's easy to track all the devices in the office. That decreases the time it takes for people to work together to find a problem. In some ways, it improves efficiency. 

It keeps our internet safe and helps us to protect our data.

What is most valuable?

The monitoring is really good. It tells us when a printer is out of ink or paper, so we don't need to check it and can deal with the device as soon as possible. It also monitors the internet so that we know whether there is a virus or it is safe. It also backs up our files, which is good.

The topology map is good. It shows each device and whether it has a safe connection, how long it has been connected, and its activities. That's really helpful. Knowing the map helps our efficiency.

It also breaks down priorities, giving us much more time and space for priority jobs. Each day, Auvik saves us at least one to two hours.

What needs improvement?

Their system is a little difficult because it shows a lot of LANs and it's a little difficult to find each device. In our system, we have over 20 devices showing and it really takes a long time when I want to find a particular device. If it's easier to use, it will improve work efficiency.

I would like to see a much simpler platform so that we could learn it faster.

Buyer's Guide
Auvik Network Management (ANM)
September 2024
Learn what your peers think about Auvik Network Management (ANM). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2024.
801,394 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for one month, on a trial basis. We have 12 users of the solution.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I tried another solution, but it was not very good. The functionality was too simple. Auvik provides more detail and more functionality.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of Auvik is okay. It is appropriate for the market.

I prefer a one-time cost and buying something once. I do not like to subscribe.

What other advice do I have?

Auvik doesn't require any maintenance.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Senior Network Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Features a beautiful UI with extensive customization options and provides excellent visibility
Pros and Cons
  • "The extensive personalization and customization options are great because it lets me do a lot. I can set up different permission structures, assign various staff members read-only access and others full access, and customize my notifications."
  • "A feature I'd like to see is a stat breakdown of our networks at the end of every month, showing package drop rates for each network and so on. For example, this data delivered in an email would be a good feature."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use is for notifications and alerts, but also to get a feel for the network because I can see it all on a map, and it looks nice. We don't only use Auvik. 

To paint a picture of our environment, we deploy Auvik for some of our clients, and some of them own multiple facilities, so we have sites for them. Within our company, different individuals have different access levels, some with read-only. We also give some of our clients read-only access so they can see their network if they are curious.

How has it helped my organization?

We are an IT company, so notifications and alerts are essential for us. We can preempt problems because the solution alerts us before the customer even contacts us, so by the time they call, we already have information and an ETA on the fix for them.

Auvik affected our IT team's visibility into remote and distributed networks globally. Everything we do is remote, including initial onsite setups, and we can see how a network looks from the perspective of a nice-looking map. This visibility is important because it helps us see the network more clearly and provides a more physical feel instead of just seeing numbers and settings. Having an actual map of the network components and connections helps significantly.  

We have seen time-to-value with Auvik; it's a beneficial product, and we use it daily. 

We have seen a reduction in our mean time to resolution (MTTR) because the solution allows us to begin troubleshooting very quickly.  

What is most valuable?

The extensive personalization and customization options are great because it lets me do a lot. I can set up different permission structures, assign various staff members read-only access and others full access, and customize my notifications.

Auvik's UI is beautiful. 

The solution's monitoring and management functions are relatively straightforward; with ten being the most difficult, I'd rate Auvik three point five or four. This simplicity is important to my organization.    

Regarding Auvik helping to visualize the network mapping, that's one of the features I love most about it. It shows the network on such a simple level, with the firewall on top, the switches, types of connections, devices, and so on.  

Auvik has excellent integrations with other solutions we use. 

What needs improvement?

A feature I'd like to see is a stat breakdown of our networks at the end of every month, showing package drop rates for each network and so on. For example, this data delivered in an email would be a good feature.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for four to five months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Ten out of ten, we've never had an issue with the solution's stability. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Auvik is highly scalable. 

How are customer service and support?

I've never needed to contact technical support.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward, largely thanks to Auvik's knowledge base. They provided an excellent knowledge base, exact instructions, and courses, which made the process very simple.

Deployment of the solution to a site requires one staff member, and the process includes the following:

  • Installing the connector on a local device.
  • Getting it signed in with the SMPP protocol.
  • Creating the sites and the multi-site.

Following the deployment, we monitor notifications; no other maintenance is necessary.

What about the implementation team?

Auvik assisted us with the initial deployment. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution ten out of ten. We don't use it to control every aspect of the network, but I'm satisfied with what we use it for.

Auvik is the solution for those looking to monitor their networks. It's incredible; my advice is to go for it.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Auvik Network Management (ANM)
September 2024
Learn what your peers think about Auvik Network Management (ANM). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2024.
801,394 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Edward Tregunna - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Enables us to offer better proactive support, thanks to alerting and integration
Pros and Cons
  • "Auvik has a dynamic mapping feature. Once you get things loaded, it will show you how everything is connected. It also shows the alerts on that map, making it a very quick and human-readable way to dig into it. Overall, that visualization is really nice, especially the dynamic facet."
  • "I would like to see more extensive syslog capabilities. It can ingest syslogs and I think it can alert based on quantities of messages. You can also look back at some of the messages, but it's not a forensics level syslog."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is to have a monitoring solution for our managed service clients. That was something we were offering, but we weren't really doing well on that front, in terms of having a proactive monitoring solution. That was the primary pain point we were trying to fix.

How has it helped my organization?

The main benefit is that we are able to offer better proactive support. Previously, we would deploy a lot of Meraki firewalls and we wouldn't really have proactive support on that. Meraki only offers email alerting, so alerts would come in by email and we wouldn't see them and we'd have to devise other means. With Auvik, we provide a quicker turnaround time for network issues. 

It also enables our lower-tier techs to support everything. Normally, especially on the network side, the lower-tier techs are not as able when it comes to conceptualizing the network and visualizing how it's set up. Auvik's dynamic mapping really helps flesh that out. Even less-technically-oriented clients are able to look at Auvik and understand how their network is functioning, at least at a basic level.

In addition to the overall efficiency improvements due to the proactive alerting and the dynamic mapping, the ease of exporting the data that Auvik provides is a big benefit. There are several options throughout the product that allow you to export your data as an Excel spreadsheet. That means you can get the data that Auvik is using to show you everything. That makes it very easy to do asset inventory or to assess the end-of-life of certain products. It takes a lot of the human involvement out of those processes.

Also, in the past, there was a lot of effort that we'd have to put into keeping assets and inventory up to date, and it was mostly through manual data entry. Auvik cuts a lot of that out. Once you have the network monitoring set up, it has all that data that we would normally have to manually enter into ConnectWise, specifically. Now, that information can carry over automatically. So instead of having to do 10 or 15 clicks, and a bunch of typing for each configuration, you just get the network monitoring set up and set up the inventory syncing, and it happens in a couple of minutes.

By keeping inventories up to date, it saves us time. We heavily utilize ConnectWise configurations for determining contract renewals and we're able to focus more on that aspect, and less on ensuring accurate counts.

Another benefit is the ability to use the connector as a "jump-box "and get into other devices. Previously, we would have to either VPN into a network or get into the network through some other remote means, to troubleshoot and configure. But with Auvik, you have the ability to do quick, one-off troubleshooting commands. A technician can do that. You can also get into all the network devices and computers through Auvik itself.

And given the way it alerts, and how it shows the product, it does produce a lower mean time to resolution. 

What is most valuable?

Auvik has a dynamic mapping feature. Once you get things loaded, it will show you how everything is connected. It also shows the alerts on that map, making it a very quick and human-readable way to dig into it. Overall, that visualization is really nice, especially the dynamic facet. You don't have to make those connections manually. Auvik does all that automatically. The mapping is very intuitive. The filters have a little learning curve, but even the part that isn't immediately intuitive is not hard to pick it up.

Other useful features are the typical ones, like configuration management. It will keep track of configuration changes on devices and log them.

The alerting is also definitely important. The solution integrates well with ConnectWise Manage and with Opsgenie, which we use for alerting techs after-hours.

It primarily monitors network devices by SNMP and command-line interface. They only charge for network devices, such as wireless LAN controllers, firewalls, switches, and routers, but they'll also grab and monitor printers through SNMP, Windows devices, and Windows hypervisors through WMI credentials.

Auvik also has a really good feature for keeping device inventories up to date. We haven't used it too much, because of the way that we've set it up. Auvik ends up overriding some of the stuff we do internally, but it has a very good way of keeping assets and inventory up to date. The most useful is the ConnectWise integration. It can find certain values, like serial numbers and it will either produce it if it doesn't exist or create a configuration in ConnectWise to match the device. It's really good for keeping all of our products up to date with the information.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see more extensive syslog capabilities. It can ingest syslogs and I think it can alert based on quantities of messages. You can also look back at some of the messages, but it's not a forensics level syslog.

Also, when it comes to mapping and visualizations, there are some imperfections. If Auvik can't exactly deduce how something is connected, it will show an inferred connection and that makes the map a little messy, but with the preset filters, which you can use to only look at network devices or known connections, you can get all the clutter out of there. Overall, it does a great job, but it would be nice if it had a better export feature. You can export it in a usable format, but it's not on the level of a Visio drawing, if you are trying to produce a network diagram. There's a lot of "in-Auvik" usability, but not necessarily outside of Auvik.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Auvik for a little over a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have had no issues of note, in terms of stability. There may have been one incident, but it was so minor that we don't even remember it. We have not had outage issues. They're usually pretty good about notifying you about outages and, usually, there are no adverse effects.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is great. It's designed for an MSP, so adding more clients is extremely easy. We have yet to have an issue. Granted, we're probably not one of their larger deployments. Maybe at scale, when you get bigger, there are some issues, but so far, with our setup, we've never had any issues with scalability.

It is a cloud solution with an on-prem agent that you deploy at each site. We have it deployed for about 30 clients, and there are multiple collectors per client.

How are customer service and support?

So far, the tech support has been great. The only issue is that they have up to a 24-hour turnaround. Typically it's not that long but it's only available during business hours. For any type of issue we have, we can typically wait that long.

There would be an issue if a high-paying client had some sort of emergency situation.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were dabbling in PRTG Network Monitor. We were not using it in the same way but we would use it for occasional troubleshooting and gathering the same kind of data. That was what we would recommend before having our own product: to do a PRTG instance, given they give you the first 100 sensors for free, which covers a lot of niche issues.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is a straightforward process. After the Auvik code is implemented, it starts to populate network mapping within 10 minutes. Our average time for a full deployment is about an hour and a half.

At a lot of the places where we initially put it in, we didn't have great documentation on what was in that environment or how to get into the devices. If that information is already there, and especially if you have already had a solution in place, it should take less than an hour to get a site completely into Auvik.

There is no maintenance of the solution required at our end. Our support team of about 10 utilizes Auvik pretty frequently in the day-to-day. And client-facing managerial types, like chief information officers, use it quarterly to pull data and information. Other users include anyone else who needs to do troubleshooting or needs information. We have systems and network administrators who occasionally look at it, just to get a feel for the network.

What was our ROI?

The time-to-value was instantaneous. Once we got the deployment done, it immediately allowed us to better support networks in a proactive manner.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We were looking at a few options but it was hard finding the right balance. Some options had a lot of customization and you could get into the nitty-gritty. LogicMonitor was the primary example, but price-wise it was too much.

The other ones were open source and would have taken too much of a personnel investment. We would have had to dedicate someone to the role of understanding, maintaining, and updating the product.

Auvik hit a really good middle ground in that it had the usability and the features that we needed. And it's updated by them so we just have to use it. It's really an ideal solution given our setup.

Another reason that we picked Auvik was that its pricing is very good. The only non-open-source solution that had better pricing was PRTG, but Auvik had it beat in ease of use. All-around, Auvik has a really great price for the market.

In addition, the cloud aspect of Auvik is extremely useful in that we don't have to worry about downtime. We had a bunch of on-prem appliances at our main site, which wasn't really set up to be a data center. There would often be issues with unexpected downtime that would affect us, client-wide. Having Auvik in the cloud helped us immensely. Not having to worry about the infrastructure or the updates definitely takes a load off of our team. Those are areas where we previously had to put in notable effort.

The deployment of Auvik is much quicker than PRTG, given how PRTG sets up its agents. And once you pay for Auvik, there is no additional cost. SolarWinds is a little more complex and doesn't fit the same niche as Auvik. SolarWinds is more focused on a single enterprise, whereas Auvik is more MSP-focused.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
System Administrator at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Automatically generates a visualization of a network, and allows us to quickly understand a network and troubleshoot issues
Pros and Cons
  • "Automatic network mapping, alerting functionalities, and TrafficInsights are valuable."
  • "Some of the discovery methodologies could be improved upon. It removes the device that is offline, but when that gets added back, if there is any custom information saved for that device, such as it's a smartphone, you have to change and reenter the information all over again. It would be nice to not have to manually modify certain devices that get added to the network."

What is our primary use case?

I'm a system administrator. I use it to monitor and automatically draw a network map of our network.

How has it helped my organization?

It has helped us determine better ways to organize some of our physical networking, and it also allowed us to locate and troubleshoot issues more quickly.

It saved me at least a couple of days of work in regard to network mapping. There's a lot of detail that it figures out automatically that otherwise, I would have to do manually. It definitely helped that way. The monitoring is a little bit redundant. We already get emails for some of the things it warns us about, which is fine, but it also warns us about other things that we are not aware of. It saves me some time that way as well.

The network visualizations are quite intuitive. It comes with a number of different controls to manipulate, monitor, and change the visualization of what you're seeing. They're pretty intuitive and don't require many instructions.

We recently opened up a branch office, and it allowed us to visualize that remote network in more detail than we would have before. This visibility is quite important so that we have a better understanding of the way the network is configured and if there are any problems with it. Before, we had no way to visualize which devices were connected to other devices. It just had to be common knowledge or certain documentation, but now, we can visualize our network in real-time and troubleshoot if any issues arise.

What is most valuable?

Automatic network mapping, alerting functionalities, and TrafficInsights are valuable.

The monitoring function is quite easy. It's already set up with a lot of good defaults. So, I didn't have to change too much. The management function is also pretty useful. The interface sometimes takes a little bit of learning to navigate, but besides that, it has been pretty useful so far.

I like the methodology of its deployment and how it's set up. I like how we simply have to put a simple virtual appliance in our environment, and it figures out everything for us. The methodology of how it's designed to be used from that cloud environment works well. 

What needs improvement?

Some of the network map customizations could be improved to show or hide certain components if desired. There are already some tools built in to do that, but they could be improved upon.

Some of the discovery methodologies could be improved upon. It removes the device that is offline, but when that gets added back, if there is any custom information saved for that device, such as it's a smartphone, you have to change and reenter the information all over again. It would be nice to not have to manually modify certain devices that get added to the network.

I would give it pretty good marks in terms of helping to visualize the network mapping or the topology of our organization, but sometimes, the map refreshes in a way that doesn't always make sense. I have to create a support ticket to ask why the map is showing things the way it's showing, but that's more of a learning curve related to learning about the tool itself, but for the most part, it automates that whole process quite well and makes it easy to see what's on the screen.

There could be a mobile app or some type of mobile interface to review details on the go. I haven't tried it yet, and I am not sure if there's one.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for approximately three to four months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

For the most part, it has been quite reliable and stable. There have been a few maintenance windows recently where they needed to fix some issues. It didn't affect me per se, but there was a little bit of downtime for the problems they were having with the collectors. They had to push an update for it, but it didn't concern me too much because it was over the course of a weekend. So, I wasn't paying too much attention to it. I would rate it an 8 out of 10 in terms of stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It seems it would scale very well to a large network, but I don't have experience with it in that scenario. From the way the tool works, it seems that it would be able to map out quite complicated networks and all the details.

Currently, Auvik is monitoring about 220 devices in our organization.

How are customer service and support?

Their support is excellent. I've reached out to their support a couple of times, and every time, they've been very professional and quick to respond. 

I reached out to them recently, and there was very quick detailed research done into the issue. It wasn't a simple issue, but they were able to dig into it and get back to me with some good detailed answers.

I would rate them a 10 out of 10. So far, my experience with their support has been good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used PRTG, but we didn't necessarily switch. We're using both. We're still using PRTG, and we're also using Auvik. So, for managing the network, we are now using two tools. Previously, we used one tool, but now, we're using two tools.

How was the initial setup?

It was straightforward. We implemented it out of the box. Network mapping started to populate in less than 15 minutes after implementing the collector. So, once it's configured, it does the job very quickly.

Its setup time is similar to other solutions. It takes a few hours of installation and configuration and then going from there, you just wait for it to collect the data.

It takes a little bit of time to configure and make sure that it's scanning and pulling in the right information. Some of the information, such as the system name and the type of the system, needed to be updated manually. So, a little bit of manual work needs to be done after the setup, but once it's properly set up, it does help to save time. It took extra three to four hours just for configuring and manually making changes to improve the data collected.

In terms of maintenance, it does require maintenance. On occasions, I need to clean up and monitor unknown and generic devices that show up in the list of devices just to determine if they are trusted devices that should be on the network. So, it's used for seeing what's on the network and paying attention to those devices that get added. We then ensure that they're trusted and should be on the network.

What about the implementation team?

I implemented it on my own. I also take care of the maintenance. I do have other users with access to the service, but they only use it for monitoring. They don't make the changes.

What was our ROI?

We have seen time-to-value with Auvik. It's able to automatically make network maps that otherwise would take a lot of time. It would also take time to customize them manually. So, it has helped automate that task for sure. It has definitely saved about 48 hours.

We haven't seen a reduction in our meantime to resolution (MTTR) because I can't think of any situation where the tool has been involved in those types of scenarios per se. It's more to show the information that we were already aware of. So, it didn't necessarily change that for the better or worse. In the future, there might be a problem where it'll help us troubleshoot deeper by using some of the tools that we didn't have before, such as TrafficInsights.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's quite reasonable, although it's reasonable for us right now only because of the small number of devices we're using. If we had a lot more to monitor, then I'd have to double-check the pricing and compare it with other solutions to see if it would be competitive.

To someone comparing network monitoring solutions but concerned about pricing, I would suggest that trying the product first is key and based on that, you can determine the value. I find the pricing to be reasonable, and I was able to try it first to make my decision.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We didn't evaluate other options. I knew about using Auvik from a previous employer. They had a good trial setup. The reason why I used it in the first place was that I was looking for tools to do network drawing or mapping, and I was aware that Auvik could do that type of work automatically. So, I just signed up for the trial and went from there.

What other advice do I have?

I would suggest letting the tool add all of the networks automatically first as opposed to manually adding certain details and letting it fill in. Just let it gather all the information it can and then worry about cleaning things up. 

Also, I would advise monitoring generic and unknown devices just to understand what is present in the network. I would also advise getting familiar with filters and setting up filters in a way that allows you to customize the tool to suit you best.

Auvik has a single site that allows us to perform a number of dedicated tasks. Having this single site is moderately important for us because we do use other tools as well to collect data on what we're looking for. We're always looking for tools to add to our listing. We don't just always rely on one tool to do all our monitoring. This is an additional tool that we're using, but it offers functionality that our other tools don't necessarily have. That's why we're using it.

Auvik hasn't helped reduce repetitive low-priority tasks through automation because we're just using it for some passive monitoring. I can't think of a situation where that's had to occur per se.

Its automation hasn't had an effect on our IT team's availability. More time has been spent in the software configuring it, and now that it's set up the way we want it, we just go into it every once in a while to browse and see how things are going.

I would rate it an 8 out of 10. There are a few things to improve on, but for the most part, it does exactly what I'm hoping to do, which is automatically help generate a visualization of a network to better understand it and troubleshoot it.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
MS Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
MSP
Network mapping helps me visualize where everything is, and alerts enable us to tackle problems right away
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature in Auvik is that it lets us know when a network is down. It lets us know right away and we can find out what's causing it: whether it's the firewall, an AP, or there's a whole network outage. It makes things easier by giving us an "eye in the sky" when we're not on the site. It's great for monitoring."
  • "I would like to see some recommendations in terms of steps that could be taken to assess the alerts. A platform that I have used is Darktrace, which does security testing, and it let us know what was going on, what may have caused it, and what could be done... if Auvik could recommend common ways to go about doing what needs to be done to resolve an alert, that would be helpful."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to monitor network devices, and for alerts when things are down and when devices need to be fixed. It lets us know about outside-facing IP addresses, external and internal MAC addresses. We use it to monitor everything on all our clients' networks.

How has it helped my organization?

It has saved us, as an organization, a lot of time, although I don't know the exact quantity. It lets us get on things right away, when we get those alerts, so that we can tackle things and get them done within the SLA. It's really quick.

For me, personally, it allows me to learn how a network is mapped out for each site and have a better understanding of what connects to what in terms of location. Auvik is good for helping me to visualize where everything is. In past environments, when working at different companies, I didn't really have that so we didn't know what was going on. It was more that if something went left or broke, we would hear about it by word of mouth. We didn't have the chance to see or have a system that would let us know.

When things are down, it lets us know what to do next. We can remote in or try to power up using PoE and it lets us know from that step. It is our first line of alerting, and from there we'll take the next steps into remoting and using other platforms to then get to the issue. That visibility is really great. It's important due to the fact that, when things are going on, we can easily know. If we're focused on other tasks, or we have a project coming up, it lets us know what's happening across our different clients' networks. 

Based on past experience, Auvik saves me three to four hours daily.

The solution's automation has had a positive effect on our IT team's availability. Compared to where I was before, it saves us hours just identifying what exactly the issue is, where it's happening, and what may have caused it. When major things are down, the other tiers will look at it, while the lower-level alerts will be handed off to level-ones, which they can assess. That saves a lot of time by distributing workload.

And the fact that Auvik keeps device inventories up to date saves us about 
70 percent of the time that would otherwise take.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Auvik is that it lets us know when a network is down. It lets us know right away and we can find out what's causing it: whether it's the firewall, an AP, or there's a whole network outage. It makes things easier by giving us an "eye in the sky" when we're not on the site. It's great for monitoring.

Also, for an audit, Auvik will help us know why something happened and what it was doing before that.

It's really great for visualizing the network. Usually, you only see where things are either in person, or you know how a switch is connected, or to what AP, as well as at the port. But seeing it online, and everything tied together, is amazing. It's something I had never seen before. You really see the design and everything. It's really easy to read and know how it works.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see some recommendations in terms of steps that could be taken to assess the alerts. A platform that I have used is Darktrace, which does security testing, and it let us know what was going on, what may have caused it, and what could be done. Even though everyone has their own troubleshooting style, if Auvik could recommend common ways to go about doing what needs to be done to resolve an alert, that would be helpful.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Auvik for about a month.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable platform.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a scalable solution. We use it for over 90 customers, small and medium-sized businesses, with a total of over 15,000 users. As we get more customers, and as we add devices, we reach out to use more features.

How are customer service and support?

I haven't reached out for any technical issues yet.

I watched some of their videos and that led me to read some of their documentation. It was good, an easy step-by-step guide. There were some pictures too, which made it a little bit more helpful. Most documentation is just text, but they give you a view of the actual platform. That is good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have one other application that we use, ConnectWise RMM, but this is the one that we use heavily. 

How was the initial setup?

First starting out, it was a little bit difficult to use, but I did some training that they provide in the resource library, which was really great. From there on, it was self-explanatory. It was really easy to know how to navigate to the dashboard, review alerts, and use the system in general.

What was our ROI?

Auvik saves you time. It's worth the money.

What other advice do I have?

Auvik has been here since I've been here and it has been great, for the most part. I don't know if our organization was down and out before, but I do know that it's a great platform. It takes the stress off. You have to get your hands on it to truly know what it feels like, but there are no special requirements. I would recommend it.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Senior Network Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
MSP
Allows us to manage our customers and collect configurations, diagnose issues, trace cables, and access devices remotely
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability to trace cables is the most valuable feature. The solution provides link detection and port detection features with the switches. It's invaluable to have the ability to see where one device is connected and identify the exact port without having to trace any cables."
  • "I like the auto-mapping feature, but I would like to see more layouts and predefined views."

What is our primary use case?

We are a managed service provider, but we look after a couple of thousand customers all over Australia. We look after their total IT solutions, and we use Auvik as a network monitoring platform and alerting engine. 

We use Auvik to manage our customers and collect configurations, diagnose issues, trace cables, and access devices remotely. We also use it internally for our own support purposes.

We're an outsourced IT company, so we provide IT to other companies that don't have their own departments or don't have the skills. We might go into a company with an IT department and do projects for them that they don't have the skills or resources to do.

How has it helped my organization?

We will be able to better meet our SLAs with this solution. We have quicker resolution times, and we waste less time on troubleshooting. As an MSP, we charge per user, per month. We charge a fixed fee to our customers, so saved time results in direct profits for us.

The solution's automation has supplemented our IT team's ability. It has saved us in a few niche cases. We're able to access equipment that was otherwise inaccessible.

Auvik helps keep device inventories up to date. We use it with ScalePad, which is a warranty tracking system that generates reports. We use that report and go to our customers and say, "You have five switches that are at end of life and need to be replaced." It helps us a lot.

What is most valuable?

The ability to trace cables is the most valuable feature. The solution provides link detection and port detection features with the switches. It's invaluable to have the ability to see where one device is connected and identify the exact port without having to trace any cables.

It's easy to use the monitoring and management functions. We trained most of our staff on how to administer and monitor the solution without any issues. We have a range of techs from entry-level, all the way to experienced engineers. We haven't found it to be difficult, even with the new people.

Auvik is one of many tools that we use, but it integrates with our other platforms to share data and fit in with our ecosystem.

We have seen time-to-value with Auvik. It has saved us a lot of time. A good example is the automatic configuration backup. One of our customers recently had a switch fail, and it was quite complicated. Reverse engineering what was in place and recreating the configuration would have taken 10 to 20 hours, and the customer would have been down for days. We were able to pull the previous configuration that was automatically generated from Auvik, restore it to a new switch, and have the customer back up within two hours.

What needs improvement?

I like the auto-mapping feature, but I would like to see more layouts and predefined views. At the moment, we're restricted to default views without much customization. The devices and reporting provide a nice map, but it's not at the point where we could generate a 100% accurate topology map because of some of the equipment at some of our customer sites.

The solution doesn't reduce repetitive low-priority tasks through automation as much as we had hoped. The repetitive issues that we see could be solved if Auvik's reporting engine was more configurable. The default reporting is basically limited to what is available out of the box. We can't customize any of the notifications for specific issues. We had to turn off the automatic case generation because it wasn't able to do what we needed it to do.

The reporting engine could definitely be improved, but I've been told that an overhaul is happening.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is great. Every time there's been an outage or an interruption, we've been notified. The uptime is within what we'd expect. No platform is 100% perfect, but it's on par with the market leaders.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We don't have any problems with the scalability.

How are customer service and support?

I would rate technical support a nine out of ten.

Technical support is excellent. I've never had an issue with them. They've always been responsive and more than willing to help.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We evaluated SolarWinds and some other vendors several years ago. We chose Auvik because of the integration with vendors. All of the vendors we use are supported. The instructions on integrations are great. The device communication is easy, and the platform is very intuitive and well-polished. Our only complaint is that it's lacking a few key features, but it has ticked most of the boxes and has required the least amount of overhead.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was straightforward. The knowledge base is quite comprehensive. Everything we wanted was documented. If we had any questions, the support team was excellent.

We implemented Auvik out of the box. For accurate results, it took 24 hours after implementation before our network mapping started to populate.

It took 1/10th of the time to set up Auvik compared to other solutions.

Four people were needed for implementation. Their responsibilities were to configure sites. We're an MSP, so we initially deployed Auvik at 50 sites. The tasks were delegated. We have an internal process for everything we do, which includes snippets from the Auvik documentation, but we created our own customized documentation. 

I was responsible for project management, documentation creation, and task delegation. I delegated setting up the sites and configuring the sites to our senior engineers, and they deployed Auvik at 50 customer sites.

What about the implementation team?

We're an integrator, so we did the setup ourselves.

What was our ROI?

The solution has saved us time by 80%.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution as eight out of ten. 

There are a few things that are missing that we've been promised in the future and that would make the product excellent for our needs. In terms of what we need, it definitely adds value. 

To someone comparing network monitoring solutions but concerned about pricing, my advice is to make sure that the solution fits your needs. Check out the feature set and the reporting, and be realistic about what you expect it to do.

The solution is scalable. You pay for what you use. It's a comprehensive solution to monitor everything. The pricing is fair, and you only pay for what you use and for the devices that are managed by Auvik. It's quite affordable compared to other solutions, and it's scalable.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: MSP
PeerSpot user
Junior System Administrator at IT Firm
Real User
Top 20
The network visualization is highly intuitive because you can select all the devices from the top to see the firewall, switches, and endpoint devices
Pros and Cons
  • "In the past, I would manually input the credentials and IP address of a single device from my machine and access the device, which took a lot of time. A task that previously took 40-45 minutes can be completed in less than five minutes with Auvik. It reduces the time needed to check a device for a single company, so we can act quickly before a disaster happens."
  • "Onboarding devices could be easier. When you first add a device to the Auvik platform, you need to add each one by hand. It would be nice if they could automate the process where we only need to run a script."

What is our primary use case?

I use Auvik to monitor, check, and access all network licenses for different companies, including firewalls, servers, and other devices. The Auvik collector is deployed on the servers and in the management station. The agent collects all the information in the network and sends it to Auvik. Auvik's network map will display all of the devices. If a device is offline, it won't show, but the collector will automatically add it to the Auvik platform when it comes online.

How has it helped my organization?

I had never used software like Auvik. In the past, I would manually input the credentials and IP address of a single device from my machine and access the device, which took a lot of time. A task that previously took 40-45 minutes can be completed in less than five minutes with Auvik. It reduces the time needed to check a device for a single company, so we can act quickly before a disaster happens.

Auvik enabled me to automate a lot of repetitive tasks, saving me about an hour each day. It also improved our overall visibility by helping us to visualize the entire network topology and it made troubleshooting much easier because we can see what is happening with a device or throughout the entire network. When we receive an alert, we can look at the network topology to see if the issue is isolated to one device or if it's affecting other components. This gives us a better understanding of the problem's overall impact. 

The solution has also freed our team members up to do other tasks because they no longer need to check all the devices manually. We can do other tasks while Auvik is running in the background and monitoring the situation for us. Auvik keeps our device inventories up to date. When the inventory is added to Auvik, it keeps a register of all the information. It will notify us if we need to update or change something. 

What is most valuable?

What I like most about Auvik is that I can access all devices from a single location, and I don't need to input or remember all the information of the device like the IP address or the credentials.

Auvik sends lots of alerts if something is happening with a certain device. For example, if a device is offline, it will send you an email to say you need to check that. It will notify you if Auvik sees something irregular, like a process using excessive CPU or memory. Configuring it is somewhat difficult, but the monitoring is simple. It's essential because we would need to manually research if something is happening with a device, and that takes a long time.

It's fairly simple to see all the devices in the topology. The only difficult part is to add the devices themselves Auvik won't discover devices automatically. We need to add them manually and input the credentials. After that, it's effortless to examine and check all the devices and troubleshoot a situation by only looking at the topology.

The network visualization is highly intuitive because you can select all the devices from the top to see the firewall, switches, and endpoint devices, like all the computers and servers. You can see all the connections between all those devices. It is handy for a network engineer to see all the connections and pick a device to see its information.

What needs improvement?

Onboarding devices could be easier. When you first add a device to the Auvik platform, you need to add each one by hand. It would be nice if they could automate the process where we only need to run a script. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Auvik for nearly a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Auvik is fairly stable. We rarely have any issues with the platform or installing the collectors on the devices. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We can apply Auvik to everything, and I don't see any limit for it to keep growing. You can implement it in any company on any network, and it will give you all the information about your devices.

How are customer service and support?

I rate Auvik support a nine out of ten. We once had an issue installing the collector on a server. It was on a virtual machine, but Auvik's support was helpful in that case. They responded quickly and were kind. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

I wasn't present for the initial setup, but I have deployed Auvik on other sites that we need to integrate. It was a little complex in the beginning because I was unfamiliar with the platform. My coworkers had to explain how this works, including how to integrate a device and check all the logs. Once I learned how to do that, it was pretty straightforward because it only involves a few steps. The network map starts to populate within 10 minutes. 

In terms of maintenance, Auvik is lightweight on our side because the vendor handles all of the upgrades. When there is scheduled maintenance, we usually see a message at the top of the Auvik platform saying that there will be an interruption of service. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Auvik a nine out of ten. The only difficult part about this solution is the installation because it's something new. Everything goes smoothly after the first step.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Global IT Security Administrator at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Automatically builds and updates network topology and helps us in standardizing our platforms
Pros and Cons
  • "The visibility that it provides is probably the most valuable feature because we need to know what our sites look like. Understanding what our sites look like and knowing about what kind of network gear or network equipment these sites are running is very important for us. Previously, we didn't have visibility into everything."
  • "They can definitely build more alerts."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for visibility into remote sites. We use it to fix misconfigurations that come up, investigate network issues or network slowdowns, and alert us if devices go down.

In terms of deployment, it is pretty much all cloud-based. There is an agent that you put on a server for your site.

How has it helped my organization?

We have been able to see potential misconfigurations across the network where things like STP are not set up properly. 

It has helped us to deal with issues proactively. When disk space is low on endpoints or servers, we have set up alerts to preemptively reach out to people so that we can take care of it before it becomes a bigger issue. We are able to let users know that we need to upgrade the storage on servers or endpoints.

The automation of network mapping has allowed us more time to focus on things that we deem necessary. It has enabled our junior network specialist to resolve issues directly and freed up senior-level team members to perform higher-value tasks.

I am sure it has decreased our mean time to resolution, but it is something that I need to reconfirm with our local system administrators. 

It automatically updates our network topology. It has also simplified our operations and saved the time of our staff members to a limited degree. Our structure is a little bit different from most companies, so I can't describe the full impact, but it has been helpful for the visibility that it provides into local networks.

What is most valuable?

The visibility that it provides is probably the most valuable feature because we need to know what our sites look like. Understanding what our sites look like and knowing about what kind of network gear or network equipment these sites are running is very important for us. Previously, we didn't have visibility into everything.

Its network discovery capabilities are excellent. It is able to automatically scan subnets as long as they're reachable from the host machine. After you have installed it, you can choose which subnets you want to scan to build your network. It will automatically build a topographic map of the network, which is good to understand the structure of each of these networks. It does this in a fairly quick response time and with ease of use and ease of access. 

Alerting is a great feature. We have been able to set up alerts for devices to preemptively reach out to users and let them know that we need to upgrade the storage on servers or endpoints. 

It is very easy to use and deploy. You can easily configure network monitoring on the sites.

What needs improvement?

They can definitely build more alerts. Firewalls can be more integrated to provide more information, and there can be better integration with Meraki. 

It also needs ports for stack switches. Getting into the Office 365 realm would also be a good thing for them.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Auvik for about eight months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is rock-solid in terms of stability. We have not had any downtime. It hasn't gone down on us. Maintenance windows are scheduled appropriately, and notifications are sent out in advance.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very scalable. It is currently being used in 15 to 20 different networks. Across global sites, we probably monitor more than 1,000 devices.

How are customer service and technical support?

I haven't really had to use their technical support. We've just taken help from our onboarding success manager.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We needed something that was easy to deploy and gave us visibility. We also needed something that we could standardize across the sites.

How was the initial setup?

It is certainly easy enough to deploy. Our strategy was to work with each site for a couple of hours to install the agents and have the credentials in place in Auvik. We repeated this for every company that we had, and it took us about two months to deploy it to more than 20 organizations. 

What about the implementation team?

In its deployment, 10 to 15 system administrators were involved. Auvik has an onboarding specialist, and this specialist was the only person whose help we required. Their specialist was top-notch, professional, and caring, and our experience was great.

It is a cloud-based solution, so we don't have to do any maintenance. 

What was our ROI?

We have seen our return on investment in terms of visibility and standardizing of platforms. Auvik has enabled us to standardize our platforms. We have replaced all of our other local network monitors with a single platform. I don't know if it has really saved us in licensing costs. It is not cheap, but it has allowed us to consolidate all our other platforms.

Taking into account Auvik's setup time, automated network mapping, and documentation,
it has a pretty good time to value.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Its pricing is a little on the high end. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees. 

It is more expensive than other solutions, but their per-device model is very fair. Anything other than the networking gear is monitored by Auvik at no charge.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated LogicMonitor. LogicMonitor has a much wider breadth in what it can do and monitor. It is also much more configurable than Auvik, but Auvik is easier to roll out in a quicker timeframe. Auvik also wins with the autodiscovery and mapping features.

What other advice do I have?

It is definitely for larger networks, and the ease of deployment is where Auvik shines. 

It provides automated out-of-the-box device configuration backups, but we do not use this feature. We are also not using as many TrafficInsights features as we would like to use. We are planning to use more, but at this time, we do not utilize many TrafficInsights features.

I would rate Auvik an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Auvik Network Management (ANM) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: September 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Auvik Network Management (ANM) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.