SolarWinds NPM and Cisco DNA Center compete in the network management category. Based on feature comparisons, Cisco DNA Center seems to have the upper hand due to its advanced analytics and automation capabilities.
Features: SolarWinds NPM is known for quick deployment, numerous configuration options, and modular pricing, providing robust network monitoring and compatibility with multiple vendors' devices. Cisco DNA Center stands out for advanced analytics, centralized network management, and robust security features.
Room for Improvement: SolarWinds NPM could improve in areas like resource utilization, complex alert configuration, and required additional modules for more features. It also faces issues with scalability and integration. Cisco DNA Center's challenges include high pricing, complexity in deployment, and limited integration with non-Cisco hardware.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds NPM provides on-premises and hybrid cloud deployment options but has mixed customer service reviews. Cisco DNA Center offers mainly on-premises deployment with robust customer support but can be challenging for first-time users.
Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds NPM has a cost-effective pricing model, praised for monitoring needs and scalability. Cisco DNA Center, although considered expensive, is noted for justifying the investment with advanced features.
Although Cisco DNA Center is expensive, we have seen a return on investment in terms of time savings.
The return on investment is significant as the solution effectively reduces costs while being worth its expense.
Overall, Cisco DNA Center rates eight out of ten as a complete solution.
The support for Cisco DNA Center is good.
If there is no timely response, getting a resolution is more difficult.
We had contact with SolarWinds regarding the implementation, and they were helpful.
They have good technical support.
From my experience, we can easily manage numerous devices.
The solution is designed for large enterprise companies.
SolarWinds NPM is scalable and effective in handling large network infrastructures.
When we communicate problems, they solve them effectively.
The NPM product is stable, particularly when used for simple network monitoring.
The AI-driven insights have contributed significantly to faster troubleshooting and predictive analytics.
The client history in Cisco DNA Center can be longer than 10 days, perhaps extending to 15 or 20 days.
Customers have given feedback about the delayed response times from the technical team.
SolarWinds needs to upscale on observability and add full-fledged observability features, including security features.
I would need a feature in SolarWinds in the future for some kind of malfunctioning detection, such as malware attacks or that type of environment.
It is not too pricey and is adequate.
PRTG's package offers all features in one bundle, which is cost-effective.
The solution is considered expensive.
If there is a problem, I can inspect the situation and see what is happening, which is beneficial.
The most valuable features include AI-driven insights which make troubleshooting much easier.
Whenever any node is down in our network, whether it is a server or any network device, we receive information through email that the device is down.
It provides a detailed overview of the network, which is valuable.
SolarWinds NPM has specific modules for monitoring different network capabilities, which provides rich features for carrying out specific tasks.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| SolarWinds NPM | 3.4% |
| Cisco DNA Center | 1.0% |
| Other | 95.6% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 10 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 9 |
| Large Enterprise | 25 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 59 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 33 |
| Large Enterprise | 85 |
Cisco DNA Center delivers powerful centralized security, automation, and comprehensive analytics for enhanced network management. With an intuitive dashboard and integration with Cisco devices, it reduces errors, boosts efficiency, and ensures seamless wired and wireless network operations.
Organizations leverage Cisco DNA Center for network management and automation, offering increased visibility into traffic flows and efficient device provisioning. It supports real-time data transmission, network segmentation, and integrates with ISE. Features like wireless assurance, centralized management, and AI-driven insights into network health promote an efficient network environment while addressing compliance issues. However, improvements are necessary for better third-party integration, affordability, and more user-friendly documentation.
What are the solution's most important features?In industries like healthcare, finance, and education, Cisco DNA Center's advanced features facilitate the management of complex network infrastructures and aid in achieving compliance efficiently. Its ability to manage LANs and WLANs supports diverse networking environments including greenfield projects and SPN setups.
SolarWinds NPM is a network monitoring solution that enables you to detect, diagnose, and resolve network performance issues and outages quickly and efficiently. The solution is a powerful tool that can help you increase service levels, reduce downtime with multi vendor network monitoring, simplify the management of complex network devices, improve operational efficiency, and much more.
SolarWinds NPM Features
SolarWinds NPM has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:
SolarWinds NPM Benefits
There are several benefits to implementing SolarWinds NPM. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:
Reviews from Real Users
Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the SolarWinds NPM solution.
PeerSpot user Andrew N., Senior Network Engineer at Element Critical, says, “The "Performance Analyzer" feature is the solution's most valuable aspect. It's able to do the bounded graphs of all the interface stats, from errors to broadcasts and to current traffic. With a click of a button you're able to, in one interface, look at historical data for those items.” He also adds, “From the troubleshooting point of view, just having that peace of mind is great. And, The solution is extremely stable. We haven't had any issues in that regard. We haven't had issues with bugs, glitches, or crashes."
Daniel S., Systems and Data Warehouse Supervisor at MMSD, mentions, “The alerting and usage tracking is a valuable feature because it alerts us when we're getting near capacity on disk space, network utilization or processor utilization. It helps us manage our capacity and enables us to be proactive.”
A Senior Vice President and CIO at a financial services firm explains, “As we look to add more servers to our virtual environment and to understand the impact, the solution allows us to dig into the historical charts related to capacity planning. It also gives us visibility of spikes and allows us to track down the reasons for their occurrences. So too, it makes room for potential processes that have gotten hung or runaway and to know when it's time to reboot a server or service.”
Dinesh N., Digital Innovation at Bobcat Company, states, “The best part of the solution is the sharing display. It gives a general public ID wherein everyone can link to a public display. That's a good feature.”
Fazal A., Implementation & Support Specialist at 360Factors, comments, “We have configured multiple alerts for our network devices, including routers and switches, so that we are notified if any interface goes down. In the event an interface goes down, we have multiple reports that include availability monitoring, network uptime monitoring, and network downtime monitoring. These reports are on multiple schedules such as the end of the day, end of the last business day of the week, monthly, and quarterly. This gives us the ability to provide reports to our management and let them know the performance of our network.”
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