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.
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.
The solution is designed for large enterprise companies.
SolarWinds NPM is scalable and effective in handling large network infrastructures.
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.
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.
Features such as taking backup of the devices or configurations of the devices can be included in further versions of SolarWinds NPM.
PRTG's package offers all features in one bundle, which is cost-effective.
The solution is considered expensive.
The most valuable features include AI-driven insights which make troubleshooting much easier.
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.
The most valuable feature for us is the database performance analyzer, which we use a lot.
Cisco DNA Center offers a comprehensive platform for network automation and management, providing detailed analytics, enhanced security, and streamlined operations for both wired and wireless networks.
Cisco DNA Center integrates with Cisco infrastructure to deliver efficient network automation and management, helping organizations improve network visibility, security, and control. It supports AI-driven analytics and automated workflows to enhance operational efficiency and reduce errors. Challenges include compatibility with third-party systems, steep learning curve, and complex deployment. Its interface facilitates centralized control, vital for troubleshooting, policy management, and configuration management, with support for zero-touch provisioning and SD-Access.
What are the key features of Cisco DNA Center?In sectors such as healthcare, finance, and retail, Cisco DNA Center is utilized for its ability to enhance security and compliance, manage large-scale networks, and provide detailed analytics for better operational decision-making. Its support for location tracking and policy automation ensures efficient network management across diverse environments.
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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