SolarWinds NPM and Cisco UCS Manager compete in the IT management software category, focusing on network and server management respectively. Cisco UCS Manager appears to have an edge in centralized management and adaptability to different configurations, particularly in large server environments.
Features: SolarWinds NPM is renowned for its SNMP monitoring, customizable alerts, and seamless integration with multiple vendors, providing comprehensive network visibility. Cisco UCS Manager excels in server management with features like ease in server maintenance, centralized management, and flexibility for diverse configurations.
Room for Improvement: SolarWinds NPM needs enhancements in network discovery, accuracy in network mapping, and bulk node management. Its licensing model complicates adoption, requiring better integration with other products. Cisco UCS Manager could improve its interface complexity, firmware upgrade processes, and reduce costs for maintenance and licenses.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds NPM offers versatile deployments from on-premises to hybrid clouds but faces criticism for response times and sales tactics despite generally positive customer service. Cisco UCS Manager, commonly used on-premises, is commended for reliable customer service and technical support.
Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds NPM has competitive pricing; however, its complex licensing might deter smaller companies. Users find value in its network management efficiency. Cisco UCS Manager is pricey compared to competitors like Dell and HP, yet offers stability and reliability justifying the cost. ROI is generally favorable, correlating with deployment scale and organizational needs.
I can manage all LAN uplinks and fiber channel storage uplinks directly from UCS Manager.
Cisco UCS Manager provides cost savings by reducing the time support staff spend on long deployments.
The return on investment is significant as the solution effectively reduces costs while being worth its expense.
With Intersight, service requests are automatically generated, enhancing the user experience and providing timely resolutions.
For a severity one case, a call ensures immediate assistance and resolution of the matter.
Regarding Cisco tech, they are pretty 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.
I can install the hypervisor, such as VMware, and add the servers into the cluster seamlessly.
I would rate the scalability at nine out of ten, probably.
SolarWinds NPM is scalable and effective in handling large network infrastructures.
If there's a really complex problem, I would probably give it a ten since it gets escalated quickly.
The NPM product is stable, particularly when used for simple network monitoring.
We would benefit from advancements in AI that offer firmware recommendations automatically, reducing the need for human intervention and vendor communication.
It doesn't work straight out of the UCS, so someone who knows what they're doing is needed immediately, and it can be quite confusing.
While it has been improved from using Java to HTML, simplifying the tabs would enhance user experience.
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.
Recently, we acquired an excellent bundle with significant discounts, with offers like buying three servers and getting one free, along with UCSC and fabric included for free.
As long as they can afford it, there is a setup cost involved.
PRTG's package offers all features in one bundle, which is cost-effective.
The solution is considered expensive.
It supports ease of deployment, allowing for quick mass deployments in the data center, saving time and resources by doing so from a remote location.
Whenever there's a failure of any component, it's very easy to swap because you just disassociate that profile, remove the faulty blade, connect the new blade, and associate that profile, maintaining the same MAC address and worldwide port name.
One of the valuable features is the user interface base, specifically the C user interface.
It provides a detailed overview of the network, which is valuable.
The most valuable feature for us is the database performance analyzer, which we use a lot.
SolarWinds NPM has specific modules for monitoring different network capabilities, which provides rich features for carrying out specific tasks.
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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