Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

DX Spectrum vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

DX Spectrum
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
22nd
Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring
23rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
116
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (6th), Network Troubleshooting (7th), DX NetOps (2nd)
SolarWinds NPM
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
4th
Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
157
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Monitoring Software (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of DX Spectrum is 1.1%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 5.2%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

DickBaker - PeerSpot reviewer
An all-inclusive monitoring solution that adapts to emerging technologies
The product helps to correlate events.  The solution's most valuable features are its integration with Broadcom tools and scalability. DX Spectrum needs better documentation on its complex features.  I have been using the product since 2005.  I rate DX Spectrum's stability an eight point five…
MohitKumar - PeerSpot reviewer
High-level, comprehensive, and proactive monitoring in a user-friendly interface
The solution needs to integrate with additional SDN technologies that are part of the hyper market. The solution supports many vendors by default and just included Meraki SDN with the new release, but continued expansion is important. We created a custom method to pair with unsupported vendors but that can produce a lag in performance so future releases should expand SDN support. The solution does a good job of automating features but could expand that even more.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"We can plan changes and replacement of end-of-life products in our environment very well because it's very accurate."
"The solution's most valuable features are its integration with Broadcom tools and scalability."
"It creates transparency and makes everything work by being more transparent."
"The tool is very mature, and its valuable features are monitoring and configuration management."
"The main thing is obviously notifications about alerts, getting ahead of the curve to make sure that we do not have system going down, or if it is down we get to know it earlier."
"The most valuable feature is the event correlation mechanism."
"What I like best is the configuration management functionality."
"The capability of handling and monitoring with SNMP and working with the SNMP traps is much better than other products."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the monitoring capabilities."
"The other valuable system is the DSS (decision support system). If there's a fault in the network, SolarWinds is basically capable of rectifying and resolving that problem on its own without any intervention from an IP assistant or administrator."
"It's easy to understand, even if you are not too technical."
"The solution is easy to install and it takes a couple of hours."
"The most valuable features of SolarWinds NPM are network performance monitoring and the overall benefit for servers."
"The people in technical support are very good."
"I love the GUI. Almost everything is accessible through the web interface. It is very user-friendly. It is easy to drag and drop resources wherever you want them."
"I believe the ease of setup and use, including everything, from the initial installation to the discovery of devices is the most valuable."
 

Cons

"I would like to see CA move Spectrum, Performance Manager, and some of their other tools moved to a SaaS based model. You see a lot of other manufacturers which are moving toward SaaS based models."
"We have had some issues with the spec server and the high availability replication of data. It fails over well, but it does not come back very well. We get duplicated events."
"I would like to see better scalability, and maybe, a more intuitive user interface. ​"
"Its visualization can be improved. It doesn't have a very advanced GUI. It is very basic and simple, but it does work."
"DX Spectrum is stable. However, now and then there are some issues, but overall it is good."
"It doesn't really allow for multi-tenancy. If you're an ISP or an MSP and you want to use this tool to provide these types of fault management services to your customers, you would need a separate SpectroSERVER for each customer..."
"We have had one support issue that's been open for a couple of months, and it is currently open."
"The interface is not nice and needs to be improved."
"SolarWinds NPM could improve the graphics of the interface and more customized reporting."
"The solution's database performance could be improved."
"Better offline license management. I’ve had to get in touch with customer support several times simply to remove an expired license from our NPM servers."
"The price could be better."
"Real-time analytics is the major weakness of the SolarWinds NPM platform today. They've done a fantastic job enabling the collection of data. Users are now demanding the ability to generate their own graphs, views, and so on; all of this must be done by an admin today."
"Application Performance Monitoring should be included in this solution."
"The market is changing, and people are expecting automation. I think that's a disadvantage."
"The solution is not always good with new features, so it's take a long time."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Since the acquisition by Broadcom, we have not had such a good experience with licensing and pricing. Since they were bought by Broadcom, every sales contract is getting complicated. It's very complicated, and it's much more expensive than before. It's not a good pricing strategy from Broadcom."
"It’s a great tool, but an expensive one. Learn how to use it properly."
"The price is very high."
"The price is good enough to expect an ideal solution. It's expensive."
"DX Spectrum's pricing is neither expensive nor cheap."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"It is expensive compared to other tools in the market."
"It is very pricey. With the current trend of enterprises moving towards cheaper and more modern looking solutions like ManageEngine, SevOne, ServicePilot, and Paesller."
"The standard licensing fees are what we're paying. It's about $20,000 a year for all our licensing."
"SolarWinds NPM has different pricing models available. The cost of the solution is less than some competitors."
"USD $15,000 annually for maintenance."
"It is not an expensive product."
"There can be fees in addition to the licensing fees if you add on."
"It is expensive."
"It is relatively inexpensive compared to other products in the same category."
"I find that the pricing is acceptable."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.
823,875 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 31, 2015
Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor
I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
7%
Educational Organization
57%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about DX Spectrum?
The solution's most valuable features are its integration with Broadcom tools and scalability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DX Spectrum?
We are a customer of Broadcom, we use a group license that covers various CA products, including DX Spectrum. The company purchases the licenses they need from this group license, and we do not hav...
What needs improvement with DX Spectrum?
Support from Broadcom could be better. Sometimes we wait a very long time for a solution to level three problems. Challenges and Limitations The only other challenge is the price, which is the main...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better for a cloud monitoring...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalability, products like Network Performance Monitor & Netflow Traffic Analyzer ar...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

CA Spectrum
Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

National Informatics Centre India, Banese, Olympus, AlphaServe Technologies, Sicredi
Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard
Find out what your peers are saying about DX Spectrum vs. SolarWinds NPM and other solutions. Updated: November 2024.
823,875 professionals have used our research since 2012.