IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) vs Kentik comparison

IBM SevOne Network Performa...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

IBM SevOne Network Performance Management and Kentik compete in network performance management. IBM SevOne NPM appears to have the upper hand in infrastructure monitoring capabilities, while Kentik excels in traffic analysis.

Features: IBM SevOne NPM provides comprehensive infrastructure visibility, offering agentless monitoring and real-time reporting capabilities with one-minute polling for granular insights. It can monitor a wide range of devices simultaneously and is noted for ease of use and quick graph generation. Kentik offers network flow analysis and visualization tools, delivering real-time visibility and providing flexibility in data exploration and customization. It stands out in traffic engineering and anomaly detection.

Room for Improvement: IBM SevOne users suggest enhancements in upgrade processes, baselining capabilities, and reporting. Complexity in high-frequency polling and data migration is also noted. Customization and compatibility with a broader range of technologies could be improved. Kentik is seen as needing better API usability, cost analysis, and integration with other performance monitoring tools. It could enhance actionable insights and reduce complexity for non-expert users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM SevOne NPM offers deployment flexibility across various environments including hybrid and on-premises setups. Customer service is highly rated for personal engagement, though some users note a learning curve with technical complexities. Kentik, available in on-premises and private cloud configurations, maintains a reputation for excellent customer service and engaging technical support. Support is robust for both, with SevOne being distinguished by deep engagement in technical complexities, and Kentik praised for responsiveness.

Pricing and ROI: IBM SevOne NPM offers a flexible pricing model based on device elements, beneficial for scaling. Users note a good return on investment through cost-effective network monitoring, despite potentially high initial costs. Kentik also offers flexible pricing and is considered cost-effective, though pricey for larger deployments. Customers find value in ROI through traffic visibility and streamlined network operations. SevOne provides granular device-based pricing options, while Kentik offers device-based and usage-based options.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) vs. Kentik Report (Updated: March 2025).

IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) vs. Kentik

March 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

IBM SevOne Network Performa...

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

40th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (19th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (45th), Log Management (48th), Cloud Monitoring Software (28th)

Kentik

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

35th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (19th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) is 1.0%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kentik is 0.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Grzegorz Nowak

Solution Architect at Wingu

Improves infrastructure planning by helping us analyze network traffic

We use SevOne to collect and report on network flows SevOne improves infrastructure planning by helping us analyze network traffic. We can look at bandwidth for specific endpoints on the customer's network and analyze traffic to identify issues. For example, maybe some connectors are unavailable.…

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ADRIANA SALDARRIAGA TOBON

Sales Manager at IFX NEtworks

Client experience and cybersecurity have improved with an easy setup

The solution is valuable for client experience, especially in the financial sector. The most important feature is cybersecurity. The pricing is good, but the functionality is the most important aspect for clients. The solution is easy to deploy and requires only one person to set up, making it easy and quick. Overall, the ease of use and the fact that it meets client expectations are major positives.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature as of late has been the API integration with ServiceNow."

"SevOne provides support for all universal connectors. They internally work with other data sources to get features implemented. We have an SD-WAN implementation and use other app data to monitor performance. If you pull that data into one centralized location, that is very useful for management."

"SevOne has rich API capabilities, giving us the flexibility to control what we collect and customize the collection, creation, and manipulation of now metrics as necessary."

"The comprehensiveness of this solution's collection of network performance and flow data is one of the basics in the field for what it does. It meets all of our needs. So for all those areas, for the most straightforward collection capabilities, right up to NetFlow and even telemetry, it meets all those demands. Not only just basic or fundamental SNMP collection capability, but the product also supports what we need for the future with telemetry streaming. So it's very comprehensive."

"The SMP and the xStats, which is for flat file integration, are both useful for integrating the various metrics that the device provides to monitor the performance of those systems."

"I like the tool’s scalability and real-time reports. Earlier, we struggled to give real-time reports to clients. I also like the tool’s deployment model where we can deploy it either on-premises or in-house. We don’t have to carry the data all over the globe. Also, I am impressed with the tool's flow reporting and Wi-Fi."

"We find that the reporting is particularly valuable in terms of not only communicating with our peer teams but also with the executives."

"We've had great feedback from our customers about SevOne support. They're willing to set up a remote session upon request. You have to go through three tiers of support with most vendors, and they ask a lot of screening questions before they will do a remote session. You need to spend a lot of time before an engineer will host a remote session to look at your problematic system."

More IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) pros

"We're pretty happy with the API functionality. It's web, and it's very simple to set up queries. It has served us well and you don't need to be an expert on the API or the product to set these things up."

"We're also using Kentik to ingest metrics. It's a useful feature, and its response time, whenever we're pulling back the data, is higher than our on-prem solution."

"Monitoring operational efficiency is easy."

"The most important feature is cybersecurity."

"I really love the Data Explorer. I use it all the time to go in and craft exactly what I need to see. I'm able to then take that story and explain it to the executives. I've done that a couple of times and it is helpful."

"One of the valuable features is the intuitive nature of building out reports, and then triggering actions based on specific metrics from those reports. It has a really good UI and the ability to surface data through the reporting functions is pretty good. That's helped a lot in the security space."

"Having the API access allows us to do a great deal of automation around a lot of our reporting and management tools."

"The drill-down into detailed views of network activity helps to quickly pinpoint locations and causes. All the information is there."

More Kentik pros

Cons

"High-frequency polling is data-intensive because you're pulling more. If SevOne could figure out a way to manage the impact of high-frequency polling on the system, that would be very popular."

"Telemetry is hot these days, and IBM can improve SevOne's support for telemetry correction. Reporting is another feature that could be better. It provides the bare minimum functionality, which is good enough for most engineers, but the management isn't advanced. The new portal provides a much lighter view and better visualization, but the management is not so good."

"You need to plan integrations. That has been the biggest bug with SevOne so far. For the things that SevOne pulls directly, those are easy to understand, modify, and put into the database. For things that need to use the Universal Collector or xStats, you need to plan that stuff well in advance."

"I would like to see live maps as an added feature. Also, build modules on AI and EML to provide better data insights that would proactively tell us what we should be looking after."

"The method of searching for SIP and the way to create the groups."

"We need to be thinking about streaming telemetry protocols. They already have the port for enhanced visualization, which they already have through Data Insight."

"There is no service mode setup in this monitoring tool if you want to snooze alerts for any specific amount of time, to account for any activity change or major incident."

"The reporting of NMS is good, but it could be better."

More IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) cons

"I would like to see them explore the area of cost analysis."

"Sometimes, the tool has complications, so we must deal with the additional support from the tool's end."

"They're moving more in a direction where they are saying, "Hey, here's information that you may be interested in or may a need," before the question has to explicitly be asked. Continuing to move in that direction would be a good thing."

"I've checked out the V4 version of the interface and it's still a little bit clunky for me to use. I still go back to the old interface. That's definitely one that they still need to work on. It doesn't seem like everything that you get in the V3, the older interface, is there. For instance, I was trying to add a user or do the administrative tasks in V4, and I couldn't figure out where I was supposed to do that."

"The product could strive for more improvements to become closer to perfect."

"There is room for improvement around the usability of the API. It's a hugely complex task to call it and you need a lot of backing to be able to do it. I should say, as someone who's not in networking, maybe it's easier for people who are in networking, but for me that one part is not very user-friendly."

"The only downside to Kentik, something that I don't like, is that it's great that it shows you where these anomalies lie, but it's not actionable. Kentik is valuable, don't get me wrong, but if it had an actionable piece to it..."

"I consider the pricing model as an area for improvement."

More Kentik cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are cheaper solutions available."

"Although I don't have exact details in terms of cost, my experience has been that SevOne is willing to make a deal with the customer."

"For the value that you get from SevOne, it's worth the price. There are a lot of cheaper alternatives on the market, and even free options. But they require more staff, more resources, and engineers with more advanced knowledge of monitoring. That's what makes SevOne worth the price."

"A blocking point is the high upfront cost because it is challenging to get it accepted and the purchase approved."

"The pricing has been fair."

"Prices per license are not huge, but they exist."

"Many tools price things based on the number of KPIs that you're collecting around a device. In many cases, there could be hundreds of metrics that you need to collect. SevOne provides device-level pricing. That gives us the flexibility to turn on, and expand on, the metrics that we're collecting around those devices, without taking a financial hit."

"It is inexpensive compared to other monitoring tools."

More IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) pricing and cost advice

"The tool is cheaply priced."

"We have an annual contract with Kentik that we renew each year for a set number of licenses. We also have some burstable licenses which we can spin up and spin down, and those are paid as they are used."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

15%

Computer Software Company

15%

Legal Firm

Computer Software Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SevOne Network Data Platform?

I like the tool’s scalability and real-time reports. Earlier, we struggled to give real-time reports to clients. I also like the tool’s deployment model where we can deploy it either on-premises or...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SevOne Network Data Platform?

The tool is not expensive. We were able to negotiate with SevOne on pricing.

What needs improvement with SevOne Network Data Platform?

SevOne could improve its flexibility because it isn't fully customizable and its out-of-the-box configuration doesn't cover all use cases.

What do you like most about Kentik?

It offers a simple yet powerful feature of classifying applications, going beyond basic statistics.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kentik?

The pricing is good and aligns with the market target.

What needs improvement with Kentik?

The product could strive for more improvements to become closer to perfect.

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Product Reports

IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM)

February 2025

IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) report

Download IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) product report

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February 2025

Also Known As

SevOne

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Overview

The IBM® SevOne Network Performance Management (IBM SevOne NPM) solution helps you spot, address, and prevent network performance issues early with machine learning-powered analytics from a single source. Boost network performance and improve your user application experience by proactively monitoring your multivendor end-to-end network across enterprise, communication, and managed service provider networks.

Transform raw network performance data into intelligent and actionable insights. The IBM SevOne NPM solution goes beyond detection, combining industry-leading expertise and advanced technology to help your IT team plan and optimize your network and act on what matters: improving network performance to provide an exceptional customer experience.

For further information, please visit www.ibm.com/cloud/sevo...

IBM

Kentik's AIOps Network Traffic Intelligence platform unifies network operations, performance, security, and business intelligence.

With a purpose-built big data engine delivered as public or private SaaS, Kentik captures a high-resolution view of actual network traffic data and enriches it with critical application and business data, so every network event or analysis can be tied to revenue & costs, customer & user experience, performance & risk.

Sample Customers

ATOS, Devereux, Spark New Zealand, Access4, Rogers Communication, Lumen (formerly known as CenturyLink)

Pandora, Yelp, Neustar, Box, University of Washington, Zoom, Tata, and Cogent.