IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) vs Wireshark comparison

"It's a great solution for highlighting and discovering useful information regarding our network's elements."

"Another useful feature is that SevOne gives you real-time insights into your network performance. It polls every five minutes. That is important for our customers because there are some network teams that are always monitoring their networks."

"The monitoring of the network is very customizable. That is its unique feature."

"The network data collection has been very flexible for us. It's been thorough in areas that were lacking. They have a team that I've worked with to add other pieces to it. So if it's missing something out of the box, they work with me to add it. I was able to collect that data. It's not perfect, but it's pretty thorough."

"We have benefited mainly from the use of the dashboard interface. It makes the network visually interesting for other people who are not in the network. A lot of people are not network techies who understand streams in the network. Based on location, we have streams coming in and out. They can see visually when there is some problem. They don't need to understand all the network technology behind it to be able to understand if everything is working well or if there is a problem."

"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."

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

"One of the solution's biggest strengths is its capacity management performance, with out-of-the-box reports through NMS, as well as its ability to collect NetFlow-related data from devices. The collection of network performance and flow data is important because we have many critical business applications."

"I like the filtering feature as we can filter data easily. This feature is also available in tcpdump, but it's a simple piece of software. Wireshark is more advanced and has many features. It allows you to filter a lot of things. The output can be filtered easily. The most important feature is colorization. If I say, "Okay, this particular SMB protocol in red, it will show me red." It's easy to identify that protocol or capture data."

"It's easy to troubleshoot issues because there's a large online community."

"Wireshark's best features are that it lets us see what traffic is in the network and what data should be encrypted."

"The GUI is easy to use."

"The product is simple to implement."

"Wireshark has a lot of features. It's a powerful tool if you're familiar with it. You can see everything on the network with it."

"You can use Wireshark to see the traffic packet format, the IP layers, the fields, and the enabled flags."

"It has good basic features."

"SevOne should work with the graphs legend functionality."

"There is room for improvement in the integration with different vendors and the reporting capabilities."

"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."

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

"The GUI: both the dashboard/user view and the admin tool."

"One area that requires a little bit of improvement is the topology of visualization and being able to map out connections, end-to-end. It's able to do that, but it's not as impressive as we would like it to be. We would like to understand the different interface types and the connection points better, through the visualization. Heatmaps also need further development."

"Would benefit with the addition of AI modules for proactive data insights."

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

"You need some basic knowledge to work with Wireshark. Maybe it could be more user-friendly just for new users. Just for the new generation."

"It is not an easy program. You will need to study to use it to its full capabilities (follow a course)."

"Wireshark could be improved with a delay option when getting data automatically."

"Wireshark is restricted when any sort of encryption is involved, such as XSL encryption or DLX."

"Wireshark's UI isn't easy to handle and doesn't have as nice a view as Omnipeek."

"Wireshark is similar to an OS defense tool, meaning that it runs on an OS such as Ubuntu and Fedora, but I'm unsure if it's compatible with Windows or if it's a straightforward process to run it on Windows. Right now, my team needs to run Wireshark from a dongle to use it, so it's an OS-dependable tool, and that's an area for improvement. I was unable to use Wireshark on Windows, and I couldn't capture it, as I'm unsure how to configure the wireless card into monitoring mode on Windows. The process was straightforward on Linux, but it wasn't the case on Windows OS. It seems Wireshark isn't compatible with all OS. For example, you can analyze the log, and you can analyze it on the Windows server, but you can't do a capture in Windows. Configuring Wireshark for Windows isn't as easy as configuring it for Linux."

"The solution has a steep learning curve. There are so many filters and features that are frequently being updated, it takes research, experience and familiarity to be able to use them. It could be a lot more user-friendly."

"Whenever we select one of the packets, in terms of the number of bytes, for example, there are three planes, and in the detailed plane, I have to count the number of bytes manually."

"Choose a SevOne partner who can provide SevOne as a service and can deliver professional services and maintenance."

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

"There are cheaper solutions available."

"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."

"Have a bank of licenses, because it is about the number of objects (RAM, ports, CPU, etc.)."

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

"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."

"The pricing has not evolved with the market, which is one of the reasons we are moving to a new product."

"Wireshark is open-source and free of charge."

"It's free."

"We're using the free version of Wireshark."

"I've never personally had to pay for it, making it a highly valuable internet resource that's accessible for use. While they offer some paid versions, our firm has utilized the free version for the past three years."

"Wireshark is free of charge, and there's no license involved."

"This is an open-source product that can be used free of charge."

"It is free to download and install. It runs on multiple platforms, so how can you go wrong?"

"The tool is free."