IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact vs IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server comparison

IBM and IDERA are both solutions in the Event Monitoring category. IBM is ranked #11, while IDERA is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.0. IBM holds a 3.0% mindshare in EM, compared to IDERA’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of IDERA users who would recommend it.

IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact

Read 4 IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact reviews

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185 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manage...

Read 9 IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server reviews

148 Views
95 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact

IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manage...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 23, 2025

IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact and IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server compete in IT infrastructure management. IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact is more advantageous for integrated network management, while IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager shines in SQL Server performance monitoring.

Features: IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact offers automated network operations management, comprehensive integration with various data sources, and customizable alerts. IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager provides real-time monitoring, predictive alerting, and SQL Server-specific deep diagnostics. The significant variance lies in NetCool's broad network management against IDERA's SQL-specific optimization.

Room for Improvement: IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact may need enhancements in easing integrations, simplifying the user interface, and shortening the learning curve. IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager could benefit from improved scalability, a wider range of database compatibility, and enhanced reporting functionalities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager is noted for its straightforward deployment and exceptional customer support, ensuring smooth setup for SQL-focused enterprises. IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact might require complex integrations and presents a steeper learning curve, but it offers robust support options for intricate environments.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact usually involves a higher initial setup cost due to its extensive capabilities but targets ROI through its comprehensive network management features. IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager provides competitive pricing, focusing on swift ROI via effective SQL Server monitoring, catering its cost structure to businesses needing specific database solutions. The pricing strategies reflect IBM's network-centric approach versus IDERA’s SQL-focused strategy.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact vs. IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact vs. IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server

April 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 Tivoli NetCool Impact

Ranking in Event Monitoring

11th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manage...

Ranking in Event Monitoring

12th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Database Development and Management (13th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Event Monitoring category, the mindshare of IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact is 3.0%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server is 1.2%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Event Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Vijay-Daniel

Assistant Vice President at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Supports APA through ISPF and lets us easily integrate with other apps for ticketing purposes

For improvement, I'd say the dashboard and the overall GUI could use some work. Although, I don't think that there's much improvement that Netcool really needs to achieve in this area, because when we're talking GUI, Impact is able to integrate with any third-party system and it comes with ISPF APA. It's more beneficial than Netcool/OMNIbus in this respect, and it's quite easy to handle. Some statistics around the products would also be nice. For example, to see how it performs. So when the bulk copy has been processed by Impact, through a kind of dashboard, it could indicate to the user: ""This many events have been process this many times, and this particular event may cause trouble. This many events are in testing, etc." Basically, I'd like more visibility into the details and particulars through Impact itself, so that we can take action on what's happening, and we can automate. For instance, we could maybe send the events to some kind of server or monitoring program, and perform automation on them.

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SeniorDB3550

Senior DBA Lead at a government with 10,001+ employees

Proactively alerts us on a wide variety of issues, but it has not scaled out well with our large environment

We get hundreds of alerts per day, because we manage so many different servers and databases, that alert us to disk space issues, query issues, a wide variety of things. We take that information and we're able to make proactive decisions as to what we need to do. In terms of the solution helping us with performance monitoring and diagnostics, sticking with the alerting feature, we're able to diagnose issues prior to their actually becoming issues. Without the alerting, we wouldn't have a clue as to what was going to happen. With the alerting, it gives us a heads-up that a specific threshold has been met, and we need to take specific action. Overall, it has allowed us to do more with database management and run more databases on a given server, because we're able to isolate issues quicker and take the proactive steps necessary to correct them. We were spread out with many servers running databases. We've consolidated some 80 servers down to just a handful. We're getting more bang for the buck out of the equipment that we have.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is great at being able to fetch almost any kind of file."

"This product allows us to make use of open-source products, including running Java code."

"The most valuable feature that comes with Netcool/Impact is the ISPF APA support. It is inherent to Netcool/Impact, so I can use the ISPF of any other product, which I can invoke and consume through Impact, and do integrations, which is great. I run the Netcool desktop application so I can integrate with other applications in the ticketing system. It's a great ability being able to invoke ISPF and integrate."

"It is easy to integrate with other models such as Oracle, other systems, external systems, and to reach events."

"We're able to diagnose issues prior to their actually becoming issues. Without the alerting, we wouldn't have a clue as to what was going to happen. With the alerting, it gives us a heads-up that a specific threshold has been met, and we need to take specific action."

"The ability to go back and look at historical data is the most valuable feature."

"SQL DM made troubleshooting much easier and allowed multiple people to look into an issue with confidence."

"The best part of SQL DM is the ability to customize alerts and counters. This allows our team to find an issue then alert on the issue at a granular level."

"Memory and CPU utilization features are good."

"The most valuable features are disk space projections for planning, and also the Snapshotting ability, to look back in time, to see what was going on the server at a particular time. It's basically the output of an sp_who2."

"Monitors and alerts on our mission critical instances in real-time on a 24/7 basis."

Cons

"The solution is somewhat complicated. It's not exactly straightforward."

"IBM is not investing in the development of the on-premise version of this solution."

"Stability-wise, this product needs to be improved."

"For improvement, I'd say the dashboard and the overall GUI could use some work. Although, I don't think that there's much improvement that Netcool really needs to achieve in this area, because when we're talking GUI, Impact is able to integrate with any third-party system and it comes with ISPF APA. It's more beneficial than Netcool/OMNIbus in this respect, and it's quite easy to handle."

"It would helpful if SQL DM could mark when changes are made within the program."

"The initial setup gives too many user rights to the server, so you have to put a user that is part administrator's group - that's the preferred way - on each server, which is kind of a risk. You want to do least privilege and you're not doing that."

"They can improve checking the status of the CPU, memory, and IO utilization from each task."

"I would absolutely love to create customized dashboards but, unfortunately, they don't provide me the information that I need to create the report. The report I need is the detail or the transaction detail that's happening on those Snapshots. I'd like to be able to go back through time and search for things. I don't have that functionality, which is very disappointing. That's pretty bad and frustrating because I could query it and find out so much information about what's hitting my environment and when, but instead, they want control over it and to not give me that information. So it's encrypted. I can't pull it out and that is really bothersome."

"We don't find that it helps us with performance monitoring and diagnostics. We find that SentryOne does that better. Also, in terms of alerts, we had to customize them dramatically so that we didn't get alerted on every little thing."

"One thing I'd like to see is the ability to view the execution plan and have the system automatically recommend potential query optimizations, especially at the query level."

"I'm going to do an upgrade which may resolve my issues, but one area for improvement is its ability to handle the amount of data that we collect with it. We're likely one of the largest installations, with over 300 servers being collected with this product, and sometimes there are gaps. That would really be my only concern, in terms of how the data is collected and stored, for consistency."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing is yearly, and although I'm happy with the pricing I do think it could be better."

"Licensing of IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact depends on the number of nodes on the element that you are monitoring."

"The pricing is reasonable, it's comparable with the competitors."

"We were upgraded to Premium Support without their actually asking us, when we were quoted. Then I asked for Standard Support and that they had to re-quote us that. But they don't do that by default. They upcharge you by default, which I didn't think was very nice, without even asking."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

11%

Real Estate/Law Firm

10%

Retailer

10%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server?

The ability to go back and look at historical data is the most valuable feature.

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What needs improvement with IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server?

One thing I'd like to see is the ability to view the execution plan and have the system automatically recommend potential query optimizations, especially at the query level. In future releases, I w...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server?

We use it mainly for monitoring, including CPU, memory, and disk space, and for troubleshooting purposes.

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus vs IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact

Compared 100% of the time

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SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer vs IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server

Compared 43% of the time

Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials vs IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server

Compared 30% of the time

SCOM vs IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server

Compared 14% of the time

SQL Sentry vs IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server

Compared 13% of the time

More IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Event Monitoring

April 2025

Download IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact product report

Buyer's Guide

IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server

April 2025

IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server report

Download IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server product report

Also Known As

Tivoli NetCool Impact

IDERA SQL DM, IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager

Overview

IBM Tivoli Netcool Impact is an enterprise and network management software that automates the support of business-critical functions. The software helps to enrich events with business context, provides an integrated view of data from multiple sources in context and enables custom automations.

IBM

SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server helps database administrators to find and fix SQL Server performance problems in physical, virtual, and cloud environments. Unlike its competition, it provides effective scalability, advanced SQL query analysis and optimization, prescriptive analysis with corrective SQL scripts, powerful automated alert responses, broad PowerShell integration, complete customization, and extensive support for current and legacy SQL Server and Windows.

IDERA

Sample Customers

Claranet, Consolidated Communications, Telus, €sterreichische Bundesbahnen (€BB), Telekom Srbija, Bendigo Community Telco, Capgemini, Schweizerische Bundesbahnen (SBB)

Padnos, University of Notre Dame, D4, Infeon Technologies, Chevron, LC Waikiki, Sisters of Saint Francis Health Services, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, CVE, Colorado State University, St. Charles, Chaucer PLC, 1-800-Flowers, Ancoris, Money Management, National Opinion Research Center, California Department of Health, Plexus; Aviva, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, CBS, Comcast, Google, Merck, Regions Financial, Schneider Electric, Tata Consultancy Services, Verizon Communications, Zurich Financial Services

Buyer's Guide

IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact vs. IDERA SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server

April 2025

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