IBM Tivoli NetCool vs SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager comparison

"The tool is much easier to manage than running scripts and figuring out how many endpoints have been exceeded."

"The scalability of monitoring, the breadth of supported network components, the scale of the number of monitoring events, and the flexibility in customization make this a well-rounded product."

"The solution has very good integration capabilities."

"The solution has very good integration capabilities."

"It improves customer satisfaction, deploy-ability, adaptability, flexibility, scalability, and reduces cost of operation."

"The feature I have found most valuable with NetCool is how it collaborates all the alarms, and then it does a predictive analysis, providing a consolidated alarm view and management."

"The scalability of monitoring, the breadth of supported network components, the scale of the number of monitoring events, and the flexibility in customization make this a well-rounded product."

"Tivoli NetCool allows us to grasp a lot of data that can be applied toward predictive analytics and auto-remediation."

"We can proactively monitor our infrastructure in a single pane of glass, unlike before when there were a lot of network management tools that would need to be looked at."

"Compared to other vendors, like NetBrain, managing the solution is easy. They made it very user-friendly."

"The configuration compliance aspect of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager allows for easy comparison of configuration settings across branches, ensuring adherence to security guidelines and best practices. Automation capabilities have greatly impacted workflows, enabling tasks such as configuration backups, template deployment, and firmware upgrades to be automated, thereby streamlining processes and saving time. Compliance reporting features provide valuable insights into network compliance, offering pre-built security audit reports and customizable options to meet specific requirements."

"The most valuable features the solution offers are compliance, reliability, and information about reliability."

"The feature that I really enjoy is the ability to script changes across all of your devices."

"The features we find most valuable is the configuration backup automation, the configuration compliance, the security vulnerability detection and upgrading devices."

"NCM pays for itself within the first 3 years of use as you do need less dedicated Cisco certified engineers fully on site once it is implemented"

"SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager can be used for backing up network device configuration, which helps you be more secure because when you have a system failure, you can get the information back."

"In terms of improvement, I would like to see more AIOps, Artificial Intelligent Operations in the next release. IBM develops new features for Power BI or Cognos Analytics, which is good. As of now, we use Cognos Analytics, we are not using Power BI. They have the Insight concept but we don't like that."

"Tivoli NetCool's has medium scalability - there are some problems with its replications not being mature."

"This is another one of those suites glued together from a myriad of acquisitions and it shows once you get under the hood."

"The solution does not have any AI capabilities."

"The installation could be simplified, and technical support could be faster."

"IBM's technical support takes a long time to do root cause analysis, and we have to go through several levels of help before getting a solution."

"Customization and integration that you need to do to make the product fit your needs is very complex. It is not a product that somebody could easily pick up without any prior training or experience."

"From a customer perspective, it is quite an expensive solution to initially implement and then support."

"We want to be able to store it in a data warehouse format and integrate it with Google single sign-on."

"When it comes to the way of managing the network devices, SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager should provide the simplest way that devices can relate to the server. For example, when we want to get the devices on board, we go by SSH to make the SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager create the connectivity with the device. After that, we pull the configuration. It would be helpful if they could combine both so that everything will be done in one step."

"The interface of solar winds could be improved."

"Improvements are needed in the automatic network mapping function."

"There are certain limitations of node-related monitoring"

"The Network Configuration Manager needs to improve the access control list compliance."

"The integration with the network performance monitor wasn't complete as at the last time I used it."

"The network logs could be improved. When the error logs come across with those false positive alarms in the error logs."

"It costs around 100k for every ten servers, which is lower than similar products from other vendors."

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"Customers are required to pay a licensing fee."

"The price of the product is too expensive."

"There is a license for the use of this solution and it is priced well, there is a lot of value for the money."

"Available at a moderate price"

"With a minimal bundle, we pay about $3000 a year in licensing costs. If you have multiple devices in your network, you must buy the bundle, which is 100% identical for your infrastructure. If you have 15 devices, you need 15 licenses, for example. That's one bundle. You don't pay for anything over and above that."

"There is a license needed to use SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager."

"In Africa, the cost is a major factor in decision-making for many companies. As a result, some companies may choose cheaper solutions, even if they are open-source, over more expensive ones, such as SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. However, as an engineer, I believe that the functionalities and services offered by SolarWinds justify the cost. Nonetheless, many companies in Africa may still view the prices as unaffordable."

"The pricing is good."

"We have to pay additionally for its support and maintenance."

"Additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee are inevitable."