IBM Tivoli NetCool vs SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager comparison

"Anything is possible with Tivoli. It's quite a robust system."

"Support is one of the best aspects of this solution. NetCool is a good product that has good flexibility. There are a lot of documents available online which is one of the best features of IBM Tivoli Suite. Whenever an issue happens, rather than going to technical support, if you find the exact issue in Google, you can get tech notes for that particular issue."

"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."

"It's very easy to use."

"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."

"The solution has very good integration capabilities."

"The tool had many built-in automation capabilities."

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

"We push all our configurations to the servers with ease and the logs capture almost all the transactions needed for an internal audit."

"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 Real-time fault detection is beneficial as it enables the identification of changes made to a device's configuration through the SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. This makes it easy to pinpoint which configurations were added or removed, potentially causing network issues. Such changes are saved in logs for future reference."

"SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager improves the mean time to repair significantly, bringing measurable benefits to customers."

"The tool is useful for security purposes."

"It is pretty straightforward to set up."

"This solution has helped our organization by allowing us to store all the device configurations for the various network devices in NCM and making it easy for us to retrieve and look them over."

"Tivoli NetCool is based on a Linux platform, it would be beneficial if they moved it to Windows because not everyone is acquainted with Linux."

"The solution is not user-friendly."

"The solution does not have any AI capabilities."

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

"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."

"The solution is too expensive."

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

"UI is outdated, very old legacy."

"The solution could have better integration."

"There is room for improvement in automation."

"The network flow is a problem for this solution."

"The third-party plugins available in the solution could improve. I have received some issues with the templates."

"Its look and feel can be improved. They can also put in more effort into building the THWACK community and use the information about various customer issues and requests to build the new releases."

"Further improvements in automation are needed. Currently, there are limitations in performing tasks without logging into routers directly, and we expect more comprehensive device control."

"When we run the SolarWinds NCM jobs at the cellular line, it runs in the morning. They're just not finishing. We're getting false processing."

"Our experience has shown that most of the problems we've had with SolarWinds NCM are related to software issues."

"Customers are required to pay a licensing fee."

"The price of the product is too expensive."

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

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

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

"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."

"Pricing is reasonable and competitive."

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

"The price of the solution is high compared to other solutions."

"Available at a moderate price"

"I have a yearly subscription."