Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users
PeerSpot user
Senior Technical Consultant at The Instillery
Real User
The topology view, Global Collections and Fault Isolation algorithms pinpoint the exact point of failure.

What is most valuable?

The topology view, Global Collections and Fault Isolation algorithms pinpoint the exact point of failure.

How has it helped my organization?

It gives you a proactive approach. It is almost like it can foresee what's coming fault-wise speaking, and the key is the proprietary Inductive Modeling Technology that it has that gives it that edge ahead of other products.

What needs improvement?

I think the interface needs a bit of a revamp. They need to adapt it to the new app world that it is now ruling (iOS, Android Apps), and it needs to offer more. Also, the Sizing tool is a bit old, and the last time I used it the CPU recommendations for our SpectroSERVERs given by the tool were Pentium IV. I can see that now there is an online updated tool that can assist with your design which is good.

For how long have I used the solution?

I’ve been using it for almost eight years.

Buyer's Guide
DX Spectrum
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about DX Spectrum. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

In earlier versions, the installations were a bit clunky and troublesome, but after v8 this improved dramatically, even installing large deployments were a breeze to do.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

v6.6 had few hiccups, but in general it is a very mature product. It's been around since 1991 when it was owned by Cabletron.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

When properly designed and you have your base installed, to scale it up or out is a walk in the park. You just need to introduce the new server, what role it has, and whether it's part of the FT environment and you’re done.

How are customer service and support?

Customer Service:

Pretty good. I must say, CA is an excellent company and their client always comes first. Every time I have worked with CA support, they were very insightful and had deep knowledge of the solution and how to tackle the issue.

Technical Support:

Back in 2005, when I started working with Spectrum, the level of support engineers they had in the L2 was amazing! They provided deep knowledge and exact root cause solutions when I challenged them.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I tested different products before Spectrum. Tivoli was one of them, but it was too complicated and troublesome to configure and maintain. I didn’t like the interface of BMC Patrol as it wasn’t very intuitive, and HP OpenView was the same with a very unappealing GUI, and the algorithms used to keep track of changes in the network and root cause analysis very basic. I didn’t switch, it was only that I worked with these tools before working with Spectrum.

How was the initial setup?

It’s not very complicated, just by following the manual guides were good enough to do a basic installation

What about the implementation team?

It was an in-house implementation but I did training in America which helped me dramatically to fine tune the post-installation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing could be a bit steep if you are a mid-sized or small company, this is an enterprise product, designed and built for huge environments. Licensing used to be easy, and CA had a template depicting all the possible combinations for licensing, I don't know how easy it is nowadays.

What other advice do I have?

Think big, and look to exploit all this product has to offer around Fault & Service Management. When I was the Enterprise Administrator in a big data center in South America, my motto was: if the coffee machine has a network card, we can monitor it and see if we are out of coffee. Spectrum is capable of doing this and more.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Edgar Parra - PeerSpot reviewer
Edgar ParraSenior Technical Consultant at The Instillery
Real User

excellent, thanks for the heads up! Ed.

See all 2 comments
it_user217680 - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Security Manager at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant
It has the ability to discover your environment and devices easily, however, the ability to import new MIBs needs to be improved.

What is most valuable?

  • The ease of discovery of managed devices into the tool set
  • The ease of placement of managed devices into the tool set
  • The integration with CA Service Desk
  • Email integration

How has it helped my organization?

Since Spectrum is integrated with our Service Desk, implementation alerts generate a USD request which then fire off notifications to the responsible engineers.

What needs improvement?

The ability to import new MIBs and manage new devices.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for nine years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Only if the server that hosts the application is restarted without bringing down Spectrum. If this occurs it corrupts the database and has to be restored from the backup.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

8/10.

Technical Support:

8/10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Yes, we used TNG, which was impossible to manage.

How was the initial setup?

It was straightforward. It has the ability to discover your environment and devices easily.

What about the implementation team?

We used a combination of an in-house team and a vendor team. The expertise of the vendor team was good.

What other advice do I have?

For network management, this application is by far the best.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Ravi Suvvari - PeerSpot reviewer
Ravi SuvvariPerformance and Fault-tolerance Architect with 1,001-5,000 employees
Top 10Real User

Thanx for sharing CA Spectrum Review

Buyer's Guide
DX Spectrum
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about DX Spectrum. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
PeerSpot user
Security Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
It is invaluable in fault resolution but the topology features need improvement.

Valuable Features

  • Scalability
  • Customizability

Improvements to My Organization

  • Automatic alerting
  • Integration with incident systems
  • Integration with reporting tool eHealth

Room for Improvement

Topology features need improvement, namely -

  • Weight of links
  • Less critical links
  • High critical links weighing

Use of Solution

I used it for seven years, but not for the last nine months.

Deployment Issues

There were some issues with deployment.

Stability Issues

Sometimes a restart of the Tomcat Daemon was required, and sometimes the archive manager ran out of resources.

Scalability Issues

No issues with scalability.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Customer Service:

We used the mailing list as a support forum - which was very alive with skilled professionals and their invaluable experience.

Technical Support:

We did not consult them, as we used the forum.

Initial Setup

It's straightforward - install, and run.

Implementation Team

We implemented it in-house.

Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing

I can only say that we had three engineers working full time on the system.

Other Solutions Considered

Smarts was a challenger.

Other Advice

It will aid in troubleshooting and daily operations, and is invaluable in fault resolution.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1395900 - PeerSpot reviewer
Techincal Support at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
A stable solution for backend application monitoring
Pros and Cons
  • "This product provides good visibility into applications at the backend."
  • "There should be a facility to integrate with other monitoring applications that are currently running in the environment."

What is our primary use case?

We are a system integrator and DX Spectrum is one of the products that we implement for our clients. In conjunction with DX Infrastructure Manager (CA UIM) and DX APM, this gives our customers visibility into what is happening end-to-end in their applications.

How has it helped my organization?

Some of our customers are large banks and government agencies, and they are getting value from using it.

What is most valuable?

This product provides good visibility into applications at the backend.

Some of our customers like the Service Desk aspect of it.

What needs improvement?

IP conflicts cannot be resolved automatically in the case where an IP address changes. This is one of the capabilities that SolarWinds has.

There should be a facility to integrate with other monitoring applications that are currently running in the environment. For example, if a customer is already running SolarWinds then it would be helpful if integration between these two was easy to do.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with DX Spectrum for about 10 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In terms of stability, it depends on the environment. Sometimes, the application does not function well because of the type of security and policies that are in place. Certain policies will block the application, making it unstable. We learned this after some of our customers complained and we investigated to determine why.

When we come across a situation like this we start working with their security department to address the issues, and then everything will start working well.

Overall, I think that it's a really stable product.

How are customer service and technical support?

The support for this product is not encouraging. When our customers have issues, there is a delay in response from the support team. This causes some of our customers to doubt the solution.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

One of our customers was using SolarWinds, but have since switched to DX Spectrum because they were issues with it. Once they implemented DX Spectrum, they were able to determine the root cause of their problem and solve it.

How was the initial setup?

The installation is straightforward. The length of time required for deployment depends on the environment. For example, in a financial institution, it takes between one and two months because we need to do some information gathering and have confidence that we are meeting the requirements.

There are times when we are mid-deployment and the customer will stop us to say that they want something new. In cases like this, it slows down the implementation phase.

What about the implementation team?

Our in-house team handles the deployment for our customers.

What other advice do I have?

One of the issues that we have is that our customers are not aware of the product's full capabilities and what it can do for them. We are running our own campaign to give our customers a better understanding of the benefit they can get from it.

In summary, I think that it's a fantastic and durable product. For me, it is nice and I am actively recommending it to my clients.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
IT Infrastructure Manager at a government with 11-50 employees
Vendor
It helps the infrastructure team know about problems when they occur.

What is most valuable?

Actually, the whole network is monitored with this product.

How has it helped my organization?

It helps out the infrastructure team to be more proactive. We know about the problems at the moment when they occur.

What needs improvement?

It's very difficult to use and customize. In order to maintain the software, we need specialized help. The usability is an issue for us.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We lost our database at the end of 2016, and we spent weeks trying to restore it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There were no scalability issues, as such.

How are customer service and technical support?

We don't use the CA technical support itself. Instead, we use the partner's support. The word that best describes it is insufficient.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used another solution in another company, but in my current organization, the solution was already installed.

The great aspect about the CA Spectrum tool is not what it does, but the integration that it provides with the other CA monitoring tools, such as CA APM.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was complex. The installation is complex with CA products. They involve a lot of steps and customizations.

I really don't recommend it for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

It is absolutely necessary to hire the installation service, along with the license.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Again, this solution is not for SMBs. Look at Gartner Magic Quadrant, as there are other options available that are more reliable.

However, if you have a complex scenario with lots of integration with other monitoring tools, namely IT service management (ITSM), project and portfolio management (PPM) etc., then this is the right one for you.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated other solutions, namely OpManager, Zabbix, Nagios, Ipswitch, and WhatsUp Gold.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user201036 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant
A Complete Infrastrucutre Management Product That Will Answer Most Of The Network Related Requirements Of Any Organisation.

What is most valuable?

There are many feature which are really good for business, and a few among them are

  • Fault isolation which helps to control the unnecessary flood of alerts
  • NCM (Network Configuration Manager) - To capture the configuration backup of the network, devices which have out of box features for Cisco devices
  • Out of box integration with other CA products like Nimsoft(UIM), APM, eHealth to provide CA as a complete solution in the environment
  • Integration with Service desk (ITSM) tool for ticket automation in an environment
  • Integration with 3rd party tools as it can receive the traps and then can be converted into meaningful alarms.
  • Ability to import MIB"s for different Vendor devices.

How has it helped my organization?

It has really helped to create a complete solution so that clients can see their whole IT network in one complete console/solution.

What needs improvement?

CA keeps on enhancing the product time to time, taking enhancements from users like us, as we make maximum use of their products.

I think they should improve or add advance performance reporting in the reporting part of Spectrum, they have recently replaced CABI with Jaspersoft in new version as a reporting integration.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for four years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues with deployment for me as i have been deploying/upgrading this product frequently for different clients.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Great, we try to resolve issues of our own, but when required CA support is well versed in technical expertise and documentation to help their clients.

Technical Support:

4.5 out of 5

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No, I have been using CA products for almost 4 years now.

How was the initial setup?

It's a bit complex on Linux box but straight forward for windows, but you need some hands-on experience to start on production.

What about the implementation team?

In-house.

What other advice do I have?

Read the documentation first before implementing, CA has a very well managed documentation and also good articles on their KB support site for known issues.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Member of the CA Global Partner Program
PeerSpot user
Edgar Parra - PeerSpot reviewer
Edgar ParraSenior Technical Consultant at The Instillery
Real User

CA Spectrum is one of the best monitoring software I'v ever work with, I worked with it for 7 years and it was awesome, the implementation easy, management of the environment easy, need another spectrum server? this is a process that has improved a lot over the years, when I started working with it back in Spectrum 7 it was a bit of a complex process to do. I would recommend this software to any big enterprise that wants to monitor absolutely everything attached to their network. One thing though I think it lacks, is the usage of the app from an external point of view like an App from apple store or Google. PRTG is one monitoring tool that has this capability.

PeerSpot user
Consultant at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
A Complete Network Management Product that will answer most of the network related requirements of any Organisation.

What is most valuable?

There are a number of features that make this product to standout from other competing products:

  • Easy implementation with scalable architecture
  • Seamless HA capabilities with no issues
  • Integrations with other products including both north/south bound capabilities
  • NCM - Network Configuration Manager for Device level configurations
  • Expert CA support for the product.

How has it helped my organization?

In our environment, I have implemented CA Spectrum in HA. There is also Spectrum SOI integration for alert forwarding. We have created global collections to group the infrastructure with policies applied as per requirement. Also the SANM (Spectrum Alarm Notification Manager) has proven to be very useful for managing critical devices and immediate action to be taken with email notification etc.

What needs improvement?

The only area which I found that can be improved is that sometimes issues come up with alert clearing i.e. alerts don't clear when triggered and clear events occur too fast. CA should come up with ways where the alert is not valid, Spectrum should be able to re-verify and take action accordingly.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using CA Spectrum for more than four years now. These four years include:

  • Implementation of the solution in production environments
  • Setting up of failover (High Availability)
  • Integrations with other CA products like CA BOXI (for reporting), CA Service Desk (for ticketing), and CA SOI integration through connectors

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues with deployment.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Never faced any issues with scalability. As the network infrastructure grows, to add new Spectrum servers is very straight forward with almost zero defects in existing architecture.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

With expert CA Support, issues with the product can have a quick resolution so 4.5/5.

Technical Support:

CA Spectrum is one of the products from CA which has great technical expertise to support it.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have been working on Spectrum from day one but I have experience with other similar products. I found Spectrum as being a complete network management solution with a great user friendly GUI.

How was the initial setup?

The best feature of this product is the simplicity of its architecture, which, once understood, makes the implementation very easy. I have never ever faced any issues with the initial setup.

What about the implementation team?

I have implemented the complete initial setup myself. I have also done implementation with failover (High Availability) and integrations with other EMS products.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

There are other similar products from IT majors IBM, and HP but we found Spectrum to be the most suitable for all of the major requirements of my organisation.

What other advice do I have?

I would definitely recommend going ahead with the product. It will able to answer most of the network management related requirements of any organisation.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user306336 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user306336Spectrum consultant at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Real User

Hi Jaideep,

Greetings. Good one though .

In valuable features list: I would love to see Spectrum's Fault Isolation mechanism.

Also, could be brief me on the alert clearing issue you are facing , so that I shall help you with :)

Cheers!
Lakshmi.

See all 5 comments
reviewer1470438 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Operations & Delivery Head for TSB Bank at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Good health checks help to identify infrastructure performance, good drill-down features, and easy to set up
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the ability to put health checks in place not only for the infrastructure but for some of the services that are on top of the infrastructure."
  • "Integration with some other tools, and integration with some Network Packet Broker, need some improvement."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case of this solution is for Network Monitoring.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the availability to put health checks in place not only for the infrastructure but for some of the services that are on top of the infrastructure. This allows us to identify the performance of the infrastructure.

What needs improvement?

Integration with some other tools, and integration with some Network Packet Broker, need some improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using DX Spectrum for approximately nine months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is stable. We have not experienced any outages.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a cloud solution, so it's scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have not contacted technical support yet.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are also using Microsoft Network Node Manager.

The main difference is the availability to do the health-check on not only the devices but also some application services. These are in addition to the infrastructure, and with Network Node Manager, it's more based on infrastructure.

Also, the Drill down feature that DX Spectrum provides is something the Network Node Manager typically cannot do, as well as to drill down on a specific case or on a specific device.

That's also a really good feature of DX Spectrum.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was quite straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price is very high.

It makes it very difficult with respect to the business because, with any other product, we have to look at a lower-cost licensing model. It would have to be much lower than this one.

It would make sense to have some kind of corporate license with some additional flexibility.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated SolarWinds and Azure.

What other advice do I have?

We are still looking at other solutions to increase the capacity of the devices that are being monitored with DX Spectrum.

We have a small set of devices being monitored and we are running a project to try to duplicate the monitoring on those devices.

DX Spectrum has been great for us. It's the strongest available, the main problem is the pricing, but it's in accordance with the features.

I can recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it. 

I would rate DX Spectrum an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free DX Spectrum Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: December 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free DX Spectrum Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.