DX Spectrum Reviews

Monitoring window, graphical representation of devices, automatic updating of databases, high scalability, high robustness, and user-friendly options are some of the most valuable features for us.

It can be made to operate on a cloud with load balancing capabilities which doesn't occupy much memory. The application can be modeled to support users from different teams to intercommunicate.

CA Spectrum is an important tool for our organization in that it manages loads of server capacity in a single platform and deploys different kinds of windows for device management, database storage, graphical representation of devices, and highlights fail-overs in realtime.

While deploying the tool, there were space and storage issues since the application loads for a long period each time there is an update.

I have used this solution for about 2 years.

There were long loading periods during deployment.

A device can't be 100% stable and robust. However, CA Spectrum is one of the most stable systems to handle at medium to high-level operations.

The tool is designed to enhance operational scalability, and hence it was updated according to the customer and market needs.

Customer Service:

Customers have found the tool really useful because it is user friendly and lets them to login to their devices manually to check the health of any site.

Technical Support:

I would give an eight out of ten for their level of technical expertise with reference to this application. They have been amazing in their service.

It was the first ever solution I tried and it worked so I never had a chance to work on other solutions. This applications works best on medium to large-sized organizations.

The initial setup was to download and install the software, which takes a few minutes for installation. It is a straightforward process and is not rocket science.

The initial implementation was through a vendor and I would rate them 8 out of 10. The vendor management team has a very good technical expertise .

Return on Investment matters are known mostly to management and in my experience it is found to be effective. ROI provides a profitability ratio.

It's a licensed software and internationally certified. It is priced at a median level for any organization to start using the software and tool.

I did not try any other option. It was my first ever option and it worked. The application is well-suited for network monitoring.

I would advise any engineer to use the application because it is user friendly and secure. I would recommend any organization that requires network monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities all in a single platform.

Without a doubt the most valuable feature of this solution is its scalability. This is what Spectrum is known for and it's delivered on this for us.

It's also flexible and is able to manage all device types.

It gives us insight in to our overall network communication, and it has joined groups together within our company to share information.

I'd like to see cross-landscape correlation. Right now, things are in individual nodes, and we'd like to be able to have them integrate or work together better.

After the complex setup, we've had no issues with deployment.

This solution is extremely stable, and it has proven this across years of use.

Customer Service:

Customer service has been outstanding. They are always there when we need them and we appreciate them.

Technical Support:

Technical service has been outstanding. They are always there when we need them and we appreciate them.

There were three companies we looked at. Spectrum was chosen for its flexibility, for its ability to manage all device types, and ease of growth for our environment. Nothing scales like Spectrum.

It’s complex, we had consulting on site for several years.

We also looked at IBM.

We are very pleased with it. Plan, learn your environment, and plan the implementation. This is essential for success. Also, get CA support to help you document your environment before you start.

The valuable features of this tool are its scalability and ability to automate inputs and outputs of a closed system.

This solution provides critical data to our network engineers about performance of our infrastructure.

I’d like to see better access to data elements via the API as well as better elements for the UIs. The UIs are somewhat inflexible and we'd like to see that improve.

The tool is very stable.

The tool scales very well.

I have used technical support and I would give them a rating of 3 out of 5.

We were using another CA product. We had to integrate that system with other systems, but it lacked the API. We decided to upgrade to APM for that reason.

I was involved in the setup and it was straightforward.

The alternatives that we considered besides CA were EMC, SevOne, and a variety of other products.

When selecting a vendor, I look for stability, the ability to meet our needs, and the ability for their products to integrate with other products that we use.

If you are looking for a product, make sure that the solution you chose integrates well with your other systems.

Network monitoring is the most valuable feature. I'd like to be able to leverage it more for capacity planning, which is my area. We use it primarily for network monitoring, alerting, and ticketing.

It allows us to manage alerts, schedule downtime and maintenance, as well as triage documentation for our support teams.

I'd like to have more dynamic weather map capabilities and network mapping tools. I'd like to be able to scale some of the applications within Spectrum and I'd like to be able to add some functionality. But overall I'm happy with it.

I haven't had many stability issues other than during upgrade and maintenance windows.

It scales very nicely to our environment, which is very, very large. I'm not sure that I'm very well-versed on how to make large-scale changes to it if we want to reorganize how we monitor an alert using Spectrum.

I haven't used technical support, but I don't own support for the application within our company. I'm more of an end user.

We've been using Spectrum as long as I've been with the company.

I was not involved in the initial setup.

We were already committed to Spectrum before I came along.

• Alerting via SNMP traps
• Inventory
• WAN modeling
• Serial numbers, etc.

Before this product we used a simple product that just used ping to verify devices were up.

• MIB database needs to be more up to date
• The software needs to be more tunable
• CA has a one size fits all model
• The application is not well written. You could throw 10 CPU’s and 20 Gig of memory at a database server and it will only use so much. This is running on Windows 2003 Server 64-bit and the CA Spectrum application is supposedly a true 64 bit application

I've used it for 10 years.

Yes, in a large environment working with CA engineers we ended up doing it three times. They had a different vision of how it should be done.

In the beginning very much so, we are now at a point where it’s pretty stable.

It scales, but each time you up scale it, more or less, you need to rebuild it.

Customer Service:

It's poor.

Technical Support:

It's poor.

The previous product did not scale and it was very basic. If you need enterprise network and server monitoring & alerting there are very few options out there.

It's complex for an enterprise. For example, we have three database servers and one web server for our environment.

CA support sent a field engineer out for the initial installation, and then a different one to fix it because it kept crashing,

This product requires, in larger environments, one full time employee dedicated to it.

Functionality of the tool is awesome and it is easy for customers to use. It is a very good solution for monitoring network and servers of the organizations.

0% outage and I have a detailed view of root cause analysis for any unavailability of the servers/network/applications.

Code is very complex.

I have been using CA eHealth, Spectrum, SOI, EEM, Nimsoft, and ITCM, for six and a half years.

Yes sometimes we have issues, but with the help of CA E2 level engineers, we get fixes for bugs that are encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

Customer Service:

The best, 10/10.

Technical Support:

The best, 10/10.

We used to have Nagios, OpenNMS, etc. but they are not very efficient monitoring tools when compared with Spectrum and eHealth.

Not complex. CA technical guys were there to help if there were any issues and technical documentation at support.ca.com helps a lot.

We used a vendor whose expertise was 8/10.

I recommend CA tools for monitoring the entire infrastructure in an organization.

Overall network topology views. Device connection status. Alerting on multiple provider devices.

CA Spectrum enables us to have an overall view of the state of our network. We are able to view device health and be notified of issues prior to the user reporting a fault.

There appears to be no intelligence within Spectrum itself, for example if we were to move a network device to a different switch port, it will see the neighbor as being available, but the link / switch port as down. Configuration of new events and alerts is overly complex.

4-5 years

I did not deploy this product.

We have a memory leak on one of our landscapes.

No

Customer Service: GoodTechnical Support: Average

Our primary use case is alarm monitoring.

What I like best is the configuration management functionality. I can configure a couple of devices at once, and I can certify the device in the configuration on my own, without depending on the vendor.

I have seen that there are some configuration issues with Huawei devices. Huawei devices are not properly supported, and there are incompatibility issues related to certain protocols.

The stability could be improved.

The rate at which our stability issues are resolved could be improved.

I have been using DX Spectrum for three years.

There are issues with any product, but for issues related to DX Spectrum, we receive upgrades. It can take some time, and occasionally we do not achieve the SLA times, but at the end of the day, we are getting our upgrades to the critical issues.

We do plan on continuing to use this product in the future.

We have deployed this monitoring system for an ISP in Sri Lanka, and there are more than 100 users. It is also integrated with a performance monitoring and management system.

The technical support is of lower quality since the acquisition by Broadcom. At this point, we are not satisfied with the technical support. It should definitely be faster.

The initial setup is straightforward, and the upgrade process is also straightforward.

We handle the implementation and deployment ourselves. Three people are enough for deployment and maintenance. The engineers take care of the implementation and overall administration.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

On-premises