What is our primary use case?
We have been using this tool to monitor our multiple network devices, interfaces, physical and virtual memory, application servers, databases, and applications to keep a track of what is causing an issue that we are having.
Either it is the network, or it is the application, or it is the database queries that are causing our users to experience slowdowns. Due to alerting mechanism, we get notified if anything is responding slowly or if anything goes down so that we can resolve the issue as quickly as possible and keep providing best services to our customers.
How has it helped my organization?
We had been having some issues recently with network choking at a specific time, and we had been working on multiple things to identify the root cause. Using those methods, we were unable to trace it.
We decided to install a tool that would show us where the issue is being produced, and we can monitor our internal and external network traffic. We are able to determine whether the issue is being caused at the ISP end or our internal network, and with the help of SolarWinds NPM, we were able to track down the root cause of the issue.
What is most valuable?
We have configured multiple alerts for our network devices, including routers and switches, so that we are notified if any interface goes down.
In the event an interface goes down, we have multiple reports that include availability monitoring, network uptime monitoring, and network downtime monitoring. These reports are on multiple schedules such as the end of the day, end of the last business day of the week, monthly, and quarterly. This gives us the ability to provide reports to our management and let them know the performance of our network.
What needs improvement?
Even though SolarWinds NPM provides monitoring for a vast number of vendors and products, they do not support all of them. They should keep in mind that due to ongoing threats and daily malware attacks, companies have deployed network security and hired security professionals who are doing penetration testing. Certain devices provide ongoing security features, which can keep our network secure.
Fortigate firewalls are one example of a product that we are unable to monitor properly via SolarWinds NPM.
Buyer's Guide
SolarWinds NPM
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about SolarWinds NPM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
831,071 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using SolarWinds NPM for more than two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of SolarWinds NPM is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability-wise, it is very good.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support from SolarWinds is the best.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used ManageEngineOpManager, but we switched because it did not have enough features.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was pretty straightforward. We had to do some customizations, which was great to provide better visibility of our entire network.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented it through a vendor and their level of expertise made us choose this tool. They gave such a great demo that we didn't even have to consider other options.
What was our ROI?
We achieved ROI within six months.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing is based on the number of nodes, interfaces, and volumes.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We were recommended SolarWinds by a friend so we tried it and purchased it. We did not evaluate other options.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
I am among the few Solarwinds Certified Professional and have been working on Solarwinds for around 8-10 years now. I have been amazed at the way it has been consistently improving to cater to the ever-growing needs of infrastructure monitoring. The extreme reliance on IT in the current scenario makes monitoring of the system more critical than ever. From the days of Up/down monitoring things have gotten smarter and smarter and Solarwinds has been keeping up very well. I have worked on majority of their modules at Small, Medium as well as Large enterprise level. And for the most part Solarwinds suite has not disappointed me. Agreed that there is no perfection and always a scope to improve what keeps Solarwinds surging ahead is their agility to quickly encompass path breaking enhancements or an altogether new module.
Some highlights:
The quick installation which results in a satisfying experience of having the system up and running in no time is still their advantage.
The seamless integration and lucid interface makes it easy to get to the root cause in no time.
Flexible options now to have a few standalone modules as well.
The fantastic Thwack community with priceless contribution.
Ease of administration for the most part. A small portion is a bit convoluted which can be due to the fact that it has many features and is now a giant suite of software.
Abundance of knowledge base
Some areas of improvements:
Some features are still old school - like requesting new OID/MIB and then downloading and updating them
Complicated upgrade
Some features have been requested for years and is still not implemented.
Web based alerting is a pain compared to the original windows application where once could simultaneously work on multiple alerts at the same time and copy paste content.
Not the most satisfactory Failover/standby solution.
Overall it is an extremely feature rich suite of monitoring software with a hunger to get into the Gartner's leader quadrant .