2019-11-05T18:40:00Z

What Is The Biggest Difference Between NETSCOUT and SolarWinds?

PeerSpot user
5

5 Answers

it_user1048575 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vendor
2019-11-06T17:40:10Z
Nov 6, 2019

SolarWinds consists of several modules from NetFlow/IPFix to config management. Typically the NetFlow piece is used in comparison with NetScout nGenius/Infinistream ASI.

NetScout Infinistream and nGenius is a closed Packet stream to disk solution that provides deep insight into how client-server applications
work over the LAN WAN. I believe NS still has the ability to ingest NetFlow, SFlow, JFlow, and IPFix.

The question you pose is quite complex for those not familiar, the only similarity is that both solutions allow IT staff the ability to obtain
information from the network. NetFlow is a sampled view often collected only from WAN routers. That has been historically used for Capacity Planning and Security workflows. NetScout depends on streaming packets to disk acquiring packets from a packet broker, tap, port mirror/span session.

So they are actually night and day. Netflow is a sample and does not provide the insight that a packet capture provides for those who understand
them.

Product comparison that may be of interest to you
BR
Vendor
2019-11-06T13:22:09Z
Nov 6, 2019

SolarWinds NPM and nGenius One are very different in nature and capabilities.

SolarWinds NPM has a wide range of capabilities to monitor the availability of network devices and services, track network paths (by active testing).
nGenius One is more of a traffic visibility solution that captures traffic and shows the characteristics of the conversations going through the network (including the network and end-user performance).

If you are looking at the second, you certainly want to look at Accedian's Skylight which offers a massive advantage when it comes to performance visibility!

JS
User
2019-11-06T13:06:22Z
Nov 6, 2019

Although both products can overlap in what information they provide, nGenius One primarily uses packets from the network to monitor application performance and excels at deep packet analysis. SolarWinds primarily gathers data from SNMP, WMI, Netflow and other metrics to monitor the status of equipment (up, down, temperature, interface data, etc) as well as providing application performance statistics.

Ravi Khanchandani - PeerSpot reviewer
Reseller
Top 5Leaderboard
2020-02-07T06:38:45Z
Feb 7, 2020

Common aspects of Solarwinds NPM and NetScout - Provide information pertaining to the network - latency, response time, the path taken, traffic info

Key differences - Use of different techniques - SNMP vs Packet capture

SNMP may give you added information like node status, hardware health, performance statistics, device-level information Packet capture may give you added information like TCP retransmissions, packet loss.

Solarwinds will rely on SNMP configuration on a device to send status, statistics and discovery using Polling as well as send Traps on specific incidents NetScout will rely on various port mirror taps into the network where the traffic needs to be analyzed in detail.

Skills required for Solarwinds are fairly minimum (maybe just understanding how SNMP works - polling & traps while NetScout skills will need you to master TCP/IP communication with details of the packet fields - source IP, dest IP, source port, dest port, various flags, etc.

SH
Real User
Top 10
2019-11-06T10:55:18Z
Nov 6, 2019

From my experience, I would suggest PRTG Network Monitor over both instead of getting into details as to which one of NETSCOUT and Solarwinds is better. Both Solarwinds and NETSCOUT are expensive. NETSCOUNT is into loggerheads with Gartner report. Gartner rate Solarwinds well and PRTG Network Monitor is as good or even better than Solarwinds but far less expensive. I would recommend evaluating PRTG Network Monitor also to assess its suitability to meet your requirements.

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NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs. SolarWinds NPM comparison
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