System admin at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 20
Decreased our MTTR and, with monitoring taken care of, high-level employees can focus on more important tasks
Pros and Cons
  • "That network visualization is really cool. I've been working here for a year now, and the first time I saw it I said, "Whoa, this is so cool"... With Auvik, the map is accurate. It is great and always updating. That's definitely one of the best features of Auvik."
  • "I don't know if it has integrations with ticketing systems so that alerts would get to the ticketing system right away. That would be a good feature to add."

What is our primary use case?

We are on MSP with multiple clients. We set up a site for each client, and that way we can review and verify all their network equipment: firewalls, switches, routers, even servers, and VMware ESXi. We also get alerts and notifications when everything is disconnected so that we can quickly find the reason and make sure clients are not affected.

How has it helped my organization?

Auvik has really improved our time of response when a client is down, or there is a problem with a firewall server. Before, we didn't know when a client was down, or it was really difficult to know. We pretty much had to wait for the client to tell us, "Hey, we are down, what's happening?" One or two hours could pass while we worked on finding out what was going on. But now, if anything happens, we get the alert and we get everything resolved. It has helped us to make efficient use of our time and to act more quickly.

It is also very useful because one of the low-level tasks is monitoring. Because everything is up to date, high-level managers and employees can focus on more important things.

What is most valuable?

There are a number of features I really like. One is the graphical map where you can literally see all the connections: where they come from with respect to the firewall, when they go to the switches, and how the network is set up.

That network visualization is really cool. I've been working here for a year now, and the first time I saw it I said, "Whoa, this is so cool." Sometimes, when you start working with a client, you don't have a visual representation of anything. Your boss tells you, "Okay, they have several switches and firewalls," and you have to draw that in your mind, and it can be inaccurate. With Auvik, the map is accurate. It is great and always updating. That's definitely one of the best features of Auvik.

Another feature that I really like is the fact that it's very easy to remote into the firewalls, switches, and ESXi, to manage the appliances. It's also really easy to use the monitoring and management functions. Everything is shown very well. You can immediately see the options for the appliance, including the documentation and the remote management. It's really easy to use.

That ease of use is extremely important to us. It is one of the cornerstones of our operations, in addition to our tickets which are on another platform. With Auvik, we monitor the heart of every client's operations. It's really important for us that the Auvik is working well and accurately, and that we don't get any false alerts, because that would make us waste money and time finding out what's happening. So far, it has been great and a very important part of our operations.

And I really like the alerts. They are very accurate and fast. The moment that anything is down, we can act right away.

What needs improvement?

I don't know if it has integrations with ticketing systems so that alerts would get to the ticketing system right away. That would be a good feature to add.

Buyer's Guide
Auvik
September 2023
Learn what your peers think about Auvik. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2023.
735,432 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Auvik for about eight months. I use Auvik every day.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is great too. It's really easy to add new infrastructure, new appliances, and they will show up because the collector is already installed.

How are customer service and support?

I've only used their support once, and it was fine. It's okay but not perfect because I would prefer that they have longer operating hours. That's an area for them to improve on because sometimes, on the weekend, we have problems and technical difficulties and we cannot reach support. If we could have extended support on the weekends during normal hours, and even a bit more extended, that would be great.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is pretty straightforward because the tutorial is very good. It gives you several options and it guides you. And their knowledge base, if you have any kind of problem, is pretty comprehensive. You can get it to work, even if, like me, you are not an experienced technician. I have implemented Auvik for five clients now, and it's all good.

Depending on the size of the client, it takes 10 minutes to 15 for the network to start populating. For a midsize client, it might take 30 minutes to have it completely set up, but even that is an extreme amount of time. Generally, it's even better, about 10 to 15 minutes.

The deployment can be done by one person, no problem. It could be a junior technician. They just need to install the collector, set up the correct services and ports, set up the credentials for the appliances, and that's about it, as an overview. The technician needs the appropriate permissions and credentials for the appliances.

Almost all of our clients have a firewall connected to a modem with one or two switches, most of the time Cisco, connected to those firewalls. Then everything else is connected to switches, including servers, printers, computers, and workstations. The switch will have VLANs so that we can segment the networks and do a proper installation, but that's pretty much it. And on the servers there will often be VMware ESXi that we monitor with Auvik.

There hasn't been any maintenance, as far as I know. We have never had to manually update the collector.

What was our ROI?

The time-to-value is right away. When you set up Auvik with your very first client you see its value with the graphical interface, the ease of remoting in, and the alerts.

What other advice do I have?

Try all the features, investigate it and be curious about everything that Auvik can offer. I've been using it for several months, but I don't think I have used all the features. If you test it, my advice would be to try all the options.

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. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: MSP
PeerSpot user
Support engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 20
Features excellent network mapping, detailed device information, and reduced our time to resolve
Pros and Cons
  • "The network mapping is an excellent feature, as each device is represented by a different shape or object, which is great for helping us, our staff in training, and our customers understand how the network is structured. Seeing the bigger picture helps immensely, as we provide remote support; we're not boots on the ground."
  • "I want the network map to be faster and more responsive."

What is our primary use case?

We're an MSP, and we support small to medium businesses from end to end, including printers, servers, and networks. We use Auvik to manage our clients' infrastructure. Our customers include companies running factories and hotels.

How has it helped my organization?

The ability to manage access points provided by Auvik is a big one for us; it's much easier to track down cable breaks and the specific switch where the lost connection to the access point is. We serve hotels with over 300 access points, so this functionality is essential.

The solution helped reduce repetitive, low-priority tasks through automation, especially regarding tickets. Ticket logging is now automatic, which helps us immensely. A hotel guest is no longer left without a connection for an hour and then complains to the duty manager, who logs a call with us manually. We can see an issue immediately, and start resolving it, which has saved our business a significant amount of time.    

Auvik positively affected our IT team's visibility into our remote and globally distributed networks because we can see all our different devices from a centralized view. It's much simpler and easier to have all our network components visible from one place. This visibility is 100% critical; our customers pay us and expect us to have visibility over the network.  

Auvik reduced our mean time to resolution and significantly reduced the number of issues we face, so we rarely need to resolve anything.   

The solution also helps our projects team implement new technologies into the environment and manage all the teething issues. 

What is most valuable?

The network mapping is an excellent feature, as each device is represented by a different shape or object, which is great for helping us, our staff in training, and our customers understand how the network is structured. Seeing the bigger picture helps immensely, as we provide remote support; we're not boots on the ground.

The solution provides detailed device information, including serial numbers, lifecycles, and differentiation between devices, which is another excellent feature.

The monitoring and management functions work fine, and we have no issues with them; it integrates well with our remote system. Auvik sends alerts and creates tickets in our ticketing system, which is fantastic for us because we see an alert come in and pop onto Auvik to start our investigation. The ease of use is essential, the easier, the better. We have a lot of customers, and each one wants to feel like they've received five-star treatment. The quicker we can resolve an issue, the better our customers feel, and the easier it becomes for us to get paid.  

Auvik is fantastic for helping to visualize our organization's network mapping/topology; we've used different monitoring solutions, but nothing can give us a network diagram like Auvik. Previously, we made network diagrams manually, a time-consuming, painstaking process. As soon as we had to add or swap out a switch, we would have to edit the diagram. We used Microsoft Project for that and had to pay for the functionality. It was so much effort for minimal reward. With Auvik, we put in little effort and get a lot of rewards. The network visualization is intuitive enough overall.   

It helps keep our device inventories up-to-date; it features a collector that gathers detailed information about the network, which makes management easier. We can see what's online, decommissioned, or coming onto the network when it's not supposed to. This functionality saves us a significant amount of time.   

What needs improvement?

I want the network map to be faster and more responsive. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for almost a year. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The tool is stable enough for now. Once a lot of items are on the network map, it can get sluggish, but other than that, it's pretty stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable, and we have many customers there. As far as I know, we can add as much as we want.

How are customer service and support?

I never had to contact Auvik's technical support. The solution has excellent documentation, so I can always go in there and better my knowledge.

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

We previously used multiple solutions, including N-central and PRTG Network Monitor. We switched because Auvik allows us to have more devices, different devices, the ability to differentiate between them, and detailed information that the other products could not provide.

How was the initial setup?

I wasn't involved in the deployment, but in terms of maintenance, the solution requires some upkeep. When devices come and go, we have to remove them manually, but it's still straightforward to see what's going on on a network level rather than having to be there in person.

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

I don't know how much the solution costs, but the fact that we've moved almost all of our customers over to it means it must be worth the value. Our platforms are costly, but we switched to Auvik, so the company must see it as cost-effective.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Auvik nine out of ten. 

The solution does not provide a single integrated platform simply because we use many different platforms. Auvik is outstanding because it provides the most information and has the most capable feature set. Still, we have many requirements within our business that Auvik alone cannot cater to.

The cloud is the future when comparing Auvik's cloud-based solution versus on-prem network monitoring solutions. On-prem can be nice, as it can be a little faster, but we have to be in the cloud now. Having one place to go, one platform, is too valuable, and it's much better.  

I advise those evaluating the solution to play around and use it before implementing it. I recommend the platform.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
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. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: MSP
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Auvik
September 2023
Learn what your peers think about Auvik. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2023.
735,432 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Director of IT at Kensington Vanguard National Land Services, LLC
Real User
I can show newer guys what a network looks like from the top down using the network topology
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution automatically updates network topology. The network topology has been great, not only just for troubleshooting things, but also for training. I can show newer or not-so-experienced guys what a network looks like from the top down. Also, we have used the network diagrams for our audits, where we just kind of print it out and hand it to them. It satisfies all of those requirements."
  • "A room for improvement would be integration with our help desk system."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for monitoring our entire network. We head off a lot of problems with some early alerting on either storage or high utilization, thus we can get in front of problems before anybody notices. We have the solution tied into our help desk system so the alerts open up help desk tickets, then the guys look at it from there. We use it for troubleshooting devices that are not reachable. We also use it for backing up our firewalls and logging into all of our network equipment.

How has it helped my organization?

It has cut down on some of our major issues. We are very reliant on our printers, printing title documents, etc. The early alerting on those printers, i.e., when they are having a problem, has been enormous. For example, if somebody has a closing going on, we can avoid them having issues with printers.

The solution helps us put out fires before people or end users even know there is a problem.

The solution automatically updates network topology. The network topology has been great, not only just for troubleshooting things, but also for training. I can show newer or not-so-experienced guys what a network looks like from the top down. Also, we have used the network diagrams for our audits, where we just kind of print it out and hand it to them. It satisfies all of those requirements.

The automation of network mapping enables junior network specialists to resolve issues directly, freeing up senior-level team members to perform higher-value tasks. We have our map up on a board in the office.

What is most valuable?

The alerting is the most important feature. 

Once it is set up, it is very easy to use.

Its network discovery capabilities are awesome.

TrafficInsights has given us better visibility. In the past, the TrafficInsights feature has helped show us where our system is experiencing performance issues. We have had high firewall utilization reported, and it appeared as, "These are the traffic insights that you are asking about." We had some high firewall usage issues. We were able to take it down to a single device that was copying files that it shouldn't have been at the time. We were able to find that using the TrafficInsight dashboard.

What needs improvement?

A room for improvement would be integration with our help desk system.

For how long have I used the solution?

At my company, we have been using Auvik for a year. Personally, I have been using it for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability has been great.

The maintenance requirement is just adding new devices and occasionally configuring a new appliance that it doesn't recognize, such as giving it a name. There is a lot less maintenance with this solution compared to other solutions that I have used.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Its scalability is good. There are no issues with it. We have Auvik loaded on everything.

There are four of us who work with it. I pretty much handle the maintenance of the solution. They tell me what needs to be done, then we kind of do it together. They are mostly just in Auvik looking at the alerts, etc.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support has been fantastic. We used them a lot in the beginning. Recently, we have not used them as much. We use them now for adding a new site, which was a billing question. The technical support has been able to quickly answer everything that we have sent to them.

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

It was a straight-up replacement for PRTG. We switched to Auvik for the ability to do the network mapping as well as the ease of using the network mapping. Switching solutions didn't save us money on licensing, though. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward.

It took three months from the beginning to have it running the way it is right now.

The setup time for this solution is similar to other solutions that I have used or evaluated.

What about the implementation team?

It took some assistance from Auvik's support desk, but it was easy to set up.

What was our ROI?

Auvik has decreased our mean time to resolution for the issues that it alerts us on.

Auvik provides automated, out-of-the-box device configuration backups. We didn't have to do anything. It was all out-of-the-box. The automation of the backups saves us an hour a device. We were backing up once a month previously, and that took about half an hour to an hour per device. We have about 30 devices. So, it has saved us approximately 15 hours a month because we don't have to do this manually anymore. It is saving us about $18,000 to $20,000 a year.

Easily, within the first few months, you will start getting your money back. It has saved us a lot more than it cost us.

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

The pricing is in line with everybody else, but you get so much more. 

Auvik is billed by network device. They bill our firewalls and networks. However, there are devices that are not subject to billing in our environment, such as PCs, phones, and printers.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did look at other solutions. We looked at PRTG's newer solution and HPE's native solution. We went with Auvik because of the network mapping and its ease of use. I also have experience using it from a previous job.

What other advice do I have?

When you are stuck, I would recommend using Auvik support or their professional services, which are very good. It makes life so much easier.

Auvik TrafficInsights shows us network bandwidth usage without the need for expensive, in-line traffic decryption, but this is not critical for us.

In the network monitoring world, the solution is 10 out of 10. It is the best.

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
MS Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
MSP
Network mapping helps me visualize where everything is, and alerts enable us to tackle problems right away
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature in Auvik is that it lets us know when a network is down. It lets us know right away and we can find out what's causing it: whether it's the firewall, an AP, or there's a whole network outage. It makes things easier by giving us an "eye in the sky" when we're not on the site. It's great for monitoring."
  • "I would like to see some recommendations in terms of steps that could be taken to assess the alerts. A platform that I have used is Darktrace, which does security testing, and it let us know what was going on, what may have caused it, and what could be done... if Auvik could recommend common ways to go about doing what needs to be done to resolve an alert, that would be helpful."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to monitor network devices, and for alerts when things are down and when devices need to be fixed. It lets us know about outside-facing IP addresses, external and internal MAC addresses. We use it to monitor everything on all our clients' networks.

How has it helped my organization?

It has saved us, as an organization, a lot of time, although I don't know the exact quantity. It lets us get on things right away, when we get those alerts, so that we can tackle things and get them done within the SLA. It's really quick.

For me, personally, it allows me to learn how a network is mapped out for each site and have a better understanding of what connects to what in terms of location. Auvik is good for helping me to visualize where everything is. In past environments, when working at different companies, I didn't really have that so we didn't know what was going on. It was more that if something went left or broke, we would hear about it by word of mouth. We didn't have the chance to see or have a system that would let us know.

When things are down, it lets us know what to do next. We can remote in or try to power up using PoE and it lets us know from that step. It is our first line of alerting, and from there we'll take the next steps into remoting and using other platforms to then get to the issue. That visibility is really great. It's important due to the fact that, when things are going on, we can easily know. If we're focused on other tasks, or we have a project coming up, it lets us know what's happening across our different clients' networks. 

Based on past experience, Auvik saves me three to four hours daily.

The solution's automation has had a positive effect on our IT team's availability. Compared to where I was before, it saves us hours just identifying what exactly the issue is, where it's happening, and what may have caused it. When major things are down, the other tiers will look at it, while the lower-level alerts will be handed off to level-ones, which they can assess. That saves a lot of time by distributing workload.

And the fact that Auvik keeps device inventories up to date saves us about 
70 percent of the time that would otherwise take.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Auvik is that it lets us know when a network is down. It lets us know right away and we can find out what's causing it: whether it's the firewall, an AP, or there's a whole network outage. It makes things easier by giving us an "eye in the sky" when we're not on the site. It's great for monitoring.

Also, for an audit, Auvik will help us know why something happened and what it was doing before that.

It's really great for visualizing the network. Usually, you only see where things are either in person, or you know how a switch is connected, or to what AP, as well as at the port. But seeing it online, and everything tied together, is amazing. It's something I had never seen before. You really see the design and everything. It's really easy to read and know how it works.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see some recommendations in terms of steps that could be taken to assess the alerts. A platform that I have used is Darktrace, which does security testing, and it let us know what was going on, what may have caused it, and what could be done. Even though everyone has their own troubleshooting style, if Auvik could recommend common ways to go about doing what needs to be done to resolve an alert, that would be helpful.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Auvik for about a month.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable platform.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a scalable solution. We use it for over 90 customers, small and medium-sized businesses, with a total of over 15,000 users. As we get more customers, and as we add devices, we reach out to use more features.

How are customer service and support?

I haven't reached out for any technical issues yet.

I watched some of their videos and that led me to read some of their documentation. It was good, an easy step-by-step guide. There were some pictures too, which made it a little bit more helpful. Most documentation is just text, but they give you a view of the actual platform. That is good.

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

We have one other application that we use, ConnectWise RMM, but this is the one that we use heavily. 

How was the initial setup?

First starting out, it was a little bit difficult to use, but I did some training that they provide in the resource library, which was really great. From there on, it was self-explanatory. It was really easy to know how to navigate to the dashboard, review alerts, and use the system in general.

What was our ROI?

Auvik saves you time. It's worth the money.

What other advice do I have?

Auvik has been here since I've been here and it has been great, for the most part. I don't know if our organization was down and out before, but I do know that it's a great platform. It takes the stress off. You have to get your hands on it to truly know what it feels like, but there are no special requirements. I would recommend it.

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
Luke Monahan - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of IT at Crossroads Community Cathedral
Real User
Fantastic support, reasonable price, and helpful for understanding the network health at a glance
Pros and Cons
  • "Automatic alerting is probably the most valuable."
  • "I'd probably like a little bit more mapping functionality. It gives me a visual overlay of the way that one network segment links to another, but I can't adjust it. Everything is at an equal distance, which makes sense, but I'd probably group some of the things closer and further as it reflects in reality, but I can't do that right now on their system."

What is our primary use case?

Its main use case is network monitoring, specifically for some of the essential elements of our network. It monitors more, but we're really after those essential elements.

How has it helped my organization?

We were able to track down a couple of misconfigurations that were minor but we had missed. We now have a much stronger, clearer understanding of network health at a quick glance, and we're quickly able to diagnose.

It provides a single integrated platform. That was one of the reasons that we ended up checking it out. I had too many network elements, and I couldn't monitor it all from one place.

It has affected our IT team's visibility into our remote and distributed networks. 

What is most valuable?

Automatic alerting is probably the most valuable. Its network visualizations are fairly intuitive. It's pretty straightforward. 

The setup was not difficult. It was time-consuming. It took a little time to get it set up, but once it's all set up, it's pretty simple.

What needs improvement?

I'd probably like a little bit more mapping functionality. It gives me a visual overlay of the way that one network segment links to another, but I can't adjust it. Everything is at an equal distance, which makes sense, but I'd probably group some of the things closer and further as it reflects in reality, but I can't do that right now on their system.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using it for about six months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

They're very good at alerting us to weekend maintenance. It seems to only be weekend maintenance, so I think highly of their stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We only have two sites, and neither of them is huge, but so far, the scalability seems just fine.

How are customer service and support?

I've contacted their tech support. They were fantastic. I'd rate them a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

I did previously use a different solution. I had tried a similar competitor. I cannot remember the name of it, but I wasn't happy with it. Once my year expired, I decided to not keep it.

How was the initial setup?

It was very straightforward. It was time-consuming but not complex.

We were able to use elements of it immediately out of the box. VLANs, some of the fine-tuning, and some of the more minutia definitely took some legwork, but immediately out of the box, some of the elements started popping up. It was pretty cool to see items popping up right away.

To fully deploy the solution, it took a couple of weeks, but that was not a couple of weeks of only focusing on that.

When comparing the time and cost it took to set up and maintain Auvik versus our previous solution, it was faster in terms of time, but the cost was higher. However, it was worth it.

What about the implementation team?

We did it all by ourselves. It was just me. I probably spent two or three days of full-time work doing it.

It is deployed at multiple locations. In terms of maintenance, there is a collector that runs on our server. I don't know if I'd call it maintenance, but it is somewhat dependent on at least one piece of hardware staying up here on our campus.

What was our ROI?

We have seen a reduction in our mean time to resolution. 

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

I appreciated the way Auvik's pricing scaled with the size of my network. We're a non-profit, and they gave us a non-profit discount. I didn't do an exhaustive comparison, but I felt their pricing was pretty reasonable. I'm a cheap guy when it comes to spending in a non-profit, but I did feel that what I was getting out of them was a good value for my dollar.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I've tried prior applications. I had been trying to find one single method. We went for Auvik because of the good support and good sales. They did a good job at sales, showing me the system, and walking me through things. They were very responsive and good at follow-up. They took good care of me.

What other advice do I have?

I'd advise being aware of all of your VLANs and making sure that the server you're going to run or the machine you're going to run the host on has proper access to all elements of the network. If you have separate segments, it's not going to catch those things. So, you may have to open up some pathways from various VLANs back to whatever server you're running this on.

We haven't done a ton of automation, but it looks like it could help to reduce repetitive low-priority tasks through automation. Similarly, we haven't utilized device inventory much from them. I suppose it would be network device inventory. It wouldn't be endpoint inventory.

In terms of comparing Auvik's cloud-based solution versus the other on-prem network monitoring solutions, I'd probably consider it to be a hybrid. That's because there is still monitoring software that has to run here, but the GUI is all in the cloud. It's similar, and it's nice, but it's not life-changing.

I'd rate it an eight out of ten.

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.
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Doug Miller - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at Brightworks Group LLC
MSP
Top 5Leaderboard
Great reporting, ability to detect and respond to Shadow IT use, and excellent environment protection
Pros and Cons
  • "Shadow IT monitoring is huge for us since so many of our customers are highly regulated."
  • "Integrating some LLM/AI capabilities into the product that would enable us to use natural language to query the tool and get sensible answers back would be great."

What is our primary use case?

We install the product on all of our customer's endpoints. As an IT services consultant and provider, we depend on it to help us monitor the SaaS applications in use in customer environments. This includes monitoring for shadow IT, but equally important is being able to monitor license usage of approved apps and report that usage back to our customers.

Our customers' environments range from a handful of users to hundreds. Most of them are heavy SaaS users, and most work in at least hybrid environments, if not completely remote. Many of our customers are highly regulated or work with highly regulated customers themselves. All of them have intellectual property they're concerned about safeguarding, as well as customer information. 

This solution is one of a set of tools we use to control and protect these environments. It's one of the most important. Knowing about and stopping data from being stored or otherwise transmitted to unapproved SaaS applications is a primary concern for our customers, as it can cause regulatory violations or data loss and exposure - of both their customers' data and their own IP. It works quickly and proactively, allowing us to prevent these problems.

How has it helped my organization?

The product provides important insights into application usage for our customers and for us. Many of our customers are in highly regulated industries, and all of them have concerns about security. Our customers are also concerned about the proliferation of subscriptions they are signed up for. The solution allows us to monitor all of these things. We can provide reporting for audits and as part of our monthly reviews. We can detect and respond quickly to people using unapproved applications. 

We find that it is incredibly easy to install. Early in our use of the product, we worked with the development team and were able to work out a simple process for us to remotely install the tool through our RMM. Doing so is now a routine and fast part of our onboarding process. Management is zero effort on our part.

Overall, the solution gives our customers significant piece of mind, helps them save money, and removes a complication from their business. For us, it's a breeze to use and very dependable.

What is most valuable?

Reporting is critical for us and our customers. Many need to present documentation of their efforts to protect their data and their IT environment during audits. We can periodically generate reports from the product and store these in a convenient location. These are then at hand during audits, so our customers don't have to scramble to prepare.

Shadow IT monitoring is huge for us since so many of our customers are highly regulated. Being able to quickly detect and respond to Shadow IT usage is incredibly valuable for stopping potential regulatory violations.

What needs improvement?

Integrating some LLM/AI capabilities into the product that would enable us to use natural language to query the tool and get sensible answers back would be great. Being able to integrate that with Slack or Teams would be even better.

We are always looking for ways to shave time from operations tasks. Even without LLM/AI, being able to integrate some degree of real-time query from a tool like Slack would be very useful. That would eliminate some of the need for us to check the portal and various customer tenants to get the information we need.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've used the solution almost since it was first developed. It's been part of our toolbox for several years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We've never run into any issues. The software works and doesn't interfere.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is very scalable. We deploy it to thousands of endpoints.

How are customer service and support?

The solution always provides strong customer support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We didn't use a different solution previously. We adopted the product early in development, and there weren't many competing products available. Since then, competitors have come out, yet we've stayed with this solution not only due to what it does but due to the quality of the team and company (Auvik).

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very straightforward. We've completely automated the installation. The Auvik team is great at helping with this.

What was our ROI?

There's significant ROI to our customers, both in avoiding the downsides of Shadow IT and in managing their SaaS licensing. Our ROI comes in that we are adding value to our customers' IT and security operations while not incurring significant costs or time to do so.

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

We feel that the solution is incredibly affordable and fits well into our portfolio of tools. Setup is very easy and has been easy for us to automate. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

There wasn't much else available at the time we started using a solution of this nature. We have looked at other solutions since. However, we prefer to stay with Auvik.

What other advice do I have?

Shadow IT monitoring and SaaS license management used to be uncommon thing. In just a few years, it's become table stakes. Any company not doing this is missing an important part of what IT needs to perform to secure the enterprise and manage costs. This solution provides an easy-to-use and affordable way to do this. I recommend it very highly.

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.
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PeerSpot user
IT Specialist, Network Operations at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Reseller
Top 20
The alerts come in overnight, enabling us to look into the issue as soon as possible
Pros and Cons
  • "The instant email alerts Auvik sends are valuable because every second counts when a device is down."
  • "Auvik could be better integrated with our ticketing system ConnectWise Manage. We tried integrating Auvik to create tickets, but working to implement a more granular classification system based on priority. The important thing is that we get the alerts, regardless of priority, but that's something that can be improved."

What is our primary use case?

My company is a managed services provider managing network infrastructure for multiple clients. We use Auvik to monitor firewalls, routers, or switches. When network devices go offline, get instant email notifications so we can investigate the issue. We also use it to manage devices directly through a web browser remotely.

How has it helped my organization?

Auvik makes everything more manageable. The alerts come in overnight, enabling us to look into the issue as soon as possible. We haven't experimented with Auvik's automation features. The primary benefit for our organization is network visualization and monthly reports for our clients. If our clients want to know what happened during the month, we can just gather that information and send it to them.

The network map has all the devices organized by the core, distribution, and access levels. Everything is evenly lined up, so it's easy to look at and it makes everything a little easier on our team.

The device inventories help us on the auditing side. Our customers want to know about changes in interface usage and quantity. For example, if we have some switches that are typically off and others on, we can track the changes in usage and all the inventories we manage. If we have the inventories off the bat, it saves us a few hours because we don't need to count manually. Auvik also reduces our resolution time by about 30 to 60 minutes.

I don't have much experience with on-premises solutions, but the cloud is much easier to use because it's available anywhere, so it takes less time to connect. 

What is most valuable?

The instant email alerts Auvik sends are valuable because every second counts when a device is down. Everything is in a single pane of glass, so it's easy to use and manageable. 

When everything is centralized, it becomes easier to use and coordinate among team members. There's one panel that can show everything. It's easier to train others to use the platform in terms of managing all the passwords for various microservice accounts. It's all there if we need to check the configuration of files. We don't need to go through multiple levels of access.

The network map is interactive and has all the details, so that's essential. The statistics and reporting features are also crucial. When we create reports, we have all the data, including a graph of network usage, bandwidth, etc. 

What needs improvement?

Auvik could be better integrated with our ticketing system ConnectWise Manage. We tried integrating Auvik to create tickets, but working to implement a more granular classification system based on priority. The important thing is that we get the alerts, regardless of priority, but that's something that can be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Auvik since I started my current job. It has been about two and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I can't recall any significant issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I'm impressed with Auvik's scalability.

How are customer service and support?

I rate Auvik support eight out of 10. I used their live chat once when we had an issue with a firewall that had two instances. We were doing reporting and needed to get the statistics for that month. Once, it failed over to the second secondary device of that firewall, so we could no longer get the information from the firewall that went offline. Auvik support helped me merge statistics from both into one. They resolved our issue on time. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We use other network solutions, depending on client preferences. We have another one called Zabbix that might be used for more granular use cases. It's up to our management to decide. We compare the features of Auvik and Zabbix and pick the one that fits the client's business requirements. 

How was the initial setup?

I wasn't around for the initial setup, but I've installed agents. When we install an agent, we turn off the Linux box and install it, then it's good to go most of the time. Another person on our team is the architect, and I am the person who deploys the agent on each server, switch, router, or firewall. There are various steps, but it doesn't take much time. After deployment, the solution is very low maintenance.

What was our ROI?

Auvik takes less time to do the reports, respond to alerts, set up the agents, and directly access devices, so its time-to-value is good.

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

Pricing depends on the client's budget and needs. Is it worth it to pay more to save time setting things up? Zabbix is an open-source solution, but it takes much more time and expertise to set up, whereas you can set up Auvik quickly. 

In terms of results, Auvik lets you see everything in a single pane of glass and the reporting is more accessible, so you save time in the long run. That's what I would tell someone if they're exploring their options for network monitoring.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Auvik eight out of 10 overall. It's low maintenance, provides prompt alerts, and requires less expertise. Everything you need to set Auvik up is in the documentation, including guides for configuring network switches and routers. 

Auvik integrates well with various vendors, including Microsoft, Cisco, etc. It's well-documented. Go with Auvik if you want fewer headaches. 

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. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: MSP
PeerSpot user
System Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
MSP
Makes troubleshooting more manageable and the workflow smoother
Pros and Cons
  • "I like Auvik's alerts. We can configure the alerts for a specific timeframe, i.e., we can set it to alert us when devices have been offline for a specific amount of minutes. If a device or port is flapping, we can ignore it or allow only the first alert to come in and mute the subsequent alerts."
  • "Auvik could be more customizable. Also, the network map isn't as clear as it could be. I don't know if it's even possible, but it would be nice if Auvik could pick up on dumb switches. I don't know if that's possible based on SNMP, but if they can figure out a way to do that, it would make our life much easier."

What is our primary use case?

We use Auvik to create a graphical representation of our network. It's easier to trace issues when we know what's connected at a glance. Auvik gives us alerts when a device goes offline, and we use Auvik to identify the place in the network path where the issue lies. Was it a core switch? A downstream switch? Was it not a switch at all?

How has it helped my organization?

Auvik makes troubleshooting more manageable and the workflow smoother. When troubleshooting an outage or a node that went down, we can immediately identify the problem. It reduces the time we spend troubleshooting, allowing us to spend more time on other tasks, which is a roundabout way of saying it makes us more efficient. I'd estimate that it reduces the time we spend on these tasks by about 30 percent. 

Troubleshooting is just like anything else. You always focus on the tools you use the most or the ones that are the most effective. Auvik is one of the top two we use for specific issues, namely network outages or known downs.

Auvik improves our visibility into your remote and distributed networks. It provides quick visualization, so we don't need to log into any individual switches. We can do everything through Auvik, especially port tracing. We need to see what device is connected to which port. This can be easily done within Auvik.

It also helps us delegate tasks within our IT team. As soon as we locate where an outage lies, we can instantly determine whether it needs to go to a low-level technician or a higher one based on what we see on the network map or alert that Auvik triggers.

It doesn't automatically keep our network inventories up to date because we still need to enable SNMP on the device. But once it's in the inventory, it's easy to manage with the existing devices we already have.

A cloud-based solution reduces our hardware costs because we don't need to deploy a VM for monitoring. Also, we're a managed service provider, so we would have to have an on-prem solution for each client, which would be cost-prohibitive.

What is most valuable?

I like Auvik's alerts. We can configure the alerts for a specific timeframe, i.e., we can set it to alert us when devices have been offline for a specific amount of minutes. If a device or port is flapping, we can ignore it or allow only the first alert to come in and mute the subsequent alerts.

The monitoring and management are quite straightforward. I rate it nine out of 10 for intuitiveness. During onboarding, we went through how to set everything up. It's a set-it-and-forget-it solution, and we can use templates to move forward with other devices that we add based on our documentation.

Auvik is one of our go-to solutions, depending on the issue. If we see a device go down, we usually get an alert from Auvik or our RMM solution. Auvik lets us trace graphically to know where the issue could lie, reducing the amount of troubleshooting we have to do.

It's a single platform but isn't integrated with anything besides our PSA. I don't think it needs to integrate with anything else other than our ticketing solution. 

What needs improvement?

Auvik could be more customizable. Also, the network map isn't as clear as it could be. I don't know if it's even possible, but it would be nice if Auvik could pick up on dumb switches. I don't know if that's possible based on SNMP, but if they can figure out a way to do that, it would make our life much easier.

For how long have I used the solution?

Our organization has been using Auvik for about a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We've never had any downtime outside of their regular maintenance windows. They always notify us in advance when there will be maintenance. Even when they're down for maintenance, it's after hours, so we don't notice. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scaling Auvik is pretty simple. We just activate SNMP, put the credentials in devices, and we're set once the Auvik collectors are in place.

How are customer service and support?

I'd rate Auvik support seven out of 10. We haven't needed to reach out to them much. I can only recall around three or four times in the past year that we contacted them. They've been pretty good. We have only used web-based support, not phone support. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

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

We were using Nagios, but it was getting too pricey. Nagios also provided more information than we needed. Auvik provides SNMP, which is fine for our purposes. With Nagios, we had to install agents on each node to recognize it. If we could activate SNMP, we'd get more reporting from Nagios when we install the agent, but it wasn't intuitive how to do that. 

What was our ROI?

Once it was slotted in place, there wasn't much of a learning curve at all, so we saw an ROI right away.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at Zabbix. Zabbix had a free tier, but it had absolutely no support. We went with Auvik because of their support.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Auvik nine out of 10. If you want simplicity, Auvik is probably the way to go.

Zabbix has a free tool, but their paid solution is actually quite expensive.

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
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Auvik Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: September 2023
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Auvik Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.