

SolarWinds NPM and Azure Monitor compete in the network monitoring and cloud monitoring categories, respectively. SolarWinds NPM may have the upper hand in traditional network environments, while Azure Monitor is stronger in cloud-specific features.
Features: SolarWinds NPM offers robust SNMP-based monitoring, agentless configuration, and features like Syslog output and SNMP trap alerts. It also supports scalability and diverse vendor compatibility. Azure Monitor integrates widely across Azure services and offers customizable alerts and integration capabilities within Azure ecosystems.
Room for Improvement: SolarWinds NPM faces issues with network discovery, alert configuration, and bugs in new releases. Its modular pricing adds complexity and cost. Azure Monitor struggles with data visualization, AI capabilities, and integration with non-Microsoft systems, along with pricing for data ingestion.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds NPM is deployed on-premises with some hybrid options, known for straightforward setup but complex licensing. Its customer service is generally knowledgeable though noted for aggressive sales tactics. Azure Monitor, cloud-based, integrates seamlessly within Azure, simplifying post-deployment support. Its customer service is knowledgeable but has moderate response times.
Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds NPM has a high initial cost with perpetual licensing, offering significant ROI through network efficiency savings. Azure Monitor follows a pay-as-you-go model, flexible for varying workloads but potentially costly with extensive data logging. SolarWinds is recognized for reporting and ROI in physical setups, while Azure Monitor is cost-effective within Azure environments.
Azure Monitor helps prevent impacts on their system.
The return on investment is significant as the solution effectively reduces costs while being worth its expense.
However, the second-line support is good.
Users end up getting no resolution from their team because they're outsourced vendors, and they don't have deeper expertise over any of the products they are referring to.
I would rate the support for Azure Monitor as a seven.
If there is no timely response, getting a resolution is more difficult.
We had contact with SolarWinds regarding the implementation, and they were helpful.
They have good technical support.
With APM, you can go heavy or you can go light. It just depends on what you want, what your use case is, and how reactive you want to be to system load or resilient to failure.
Azure Monitor is very scalable; there are no issues with scalability for different kinds of businesses.
SolarWinds NPM is scalable and effective in handling large network infrastructures.
Azure Monitor is working fine, yet I face a costing issue as if there are a lot of logs collected in the workspace or in the center, it becomes very costly.
The NPM product is stable, particularly when used for simple network monitoring.
If Azure Monitor can independently add one gigabyte, two gigabytes, or five gigabytes at least to log storage, I can fix the logs without syncing with Log Analytics Workspace and Sentinel.
The cost skyrockets once you start using it, and there are complaints that the actual cost of the Kubernetes cluster was less than the cost they were incurring for Azure Monitor.
The challenges with Azure Monitor are that it's initially complex to set up because you need multiple components.
SolarWinds needs to upscale on observability and add full-fledged observability features, including security features.
Customers have given feedback about the delayed response times from the technical team.
I would need a feature in SolarWinds in the future for some kind of malfunctioning detection, such as malware attacks or that type of environment.
When I export logs into the application, workspace, log analytic workspace, and into Sentinel to read reports, I need to add storage, which increases the cost.
The solution is considered expensive.
Pricing-wise, SolarWinds NPM is more expensive than PRTG.
It is not too pricey and is adequate.
The alerting features definitely help in reducing operational downtime for my customers by allowing us to get notifications in advance and take active actions.
I also appreciate the ability to measure feature activity, see what types of devices they are on, follow specific use cases, and measure the amount of traffic going to a particular application.
Resource monitoring is essential.
Whenever any node is down in our network, whether it is a server or any network device, we receive information through email that the device is down.
The most valuable feature for us is the database performance analyzer, which we use a lot.
SolarWinds NPM has specific modules for monitoring different network capabilities, which provides rich features for carrying out specific tasks.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| Azure Monitor | 2.6% |
| SolarWinds NPM | 4.4% |
| Other | 93.0% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 23 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 7 |
| Large Enterprise | 29 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 59 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 33 |
| Large Enterprise | 86 |
Azure Monitor delivers comprehensive monitoring across applications and cloud resources, integrating seamlessly with Azure services to enhance performance tracking and telemetry analysis.
Azure Monitor extends monitoring capabilities for applications, infrastructure, and security, featuring easy integration with Azure and third-party tools. It supports dynamic alerting and telemetry, offering log analytics and metrics gathering. Users benefit from its alert system and intuitive dashboards, making it a preferred choice for multi-cloud and infrastructure monitoring across diverse IT environments. While users seek improved query building and interface navigation, they appreciate its scalability and cost-effectiveness.
What key features does Azure Monitor offer?Azure Monitor sees widespread use for infrastructure and application monitoring across industries. Companies rely on it for performance tracking and incident management, often integrating it with Application Insights for enriched data analysis. Organizations use it to monitor servers and cloud services, utilizing its capabilities in DevOps practices and during cloud transformation processes for analyzing database metrics and ensuring efficient application functioning.
SolarWinds NPM is a network performance monitoring tool offering a user-friendly interface with customizable dashboards. It provides real-time tracking of device health, latency, and bandwidth utilization, supporting diverse integration and scalability needs.
SolarWinds NPM's robust features include real-time monitoring of network performance and efficient tracking of device health, latency, and bandwidth utilization. The tool is appreciated for its ease of deployment, scalability, and support for integration with other tools. Features like SNMP monitoring, NetPath, and comprehensive reporting enhance its diagnostic capabilities and network visibility. However, users identify areas for improvement such as real-time analytics, advanced customization options, and enhanced scalability for larger enterprises. Better customer support, improved integrations, and security measures are also desired.
What are the key features of SolarWinds NPM?In enterprise environments, SolarWinds NPM is deployed to monitor network health and device status, sending alerts for any issues. It provides visibility into network performance, tracking bandwidth utilization and server metrics efficiently. Its applications span from monitoring routers, switches, and firewalls to supporting infrastructure monitoring across industries.
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