Azure Network Watcher vs SCOM comparison

Azure Network Watcher and SCOM are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Azure Network Watcher is ranked #46 with an average rating of 8.0, while SCOM is ranked #25 with an average rating of 7.8. Azure Network Watcher holds a 0.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to SCOM’s 1.4% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Azure Network Watcher users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of SCOM users who would recommend it.

Azure Network Watcher

Read 13 Azure Network Watcher reviews

2,224 Views
2,157 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

SCOM

Read 83 SCOM reviews

10,547 Views
7,066 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Azure Network Watcher

SCOM

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

SCOM and Azure Network Watcher compete in the IT monitoring category. Azure Network Watcher seems to have an edge in cloud environments due to its robust network diagnostics and analysis features, whereas SCOM is preferred for comprehensive on-premises monitoring.

Features: SCOM provides extensive monitoring for Microsoft ecosystems with seamless integration for Windows and Linux servers, SQL, and Exchange. It comes with numerous management packs and offers a customizable platform through Visual Studio. Azure Network Watcher specializes in network diagnostics through packet capture and traffic analysis, providing a cloud-native solution with detailed network logs.

Room for Improvement: SCOM can improve scalability concerning hardware needs in large-scale setups and requires significant configuration. Entry barriers are high due to licensing costs. Azure Network Watcher could enhance its user experience and documentation, and might also benefit from incorporating open-source integrations for in-depth insights and improved error diagnostics.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SCOM necessitates on-premises installation, demanding considerable infrastructure investment. Customer service experiences vary, yet Microsoft offers comprehensive technical support. Azure Network Watcher, leveraging a cloud-first strategy, ensures straightforward deployment and provides good value in cloud environments. Customer support consistency exists across Microsoft's products, though outcomes depend on specific cases and agreements.

Pricing and ROI: SCOM’s licensing, included in the System Center suite, means higher upfront costs but aligns well with enterprises deeply embedded in Microsoft products, enhancing potential ROI. Azure Network Watcher has enterprise-level pricing, delivering competitive value for organizations within Azure, supporting cost-effective cloud service integration.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Network Watcher vs. SCOM Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher vs. SCOM

August 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Azure Network Watcher

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

46th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SCOM

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

25th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Event Monitoring (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Azure Network Watcher is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SCOM is 1.4%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SCOM	1.4%
Azure Network Watcher	0.5%
Other	98.1%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Bijoyendra Roychowdhury

Program Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Network monitoring provides comprehensive analytics while the interface requires further development

The quality of Azure Network Watcher is quite good in terms of the in-depth analysis you can create from these matrices. There are other monitoring tools such as New Relic, AppDynamics, and Dynatrace which provide very detailed network tracing. Cloud providers such as Azure or AWS do not have that kind of GUI-based capability at this point, but using PowerShell or Python, you can develop it yourself. From the GUI perspective, it still needs to evolve in terms of quality and standard, though overall, it is quite good for troubleshooting. Regarding areas for improvement, when comparing to other network tools beyond Azure Monitor or Azure Network Watcher, those tools can identify single failed packets. This level of granularity is not currently possible with cloud providers as they only go to a certain level rather than the granular level needed for deep troubleshooting, though they do provide hints with available matrices.

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Akshita Kukreja

Assistant Manager at SMS group GmbH

Have integrated effective monitoring and seamless alerting with improved visualization capabilities

The most valuable feature of SCOM is its monitoring capability, and we have integrated SCOM with Grafana, which is a dashboarding tool. We have implemented and integrated this to create dashboarding of the SCOM monitoring system for the database, SQL, and the Linux servers we have configured in SCOM. We have created separate dashboarding for it, and the monitoring and creating rules and monitors in the management servers and management packs that SCOM provides are very useful for us. The alerting mechanism of SCOM has benefited our operations because we have modified the thresholds as per our internal requirements. We have configured threshold modifications for the CPU, memory, and especially for disk space. For routine disk space usage on the system, we have provided a separate threshold configuration.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We use the solution to monitor network services. It helps to capture any network issues."

"I like the visibility."

"The solution is stable, there are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze, it's reliable."

"This is a stable system providing stable performance."

"The most valuable features I have found are typology, visualization, and capture."

"My advice to others looking into using Azure Network Watcher is to go for it, as you'll have the tool by default when you're subscribed to Azure VNet."

"The stability is very good. I rate it a ten out of ten."

"This will help the company or the administrator, by helping them see how the traffic moves, to make sure that no entities are having any communication issues or different endpoints with task issues."

More Azure Network Watcher pros

"This is a product that does more generally than any of the competing solutions."

"It has good graphs of what is going on within the operating system."

"SCOM is a great monitoring tool."

"SCOM is a very powerful tool if deployed and eventually maintained correctly."

"Being able to make and customize management packs and send out notifications is very valuable."

"It takes a lot of the headache out of managing your data centers and software in other places."

"This product helps companies detect problems before they cause any real problems like downtime."

"It integrates with your Windows environment seamlessly and provides a lot of visibility on your Windows environment."

More SCOM pros

Cons

"Technical support from Microsoft needs significant improvement compared to other product vendors."

"The initial setup and deployment could be improved to be simplified."

"The initial setup and initial learning curve could be improved to be easier."

"Azure is good, however, the Fortinet GUI is more intuitive and I like it more than anything else."

"Azure Network Watcher could improve by having other built-in applications, for example, an application to log activities for inbound and outbound traffic."

"It's not the most friendly or straightforward to set up. I don't see the value versus the way you have to set it up at first."

"Azure Network Watcher needs to have better documentation and it needs to capture information accurately."

"I still use Wireshark and Azure Network Watcher to get the required data. My team captures the traffic from Azure Network Watcher, downloads it, then imports that traffic into Wireshark to get more details on the number of hits and replies, for example. If you can do that on Azure Network Watcher and have Wireshark built-in, that would make Azure Network Watcher better. If Azure Network Watcher has that functionality where you won't need a third-party tool to get what you need, that would be helpful. I'm also expecting more from Azure Network Watcher. It's more complex than knowing how the IP flows from its source to the destination. The tool also needs more open-source features, such as having some built-in Wireshark that improves monitoring for customers. Sometimes, you encounter a VPN tunnel, network, or routing issue, but finding out more about the blockage is challenging. Is it one hundred percent an Azure issue? Is it a peer issue? You don't get complete information from Azure Network Watcher, so you must use other tools and depend on your strategies to resolve a specific issue. If more features could be added in the next release of Azure Network Watcher, specifically ones you can find on open-source tools, then that would be a plus point for the tool."

More Azure Network Watcher cons

"There are some negative points about this product. Sometimes, the capabilities of the software don't appear, and you can't directly see the results. You have to wait for a long period to refresh the policy to push it to the software or other patches."

"Application monitoring must be improved."

"I would like to see more standard libraries for the market solutions, out of the box, that you don't need to do a lot of work on."

"System Center just provided upgrade and update features for Windows clients, and Windows systems, and did not support Linux, Android, or iOS, and other operating systems. They need to provide better integration with other operating systems if they don't already."

"If they're looking for real-time, within-the-minute monitoring of servers from a console, then I would say that it falls short there."

"I would like to see better support for monitoring Unix-based systems."

"In a future release, they should add email notification alerts."

"SCOM is always known to be very unstable when it comes to SCOM Agents which are installed locally on all the servers."

More SCOM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is good. It's not too expensive."

"Price-wise, I have no information on how much Azure Network Watcher costs."

"Azure Network Watcher is a little bit expensive."

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

"SCOM's pricing is average."

"Our Enterprise Agreement includes the price."

"The pricing and licensing are fair."

"SCOM is very cheap because it's included in the license for the System Center suite, which is around $8,400 per CAL."

"The pricing is good, and it's part of their system center suite."

"If you have a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, then this is part of the agreement."

"We have an EA with Microsoft, and it comes as part of the EA."

"The platform is cost-effective due to our existing Microsoft support."

More SCOM pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

22%

Construction Company

13%

Outsourcing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	22
Large Enterprise	54

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Network Watcher?

I do not have the exact setup cost information on hand, but it is available in the public Azure portal. You can access the calculator there to get detailed pricing information.

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What needs improvement with Azure Network Watcher?

The main area for improvement is AI-based features. Currently, many intelligent tools are coming from third parties, and Azure Network Watcher needs to improve in this area. The focus should be on ...

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What is your primary use case for Azure Network Watcher?

Azure Network Watcher is used for monitoring network traffic. It provides insight into egress and ingress traffic, which helps determine whether consumption can be controlled. Most Azure services c...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCOM?

I am not aware of the exact pricing as it is managed by my supervisor. As an academic institution, we receive substantial discounts.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SCOM?

We believe that the dashboarding in SCOM needs to be improved or enhanced because it is not too expressive in reporting. We can work on deploying new ways of viewing things and modifying visualizat...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SCOM?

My usual use case for SCOM is as an administrator role where I create reports and provide system configuration for Linux and installation of the SCOM agent. I handle deploying and upgrading the age...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher

August 2026

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Buyer's Guide

SCOM

July 2026

Download SCOM product report

Also Known As

No data available

System Center Operations Manager, SCOM 2012

Overview

Azure Network Watcher provides advanced network monitoring capabilities including packet capture, cloud-native firewall, and traffic diagnosis, aiding in VPN troubleshooting and security enforcement with enhanced visibility and alerting features.

Azure Network Watcher is essential for monitoring, diagnosing, and analyzing network traffic. It efficiently handles VPN connection issues and enhances network security by capturing and analyzing traffic to assess performance or latency problems. The tool facilitates traffic flow control, security rule verification, and bandwidth monitoring. Users benefit from its capabilities in diagnosing service connections, offering insights into network activity, and identifying potential threats, crucial for maintaining compliance and efficient network management.

What are the key features of Azure Network Watcher?

Packet Capture: Enables detailed network traffic inspection to troubleshoot issues.
Cloud-Native Application Firewall: Provides enhanced protection for applications running in the cloud.
Traffic Monitoring: Allows for real-time analysis and troubleshooting of network traffic.
NSG Flow Logs & AI-Based Monitoring: Enhances flow control and threat detection.
Alerting & Threshold Configuration: Offers customizable alerts via Azure Monitor for proactive management.

What benefits can users look for in reviews?

Improved Network Security: Helps in identifying and mitigating threats efficiently.
Enhanced Visibility: Provides clear insights into network operations and potential issues.
Compliance Support: Assists in maintaining regulatory compliance with thorough monitoring capabilities.
Effective Bandwidth Management: Facilitates control and optimization of network bandwidth.

In industries like finance and healthcare, Azure Network Watcher is implemented to ensure robust security and compliance, crucial for safeguarding sensitive data. It aids retail and manufacturing sectors in optimizing network performance and maintaining seamless connectivity, supporting their digital infrastructure needs.

Microsoft

SCOM monitors Microsoft environments with a focus on Windows servers and applications such as SQL, Exchange, and SharePoint. It offers integration with Active Directory and Azure, along with customizable dashboards, management packs, and robust alert mechanisms, aiding efficient management and control.

SCOM provides a comprehensive monitoring solution for Microsoft technologies, helping organizations track performance and availability of applications, services, and infrastructure. It integrates with Active Directory and Azure, offering capabilities for monitoring Windows and Linux environments. Extensive management packs, customizable dashboards, and automated alerts offer a refined monitoring experience. Users benefit from detailed performance data, network monitoring, and auto-discovery features, enhancing operational insights and server management efficiency.

What are key features of SCOM?

Microsoft Environment Monitoring: Specialized for Windows servers and applications such as SQL, Exchange, and SharePoint.
Integration Capabilities: Seamless integration with Active Directory and Azure for streamlined operations.
Customizable Dashboards: Tailor visual data displays to enhance monitoring and decision-making.
Extensive Management Packs: Broad range of management packs for enhanced resource and application control.
Robust Alert Mechanisms: Comprehensive alerting to maintain service stability and address potential issues promptly.

What benefits should users seek in reviews?

Operational Efficiency: Enhanced management of server applications and infrastructure.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Detailed insights into performance and service availability.
Proactive Issue Notification: Timely alerts for quick issue resolution.
Improved Control: More efficient server management through automation and visibility.

In technology sectors, SCOM is widely implemented for its ability to monitor server applications and infrastructure components. Healthcare and finance utilize its monitoring and alert systems for compliance and uptime. Enterprises integrate SCOM for managing complex systems like Exchange, SharePoint, and Active Directory, enabling comprehensive analytics and reporting.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Dialog Telekom

Buyer's Guide

Azure Network Watcher vs. SCOM

August 2026

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