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Big Switch Networks vs NETSCOUT Network & Application Observability comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Big Switch Networks
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.6
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Networking (SDN) (10th), Network Packet Broker (NPB) (3rd)
NETSCOUT Network & Applicat...
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
92
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (46th), Network Monitoring Software (7th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (29th), Network Troubleshooting (12th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Big Switch Networks is designed for Software Defined Networking (SDN) and holds a mindshare of 4.6%, up 4.5% compared to last year.
NETSCOUT Network & Application Observability, on the other hand, focuses on Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM), holds 4.9% mindshare, up 3.7% since last year.
Software Defined Networking (SDN) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Big Switch Networks4.6%
Meraki SD-WAN10.0%
Cisco ACI8.9%
Other76.5%
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NETSCOUT Network & Application Observability4.9%
ThousandEyes11.6%
Nexthink11.4%
Other72.1%
Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)
 

Featured Reviews

Jason Best - PeerSpot reviewer
Data center network architect at Cloudwire
A flexible solution that can be integrated with third-party solutions whilst maintaining its automated nature
I think if I was to say something that could be improved, it would be a multi-data center nature of the implementation. Meaning, having an active-active data center with multiple entrance-exit points. I think that feature could be improved to provide a kind of anycast gateway solution into the functionality that would make it a lot more flexible and versatile. Maybe also making the solution a bit more like the NSX-T from VMware, more on the logical part of the solution, like micro-segmentation and the ability to have a distributed firewall across the whole solution, to implement it in an easier way than they currently do with the security aspect of the solution.
HT
Newwork And Collaboration Supervisor at Nafeza
Monitoring has improved bandwidth insights and application diagnosis but setup and costs still need work
They need room for improvement about the spare parts. There are shortages in Egypt in their stock. We tried to make RMA for specific parts, and it took a long time. Comparing this to a vendor like Cisco, who provides any component next business day, NETSCOUT nGeniusONE took a long time. This needs more improvement. I believe it is expensive. They need to reduce its budget a little bit. Comparing to other solutions, it is very expensive.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I think it's an easy, versatile solution to implement."
"What I liked about the solution is the quick and easy way you can build a network data center fabric."
"The VoLTE model, call search and Media Monitor were essential when we launched VoLTE. We're relying heavily on them to troubleshoot our VoLTE calls."
"The packet capture is the most valuable feature for us. It gathers data from the device. In case somebody has a problem, I can go back X amount of time - days, hours - and get the data to do real troubleshooting."
"If a lot of traffic from one site is hitting AWS Cloud or the data center, then we want to know which client is utilizing the most bandwidth. We will work with nGeniusONE to troubleshoot the issue."
"This is the best protocol analyzer I've used and I've used some from WildPackets and quite a few other places."
"It is the best tool that I have used as far as troubleshooting quickly, at a glance, and for being able to drill down into any issues or complaints we might have from customers."
"It's a consolidated, single tool that talks to multiple platforms. It's not vendor-proprietary; it's independent. It provides interoperability with different products, whether they are routing products, switching products, wireless, wired, load balancing, or proxy. It works with anything you can name."
"It has cut our group's troubleshooting time down significantly, e.g., depending on the issue, what would normally take maybe a couple of hours will now take minutes."
"The real-time troubleshooting and application segregation that you can do within it."
 

Cons

"I think if I was to say something that could be improved, it would be a multi-data center nature of the implementation."
"The initial setup was complex, and deployment took around six months."
"They can increase flexibility in the search engine. Basically, I go with the information I have at the time. If I could just type in the parameter that I want to search for and its value, it might be easier than having to do the groundwork upfront before I can get my traces."
"Initially, we were having a lot of issues with bugs when using version 6.1.1. There were a lot of problems with the dashboard causing confusion."
"One of the products we use is SolarWinds, and it provides a very cool mapping of an agent from end-to-end. If NETSCOUT could somehow implement that into their design... make it quicker and easier to get those net paths, it would be huge."
"I can't give them quite a 10, because from time to time, I'll work with the folks who, not that they're not good, but there are some who are just phenomenal."
"They require a lot of manual effort as traffic flows, networks, and formal times change."
"I'd like them to make the product more user-friendly."
"The price is really high, making it difficult for many financial companies to purchase immediately; it will take time for them to afford any budget for the purchase."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing cost depends on the number of switches that are going to be licensed to run the software."
"This product could be cheaper."
"The product is too expensive compared to other products."
"It can be scalable. It just costs too much. With a company as big as ours, it gets too expensive to accommodate every single site."
"It can be expensive, but if you have a good configuration, based on what you are looking for, it's okay, it's manageable."
"It was pretty modest because you could get it in different ways. I think the six licenses, at that time, were about $1,000 each. But then again, I work for a school and educators tend to get discounts on things. So maybe it cost us about five or six hundred a copy."
"The scalability becomes very expensive quickly."
"I don't know what the cost to buy the solution was, but I doubt if it's a significant part of the budget as far as the maintenance and support are concerned."
"I would like it to be more scalable with less spend."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
12%
Healthcare Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise59
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
I would say if it’s an ISP that will build a scrubbing center, Netscout/Arbor is a good solution. In all other solutions, Imperva is a great choice.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NETSCOUT nGeniusONE?
Regarding its high price, I give NETSCOUT nGeniusONE a seven.
What needs improvement with NETSCOUT nGeniusONE?
They need room for improvement about the spare parts. There are shortages in Egypt in their stock. We tried to make RMA for specific parts, and it took a long time. Comparing this to a vendor like ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
NETSCOUT nGenius, NETSCOUT nGeniusONE, NETSCOUT nGeniusPULSE, NETSCOUT vSTREAM, NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG, TruView
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

A10 Networks, Edge-Core Networks, Blue Coat Systems, BlueData, Broadcom Corporation, Canonical, Check Point Software Technologies, Citrix, Dell, FireEye, Garland, Hortonworks, Mirantis, Nexenta, Riverbed
Cerner Corporation
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