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Dell CloudIQ vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

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

Dell CloudIQ
Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring
37th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds NPM
Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
161
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (2nd), Cloud Monitoring Software (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Dell CloudIQ is 0.9%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 3.5%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Infrastructure Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SolarWinds NPM3.5%
Dell CloudIQ0.9%
Other95.6%
IT Infrastructure Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

Haseeb Sheikh - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager Enterprise Solutions at a media company with 201-500 employees
Proactive monitoring has improved availability and capacity reporting for my infrastructure
The current features including availability, performance, and capacity are good enough, and I think more of better alerting along with improved thresholds of alerts should be implemented. It is helpful, but it should also include the capability to detect zero-day attacks if there are any. I think the remediation could have been better. For example, if I am upgrading my firmware or BIOS or firmware of the infrastructure, it should give me exact CVSS scores and remediation data provided against the CVSS scores. I think the Dell CloudIQ app could be more interactive. If there is a possibility that I can open tickets or SRs via the Dell CloudIQ app, that would be a good feature.
Vivek Jaiswal - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Central monitoring has improved outage alerts and now needs smarter detection and modern dashboards
Regarding the automated network topology and mapping feature in SolarWinds NPM, I am not satisfied with it. For static monitoring, it is acceptable. However, if it is possible, 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. We did not have any facility to detect that in SolarWinds. I think it would be better to incorporate those types of features. Regarding customization options in SolarWinds, the ability to customize the dashboard has room for improvement. The dashboard is quite old, and we need some improvement in it. Nowadays, we have multiple tools with AI-based monitoring and web-based dashboards. SolarWinds also has a web-based dashboard, but I think there is scope for improvement in the UI. There may be other areas I would like to improve in SolarWinds NPM.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's convenient because you can access it from a mobile device without needing a laptop."
"Some of the most valuable features of CloudIQ include its health status alerts, which allow you to see quickly if there is something that needs immediate attention, preventing the need to check each system individually."
"I use Dell CloudIQ for the availability and capacity reporting, which is very helpful in terms of capacity and availability reporting, and if there is any fault or faulty drive or faulty part, I am alerted on time with that, which is the main benefit that avoids any unplanned outage."
"Has really nice roll-up dashboards."
"The tool for forecasting capacity is valuable."
"The best thing about this solution is that you can check for the infrastructure and system updates that you might need to be compliant with the Cloud."
"I rate CloudIQ a ten out of ten."
"We chose this solution because it is a free product offered from Dell which you can use to monitor, manage and optimize cybersecurity."
"We have completely eliminated any blind spots in the operation of our core networks, applications, and platforms."
"SolarWinds NPM provides an overview of network monitoring, extending its capabilities to cover other aspects, such as virtual machines and servers. The platform has features like NetPath, which is particularly beneficial for end-users, offering insights into issues like latency, packet loss, and connectivity problems with routers, switches, or servers."
"Overall, SolarWinds is a very good product."
"Can easily be interconnected with other management systems."
"This product is extremely flexible and customizable, with significant out-of-the-box monitoring and, with custom properties and some ingenuity, you can get it to do pretty much anything else."
"As a large school district, I can tell you that NPM is very valuable to us."
"It provided visibility into network performance, which at the time we really did not have."
"Simplicity in use, in administration and the ability to present anything that management or the business wants is a killer to other products."
 

Cons

"It can improve the reporting facility to create custom reports or dashboards."
"Getting through support has become a difficult thing. Dell's support has degraded since they took over EMC. It's a bit difficult to use."
"PowerScale is the only file system offered and that is limiting."
"The reporting capabilities of this solution could be improved."
"The process of upgrading could be streamlined."
"The main limitation of CloudIQ is that it is intended to be used exclusively with Dell hardware."
"If you have a heterogeneous environment, there might be some limitations in coverage since CloudIQ is primarily designed for Dell-based infrastructures."
"I think the remediation could have been better."
"The cost for monitoring interfaces is ridiculous."
"There isn't support available to us as they don't offer support in our country."
"Bulk Node attach is chaos."
"One of the challenges with SolarWinds is that in order to pull the data, we have to have a lot of false positives."
"The solution is expensive and may not be very affordable for startups or smaller companies."
"SolarWinds could offer more support and insights for a broader range of devices. Currently, it focuses on routers, switches, and some load balancers. However, it lacks an out-of-the-box dashboard for monitoring firewalls and some other modern network security devices. We have to customize it a lot."
"The reporting module that got integrated into the system itself, used to be a standalone solution and I preferred that."
"Two or three of the core functions are still nested in Win32 apps on the server; but it seems that the foundation was laid in the current website for porting those functions over in the near future."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe it is a free product because we don't pay for it."
"The solution is more expensive than NetApp which offers file systems in various price ranges."
"USD $15,000 annually for maintenance."
"Our customer reports that the solution is somewhat costly and licensing is a bit complicated."
"The pricing needs to be improved. It is too high. One full engine costs around $10 000, which is why we don't have high availability right now."
"When I compare the cost of CA Spectrum to that of SolarWinds NPM, the cost of CA Spectrum is way too high, and the cost of SolarWinds NPM is pretty low."
"Quite highly priced"
"There is a permanent license and also a subscription level which has annual fees. The price of the solution is fair."
"I find that the pricing is acceptable."
"We pay approximately $4,000 annually for SolarWinds NPM. There are no additional fees required other than the standard fees."
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Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
May 31, 2015
Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor
I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise33
Large Enterprise87
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Dell CloudIQ?
The current features including availability, performance, and capacity are good enough, and I think more of better alerting along with improved thresholds of alerts should be implemented. It is hel...
What is your primary use case for Dell CloudIQ?
I moved to a new organization where I am also using Dell CloudIQ. I use Dell CloudIQ to monitor PowerStore as well as Dell PowerEdge servers.
What advice do you have for others considering Dell CloudIQ?
For performance analytics, I have my own NMS in-house that I use. I have deployed a VApp on-premises with all of the servers and storage integrated, and it sends telemetry data directly to Dell. My...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better for a cloud monitoring...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalability, products like Network Performance Monitor & Netflow Traffic Analyzer ar...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

North Carolina State University
Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell CloudIQ vs. SolarWinds NPM and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.