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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
33rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds NPM
Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
159
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (3rd), Cloud Monitoring Software (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Dell CloudIQ is 0.9%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 3.8%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Infrastructure Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

ClaudioSalgado - PeerSpot reviewer
Has proactive monitoring with predictive insights and a user-friendly interface
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. It provides a status with traffic light colors, where red indicates danger, yellow means attention is needed, and green represents normal conditions to easily understand the health of the environment. The quick overview aids in decision-making. Additionally, CloudIQ's predictive capabilities, which are enhanced by artificial intelligence, have improved operational efficiency by providing proactive information to prevent issues before they arise.
Masud Alam - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers alerting service to trigger alerts and easy to manage
For end-user performance monitoring, we like features such as availability of our all devices and device/interface monitoring. We have also used NCM (Network Configuration Manager) for our network. We use the alerting service to trigger alerts based on specific thresholds, like CPU or memory utilization exceeding a certain percentage. There are AI network initiatives in SolarWinds NPM for some lengthy issues. For example, it shows availability reports. But for bandwidth monitoring, it's not very clear how much bandwidth is being consumed. SolarWinds provide real-time bandwidth monitoring. It is not difficult to manage the network with SolarWinds. We have one customer with a satellite location. If we have a large network with, let's say, 43,000 elements, and our current SolarWinds license supports only 30,000, we would need to create another polling engine to accommodate the additional 13,000 elements. It's limited to the polling engine, so we can only support 30,000 elements per engine. So it's only for 30,000, but we have at least 40,000 elements in our network.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The dashboard is clear and user-friendly."
"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."
"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."
"The tool for forecasting capacity is valuable."
"Fewer vulnerabilities have been observed in the four years we have used the solution."
"CloudIQ allows us to monitor our servers centrally, and we can receive notifications in case of issues, like a potential hard drive failure."
"It's convenient because you can access it from a mobile device without needing a laptop."
"I rate CloudIQ a ten out of ten."
"The solution is easy to install and it takes a couple of hours."
"Technical support is very helpful with our upgrades."
"As we look to add more servers to our virtual environment and to understand the impact, the solution allows us to dig into the historical charts related to capacity planning."
"This solution offers a very good view of our network and allows us to effectively monitor performance."
"The most valuable feature is the graphical user interface."
"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."
"It's a very good tool and a very stable tool."
"The people in technical support are very good."
 

Cons

"The process of upgrading could be streamlined."
"The main limitation of CloudIQ is that it is intended to be used exclusively with Dell hardware."
"There is a need for improvement in predictive maintenance, which I assume is somewhat AI-driven."
"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."
"It can improve the reporting facility to create custom reports or dashboards."
"It can improve the reporting facility to create custom reports or dashboards."
"If you have a heterogeneous environment, there might be some limitations in coverage since CloudIQ is primarily designed for Dell-based infrastructures."
"In terms of improvement, they should enhance the product range."
"Better offline license management. I’ve had to get in touch with customer support several times simply to remove an expired license from our NPM servers."
"They need to work on their automation and automatically discover devices. They are not very good at automatically discovering devices."
"The dashboards for this solution could be improved. We would like to divide the dashboards to give a clear view to our management team to show what we have and what deficiencies exist in our network."
"SolarWinds NPM offers limited customization options. Users and developers may find restrictions in modifying or customizing the dashboard and adjusting monitoring features such as polling intervals or SLAs for different nodes."
"The reporting module that got integrated into the system itself, used to be a standalone solution and I preferred that."
"The console could be more user-friendly. It would be better if SolarWinds updated the user interface."
"A feature I would ask for is for them to have this solution available for Linux systems instead of Windows."
"I would like to have a Syslog server module for this product. That would make the solution better."
 

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."
"Licenses depend on the number of devices, but all license levels come with technical support."
"Most of the licenses are perpetual, and the annual maintenance charges are not high."
"We have a perpetual license for this solution, and my impression is that this solution is cheap."
"Some solutions are open source and free."
"The cost of the personal perpetual license for SolarWinds NPM is approximately $2,000."
"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."
"We pay approximately $700 per year for renewal of the license."
"The NPM component of the system costs approximately $1,000 USD per year."
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Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
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
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Dell CloudIQ?
It can improve the reporting facility to create custom reports or dashboards.
What is your primary use case for Dell CloudIQ?
I use it for monitoring environment security today. I look at security, capacity, and availability in our environment.
What advice do you have for others considering Dell CloudIQ?
I would rate the overall product an eight out of ten.
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: July 2025.
865,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.