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DX Spectrum vs IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact vs OPS/MVS Automation Intelligence comparison

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

DX NetOps Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
DX Spectrum26.7%
DX Performance Management32.8%
AppNeta by Broadcom31.9%
Other8.599999999999994%
DX NetOps
Event Monitoring Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact3.9%
ServiceNow IT Operations Management11.7%
OpsRamp9.6%
Other74.8%
Event Monitoring
Event Monitoring Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
OPS/MVS Automation Intelligence4.0%
ServiceNow IT Operations Management11.7%
OpsRamp9.6%
Other74.7%
Event Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

ON
Solution Architect at SA Consulting
Provides proactive network monitoring and effective fault detection for large-scale environments
I would like to see improvements in making the interface more user-friendly. Many people find it not simple to use. One of the common customer complaints is about the alarm notifications. Currently, they appear as pop-up messages, but I would prefer having alarm messages shown as a scrolling bar at the taskbar for easier visibility.
Hennie Du Toit - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Specialist Architecture and Governance at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Event management strengthens with automation but needs better event flooding handling
Better handling of event flooding in IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact would be beneficial. If there are massive issues with power, for example, and we get millions of events, then it struggles to deal with that. Better root cause correlation and faster processing for IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact would be helpful. If there can be more end-to-end functionality, such as observability tools built in natively, that would be great. With correlation, IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact has many functions, but we've built them custom-built. Functions such as automated logging, automated dispatching, and automated notification of engineers could be native in the tool.
SR
System Programmer at Krungsri
Automation has improved alerts and file handling but script-based setup still needs simplification
OPS_MVS Automation Intelligence is the automation tool I use. I think OPS_MVS Automation Intelligence is good for creating complex rules because it's coding, but it takes time to learn how to use it. OPS_MVS Automation Intelligence works well if you know the syntax very well and you have experience in creating scripts or REXX syntax; it would be very good and is a good tool, but it takes time to learn, so that is for experienced staff to work with. I would rate the product a six from one to ten. I cannot think of any additional features in the next release of OPS_MVS Automation Intelligence.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is very stable. We have not had any major issues in over 10 years."
"The Spectrum tool improved our network assurance levels for our business units."
"The monitoring just comes to us: "Oh, there's something wrong with that machine." It tells us. There are some 50,000 machines or so, all doing different things. And if they go down we hear about it."
"I can use it to detect whenever things go wrong on my network."
"All networks (or network equipment) are monitored through CA Spectrum."
"It does correlation so instead of producing 20 alarms if a site goes down, it only creates one."
"The fault management is perfect."
"The quick notification of issues, quick alerting because timeliness is always valuable, it's very important for us."
"This product allows us to make use of open-source products, including running Java code."
"The solution is great at being able to fetch almost any kind of file."
"The most valuable feature that comes with Netcool/Impact is the ISPF APA support. It is inherent to Netcool/Impact, so I can use the ISPF of any other product, which I can invoke and consume through Impact, and do integrations, which is great. I run the Netcool desktop application so I can integrate with other applications in the ticketing system. It's a great ability being able to invoke ISPF and integrate."
"It is easy to integrate with other models such as Oracle, other systems, external systems, and to reach events."
"The stability has been very good for IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact, rated around eight or nine."
"Valuable features include: SSM, which provides for orderly startup and shutdown; OPSLOG, which enables filtering by message-id, and/or jobname(s); Rules, as OPS/REXX interface streamlines deployment, interfaces easily with JES2 and z/OS."
"I can and interrupt what's going on, bring a job down if I need to, and bring it back up."
"The performance of it is beyond exceptional. It is probably one of the best products that I have ever worked with. It is easy to use, comprehensive, and can perform almost any task you need it to."
"​It is an easy product to use and it is stable."
"Because we can define complex commands, the training of new operators is quicker. We can also put checks in place, that will prevent user errors."
"It alerts the operators when it is time to repair the communications and the IPLs."
"It allows us to respond faster to issues. If there are issues that come out, we're able to capture a message and alert somebody about it."
"The documentation is simple, easy to follow, and use. A limited, first-time systems programmer can do it, in that it is out-of-the-box almost functional."
 

Cons

"The solution's stability needs improvement."
"DX Spectrum needs better documentation on its complex features."
"If they could interact with the MIBs of vendors better, and have a lot more pre-loaded ones, that would be amazing for us right now."
"From a functionality perspective, the product is not doing what it should. Also, there are some concerns about the accessibility. I would appreciate additional out-of-the-box troubleshooting scripts, like templates for addressing various issues. Currently, when troubleshooting online, I need to create my scripts. It would be beneficial if the platform could provide pre-built scripts or templates to help automate certain troubleshooting tasks."
"For us, the implementation was quite complex but it's because of the large number of different environments we're dealing with."
"​I would like to see them eliminate the Java console. The user interface for this is a Java applet that runs on your desktop, and it is very problematic for us."
"There's a little bit of complexity to the initial install because you're dealing with operating systems. You have to make sure all the prerequisites are done, anti-virus exceptions, etc. Then there's the bringing it up and then there's discovery of the network and setting that up. It takes time."
"If nobody else has said the documentation needs improvement, let's go there. I understand, you can either write about it or you can do it. And most of us would rather they do it, but now that they've done it, those of us that didn't do it, we need to go and find: "Where did they write about this to tell us how to do it?" That's always lacking."
"Better handling of event flooding in IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact would be beneficial. If there are massive issues with power, for example, and we get millions of events, then it struggles to deal with that."
"IBM is not investing in the development of the on-premise version of this solution."
"For improvement, I'd say the dashboard and the overall GUI could use some work. Although, I don't think that there's much improvement that Netcool really needs to achieve in this area, because when we're talking GUI, Impact is able to integrate with any third-party system and it comes with ISPF APA. It's more beneficial than Netcool/OMNIbus in this respect, and it's quite easy to handle."
"The solution is somewhat complicated. It's not exactly straightforward."
"Stability-wise, this product needs to be improved."
"The GUI interface could be improved, but that is coming. They are working on that."
"One thing that comes to mind is the MQ interface. The last time we tried to use it, it seemed a little clunky."
"My impressions on OPS_MVS Automation Intelligence is that it's quite difficult to use, as it relies mainly on the coding syntax and doesn't provide an easy-to-use GUI."
"The reason sometimes it is not stable, we do not have the expertise to write the script.​"
"Performing a stop/restart of OPS/MVS could be a little smoother. Without special coding, some undesired tasks will be started and some necessary tasks will be stopped if we have to bounce OPS/MVS during the day."
"It definitely needs more web-based interface, to be more mobile-open. More APIs, more open source to it."
"Scalability is zero. It cannot be scaled because of its age."
"The further expansion of the mainframe teamcenter interface. Also, the web services support is something that I am looking into."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive compared to other tools in the market."
"Currently, a perpetual license but some services are moving to a subscription"
"DX Spectrum's pricing depends on the license number. It is affordable."
"It is very pricey. With the current trend of enterprises moving towards cheaper and more modern looking solutions like ManageEngine, SevOne, ServicePilot, and Paesller."
"The cost of some of these products are a little cost prohibitive, which is unfortunate. We have to find lower cost solutions for some of the things that we have to pull in. For the most part, CA has capabilities in pretty much everything that you would need. You just have to figure out where are you going to spend the most money for what you have to actually get done. You can do all these things but, which ones do you have to do? And that's hard to choose sometimes because you want to do them all."
"Spectrum is expensive."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"The price is very high."
"Licensing of IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact depends on the number of nodes on the element that you are monitoring."
"The licensing is yearly, and although I'm happy with the pricing I do think it could be better."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
No data available
Logistics Company
17%
Educational Organization
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise89
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about DX Spectrum?
The solution's most valuable features are its integration with Broadcom tools and scalability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DX Spectrum?
The price of DX Spectrum is not competitive when compared to other solutions, such as SolarWinds. The high price has ...
What needs improvement with DX Spectrum?
I would like to see improvements in making the interface more user-friendly. Many people find it not simple to use. O...
What needs improvement with IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact?
Better handling of event flooding in IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact would be beneficial. If there are massive issues with ...
What is your primary use case for IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact?
IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact is our event management tool, specifically the umbrella fault management tool set. All of o...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact?
We remain a partner with IBM Tivoli and continue using their products. We use IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact's AIOps funct...
What needs improvement with OPS/MVS Automation Intelligence?
My impressions on OPS_MVS Automation Intelligence is that it's quite difficult to use, as it relies mainly on the cod...
What is your primary use case for OPS/MVS Automation Intelligence?
We use the auto-purge transaction for some transactions that run very long, and we also use automation to open and cl...
What advice do you have for others considering OPS/MVS Automation Intelligence?
OPS_MVS Automation Intelligence is the automation tool I use. I think OPS_MVS Automation Intelligence is good for cre...
 

Also Known As

CA Spectrum
Tivoli NetCool Impact
CA OPS MVS Event Management and Automation, CA OPS/MVS Event Management and Automation, Unicenter CA-OPS/MVS Event Management and Automation
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

National Informatics Centre India, Banese, Olympus, AlphaServe Technologies, Sicredi
Claranet, Consolidated Communications, Telus, €sterreichische Bundesbahnen (€BB), Telekom Srbija, Bendigo Community Telco, Capgemini, Schweizerische Bundesbahnen (SBB)
Tieto