Fortra's Intermapper vs Observer GigaStor comparison

Fortra and Viavi Solutions are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Fortra is ranked #84, while Viavi Solutions is ranked #93. Fortra holds a 0.3% mindshare in NMS, compared to Viavi Solutions’s 0.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Fortra users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Viavi Solutions users who would recommend it.

Fortra's Intermapper

Read 4 Fortra's Intermapper reviews

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242 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Observer GigaStor

Read 7 Observer GigaStor reviews

234 Views
178 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Fortra's Intermapper

Observer GigaStor

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Fortra's Intermapper and Observer GigaStor are key players in the network monitoring solutions market. Observer GigaStor seems to have an advantage due to its advanced analysis capabilities tailored for comprehensive network diagnostics.

Features: Fortra's Intermapper focuses on real-time network mapping, providing proactive alerts and intuitive network visualization. Observer GigaStor offers deep packet inspection, comprehensive historical data analysis, and advanced troubleshooting tools, which contribute to its strong data analysis capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Fortra's Intermapper could enhance its historical data analysis, expand its packet inspection capabilities, and integrate more advanced diagnostic tools. Observer GigaStor might improve by simplifying its deployment process, reducing initial setup complexity, and offering more affordable pricing options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fortra's Intermapper is user-friendly, allowing straightforward deployment with intuitive configuration, providing quick implementation solutions. Observer GigaStor may involve a more complex deployment, yet it is backed by thorough customer support, assisting comprehensive installations. Fortra ranks high in customer support responsiveness, ensuring swift issue resolutions.

Pricing and ROI: Fortra's Intermapper offers a cost-effective solution with lower upfront costs and rapid ROI, making it attractive to budget-conscious businesses. Observer GigaStor, potentially priced higher, delivers significant ROI through its extensive diagnostic features, appealing to enterprises requiring in-depth network analysis despite the investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Fortra's Intermapper vs. Observer GigaStor Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Fortra's Intermapper vs. Observer GigaStor

April 2025

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Helped 850,349 peers since 2012

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

Fortra's Intermapper

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

84th

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Observer GigaStor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

93rd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Troubleshooting (15th), Network Packet Broker (NPB) (9th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Fortra's Intermapper is 0.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Observer GigaStor is 0.2%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Andrian Lubimov

SVP of Networking and Operations at Skywire Networks

It tremendously cuts down our troubleshooting timeframe, but needs advanced SLA monitoring and reporting

They can do a better job with SLA reporting. It does some basic reporting, but it really doesn't offer the ability to monitor devices by groups, customers, or carrier to give an overall health performance of specifically-defined environments. That's where HelpSystems Intermapper could have done a better job. I would love to see advanced SLA monitoring and reporting in this solution. They already have a lot of ingredients. They already have SNMP polling. It is really about what people are looking for from SLA monitoring, especially someone who looks at the network topology. You want to see your endpoints. You want to see half of your endpoints by simply analyzing ICMP or SNMP-based availability of your endpoints. Having an ability to define your group and how you bring devices into your group would be a huge benefit.

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Jeroen-Dubbelman

Director at Bitrate

Aids significantly in the threat-hunting process and provides a score-based evaluation of user experience

There are many valuable features, but understanding end-user response times stands out. It provides a score-based evaluation of user experience, helping customers quickly pinpoint whether issues originate from the network, server, client, or application. Additionally, it facilitates in-depth analysis of application dependencies. The retrospective network analysis capability of Observer GigaStor has been beneficial. It's a pivotal feature for network performance solutions. However, I prefer to consider the entire solution suite - GigaStor, along with GigaFlow and Apex - for comprehensive network visibility and monitoring. So, I prefer to integrate all three solutions to provide the best visibility. They complement each other well, with Apex aggregating and correlating data from both GigaStor and GigaFlow to enhance environmental understanding and troubleshooting efficiency.

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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

"What is really cool about HelpSystems InterMapper is that because of its SNMP base, you can integrate all different makes and models on the same map. You, of course, can have more than one map, but you have an option to have visibility into the entire network from one centralized system. You can monitor IPs, routers, radios, DC power plants, and UPS. You can do it all from one network management and monitoring solution. That's what really makes HelpSystems Intermapper great. Another great thing about HelpSystems InterMapper is that you can really bundle different probes under one device. You can have a bundled device. You can monitor the physical status of a host based on the IP availability. You can also monitor services and actually see if anything happens. You can quickly determine whether it is the application layer, host layer, or network layer. HelpSystems Intermapper gives such a unique representation of a network. Ever since we started using HelpSystems InterMapper, we don't have to document everything in a detailed format and store it somewhere. Right now, it is really a combination of network topology, network monitoring, and network analyzing. So, in my opinion, it is awesome. When you have your SNMP topology defined, you don't require a dedicated NMS engineer to manage your system, which is another great thing about HelpSystems InterMapper. I see how our operators get so excited by having the ability to map a device or interface and connect interfaces together. HelpSystems InterMapper is also very operator friendly; not just user friendly, but also operator friendly. This is a unique feature, and it works really great."

"The most valuable features are its: log history, real-time monitoring capabilities, accuracy - the number of false positives is very low, and the mapping features."

"It's all today portal-based which is a good feature for us."

"It's a nice graphical interface, a nice map, that relates Layer 1 to Layer 3, virtually instantly, to the Helpdesk support staff. It provides a default place to get critical information so we can deploy our staff."

"There are many valuable features, but understanding end-user response times stands out. It provides a score-based evaluation of user experience, helping customers quickly pinpoint whether issues originate from the network, server, client, or application. Additionally, it facilitates in-depth analysis of application dependencies."

"This solution allows us to see exactly what is going on in the network and we can very quickly solve issues with users."

"It can help to write your rules, organize firewalls, your block, and also your protocols and IP address to come in or out of your network."

"I also have the ability to see an application's performance, to see what's going on, why a network is slow, why this program for this user is experiencing a delay or some network issue"

"The ability to capture packets. It is not only for monitoring. That is very important for a company that wants to keep an eye on the packets, the transactions, the flows..."

"It's able to capture packets and, after a long time, you can come and use that information; to check, to analyze - everything you would want to do. So it's very good and helpful if you want to protect your data. It is stored in a certain place where you can access it every time you want to analyze it."

Cons

"They can do a better job with SLA reporting. It does some basic reporting, but it really doesn't offer the ability to monitor devices by groups, customers, or carrier to give an overall health performance of specifically-defined environments. That's where HelpSystems Intermapper could have done a better job. I would love to see advanced SLA monitoring and reporting in this solution. They already have a lot of ingredients. They already have SNMP polling. It is really about what people are looking for from SLA monitoring, especially someone who looks at the network topology. You want to see your endpoints. You want to see half of your endpoints by simply analyzing ICMP or SNMP-based availability of your endpoints. Having an ability to define your group and how you bring devices into your group would be a huge benefit."

"I'd love to see more of the network management side of it coming back into it. If we were able to run scripts to bounce ports on switches, that would be great. It's asking a lot, but it's actually very doable because I do it through scripting into other products. If we could incorporate that directly into Intermapper, that would be fantastic."

"It's a smaller solution so tools are not as advanced as you would find in a larger solution"

"GigaStor feeds into Apex. So, the area where there could be improvement would be in artificial intelligence. For example, the incorporation of more advanced machine learning or AI capabilities could enhance its functionality."

"Graphics need improvement. Because a lot of the information there you have to input first in some case to have full potential. It could be more automated."

"Maybe the graphical user interface could be simplified to allow people to use it more easily. It's already good, but they can work more on it to make it even easier."

"I would like to have more than 4TB of storage available in the portable version of this solution."

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"It depends on the requirements you have. There are three types of license. There's the updates license, the work group license, and the workstation license."

"It's quite expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

25%

Government

17%

University

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

28%

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

What do you like most about Observer GigaStor?

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Observer GigaStor?

I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten. It's quite expensive.

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What needs improvement with Observer GigaStor?

GigaStor feeds into Apex. So, the area where there could be improvement would be in artificial intelligence. For example, the incorporation of more advanced machine learning or AI capabilities coul...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Network Monitoring Software

April 2025

Download Fortra's Intermapper product report

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor

April 2025

Download Observer GigaStor product report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Intermapper

No data available

Overview

Fortra's software frees you up to focus on what matters most, aligning IT and business goals to help organizations build a competitive edge. Intermapper is network monitoring software for organizations who want to monitor their IT infrastructure in real time.

With Intermapper, you can visualize all your physical and virtual network components on a live map and get up-to-date performance data on its availability. Powerful and user-friendly, Intermapper helps leading businesses prevent costly outages and maximize uptime for 24/7 availability of network resources.

Features include flexible monitoring for anything with an IP address, free probes to monitor different types of equipment from various vendors, dynamic network mapping, bandwidth monitoring, real-time alerts, and remote access. Our add-on integration with Automate allows you to remediate network failures and conduct network self-healing.

Intermapper runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Fortra

Observer GigaStor is a network analysis tool that comes in a variety of form factors, including rack mount, portable, and virtual. Capable of storing up to a petabyte of traffic for later analysis, GigaStor helps ensure optimal network and application performance.

Viavi Solutions

Sample Customers

Greater Media Detroit, University of British Columbia, Don's Farm Supply

Cisco Systems, Hawaiian Telecom, Renown Health, State of Nevada, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Allstate Insurance, Jack Henry & Associates, United States Airforce, US Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Chicago Board Options Exchange

Buyer's Guide

Fortra's Intermapper vs. Observer GigaStor

April 2025

Free Report: Fortra's Intermapper vs. Observer GigaStor

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortra's Intermapper vs. Observer GigaStor and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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