IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus vs PubSub+ Platform comparison

IBM and Solace are both solutions in the Event Monitoring category. IBM is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.0, while Solace is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.0. Additionally, 78% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Solace users who would recommend it.

IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus

Read 14 IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus reviews

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383 Comparison Views

78% willing to recommend

PubSub+ Platform

Read 17 PubSub+ Platform reviews

0 Views
1 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus

PubSub+ Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 23, 2025

IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus and PubSub+ Platform compete in network management and messaging services. PubSub+ Platform appears to have an advantage due to higher satisfaction with its features, especially in messaging capabilities.

Features: IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus includes a comprehensive event management system, robust service assurance, and extensive alert consolidation capabilities. PubSub+ Platform excels with its real-time event streaming, flexible messaging integrations, and an agile architecture suited for versatile industry applications.

Room for Improvement: IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus needs simplification in deployment, better compatibility beyond IBM DB2, and improved resource efficiency. PubSub+ Platform could enhance its user training resources, offer more pre-configured solutions, and simplify its initial configuration processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: PubSub+ Platform boasts a simple deployment process and strong customer support, which aids organizations efficiently. However, IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus often requires extensive domain expertise for deployment, making it more challenging for some users.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus is valued for its cost-effectiveness and strong ROI for network management-focused companies. PubSub+ Platform may have higher upfront costs but offers substantial ROI benefits with its advanced messaging and data handling features suitable for digital enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus vs. PubSub+ Platform Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus vs. PubSub+ Platform

June 2025

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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

IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus

Ranking in Event Monitoring

5th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

PubSub+ Platform

Ranking in Event Monitoring

13th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Message Queue (MQ) Software (8th), Message Oriented Middleware (MOM) (2nd), Streaming Analytics (11th)

Featured Reviews

Ahmed Salman

Performance & Monitoring Supervisor at Saudi Telecom Company

Aids in network performance monitoring and management

I am working as a customer, mainly using IntelliQ and another product, IBM NetCool, Watson AI. These products are used for monitoring network performance and management. The primary use case involves network performance monitoring, and it is compatible only with IBM DB2 IBM Tivoli NetCool…

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BhanuChidigam

Sofware Engineering Manager at Wells Fargo

Performs well, high availability, and helpful support

We use approximately four people for the maintenance of the solution. My advice to others is this solution has high throughput and is used for many stock exchanges. For business critical use cases, such as processing financial transactions at a quick speed, I would recommend this solution. I rate PubSub+ Event Broker an eight out of ten.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus supports legacy protocols like CORBA, Huawei, and other telecom protocols, which I find beneficial."

"Probes are the best feature because they are well written which rarely requires you to write additional rules. These probes monitor activity within your environment."

"It is an easy-to-use solution."

"It is customer-centric. Customers can access the event list from their location or desktop and view the event. There is no need to go and connect to any other server and run events to have a view of all the events happening in the environment. We get a good response from customers about this feature and the main architecture of NetCool. Its processing is very good. Deduplication and correlation functionalities are good in this solution as compared to other solutions. A big advantage of NetCool is that it also supports multi-layered protocols. We can receive multiple events from different protocols like UDP, HTTP, and those events can be captured in NetCool."

"The most valuable feature is the event management capability."

"The monitoring is the solution's most valuable feature."

"The biggest plus points for me are the configurability and scalability of the solution, as well as the multi-tenancy of the platform."

"OMNIbus is valuable for its compatibility and performance, as I haven't encountered any performance issues."

More IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus pros

"The most useful features has been the WAN optimization and probably the HybridEdge, which requires some third-party adapters or plugins. The idea that we can position Solace as a protocol-agnostic message transport fabric is key to our company having all manners of asynchronous messaging protocols from MQ, Kafka, JMS, etc. I really like the WAN optimization: Send once over a WAN, then distribute locally as many times as there are subscribers."

"The topic hierarchy is pretty flexible. Once you have the subject defined just about anybody who knows Java can come onboard. The APIs are all there."

"The way we can replicate information and send it to several subscribers is most valuable. It can be used for any kind of business where you've got multiple users who need information. Any company, such as LinkedIn, with a huge number of subscribers and any business, such as publishing, supermarket, airline, or shipping can use it."

"When it comes to granularity, you can literally do anything regarding how the filtering works."

"The most valuable feature of PubSub+ Event Broker is the scaling integration. Prior to using the solution, it was done manually with a file, and it can be done instantly live."

"As of now, the most valuable aspects are the topic-based subscription and the fanout exchange that we are using."

"The valuable feature of PubSub+ Event Broker is the speed of processing, publishing, and consumption."

"This solution reduces the latency to access changes in real-time and the effort required to onboard a new subscriber. It also reduces the maintenance of each of those interfaces because now the publisher and subscribers are decoupled. Event Broker handles all the communication and engagement. We can just push one update, then we don't have to know who is consuming it and what's happening to that publication downstream. It's all done by the broker, which is a huge benefit of using Event Broker."

More PubSub+ Platform pros

Cons

"The cost of the product is quite high. They should work to adjust their pricing models."

"There should be an easier-to-understand model, more of a flat-structured model rather than different tiers of licenses which complicates licensing."

"The solution needs to invest in the development of a knowledge base and use of AI services for providing event resolution and intervention directions."

"The web portal and typical event controls are a little outdated."

"I would like for the next release to be more user-friendly and out of date. The next release should focus on the cloud, AI, and ML technologies."

"The solution has limitations in database integration as it cannot integrate with databases other than IBM DB2."

"Its technical support team takes longer to reply."

"They could enhance the visibility to give us a unified view of our entire IT infrastructure."

More IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus cons

"We've pointed out some things with the DMR piece, the event mesh, in edge cases where we could see a problem. Something like 99 percent of users wouldn't ever see this problem, but it has to do with if you get multiple bad clients sending data over a WAN, for example. That could then impact other clients."

"I heard that it is quite expensive compared to Kafka."

"The ease of management could be approved. The GUI is very good, but to configure and manage these devices programmatically in the software version is not easy. For example, if I would like to spin up a new software broker, then I could in theory use the API, but it would require a considerable amount of development effort to do so. There should be a tool, or something that Solace supports, that we could use for this, e.g., a platform like Terraform where we could use infrastructure as code to configure our source appliances."

"The section on observability pertains to understanding the functioning of an event crash. Instead of focusing on how the crash occurs, attention is given to the observable aspects, such as a memory pipeline where one person pushes messages and another reads them. However, this pipeline often encounters issues, such as the reader being unavailable, causing the system to become stuck and preventing the messages from moving forward. This can lead to the pipeline being permanently stalled."

"I would like them to design topic and queue schemas, mapping them to the enterprise data structure."

"If you create one event in the past, you cannot resend it."

"The product should allow third-party agents to be installed. Currently, it is quite proprietary."

"For improvements, I would suggest increasing the max payload size to a limit of 100MB or more. The current max payload size is limited to 5MB."

More PubSub+ Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is a costly solution."

"You have to have the right level of budget to afford this solution."

"Its license cost is a little bit more than other solutions. Our customers expect a standard market price that is comparative to other products. For each and every NetCool OMNIbus component, we have to purchase a separate license. These components are not free with the product."

"The pricing and licensing were very transparent and well-communicated by our account manager."

"There are different tiers where you can choose what would work for you. As a customer, you need to know roughly how many messages a month you will use."

"Having a free version is critical for our technology operations use case. This is primarily because our technology operations team is a cost center in our company. They are not profit drivers and having a free version for installation will probably meet our needs. Even for production, it'll support up to a 100,000 messages per second. I don't think in technology operations that we have that many events and alerts from our detection tools. Even if I have 20 or 30 event detection products out there, they're only going to publish the things which are critical or warnings. I don't think we'll ever reach a 100,000 messages per second."

"Having a free version of the solution was a big, important part of our decision to go with it. This was the big driver for us to evaluate Solace. We started using it as the free version. When we felt comfortable with the free version, that is when we bought the enterprise version."

"We are looking for something that will add value and fit for purpose. Freeware is good if you want to try something quickly without putting in much money. However, as far as our decision is concerned, I don't think it helps. At the end of the day, if we are convinced that a capability is required, we will ask for the funding. Then, when the funding is available, we will go for an enterprise solution only."

"We have been really happy with the product licensing rates. It has been free for us, up to a 100,000 transactions per second, and all we have to do is pay for support. Making their product available and accessible to us has not been a problem at all."

"The licensing is dependent on the volume that is flowing. If you go for their support services, it will cost some more money, but I think it is worth it, especially if you are just starting your journey."

"I would rate the product's pricing a ten out of ten."

More PubSub+ Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

26%

Computer Software Company

17%

Energy/Utilities Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

33%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus?

If the various HW elements are from the same vendor, a monitoring solution provided by that vendor or its partners will potentially result in lower licensing and operational costs. Moreover, for ve...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus?

IBM is working on converting NetCool to NetCool Operations Insight, which runs on Watson AI. There were areas needing improvement in terms of AI, however, they have migrated the entire NetCool suit...

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What is your primary use case for IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus?

OMNIbus is used for alert processing and deduplication of alarms. It is used for performing certain actions on any alarm processed through NetCool. It serves as a core component for action triggers...

See all answers

What needs improvement with PubSub+ Event Broker?

Regarding improving the PubSub+ Platform, I'm not sure about the pricing aspect, but I heard that it is quite expensive compared to Kafka. That's the only concern I can mention; otherwise, it was a...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for PubSub+ Event Broker?

My typical use case for the PubSub+ Platform is as an event-driven solution for communication between two components.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering PubSub+ Event Broker?

I have experience working with Kafka, PubSub+ Platform, and IBM MQ, all three of them. We are customers, meaning my company uses Solace. We use it and customize it based on our needs. Based on my e...

See all answers

Comparisons

ServiceNow IT Operations Management vs IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus

Compared 28% of the time

IBM Tivoli NetCool Impact vs IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus

Compared 17% of the time

PagerDuty Operations Cloud vs IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus

Compared 13% of the time

ScienceLogic vs IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus

Compared 12% of the time

SCOM vs IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus

Compared 10% of the time

More IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus Competitors

Apache Kafka vs PubSub+ Platform

Compared 29% of the time

IBM MQ vs PubSub+ Platform

Compared 23% of the time

ActiveMQ vs PubSub+ Platform

Compared 11% of the time

Confluent vs PubSub+ Platform

Compared 9% of the time

Amazon SQS vs PubSub+ Platform

Compared 6% of the time

More PubSub+ Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus

June 2025

Download IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus product report

Buyer's Guide

PubSub+ Platform

June 2025

Download PubSub+ Platform product report

Also Known As

Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus

PubSub+ Event Broker, PubSub+ Event Portal

Overview

Tivoli Netcool OMNIbus provides near real-time service assurance for business infrastructure, applications, servers, network devices and protocols, Internet protocols, storage and security devices.

IBM

PubSub+ Platform supports real-time shipment tracking, IT event management in multiclouds, and connects legacy and cloud-native systems for application modernization. It's utilized for trading, streaming market data, and app-to-app messaging, enhancing event-driven architectures with reliable message queuing.

Organizations adopt PubSub+ to efficiently transport events across hybrid and cloud environments, managing audit trails and long processing tasks. The platform aids integration through dynamic data publication, event mesh capabilities, and WAN optimization. Features like seamless integration, protocol agnosticism, and flexible topic hierarchy enhance versatility. Solace Admin Utility simplifies configuration and management, while the event portal allows hybrid deployment.

What are the key features of PubSub+ Platform?

Dynamic Data Publication: Enables flexible and responsive data handling.
Event Mesh Capabilities: Facilitates efficient event transportation.
WAN Optimization: Enhances data transfer across networks.
Protocol Agnosticism: Supports a wide range of protocols for integration.
Flexible Topic Hierarchy: Allows detailed and organized data exchange.
Solace Admin Utility: Provides intuitive configuration and management.
Granular Topic Filtering: Offers precise data filtering options.
Guaranteed Messaging: Ensures reliable message delivery.

What benefits or ROI should users consider?

Seamless Integration: Reduces complexity in connecting systems.
Performance and Scaling: Supports high-load environments efficiently.
Asynchronous Messaging: Improves application performance.
Robust Support System: Provides guidance and problem resolution.

PubSub+ is implemented in industries requiring real-time data handling and integration between disparate systems. Financial institutions use it for trading and streaming market data, while logistics companies benefit from real-time shipment tracking. Enterprises apply it to modernize operations by connecting legacy systems with cloud-native applications, enhancing their architecture and ensuring data reliability across environments.

Solace

Sample Customers

Consolidated Communications, €sterreichische Bundesbahnen (€BB), Capgemini

FxPro, TP ICAP, Barclays, Airtel, American Express, Cobalt, Legal & General, LSE Group, Akuna Capital, Azure Information Technology, Brand.net, Canadian Securities Exchange, Core Transport Technologies, Crédit Agricole, Fluent Trade Technologies, Harris Corporation, Korea Exchange, Live E!, Mercuria Energy, Myspace, NYSE Technologies, Pico, RBC Capital Markets, Standard Chartered Bank, Unibet

Buyer's Guide

IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus vs. PubSub+ Platform

June 2025

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