IBM Tivoli NetCool vs SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager comparison

"The feature I have found most valuable with NetCool is how it collaborates all the alarms, and then it does a predictive analysis, providing a consolidated alarm view and management."

"The scalability of monitoring, the breadth of supported network components, the scale of the number of monitoring events, and the flexibility in customization make this a well-rounded product."

"It improves customer satisfaction, deploy-ability, adaptability, flexibility, scalability, and reduces cost of operation."

"The tool had many built-in automation capabilities."

"Anything is possible with Tivoli. It's quite a robust system."

"It's very easy to use."

"The solution is a complete package; it has various useful elements including inventory management and incident management packaged inside it, and anything is possible with Tivoli since it is quite a robust system that offers a lot of useful integration capabilities."

"The solution is very fast, there's no lag or delay between the IBM solution and the other solutions like Huawei and Nokia."

"The most valuable Real-time fault detection is beneficial as it enables the identification of changes made to a device's configuration through the SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. This makes it easy to pinpoint which configurations were added or removed, potentially causing network issues. Such changes are saved in logs for future reference."

"The network performance monitoring of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is a vital feature"

"It allows us to manage backups in big companies. It is also useful in managing the configuration changes."

"The feature that I really enjoy is the ability to script changes across all of your devices."

"SolarWinds NCM provides updates on the status of your network infrastructure. If any issues arise, such as a link failure or a device going offline, you will receive notifications and alerts. Additionally, if someone unplugs a cable, SolarWinds NCM will detect it. It also features a Topology Mapper that displays the connectivity of your network devices, giving you a visual representation of the network's structure. With SolarWinds NCM, you have a clear understanding of what's happening within your network and can generate comprehensive reports."

"The solution's view is very nice, and they have a great customized dashboard."

"Configuration refers to the specific settings and options that determine how a device or system behaves. It can include things, such as network settings, security settings, and other options that are specific to the device or system in question. One of the most valuable features of the solution was its ability to track and monitor changes to the configuration of devices on a network. This can be useful for troubleshooting and identifying potential issues. By keeping track of who made changes to the configuration and when it can be easier to determine the cause of any problems that may arise."

"I use it for monitoring the entire network for the company. We oversee nodes down, we oversee devices heading up to crossing the threshold for CPU usage. We oversee power so power backups on the switches, we oversee if they're down or if they're failing. We oversee any node down or any router from any vendor."

"From a customer perspective, it is quite an expensive solution to initially implement and then support."

"In terms of improvement, I would like to see more AIOps, Artificial Intelligent Operations in the next release."

"The installation could be simplified, and technical support could be faster."

"I think the UI should be updated and made more presentable and eye-catching. Compared to NCE in Huawei, NSN in Nokia, the UiPath and Ubiquiti, it feels very old legacy."

"The solution is not user-friendly."

"It was a bit expensive to purchase but the benefits outweigh all the cons by far."

"IBM's technical support takes a long time to do root cause analysis, and we have to go through several levels of help before getting a solution."

"UI is outdated, very old legacy."

"There are certain limitations of node-related monitoring"

"The Network Configuration Manager needs to improve the access control list compliance."

"The third-party plugins available in the solution could improve. I have received some issues with the templates."

"The Network Configuration Manager needs to improve the access control list compliance."

"We had issues with the FailOver Engine module installation, due to the resources of each SolarWinds server."

"When it comes to the way of managing the network devices, SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager should provide the simplest way that devices can relate to the server. For example, when we want to get the devices on board, we go by SSH to make the SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager create the connectivity with the device. After that, we pull the configuration. It would be helpful if they could combine both so that everything will be done in one step."

"The only thing that requires some experience, and training doesn't fix, is how to set up your custom policy-based reports to check compliance."

"The integration with the network performance monitor wasn't complete as at the last time I used it."

"The price of the product is too expensive."

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"It costs around 100k for every ten servers, which is lower than similar products from other vendors."

"Customers are required to pay a licensing fee."

"You have a base license for 50 devices, and then you can add more licenses as you go."

"There is a license for the use of this solution and it is priced well, there is a lot of value for the money."

"In Africa, the cost is a major factor in decision-making for many companies. As a result, some companies may choose cheaper solutions, even if they are open-source, over more expensive ones, such as SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. However, as an engineer, I believe that the functionalities and services offered by SolarWinds justify the cost. Nonetheless, many companies in Africa may still view the prices as unaffordable."

"The price of the solution is high compared to other solutions."

"Available at a moderate price"

"Pricing is reasonable and competitive."

"With a minimal bundle, we pay about $3000 a year in licensing costs. If you have multiple devices in your network, you must buy the bundle, which is 100% identical for your infrastructure. If you have 15 devices, you need 15 licenses, for example. That's one bundle. You don't pay for anything over and above that."

"The pricing is good."