Observer GigaStor vs SCOM comparison

Viavi Solutions and Microsoft are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Viavi Solutions is ranked #84, while Microsoft is ranked #25 with an average rating of 7.8. Viavi Solutions holds a 0.5% mindshare in NMS, compared to Microsoft’s 1.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Viavi Solutions users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Observer GigaStor

Read 7 Observer GigaStor reviews

2,796 Views
1,761 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SCOM

Read 83 SCOM reviews

10,547 Views
7,066 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Observer GigaStor

SCOM

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

SCOM and Observer GigaStor are competing products in network and system monitoring. SCOM often seems to have the upper hand due to better pricing and support, while Observer GigaStor's advanced features justify its higher investment for some businesses.

Features: SCOM provides robust monitoring capabilities, infrastructure health, application performance, and predictive analytics, which are advantageous for proactive management. Observer GigaStor offers deep packet inspection and forensic data replay, ideal for detailed network examination. SCOM is suitable for organizations needing broad system insights, whereas Observer GigaStor is aimed at in-depth network analysis.

Room for Improvement: SCOM could enhance its network traffic analysis features, provide more detailed instructional support, and improve integration with non-Microsoft environments. Observer GigaStor could lower its upfront costs, simplify its deployment process, and enhance its interface for ease of use. These improvements could broaden their appeal across diverse organizational needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SCOM's deployment is typically less complex, providing seamless integration with Microsoft environments, and it offers adequate support. Observer GigaStor deployment can be intricate due to its specialized hardware requirements, though it excels in offering detailed instructional support. SCOM is easier to deploy in environments relying on Microsoft technologies, while Observer GigaStor demands more setup but offers extensive guidance for deployment and troubleshooting.

Pricing and ROI: SCOM presents a lower initial setup cost and secures value through integrated Microsoft services, resulting in a faster ROI for companies with existing Microsoft ecosystems. Observer GigaStor involves a higher upfront investment due to specialized hardware and focuses on long-term value through its analytic capabilities. SCOM offers a cost-effective entry point, whereas Observer GigaStor aims for high-value returns on more specialized network data analysis.

To learn more, read our detailed Observer GigaStor vs. SCOM Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor vs. SCOM

August 2026

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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

Observer GigaStor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

84th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Troubleshooting (14th), Network Packet Broker (NPB) (8th)

SCOM

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

25th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Event Monitoring (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Observer GigaStor is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SCOM is 1.4%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SCOM	1.4%
Observer GigaStor	0.5%
Other	98.1%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

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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Akshita Kukreja

Assistant Manager at SMS group GmbH

Have integrated effective monitoring and seamless alerting with improved visualization capabilities

The most valuable feature of SCOM is its monitoring capability, and we have integrated SCOM with Grafana, which is a dashboarding tool. We have implemented and integrated this to create dashboarding of the SCOM monitoring system for the database, SQL, and the Linux servers we have configured in SCOM. We have created separate dashboarding for it, and the monitoring and creating rules and monitors in the management servers and management packs that SCOM provides are very useful for us. The alerting mechanism of SCOM has benefited our operations because we have modified the thresholds as per our internal requirements. We have configured threshold modifications for the CPU, memory, and especially for disk space. For routine disk space usage on the system, we have provided a separate threshold configuration.

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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

"If you have the opportunity, I would strongly encourage you to get it, because it makes the IT experience easier and more flexible, by providing the ability to see things in your networks like the directory packet label."

"Enables us to go back in time to capture an issue and analyze it for a solution, and this after the fact analysis is key to overcoming the bump in the night issues."

"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."

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

"Go take a look at it. It's a great product and has great capabilities."

"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."

"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"

More Observer GigaStor pros

"The product has helped our organization with in-depth monitoring."

"IT management experienced a big improvement after implementation of this product."

"It integrates with your Windows environment seamlessly and provides a lot of visibility on your Windows environment."

"The solution primarily drives system information, and I believe it works fine."

"The solution's reporting engine has given me detailed information on which applications or services I've either failed or about to fail in terms of the predictive makeup on Azure cloud."

"We were supporting a bank infrastructure using SCOM, and their application availability improved a lot as we had the real time monitoring of the applications due to which application issues were fixed before the end user comes up and complains."

"It has good graphs of what is going on within the operating system."

"On this solution, the things we monitor are fine and perhaps other users will want more, but for our purpose and what we use it for, it's enough."

More SCOM pros

Cons

"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."

"There are some issues, in our environment that puts processing restraints on the Gigastor when turning on trending data to be sent to APEX."

"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."

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

"The Observer Console UI is consistent and stable, but could use some updating to be more modern."

"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."

"The interface is pretty complex, so for the average user, it takes a while to get up to speed with it. I would like it to be more user-friendly."

"I feel that the stability of the tool has room for improvement and I would like to see that in the next version."

"They could provide better dashboards, detailed logs, and reports crucial for monitoring services in real-time."

"All of the areas of reporting are very bad and need to be improved."

"The configuration, especially for alerts, are somewhat lengthy."

"At this point, only monitoring a network device is not good enough."

"SCOM is likely to be phased out in favor of more compatible tools like Icinga for application monitoring or when moving to cloud solutions like CloudWatch and Azure."

"Both SCOM and WhatsUp Gold could use some system enhancements, such as better dashboards."

"I would like more customized reports. People should have some customization option on the dashboards for whenever they put multiple lists into it. Beyond customizing the content, there should be the ability to customize the colors so that they can engage some priority and mark challenges separately."

More SCOM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's quite expensive."

"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 is the cheapest product available in the market."

"We have an EA with Microsoft, and it comes as part of the EA."

"SCOM is very cheap because it's included in the license for the System Center suite, which is around $8,400 per CAL."

"Two customers bought the enterprise agreement with Microsoft and paid for Software Assurance. But few customers don't buy it for Software Assurance. They just buy it and deploy it, and they think that we will be using it for the next five years."

"SCOM's pricing is average."

"There is a license needed to use this solution and it is paid annually."

"We have to pay for a license and the price is fine for us."

"The pricing is good, and it's part of their system center suite."

More SCOM pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Outsourcing Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	22
Large Enterprise	54

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCOM?

I am not aware of the exact pricing as it is managed by my supervisor. As an academic institution, we receive substantial discounts.

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What needs improvement with SCOM?

We believe that the dashboarding in SCOM needs to be improved or enhanced because it is not too expressive in reporting. We can work on deploying new ways of viewing things and modifying visualizat...

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What is your primary use case for SCOM?

My usual use case for SCOM is as an administrator role where I create reports and provide system configuration for Linux and installation of the SCOM agent. I handle deploying and upgrading the age...

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Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor

August 2026

Download Observer GigaStor product report

Buyer's Guide

SCOM

July 2026

Download SCOM product report

Also Known As

No data available

System Center Operations Manager, SCOM 2012

Overview

Observer GigaStor provides detailed network visibility and data capture for efficient troubleshooting and analysis. It's a robust tool designed to manage today’s complex network environments, offering reliability and performance insights.

Observer GigaStor specializes in long-term network traffic capture, delivering comprehensive forensic analysis capabilities. It stands as a trusted resource for IT departments aiming to resolve network performance issues swiftly. By capturing and storing packets with high precision, it aids in identifying both current and past anomalies, ensuring network health and performance continuity through proactive monitoring.

What are the key features of Observer GigaStor?

Long-term Data Capture: Enables storage of vast amounts of data for extensive historical analysis.
Comprehensive Protocol Support: Offers support for diverse protocols, enhancing troubleshooting accuracy.
Retrospective Analysis: Provides the ability to trace issues back to their origin point, improving issue resolution speed.
Scalability: Adapts to network growth without sacrificing performance capabilities.

What benefits and ROI can be expected from reviews?

Increased Troubleshooting Efficiency: Provides quicker resolution times, reducing network downtime.
Enhanced Network Visibility: Improves understanding of network performance and traffic patterns.
Reduced Operational Costs: Limits the need for manual troubleshooting, saving on labor costs.
Improved Decision Making: Data insights aid in strategic planning for infrastructure improvements.

Observer GigaStor's implementation spans across various industries, from telecommunications to finance, where maintaining robust and secure network performance is crucial. Its ability to analyze and retrieve historical network data supports compliance and operational stability demands in these sectors.

Viavi Solutions

SCOM monitors Microsoft environments with a focus on Windows servers and applications such as SQL, Exchange, and SharePoint. It offers integration with Active Directory and Azure, along with customizable dashboards, management packs, and robust alert mechanisms, aiding efficient management and control.

SCOM provides a comprehensive monitoring solution for Microsoft technologies, helping organizations track performance and availability of applications, services, and infrastructure. It integrates with Active Directory and Azure, offering capabilities for monitoring Windows and Linux environments. Extensive management packs, customizable dashboards, and automated alerts offer a refined monitoring experience. Users benefit from detailed performance data, network monitoring, and auto-discovery features, enhancing operational insights and server management efficiency.

What are key features of SCOM?

Microsoft Environment Monitoring: Specialized for Windows servers and applications such as SQL, Exchange, and SharePoint.
Integration Capabilities: Seamless integration with Active Directory and Azure for streamlined operations.
Customizable Dashboards: Tailor visual data displays to enhance monitoring and decision-making.
Extensive Management Packs: Broad range of management packs for enhanced resource and application control.
Robust Alert Mechanisms: Comprehensive alerting to maintain service stability and address potential issues promptly.

What benefits should users seek in reviews?

Operational Efficiency: Enhanced management of server applications and infrastructure.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Detailed insights into performance and service availability.
Proactive Issue Notification: Timely alerts for quick issue resolution.
Improved Control: More efficient server management through automation and visibility.

In technology sectors, SCOM is widely implemented for its ability to monitor server applications and infrastructure components. Healthcare and finance utilize its monitoring and alert systems for compliance and uptime. Enterprises integrate SCOM for managing complex systems like Exchange, SharePoint, and Active Directory, enabling comprehensive analytics and reporting.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

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

Dialog Telekom

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor vs. SCOM

August 2026

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