Observer GigaStor vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

Viavi Solutions and VMware are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Viavi Solutions is ranked #95, while VMware is ranked #35 with an average rating of 8.8. Viavi Solutions holds a 0.2% mindshare in NMS, compared to VMware’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Viavi Solutions users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Observer GigaStor

Read 7 Observer GigaStor reviews

241 Views
108 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

vRealize Network Insight

Read 46 vRealize Network Insight reviews

1,328 Views
541 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Observer GigaStor

vRealize Network Insight

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

vRealize Network Insight and Observer GigaStor are competing products in the network analysis and monitoring category. Users generally prefer vRealize Network Insight for its support and pricing, while Observer GigaStor's robust features make it appealing.

Features: vRealize Network Insight provides advanced network visibility, security analysis, and integration with popular virtualization platforms. Observer GigaStor offers high-capacity packet capture, deep packet analysis, and historical data retrieval.

Room for Improvement: vRealize Network Insight could enhance its capabilities in packet-level analysis and historical data retrieval and expand its applicability to non-virtualized environments. Observer GigaStor may improve its pricing model, ease of use in virtualized environments, and integration with more virtualization platforms.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: vRealize Network Insight offers seamless integration with existing VMware environments, which aids in straightforward deployment. Its customer service is recognized for being responsive. Observer GigaStor supports detailed assistance during intricate deployments, beneficial in heterogeneous networks.

Pricing and ROI: vRealize Network Insight is noted for accessible initial costs and promises effective ROI through efficient network management. Observer GigaStor involves higher setup costs, justified by its comprehensive data capture and analysis capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Observer GigaStor vs. vRealize Network Insight Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor vs. vRealize Network Insight

June 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 859,438 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

Observer GigaStor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

95th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Troubleshooting (14th), Network Packet Broker (NPB) (9th)

vRealize Network Insight

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

35th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (40th)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Observer GigaStor is 0.2%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vRealize Network Insight is 0.6%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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.

Read full review

NiteshKumar1

Principle consultant at Infosys

The tool's configuration is easy and artifacts are easily accessible through professional services and the web

The product is highly regarded, and many customers have been using it along with other VMware products like vSphere and VMware vCloud Usage Insight. However, recently, there's been a trend among customers, especially those using VMware for a considerable period, to explore the potential of migrating to the public cloud. The common concern among these customers is how the VMware products will perform in the public cloud environment. Migrating instances from VMware to different platforms is not easy, especially when dealing with many instances across multiple customers. Customers are keen to maintain the functionality of their existing VMware products but prefer to run them on the public cloud instead of on-premise servers. Our clients for vRealize Network Insight are enterprise businesses. I rate it a nine 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

"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."

"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'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."

"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..."

"The most valuable features are the packet trace flow and that the view of the whole environment is deep."

"With this product, we can precisely identify communication patterns between virtual machines within our data center, whether it's east-east or east-west communication."

"It has definitely helped us to meet compliance rules by assuring that all traffic is going to where it's supposed to go. It can be used to report that you are in compliance, as well as helping you get into compliance."

"We're a smaller company so it automates a lot of the tasks and lets us focus in on building out our own solution. It's quicker, there is less building of manual solutions, and less downtime. It allows our developers to quickly develop, get provisioning done, de-provisioning, etc; the stuff that you would expect to be able to make it streamlined."

"The most valuable feature is the visualization. It's really handy to be able to classify network objects as with applications and see the interaction between them."

"compare-to-competition; I would recommend the product. I don't think there is any other product like this on the market right now."

"We can see everything going on in NSX and get a good picture of our environment."

"I find it user-friendly and intuitive. With the GUI interface that we do use on a regular basis, it's easy to navigate, it's easy to see, easy to query. We get reports. It's easy to use."

More vRealize Network Insight 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."

"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."

"After you use it for a little while you become accustomed to it but the layout doesn't feel very intuitive. You have to dig around and find the exact place where you can find the information, where you can actually see your east-west traffic, etc. I would like them to bring that information more to the forefront, instead of having to find it."

"There's enough information there, especially in the visualizations, but I would love to see this in a kiosk mode, where I could have a dashboard for interested stakeholders to see and appreciate what's going on. Then, moving on to a more practical level for our Help Desk, our operations team could benefit by seeing, in real-time, a visual view of the network."

"vRNI needs more remediation where it hooks into NSX."

"The only issue we have is that the solution does not always capture the host names."

"The UI, even though once you get to know it, it's easier, still it's hard to figure out by yourself. You have to go read, watch videos. It has a lot of data on it. So that is an issue."

"The compatibility with each and every component of the infrastructure is the main thing that I am looking for. I would like them to make sure that it's compatible with different kinds of storage systems, etc. I have seen the compatibility list. I feel it can be more compatible than it is right now."

"If it had some kind of plugins with vSphere, more effective plugins with Horizon View or other VMWare products, if it had interconnectivity, I think it would be more effective than it is today."

"The solution can be improved by making it more compatible with other brands, allowing for better integration."

More vRealize Network Insight cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The solution has reduced the time that we spend on other products. For example, with NSX, we were able to quickly find things that we would normally spend days trying to figure out."

"It reduces costs. It takes something that may be challenging and makes it more usable and visual by being able to bring in tools, seeing what their impact is, such as microsegmentation and application rationalization, and seeing it quickly."

"It's a little expensive, but for what you're getting out of the product, you often see the trade-off. It depends on the type of licensing you have. It might be a little too pricey for some."

"I rate vRealize Network Insight's pricing a seven point five out of ten."

"The solution has helped us to reduce time, increase performance, reduce costs, and even easily manage networks. We are probably seeing 10 to 20 percent labor savings because we are able to be very specific and focused on what we want to do. It ends up saving the customer money and makes us be more efficient on our cost deliveries."

"It has brought more money into our company."

"They should include the product in NSX because it's important to have it for deployment."

"vRealize Network Insight is expensive."

More vRealize Network Insight pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

859,438 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

20%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Observer GigaStor?

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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

What do you like most about vRealize Network Insight?

The tool's ease of configuration and use and the availability of information and artifacts through professional services and the web are key factors that customers find valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vRealize Network Insight?

Broadcom is known for increasing product prices, making them expensive compared to what people used to pay. I liken the subscription model to not truly owning what you pay for.

See all answers

What needs improvement with vRealize Network Insight?

Right now, I do not see a specific area for improvement. My main concern is understanding the intentions of Broadcom, which has acquired VMware. Broadcom should improve by going back to what was wo...

See all answers

Comparisons

Gigamon Deep Observability Pipeline vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 29% of the time

Wireshark vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 21% of the time

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Data Broker vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 20% of the time

AppNeta by Broadcom vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 16% of the time

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 15% of the time

More Observer GigaStor Competitors

ThousandEyes vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 14% of the time

DX NetOps vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 13% of the time

VMware Aria Operations for Applications vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 10% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 8% of the time

DX Spectrum vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 8% of the time

More vRealize Network Insight Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor

June 2025

Download Observer GigaStor product report

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

May 2025

Download vRealize Network Insight product report

Also Known As

No data available

Arkin

Overview

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

VMware vRealize Network Insight delivers intelligent operations for software-defined networking and security. It helps customers build an optimized, highly-available and secure network infrastructure across multi-cloud environments. It accelerates micro-segmentation planning and deployment, enables visibility across virtual and physical networks and provides operational views to manage and scale VMware NSX deployments.

VMware

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

NTTi3, VCIX-NV, VMware Networking and Security Business Unit, Illumio, CompuNet

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor vs. vRealize Network Insight

June 2025

Free Report: Observer GigaStor vs. vRealize Network Insight

Find out what your peers are saying about Observer GigaStor vs. vRealize Network Insight and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

859,438 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Observer GigaStor vs. vRealize Network Insight report.

See our list of best Network Monitoring Software vendors.

We monitor all Network Monitoring Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.