Observer GigaStor vs vRealize Network Insight comparison

Viavi Solutions and VMware are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Viavi Solutions is ranked #96, while VMware is ranked #40 with an average rating of 8.3. 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

575 Views
276 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

vRealize Network Insight

Read 47 vRealize Network Insight reviews

1,734 Views
1,248 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: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor vs. vRealize Network Insight

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 865,384 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

96th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Troubleshooting (14th), Network Packet Broker (NPB) (10th)

vRealize Network Insight

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

40th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (42nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 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 0.9% 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

Shaijith KB

Senior System Specialist at General Directorate of Residence and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA)

Comprehensive management and detailed reports benefit operations while improvements are needed in support and maintenance

We have Tanzu and OpenShift. We have OpenShift, Canonical, and the Tanzu one. The Tanzu platform from VMware is a Kubernetes platform. We haven't completely installed Tanzu yet; we installed the vROps part. vRealize Network Insight is beneficial because you can control the East-West traffic. vRealize has a component called NSX, which has East-West traffic controlling and micro-segmentation, that is one of the best options, and we have the layer extension, layer 2 extension possible through NSX. If you have anything accountable in any business, even in a candy business, having proper accountability on what you are selling and buying will save a lot. If you don't know what you're selling and buying, you will end up with a loss. My team does not use the flow analytics feature; we have a security and network monitoring team, which is a different SOC team. I am using it as an administrator internally. We perform different tasks including costing analysis, capacity management, and many other things. vRealize Network Insight has a concern about the maintenance part, as it requires a person to monitor it completely. It's not something you install and your report will be generated automatically. You have to work on this properly to get the insights. vRealize Network Automation, vRealize Operations, and vRealize Network Insight are completely related to the network. I cannot say much about these network aspects because I am on the operations side, but overall, the vRealize suite is good for reporting perspective or any ISO-related documentation; this is very helpful. The product is called vRealize Operations Manager, and now it is referred to as Aria or vAria. I am now a Senior System Specialist. We use different metrics because we have multiple departments, and we can monitor utilization and comparisons with the previous year. On a scale of one to ten, I rate this solution a seven.

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

"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 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."

"The most valuable feature for me is the different views that you can get when selecting an application or a VLAN. It shows you the traffic flows. It gives you a visual representation of something that, in text, just may not make as much sense."

"It has enabled us to set up and do application discovery, as far as network traffic is concerned, and set up the appropriate rules that we need to make sure we're compliant with our security frameworks."

"The best feature of this application is its ability to capture everything within the same application, as well as capture all the traffic."

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

"What's valuable to us is the ability to get a view into the virtual space, which is something we haven't had before. Before, it was done by collecting from network endpoints and extrapolating into the virtual environment. Now it's coming directly from the virtual environment."

"One of the most valuable features is the ability to look at the traffic flows, to look at NetFlow data."

"The initial setup was straightforward."

"It allows you to see traffic that you couldn't otherwise see, which is traffic within your Layer 3-bounded network, meaning east-west traffic. It's hard to get that any other way."

More vRealize Network Insight pros

Cons

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"There could be some deeper analytics into packet inspection and trace flows. It could use some kind of machine learning to look at Layer 7 traffic for potential malware or corrupt packets."

"While it's not exactly a feature, what normally happens when we are trying to look at the VM flow portion is - although Network Insight does have options to integrate a few physical switches into it - we can't really get an end-to-end flow of the network. We might be using a few switches that are not supported by Network Insight. That is where they can improve, in the support for more physical switches and network devices."

"Since Broadcom acquired VMware, it has been experiencing challenges. Many sales processes are not well defined."

"It needs to be a little easier to use and to understand the information it's putting out. That would make it more helpful. If you're not a network person you need to understand things like network policies and concepts. If you gave it to a regular admin, it would be nice if it were easier for them to pick up what is going on, understand the flows and whether or not stuff should be talking to each other, as opposed to just port groups and IP addresses."

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

"The only real improvement they can make is to add more third-party vendors into the environment, mostly switch manufacturers, because it's really limited to Cisco equipment and there are a lot of companies out there other than Cisco."

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 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."

"Cost always has room for improvement, you could always make it cheaper. But I think it's a good value for what you pay for it."

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

"vRealize Network Insight is expensive."

"It's an expensive product because we have a lot of nodes."

"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."

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

"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."

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

865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

13%

University

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

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?

In VMware you have to buy a separate license for it. We have VVF and VCF-type of licenses, and if you want to go with this NSX and sort of higher-end professional services, you need to go with VCF....

See all answers

What needs improvement with vRealize Network Insight?

There is room for improvement as not all cases are getting resolved, and we often do not get L3 support directly, having to go through L1 and L2, resulting in delays that usually are a headache for...

See all answers

Comparisons

Gigamon Deep Observability Pipeline vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 28% of the time

Cisco Nexus Dashboard Data Broker vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 19% of the time

Wireshark vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 18% of the time

AppNeta by Broadcom vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 18% of the time

NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs Observer GigaStor

Compared 16% of the time

More Observer GigaStor Competitors

Alluvio AppResponse vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 18% of the time

DX NetOps vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 13% of the time

VMware Aria Operations for Applications vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 11% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 9% of the time

Datadog vs vRealize Network Insight

Compared 8% of the time

More vRealize Network Insight Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Observer GigaStor

August 2025

Download Observer GigaStor product report

Buyer's Guide

vRealize Network Insight

July 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

July 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: July 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

865,384 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.