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it_user202602 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Consultant
Mar 3, 2015
It has a simple GUI but occasionally it looks like your infrastructure has gone dark.

What is most valuable?

The ability to monitor your WAN and LAN infrastructure in a simple GUI.

How has it helped my organization?

We keep this product up and monitoring 24x7 for fast and simple availability.

What needs improvement?

Really unsure of any, quite pleased with product.

For how long have I used the solution?

Going on two years.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There are a very few occasions when the system "barfs" and it looks like your infrastructure has gone dark, but it bounces back quickly (the system).

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

None so far. We are one of the largest networks in America and it hasn't so far.

How are customer service and support?

Customer Service:

8/10.

Technical Support:

9/10.

What about the implementation team?

I believe it was done in-house.

What was our ROI?

Not sure of the exact number, but our clients charge $50,000 a minute so every second counts.

What other advice do I have?

This is a good product, just be sure to train the ones who are setting it up because this is based on manual data entry and/or SNMP.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user201033 - PeerSpot reviewer
CA Management Consultant at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Feb 27, 2015
Centralized console to manage network and systems. We had minor stability issues which CA fixed.

What is most valuable?

  • IT Infrastructure Monitoring
  • Fault Management
  • Topology Views

How has it helped my organization?

  • Clear picture of all network and server pictures
  • Centralized console to manage network and systems
  • All backup for router configurations

What needs improvement?

  • Network
  • Servers

For how long have I used the solution?

For eight years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Just minor but CA provided support to resolve the issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

10/10.

Technical Support:

10/10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We didn't use a previous solution.

How was the initial setup?

It's straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We used both an in-house team and a vendor.

What was our ROI?

10/10.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Just day to day operations.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes, we also looked at HP OpenView, SolarWinds, and ManageEngine.

What other advice do I have?

This product is for all network and systems monitoring.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. We are Solution Partners
PeerSpot user
Ravi Suvvari - PeerSpot reviewer
Ravi SuvvariPerformance and Fault-tolerance Architect with 1,001-5,000 employees
Top 5LeaderboardReal User

Thanx Amanullah for sharing valuable inputs about CA APM

Buyer's Guide
DX Spectrum
December 2025
Learn what your peers think about DX Spectrum. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
879,371 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user202551 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Feb 27, 2015
Few issues with stability. Overall it's very stable and effective.

What is most valuable?

It is an excellent product. It is probably one of the best we have seen in terms of being able to do mass configurations in the network.

How has it helped my organization?

Timing is always important when a network loses connectivity. It has allowed minimal downtime with the ease of being able to quickly isolate and resolve any outages.

What needs improvement?

I really can't say there are any at this time. We are happy with the product.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have used this product for seven years. We were looking for a tool that could both monitor and provide additional tools for configuration updates.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Deployment was not an issue. Support was fairly good.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There have been few issues with stability and overall it's very stable and effective.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are not a large corporation. Yet the product was able to scale very well.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

The customer service was quick in response and thorough. No complaints.

Technical Support:

9/10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No previous solution used.

How was the initial setup?

Creating the infrastructure did not prove extremely difficult. It was organized and detailed. It fully represented out network on all levels.

What other advice do I have?

Definitely recommend it. It's a good investment.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user198924 - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Feb 24, 2015
The tool fails to launch sometimes but we can act immediately on alarms.

What is most valuable?

Alarm Monitoring

How has it helped my organization?

It was used as a tool to observe critical alarms on network nodes and act immediately.

What needs improvement?

The tool fails to launch sometimes, and this was a frequent occurrence.

For how long have I used the solution?

Seven months.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Latency in access at times.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Never attempted scaling.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

6/10.

Technical Support:

7/10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No I haven't.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward setup.

What about the implementation team?

We used a vendor team.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Not many others.

What other advice do I have?

We also use CA eHealth tool.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Security Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Feb 24, 2015
It is invaluable in fault resolution but the topology features need improvement.

Valuable Features

  • Scalability
  • Customizability

Improvements to My Organization

  • Automatic alerting
  • Integration with incident systems
  • Integration with reporting tool eHealth

Room for Improvement

Topology features need improvement, namely -

  • Weight of links
  • Less critical links
  • High critical links weighing

Use of Solution

I used it for seven years, but not for the last nine months.

Deployment Issues

There were some issues with deployment.

Stability Issues

Sometimes a restart of the Tomcat Daemon was required, and sometimes the archive manager ran out of resources.

Scalability Issues

No issues with scalability.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Customer Service:

We used the mailing list as a support forum - which was very alive with skilled professionals and their invaluable experience.

Technical Support:

We did not consult them, as we used the forum.

Initial Setup

It's straightforward - install, and run.

Implementation Team

We implemented it in-house.

Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing

I can only say that we had three engineers working full time on the system.

Other Solutions Considered

Smarts was a challenger.

Other Advice

It will aid in troubleshooting and daily operations, and is invaluable in fault resolution.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user198879 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network/System Engineer TL at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Feb 24, 2015
It needed an old version of Java for deployment but its a stable product.

What is most valuable?

  • Reliability
  • Stability

These are valuable because of the integration with CA Service Desk and the application of incident and event management in our environment.

How has it helped my organization?

Reports and alerts give us the correct KPIs.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used it for five years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

It has a limitation in that it needed an old version of Java.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

7/10.

Technical Support:

7/10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Yes and I switched to this product as its visualization is better.

How was the initial setup?

Utilizing all the needed features for our environment made our initial configuration complex.

What about the implementation team?

We used a vendor team who were OK.

What was our ROI?

It is a good percentage.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes we also looked at Microsoft SCOM.

What other advice do I have?

Try to utilize it well.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user204822 - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at a government with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
Feb 21, 2015
I used to use it but switched to Nimsoft for server monitoring. The network admins still uses Spectrum.

Valuable Features

I used to use it for the server but switched to Nimsoft because it's much better for servers.

Room for Improvement

It's deployment tool is horrible.

Use of Solution

2 years

Deployment Issues

Yes, there are issues - detecting servers is impossible.

Stability Issues

We've had stability issues with the database and clients not working.

Scalability Issues

Not that I've experienced.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Customer Service:

7 out of 10

Technical Support:

7 out of 10

Implementation Team

We used an external vendor team.

Other Advice

I switched from Spectrum to Nimsoft because it's a better product for me. The network admin still uses Spectrum.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Senior Technical Analyst at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Feb 17, 2015
Code is very complex but overall the solution is easy to use.

What is most valuable?

Functionality of the tool is awesome and it is easy for customers to use. It is a very good solution for monitoring network and servers of the organizations.

How has it helped my organization?

0% outage and I have a detailed view of root cause analysis for any unavailability of the servers/network/applications.

What needs improvement?

Code is very complex.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using CA eHealth, Spectrum, SOI, EEM, Nimsoft, and ITCM, for six and a half years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Yes sometimes we have issues, but with the help of CA E2 level engineers, we get fixes for bugs that are encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

The best, 10/10.

Technical Support:

The best, 10/10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used to have Nagios, OpenNMS, etc. but they are not very efficient monitoring tools when compared with Spectrum and eHealth.

How was the initial setup?

Not complex. CA technical guys were there to help if there were any issues and technical documentation at support.ca.com helps a lot.

What about the implementation team?

We used a vendor whose expertise was 8/10.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend CA tools for monitoring the entire infrastructure in an organization.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user306336 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user306336Spectrum consultant at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Real User

Hi Ranjani,

Greetings. Thanks for your feedback.

Could you kindly brief me on "room for improvement" - code complexity. Kindly let me know on this part. I shall try my best to answer in parts.

Cheers!
Lakshmi.

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Updated: December 2025
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Download our free DX Spectrum Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.