IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus Reviews

My current use case for IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus is for monitoring the networks.

The most useful functions for monitoring purposes with IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus are that it can be automated in many ways. Most importantly, it can communicate with many network components without requiring any medium connectors.

You can directly integrate it if you have SNMP, which is great. The main benefits that IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus provides are that it's an umbrella tool that can be placed on top of any existing monitoring system.

You can monitor the entire network from this tool. The underlying interfaces can be many, but you can keep it as a single tool in IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus and it can manage the load on its own. It negates the need to train the user base with other tools. I can provide this single tool and have hundreds of different tools underlying, but I only need to train one single user base, which is a great advantage.

Based on my experience and my colleagues' feedback, IBM can improve IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus in automation with respect to using AI, as it lacks considerably compared to other tools. The integration with AI-based tools is quite challenging.

The event correlation engine in IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus is useful, though not as much as desired.

It works for normal, simple parent-child correlation, but not for more complex situations.

I have been working with IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus for eight to nine years.

The technical support from IBM for IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus is satisfactory. It's good.

Positive

The initial setup for IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus is complex if you start using it. It depends on what other components you are going to monitor.

IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus on its own is simple, but that won't be useful unless you try to integrate components such as network topology manager. That customization will be somewhat complex.

I would rate the pricing for IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus as three, where one is a high price and ten is a low price.

I am working with SMARTS, which is a competitive product. I worked briefly with Splunk as well. IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus on its own is a market leader in that segment.

However, with respect to automation, there are many other products that are emerging which make use of AI. That's where IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus is lagging.

I previously provided a review about IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus almost two years ago and I'm still working with their product. The customization part of IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus is very good and quite easy to implement. I can recommend IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate this solution an 8.

I am working as a customer, mainly using IntelliQ and another product, IBM NetCool, Watson AI. These products are used for monitoring network performance and management. 

The primary use case involves network performance monitoring, and it is compatible only with IBM DB2.

IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus supports legacy protocols like CORBA, Huawei, and other telecom protocols, which I find beneficial. It aids in network performance monitoring and management, although it is compatible only with IBM DB2. Importantly, it effectively monitors various network services.

The solution has limitations in database integration as it cannot integrate with databases other than IBM DB2. High availability is also challenging, and the dashboard is not user-friendly or appealing, requiring additional tools for reporting. Service maintenance is difficult, and migration is a tough process.

I have worked with the service for two years.

I believe the solution is stable because it supports legacy protocols that are not available in other tools.

There may be scalability issues as the system was used only for 300 devices. Its compatibility is limited to IP and IBM DB2, which may affect scale.

I have used products like SolarWinds, Micro Focus, OpenTicket, and others like MRTG, CRPG in various departments.

The initial setup requires a scheduled OS to install the database and OS application. It requires straightforward processes but can be challenging.

I used to work with these solutions for a long time, and I'm satisfied with their performance in handling legacy telecom protocols.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

The product is mainly used as a source of product programs. We used to integrate it with some devices, maybe router switches or whatever infrastructure we wanted to monitor. We use it to integrate with some of the devices, maybe router switches or whatever infrastructure we want to monitor. 

It's good for managed systems. The end query on the user interface is good. You can view lots of charts and graphs.

The dashboard has a nice GUI.

It's a great way to find faults in our systems.

The event management capabilities are great. We can gauge complexity in tracking. We can aggregate multiple transactions in a single account.

There's very good accuracy in processing. 

In terms of the architecture, I'd like it to be highly scalable. 

It would be nice if there was automated incident management to reduce manual interventions. I'd also like to see real-time event management capabilities. I'd like to coordinate the events from various sources in real-time. It needs rapid detection and resolution. 

They could enhance the visibility to give us a unified view of our entire IT infrastructure. That would make it easier to monitor and manage complex environments. 

If there was a way to do root cause analysis or advanced core initial analytic capabilities, that would be ideal.

I've been using the solution for almost 30 years.

We do keep up to date with the solution. We check to make sure we don't miss the latest updates and we need to make sure old and newer versions are compatible. We test updates in the development environment.

The scalability could be better. If we are getting more than 10,000 events per hour, we need to ensure we can handle that while still having optimal performance.

In our environment, we have about 48 to 50 servers. They are Microsoft and Proliant. 

I've dealt with technical support. We've had some patching issues in the past. They are okay. They could be more knowledgeable. Sometimes, they aren't aware of updates. Sometimes, we have to use out-of-the-box solutions. 

Neutral

There is a complex setup and configuration process. It requires experience. We've had integration capabilities.

We have to assess the specific needs or objectives of the organization, including scaling of deployment, and integration points, before implementation. Then, we need to design the architecture, including server specification networks, configuration, and storage requirements. We also need to consider the environment setup, hardware, projecting, and virtual machines. We need to ensure that network settings, firewalls, and security protocols are configured to allow communication between the components.

Once you have all of the requirements laid out, it will only take five to six hours to set up. It does depend on the level of connectivity. If you are connecting remotely, it may take a bit longer.

I set it up for three environments: development, testing, and production. One person can set up the solution themselves. If you are doing a NetCool suite of products, it may take two to three resources.

You may need to do some maintenance in terms of additional patching or upgrading. 

The pricing depends on how many devices are required. Then, if you want to monitor network devices and all of that, you need to add an IT network manager.

I'm aware of other solutions on the market.

They do provide a good POC and can give demos to clients. So far, customers are very happy.

We can customize and report very easily. However, the setup is complex and so is the configuration. 

Overall, it's a very good product. You just need the right person to handle it. They need to understand infrastructure, hardware, and software configuration in order to manage it.

I'd rate it seven out of ten overall. 

We use the solution for monitoring the HW and network infrastructure of several key corporate applications and network domains in an InsurTech environment.

A plethora of HW and network elements are monitored, including the infrastructure of the CRM, ERP, Citrix and Cisco systems, along with the ‘bubble’ DR environment.

The monitored infrastructure is mixed, and it varies from relatively old servers for file archiving up to the latest version of high-performance Intel CPU servers. The OS mainly consists of MS Windows and Linux versions.

The unified environment for monitoring all the HW and network elements by the same admin team independently of their vendor and version has been great.

It allows infrastructure admins to provide fast and accurate responses to events.

IT security personnel found it useful and easy to analyze potential network breach events and alerts further using data from the system.

The identification of infrastructure and network areas that generate a lot of events/alerts can be improved using the system's drill-down and reporting capabilities.

The most valuable aspects of the solution include:

- Accurate and descriptive presentation of the HW events/alerts 

- Intuitively to use GUI

- Intelligent grouping for discovering correlations and propagating outages

- Identification of the affected services and functionalities (degraded/zero-level services)

- Event/Alert drill-down and statistical reporting capabilities

- Automatic generation of Netcool rule files with MIB Manager using SNMP MIB files

- Web GUI to be used on the field technician's mobile device

- Good system support by the vendor

The solution needs to invest in the development of a knowledge base and use of AI services for providing event resolution and intervention directions based on:

- The HW vendor

- The alert type

- The installed applications

- The server OS/VM type and version

- The interfaces between the various infrastructure elements

- The network topology

- The predefined event/alert correlation system rules

They need to enhance the system's capabilities to detect network security breaches based on the aforementioned knowledge base and AI services and the relevant network security architecture.

I've been using the solution for five years.

The system is very stable and well-tested.

Very large environments must account for potential performance issues if many alerts are processed (not filtered out). As usual, special considerations and infrastructure design is required for this case.

The system is scalable even though we are monitoring the most critical applications and subnets for cost reasons.

IBM has the support of good quality. Its support websites are very informative. The provided documents and product descriptions are well-written. We assume here that the key users of the system will be experienced IT admins.

Positive

We have used mainly Windows OS monitoring tools, but these cannot cover all types of HW elements.

The initial setup was complex due to the different vendors and OS of the monitored HW.

For the same reasons, the UATs were also initially time-consuming.

The system has been implemented by various internal admin teams and an external long-term IT partner that already supported most of the monitored infrastructure.

If the various HW elements are from the same vendor, a monitoring solution provided by that vendor or its partners will potentially result in lower licensing and operational costs.

Moreover, for very large environments the buyers should estimate the total probe cost as a percentage of the total solution cost and compare it to other monitoring systems also.

IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus is a good solution for a sizable HW environment that includes a plethora of different elements. For this case, NetCool OMNIbus provides a flexible baseline that can be trusted.

OMNIbus is used for alert processing and deduplication of alarms. It is used for performing certain actions on any alarm processed through NetCool. It serves as a core component for action triggers and modifications during alarm processing.

OMNIbus is valuable for its compatibility and performance, as I haven't encountered any performance issues. It offers functionalities such as deduplication, alarm prioritization, and processing of alarms. Everything is managed through the OMNIbus process, providing a seamless experience.

IBM is working on converting NetCool to NetCool Operations Insight, which runs on Watson AI. There were areas needing improvement in terms of AI, however, they have migrated the entire NetCool suite to Watson AI. 

Despite these improvements, other areas that could be better include the fact that the solution is only on-premises, lacks AI capabilities, and support response times could be quicker.

I have been working with OMNIbus for almost ten years.

OMNIbus is very stable, and I have never observed any unpredicted outages or sudden changes in performance. I can confidently say it is 100% stable.

OMNIbus is highly scalable without any limitations. I have never encountered any scalability issues.

IBM's customer service deserves a rating of eight out of ten. While they are amongst the best compared to other companies, sometimes they take time to respond. They might not treat something urgent for me as urgent for themselves.

Positive

The initial setup of OMNIbus is moderately complex. It's not easy, however, it's not the most challenging either. As long as the provided installation steps are followed, the process should be manageable.

One person is more than enough to handle the installation of OMNIbus.

I would rate OMNIbus nine out of ten. The deductions are due to it being on-premises and lacking AI capabilities.

We use it in the banking services domain. We have many devices and interfaces from different vendors. To perform monitoring, we have deployed NetCool at the high-level architecture. We have 50 lines of business (LOB), and we are using NetCool as a central point. It acts as an event manager. For each and every LOB, we deploy other monitoring tools, and from there, we collect all the events and point them to NetCool. 

We are using NetCool/Impact for ticketing into BMC Remedy. We are now bringing out apps on top of NetCool for predictive analytics. They would be useful for predicting what is going to happen in the future and perform historical analysis of all those things.

It is customer-centric. Customers can access the event list from their location or desktop and view the event. There is no need to go and connect to any other server and run events to have a view of all the events happening in the environment. We get a good response from customers about this feature and the main architecture of NetCool. 

Its processing is very good. Deduplication and correlation functionalities are good in this solution as compared to other solutions.

A big advantage of NetCool is that it also supports multi-layered protocols. We can receive multiple events from different protocols like UDP, HTTP, and those events can be captured in NetCool. 

Its integration could be better. They should provide an easier integration for all the monitoring stuff, and it will make things easier for us. Currently, there is a complexity in integrating it with a vendor application, and we have to use another tool to integrate it with a vendor application. To integrate some applications with NetCool, I need to install an IBM tool on top of it. It would be good if they can provide an API or any kind of interface that we can leverage while developing a new protocol interface or application. We should be able to use an API or interface with NetCool. 

Its GUI can also be better. As compared to other tools, it is not user friendly, and it is not easy to do stuff through GUI. Whenever we do anything on the GUI, it takes time. They need to focus on the GUI part, especially the dashboard. They should focus on how users can effectively drill down from one box to another. The visual appeal of the dashboard is as important as the data and functionality.

I have been using this solution for the past 20 years. 

It is a very stable product.

It is very scalable. I can add multiple components according to my requirement. We have a lot of users of this solution.

They provide good support. I worked as a solution consultant for IBM two years ago.

It is quite easy to install. In terms of process, it took us a month because we need to have a CR in place for each environment before doing any installation or upgrade.

Its license cost is a little bit more than other solutions. Our customers expect a standard market price that is comparative to other products. For each and every NetCool OMNIbus component, we have to purchase a separate license. These components are not free with the product. 

I would recommend this solution for event monitoring. I would advise using AI apps or other tools on top of it for predictive analytics. You need to have a solution on top of it as a central solution to manage everything.

Based on my analytical background and a lot of experience, I would rate IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus a six out of ten.

We are still working on some use cases for the product. We look at the solution as a level of an AI machine learning that we are able to introduce there for that data set and probably enrich it with some more topology data across the network. So, mainly it is our umbrella fault with some automation and machine learning use cases, specifically also pertaining to the country's unique power constraints. For example, we have already deployed the product for power cutouts.

The availability of a larger talent pool with skills for this solution is one of the biggest points for us because getting people with the right knowledge and experience is very challenging in most environments. Apart from the skills that are available in the market, the biggest plus points for me are the configurability and scalability of the solution, as well as the multi-tenancy of the platform.

Honestly, the solution has a very complicated licensing model. Firstly, there should be an easier-to-understand model, more of a flat-structured model rather than different tiers of licenses which complicates licensing. There’s also no dashboard where you can see how many licenses you have consumed or what is free, which makes it quite challenging to know where you are at a certain space in time. So, you always have to do an audit to find your usage, which is a complicated exercise.

The other thing is that we buy a lot of their products, but it takes a while for them to reintroduce the Blue Eyes functionality as part of the product suite. It requires separate licensing. So, if you want to use that functionality, you must buy a different product rather than being part of an existing product suite.

I have been closely involved with IBM Tivoli Netcool OMNIbus for six years.

In terms of general stability, I don’t think we have the amount of issues we used to have in the past. The stability has definitely improved, but we still have a few challenges. In terms of end-user satisfaction, there are things that can be improved. Our network produces a lot of events– around ten million per day. So there's a lot of correlation, suppression, and rulesets. So there is a constant investigation of issues that are expiring- to confirm if, in the life cycle, the events transpired as it was supposed to. 

Honestly, I would rate the stability an eight out of ten.

The solution’s scalability is good. I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

We have a group of personnel directly as part of our extended team. Since we’ve done that, the responses and the turnaround time to resolve issues have actually decreased. So, it’s a lot better. 

Positive

I haven't tried any other solution. Although, we’ve been having the solution for ages. More than twenty years. However, we constantly evaluate other solutions before every contract renewal. We have looked at other open-source types of solutions, like Grafana, that we could use.

To be honest, it is quite difficult to change the solution because the impact of this solution is not something we can adapt and replace. There are a lot of use cases that are custom-built on this solution, which also makes it difficult to switch.

We actually did face some challenges with the installation of the solution, but we managed to overcome them. We had a very large deployment that took us a couple of months. There was no upgrade path, so we had to do a reinstall and basically migrate the datasheet. Our environment is very, very much integrated, so we obviously had to do a lot of system test functionality as well.

The solution was deployed by a combination of consultants and our in-house team.

The licensing cost is quite expensive. Obviously, then there's the maintenance portion on top of the license cost, and then there is the support cost for the product suite. That's it as the in cost, but we need infrastructure to run it on. We need support engineers to configure it as well and implement use cases.

On pricing, I would not rate the solution higher than a five out of ten, with ten being the most cost-effective since the solution is quite expensive.

I think this is one of the best solutions in the stable if we look at the other competitors, even though it is quite costly. Overall, I would rate it a seven out of ten.

We an implementer and a user of this solution. We are able to use this solution for integration detection, reporting, automation, and event monitoring.

Our customers are able to have instant monitoring of events and other activity within their environment.

Probes are the best feature because they are well written which rarely requires you to write additional rules. These probes monitor activity within your environment.

I would like for the next release to be more user-friendly and out of date. The next release should focus on the cloud, AI, and ML technologies.

I have been using this solution for about nine years.

This solution is very stable, we hardly see any issues due to the quality system configuration.

This solution is highly scalable. You can expand it at any level. We have hundreds of probes that are running on more than thousands of devices, gathering millions of alarms, creating thousands of tickets, and yet we have never seen any performance issue.

Support is extremely professional and responsive. In some cases, you get a response to your ticket immediately based on the severity of your ticket.

The initial setup is a bit complex in comparison to other tools. There is a lot of manual installation to be done (including object servers and probes) to allow it to run in the system. I do not recall exactly how long the initial setup took, but I know it was longer than other competitors such as Splunk, Moogsoft, etc.

Staff required for maintenance depends on how diligently you configure the system.

We were able to deploy via our in-house team. For a standard-sized deployment, about two to three people are required.

There was a lot of precision put into the development of this product, I would recommend it to anyone looking for a monitoring tool.

I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.

This is one of the monitoring tools that we use in-house for our infrastructure. This is not one of the services that we provide to our customers. I use it primarily for event management, where I can do the correlation and analysis I need to configure policies.

The most valuable feature is the event management capability.

The correlation works great.

It is very good if you have any devices that use SNMP.

The web portal and typical event controls are a little outdated. The need to work on improving the dashboard layout.

The whole layout is an old style and needs updating. The functionality is great but it needs to look more modern, perhaps by moving to HTML 5 dashboards.

The price could be made more competitive.

I have been working with IBM OMNIbus for more than five years.

We have approximately 20 users.

I have been in touch with technical support and they are helpful. If you're stuck somewhere then they will assist you. I normally try to fix most of the issues on my own, but I will raise a ticket with IBM when I get stuck. At that point, they will come in and give me a solution.

As with any event management solution on the market, the initial setup is not straightforward unless you know exactly what you want to do. I would not say that it is too complex, but you have to understand event management.

The web portal is a little bit difficult to configure.

My initial deployment took about two months, and the upgrade took time as well. Upgrading was not as easy as we had thought because there are many factors involved.

Our in-house team handled the deployment and does the maintenance.

We have been evaluating Moogsoft and are currently conducting a proof of concept. The articles that I have read say that Moogsoft is very competitive with NetCool. Personally, I have seen that they are modern in terms of the dashboard and web portal layout. In this regard, they are ahead of IBM. With IBM's web portal, it is quite difficult to navigate unless you know the interface.

Overall, this is a great tool and one that I recommend but it depends on the cost. You have to have the right level of budget to afford this solution. If you do, then it is the best choice. 

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We primarily use the solution to monitor our environment.

The monitoring is the solution's most valuable feature.

The cost of the product is quite high. They should work to adjust their pricing models.

The product is stable.

For our purposes, the solution has been scalable. Right now we have the solution on seven computers.

Technical support is good; it's worth the rate they charge.

The initial setup is straightforward; it's not complex at all.

We used a consultant to assist us with the implementation.

The pricing is a bit high.

I'd recommend the solution. It's very easy to use. It also offers us everything we need in terms of features and functionality. 

I'd rate it ten out of ten.