What is our primary use case?
We needed a way to replicate our Progress database to our SQL database without impacting our student information system. Prior, we had a lot of different needs to be able to query the production database and when our development or consulting teams tried to do queries, it would impact our student production system. This solution replicated the database to an SQL database that could be queried and not have an impact. That was powerful for us to keep things stable.
We needed to proactively monitor our network infrastructure. We tried another network software called SolarWinds but it became very expensive. We were monitoring very little with it and we needed to monitor more.
We are a large school district with 60,000 students, 10,000 employees, and around 5,000 pieces of network equipment. We're the 17th largest school district in our state. We wanted to be able to monitor everything within a reasonable price. WhatsUp Gold helps us monitor everything affordably. We've been very happy with it.
WhatsUp Gold tracks server resources. If CPU, memory, or disk space is over-utilized, it alerts us immediately via text or email if there is an issue. Overall, we are very satisfied with WhatsUp Gold.
We had to transition off our previous Microsoft load balancer. It was not very responsive. We had issues when we had to take down certain virtual web servers. We looked at the hardware and software load balancer. The hardware-based ones were more expensive. We did a POC for two months with Kemp. It seemed simple to use so we bought a subscription. It worked well and the cost is reasonable. We use it for load balancing our student information system and for load balancing our ERP system.
It automatically starts monitoring newly discovered devices. If we point at a particular top-level switch or main stacking equipment, it automatically monitors it. We have to make sure that our SNPM information is configured appropriately and it will automatically dive in, see the equipment, and try to bring it in appropriately.
How has it helped my organization?
Using WhatsUp Gold has helped to improve the IT team's productivity. Once we were able to equip the staff to be able to look at the WhatsUp screens, our help desk, which is our level 1 support, doesn't need to rely on a network analyst to know if something is down. They'll see it right away. They have access to tell their field of operations team when a particular school, room, or building has a problem and operations can dispatch somebody to help. We have a small network team and they wouldn't be able to spread themselves everywhere. So having WhatsUp Gold has helped to spread the load.
What is most valuable?
When it comes to the intuitiveness of the topology mapping feature, our network architect created a vision diagram of our entire network and then created the links tied into the WhatsUp active monitoring to different spots on our topology map. It's one of the more critical functions we do here. We have the map displayed in different places in our room and help desk.
We get alerted via emails but we can also see it visually. It does what it says it's going to do. We find this feature very helpful.
The interactive mapping interface for scrolling, zooming, and drilling down on an element to learn about a network issue is good. When we see a network there will sometimes be a spot that has one link. You can go into a particular part of the topology map, scroll in, and see exactly which module it is. All the information is provided. This feature really helps. You can see the correlation between that link and what failed. This feature is very helpful.
The interface is fairly intuitive. Some of our users used SolarWinds and Nagios, and WhatsUp is easy in comparison. Once you get set up, the look, feel, and configuration are good. Our network architect had never used it before but he was able to create the Visio and map. It was very simple. He has no problems with it.
What needs improvement?
Importing the maps and being able to customize them could be easier. Our network architect was able to import our maps, but if there was an easier way to customize the maps, that process could be easier so that others could be able to do it.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using WhatsUp Gold for eight years.
How are customer service and support?
At the beginning, we did contact them for a little help but we generally don't have any issues with it.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used SolarWinds. The biggest difference between SolarWinds and WhatsUp Gold is the cost. We couldn't afford to monitor everything we wanted to with SolarWinds. We also had some concerns after what happened with SolarWinds security-wise.
We keep WhatsUp Gold on a local, on-prem server and it seems to be better in terms of security. It's not as targeted as SolarWinds.
How was the initial setup?
We installed it eleven years ago. They had to set up a database server. There was some tweaking involved. One person was able to do it. More people have come in and have been able to configure the software.
Someone brand new came in and upgraded the entire environment without a problem.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
WhatsUp Gold is reasonably priced considering how much we are monitoring. There could always be a cheaper option but compared to SolarWinds and others in the market, WhatsUp Gold keeps it at a point where educational customers can afford it. We don't have a lot of budget but we've been able to afford to keep it for eleven years now.
What other advice do I have?
For us, it has been more affordable than other comparable products in this space. Especially for the number of devices we're monitoring. It's been very affordable for the amount of devices.
I would rate WhatsUp Gold a ten out of ten.
