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Dell CloudIQ vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

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

Dell CloudIQ
Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring
32nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds NPM
Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
160
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (4th), Cloud Monitoring Software (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Dell CloudIQ is 0.9%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 3.2%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Infrastructure Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SolarWinds NPM3.2%
Dell CloudIQ0.9%
Other95.9%
IT Infrastructure Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

Haseeb Sheikh - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager Enterprise Solutions at a media company with 201-500 employees
Proactive monitoring has improved availability and capacity reporting for my infrastructure
The current features including availability, performance, and capacity are good enough, and I think more of better alerting along with improved thresholds of alerts should be implemented. It is helpful, but it should also include the capability to detect zero-day attacks if there are any. I think the remediation could have been better. For example, if I am upgrading my firmware or BIOS or firmware of the infrastructure, it should give me exact CVSS scores and remediation data provided against the CVSS scores. I think the Dell CloudIQ app could be more interactive. If there is a possibility that I can open tickets or SRs via the Dell CloudIQ app, that would be a good feature.
Vivek Jaiswal - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Central monitoring has improved outage alerts and now needs smarter detection and modern dashboards
Regarding the automated network topology and mapping feature in SolarWinds NPM, I am not satisfied with it. For static monitoring, it is acceptable. However, if it is possible, I would need a feature in SolarWinds in the future for some kind of malfunctioning detection, such as malware attacks or that type of environment. We did not have any facility to detect that in SolarWinds. I think it would be better to incorporate those types of features. Regarding customization options in SolarWinds, the ability to customize the dashboard has room for improvement. The dashboard is quite old, and we need some improvement in it. Nowadays, we have multiple tools with AI-based monitoring and web-based dashboards. SolarWinds also has a web-based dashboard, but I think there is scope for improvement in the UI. There may be other areas I would like to improve in SolarWinds NPM.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Has really nice roll-up dashboards."
"Mobile application is the most valuable feature for us. We can monitor all the storages on our phones. It's really good."
"Some of the most valuable features of CloudIQ include its health status alerts, which allow you to see quickly if there is something that needs immediate attention, preventing the need to check each system individually."
"The best thing about this solution is that you can check for the infrastructure and system updates that you might need to be compliant with the Cloud."
"The dashboard is clear and user-friendly."
"The tool for forecasting capacity is valuable."
"Fewer vulnerabilities have been observed in the four years we have used the solution."
"I use Dell CloudIQ for the availability and capacity reporting, which is very helpful in terms of capacity and availability reporting, and if there is any fault or faulty drive or faulty part, I am alerted on time with that, which is the main benefit that avoids any unplanned outage."
"I like SolarWinds support because it's 24/7. You describe your issues, your situation and maybe two or three hours later you can discuss a solution with a technical engineer."
"Network performance is the main issue clients are facing. SolarWinds checks if a node is down, and we can set thresholds for performance metrics. For example, we set it up to get an alert automatically if a value is over 80 percent. It has a full dashboard that covers CP, hard disk, and node monitoring."
"The benefit of this solution is the reporting. We're able to report on and see our network in a graphical form. We are able to detect when a device is added to a network."
"I like that SolarWinds NPM is a strong tool for monitoring network devices, switches, and routers. It's also a user-friendly tool. My team also likes how scalable it is."
"For end-user performance monitoring, we like features such as availability of our all devices."
"With just three modules, I can monitor server performance (whether it’s a VM, in the cloud, or an on-premises server."
"The alerting and usage tracking notifications on disk space capacity, network and processor utilization."
"SolarWinds dashboard is very fast. Also, their interface is very good, it looks very user-friendly. The product allows me to see a summary of the network being monitored at a glance."
 

Cons

"The main limitation of CloudIQ is that it is intended to be used exclusively with Dell hardware."
"PowerScale is the only file system offered and that is limiting."
"Doesn't do well in terms of integrating with technologies other than Dell."
"Supporting legacy systems is an area that can be improved."
"The process of upgrading could be streamlined."
"The reporting capabilities of this solution could be improved."
"It can improve the reporting facility to create custom reports or dashboards."
"It can improve the reporting facility to create custom reports or dashboards."
"An area for improvement would be the use of modular licenses, which are not practical for big clients."
"The evaluation time for the product is too short especially for large corporations."
"The solution is not always good with new features, so it's take a long time."
"The solution's database performance could be improved."
"I would like to see integration with antivirus or other security endpoint solutions."
"Fortigate firewalls are one example of a product that we are unable to monitor properly via SolarWinds NPM."
"There needs to be more integration of widgets, especially for reporting purposes."
"The dashboards for this solution could be improved. We would like to divide the dashboards to give a clear view to our management team to show what we have and what deficiencies exist in our network."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe it is a free product because we don't pay for it."
"The solution is more expensive than NetApp which offers file systems in various price ranges."
"You have to license it per year, for the support. You don't really need to have support once you've already set it up. Once you install SolarWinds, you can skip on the licensing. It will still work."
"Though I don't remember the price for SolarWinds NPM, its price is somewhat okay when you compare it with other tools in the market. The price isn't too high and isn't too low, so it's okay."
"I believe the original setup cost was around $3500 with an annual cost of around $1200-$1500 to renew the support license. This would bring the average day-to-day cost of around $5-$6 over three years."
"Licenses depend on the number of devices, but all license levels come with technical support."
"There can be fees in addition to the licensing fees if you add on."
"We pay a yearly licensing fee."
"The cost is based on the number of nodes, so it is expensive when you have a lot of them."
"I find that the pricing is acceptable."
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Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
May 31, 2015
Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor
I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise33
Large Enterprise85
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Dell CloudIQ?
The current features including availability, performance, and capacity are good enough, and I think more of better alerting along with improved thresholds of alerts should be implemented. It is hel...
What is your primary use case for Dell CloudIQ?
I moved to a new organization where I am also using Dell CloudIQ. I use Dell CloudIQ to monitor PowerStore as well as Dell PowerEdge servers.
What advice do you have for others considering Dell CloudIQ?
For performance analytics, I have my own NMS in-house that I use. I have deployed a VApp on-premises with all of the servers and storage integrated, and it sends telemetry data directly to Dell. My...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better for a cloud monitoring...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalability, products like Network Performance Monitor & Netflow Traffic Analyzer ar...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

North Carolina State University
Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell CloudIQ vs. SolarWinds NPM and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.