No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

IBM Tivoli NetCool vs OpenText Network Automation comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

IBM Tivoli NetCool
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (14th)
OpenText Network Automation
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Network Automation (14th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Management solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM Tivoli NetCool is designed for Network Management Applications and holds a mindshare of 3.9%, up 2.3% compared to last year.
OpenText Network Automation, on the other hand, focuses on Network Automation, holds 3.2% mindshare, down 3.9% since last year.
Network Management Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Tivoli NetCool3.9%
Cisco DNA Center7.2%
DX Spectrum5.5%
Other83.4%
Network Management Applications
Network Automation Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OpenText Network Automation3.2%
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform14.7%
Cisco DNA Center9.9%
Other72.2%
Network Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Petar Ganev - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Enterprise Monitoring Engineer at Commerzbank
Reliable for enterprise monitoring but no longer actively developed
There are problems with the latest security requirements because many things have changed in recent years, and now the security audits are very strict. And we need to switch to something else. We need to patch it constantly. Moreover, it is a very old tool and a little bit difficult to support. Otherwise, they work okay.
reviewer1480065 - PeerSpot reviewer
Service Operations Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Allows to upload necessary firmware to your device and perform the upgrade
With OpenText Network Automation, firmware can be uploaded for specific devices. If you need to upgrade a device, you can use this tool, though it may not apply to all devices. The software allows you to upload the necessary firmware to your device and perform the upgrade. Additionally, it enables you to check multiple devices for specific configurations and automates the search process and the configuration of multiple devices.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It improves customer satisfaction, deploy-ability, adaptability, flexibility, scalability, and reduces cost of operation."
"Support is one of the best aspects of this solution. NetCool is a good product that has good flexibility. There are a lot of documents available online which is one of the best features of IBM Tivoli Suite. Whenever an issue happens, rather than going to technical support, if you find the exact issue in Google, you can get tech notes for that particular issue."
"The tool had many built-in automation capabilities."
"NetCool has a huge database that can collect and process about one million alarms a day."
"Anything is possible with Tivoli. It's quite a robust system."
"The tool is much easier to manage than running scripts and figuring out how many endpoints have been exceeded."
"The solution is a complete package; it has various useful elements including inventory management and incident management packaged inside it, and anything is possible with Tivoli since it is quite a robust system that offers a lot of useful integration capabilities."
"The Netcool solution is great, and it's very easy to use."
"It's great because you have a one-unit solution to aggregate network data, so it's one entry point for getting all the configuration into the same dashboard or same application."
"With OpenText Network Automation, firmware can be uploaded for specific devices. If you need to upgrade a device, you can use this tool, though it may not apply to all devices."
"We're able to set security policies and configure devices exactly how we want them."
"Pushing the network configuration to bulk devices. This saves a considerable amount of time that the engineer spends in pushing the network configuration."
"When compared with SolarWinds, it is more user-friendly, and tasks can be completed more quickly."
"Micro Focus tools are mature tools, that are well developed."
 

Cons

"I think the UI should be updated and made more presentable and eye-catching. Compared to NCE in Huawei, NSN in Nokia, the UiPath and Ubiquiti, it feels very old legacy."
"This is another one of those suites glued together from a myriad of acquisitions and it shows once you get under the hood."
"IBM's technical support takes a long time to do root cause analysis, and we have to go through several levels of help before getting a solution."
"The product is pretty costly. It's definitely not the least expensive option."
"UI is outdated, very old legacy."
"Tivoli NetCool is based on a Linux platform, it would be beneficial if they moved it to Windows because not everyone is acquainted with Linux."
"In terms of improvement, I would like to see more AIOps, Artificial Intelligent Operations in the next release. IBM develops new features for Power BI or Cognos Analytics, which is good. As of now, we use Cognos Analytics, we are not using Power BI. They have the Insight concept but we don't like that."
"The solution is not user-friendly."
"When compared to other automation tools that are available in the market, more can be done to improve this solution."
"Compatibility of the devices needs to be enhanced, as it seems to be limited."
"Level one administration task can be defined in Micro Focus Network Automation but it could be more simplified."
"We just spoke with some of the product managers. We are getting some serious performance issues that have some serious repercussions for support."
"The tool performs slowly."
"We've found some problems that may or may not have to do with our infrastructure. There are also some software defects that we've found."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"Customers are required to pay a licensing fee."
"The price of the product is too expensive."
"It costs around 100k for every ten servers, which is lower than similar products from other vendors."
"Pricing is reasonable, but if you compare it with other network Operation Management tools that are available on the market, it's expensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Management Applications solutions are best for your needs.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Performing Arts
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise5
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
I have worked from 1973 with all kind of systems in large enterprises across the world. And have experience with all kind of software in monitoring from infra to end to end, it depends on the funct...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

Tivoli NetCool
Micro Focus Network Automation, HPE Network Automation
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Claranet, Consolidated Communications, Telus, €sterreichische Bundesbahnen (€BB), Telekom Srbija, Bendigo Community Telco, Capgemini, Schweizerische Bundesbahnen (SBB)
Tech Mahindra, Avea, China Merchants Bank, NNIT, Distinctive Software Solutions, Virgin Media, NEC Australia, Osiatis, Hostworks, Retegal, Allianz Shared Infrastructure Services SE (ASIC), State of Kansas Division of Information Services and Communications (DISC)
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Fortinet, Skyline Communications and others in Network Management Applications. Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.