IBM Tivoli NetCool vs SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager comparison

"Support is one of the best aspects of this solution; NetCool is a good product that has good flexibility, and there are a lot of documents available online which is one of the best features of IBM Tivoli Suite."

"NetCool has a huge database that can collect and process about one million alarms a day."

"Full featured - event/fault management, performance management, topology map, discovery, RCA, event enrichment, Proviso will chart data from almost any source with a variety of aggregation options."

"Anything is possible with Tivoli. It's quite a robust system."

"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 solution has very good integration capabilities."

"The tool is much easier to manage than running scripts and figuring out how many endpoints have been exceeded."

"The tool had many built-in automation capabilities."

"The features we find most valuable is the configuration backup automation, the configuration compliance, the security vulnerability detection and upgrading devices."

"It allows us to manage backups in big companies. It is also useful in managing the configuration changes."

"It's a helpful tool and I really like it."

"It is pretty straightforward to set up."

"This solution has helped our organization by allowing us to store all the device configurations for the various network devices in NCM and making it easy for us to retrieve and look them over."

"The most valuable features the solution offers are compliance, reliability, and information about reliability."

"NCM pays for itself within the first 3 years of use as you do need less dedicated Cisco certified engineers fully on site once it is implemented"

"Compared to other vendors, like NetBrain, managing the solution is easy. They made it very user-friendly."

"The installation could be simplified, and technical support could be faster."

"The solution is too expensive."

"The solution is not user-friendly."

"Customization and integration that you need to do to make the product fit your needs is very complex. It is not a product that somebody could easily pick up without any prior training or experience."

"The installation could be simplified, and technical support could be faster."

"This is another one of those suites glued together from a myriad of acquisitions and it shows once you get under the hood."

"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."

"From a customer perspective, it is quite an expensive solution to initially implement and then support."

"The third-party plugins available in the solution could improve. I have received some issues with the templates."

"The only thing that requires some experience, and training doesn't fix, is how to set up your custom policy-based reports to check compliance."

"When it comes to the way of managing the network devices, SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager should provide the simplest way that devices can relate to the server. For example, when we want to get the devices on board, we go by SSH to make the SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager create the connectivity with the device. After that, we pull the configuration. It would be helpful if they could combine both so that everything will be done in one step."

"The network logs could be improved. When the error logs come across with those false positive alarms in the error logs."

"I would like to see more integration tools. Something like dialysis, for example."

"I will email them and I won't see the response for another two or three hours. I have to give them a call and it's a pain, it's a nightmare."

"When we run the SolarWinds NCM jobs at the cellular line, it runs in the morning. They're just not finishing. We're getting false processing."

"I'd like to see additional features like support for devices that don't use CLI for configuration backups, expanded inventory support for other vendors beyond Cisco, and compatibility with newer SD WAN devices. These enhancements would further improve the product's versatility and utility for users. we hope for future enhancements, especially in supporting security devices that lack CLI backup options."

"Customers are required to pay a licensing fee."

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"It costs around 100k for every ten servers, which is lower than similar products from other vendors."

"The price of the product is too expensive."

"Additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee are inevitable."

"The price of the solution is high compared to other solutions."

"We have to pay additionally for its support and maintenance."

"With a minimal bundle, we pay about $3000 a year in licensing costs. If you have multiple devices in your network, you must buy the bundle, which is 100% identical for your infrastructure. If you have 15 devices, you need 15 licenses, for example. That's one bundle. You don't pay for anything over and above that."

"The pricing is good."

"In Africa, the cost is a major factor in decision-making for many companies. As a result, some companies may choose cheaper solutions, even if they are open-source, over more expensive ones, such as SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. However, as an engineer, I believe that the functionalities and services offered by SolarWinds justify the cost. Nonetheless, many companies in Africa may still view the prices as unaffordable."

"I have a yearly subscription."

"Available at a moderate price"