Riverbed NPM+ vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications comparison

Riverbed and Broadcom are both solutions in the Cloud Monitoring Software category. Riverbed is ranked #27 with an average rating of 9.0, while Broadcom is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.8. Riverbed holds a 0.6% mindshare in CMS, compared to Broadcom’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Riverbed users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

Riverbed NPM+

Read 2 Riverbed NPM+ reviews

735 Views
353 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Read 14 VMware Aria Operations for Applications reviews

3,211 Views
1,284 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Riverbed NPM+

VMware Aria Operations for ...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Riverbed NPM+ and VMware Aria Operations for Applications based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Cloud Monitoring Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Riverbed NPM+ vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Riverbed NPM+ vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

December 2025

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Helped 881,082 peers since 2012

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

Riverbed NPM+

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

27th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (39th)

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

15th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (19th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (16th), Container Monitoring (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Cloud Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Riverbed NPM+ is 0.6%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Operations for Applications is 2.0%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
VMware Aria Operations for Applications	2.0%
Riverbed NPM+	0.6%
Other	97.4%

Cloud Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Satyam Kumar

Senior Technical Engineer at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

Provides deep packet visibility for tracing failed transactions and helps improve enterprise-level monitoring

Many improvements are needed for Riverbed NPM+, particularly in NetIM, which does not perform as well as SolarWinds' single module NPM solution. Additionally, within Riverbed Portal, there is an Application Map module that could be improved. It can show the application's architecture and connectivity to the network. The applications map feature needs enhancements for better customization since currently, it is quite limited. The enhancements I recommend are not for the entire Riverbed product suite, but specifically for the application map feature within the Portal of Riverbed NPM+. This Portal is one of the dashboard modules and while there is potential for improvement, it must be enhanced significantly to provide better functionality. Currently, you cannot trace by transaction number alone; knowing the source and destination IP is necessary. For instance, if I transfer money and a transaction fails, tracing that transaction ID is not captured in AppResponse. I have raised this concern, and if this feature is implemented, it would greatly benefit banking customers, especially because it is not available with their competitors either.

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Ajay Shukla

Consultant at HCLTech

Automation and insightful diagnostics elevate operations while improvements are welcome

The new version 8.18 has brought significant improvements. The main purpose of using this tool is having a single console to manage all entities. The cloud integration capabilities, including private, public, and hybrid, are already well-implemented. The ability to manage multiple vCenters across different geographical locations is very effective. The new Skyline health feature and certificate and licensing management are particularly useful improvements. The dashboard's overview tab provides comprehensive information about current vCenter status, resizable amounts, reclamation opportunities, anomalies, diagnostics, licensing, and certificates. However, there is room for improvement in application analysis. The current functionality lacks detailed monitoring at the kernel level, focusing mainly on CPU, memory, and storage matrices. Enhanced application monitoring capabilities, including tracking downtime for specific types of applications such as transactional or e-commerce applications, would be beneficial.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Alluvio Network Performance Management is good for troubleshooting."

"Riverbed NPM+ provides a holistic view of the network and deeper insights into traffic and packet analysis."

"The features I find most valuable is the querying and alerting capabilities."

"Scalability for VMware Aria Operations for Applications is easy to implement and manage."

"No issues with stability."

"I find VMware Aria Operations for Applications to be very stable, and I would rate it a ten out of ten."

"The solution is great for virtualization and preparing the infrastructure in Tanzu to test products. It's very fast and has good visibility."

"VMware Aria Operations for Applications offers significant features such as real-time statistics, the ability to identify possible issues within the VM environment, and helpful heat maps."

"The most valuable aspects of the solution are its ease of use and its ease of implementation."

"This solution allows me to have true visibility for any metrics when it comes to my cloud, and private."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications pros

Cons

"Many improvements are needed for Riverbed NPM+, particularly in NetIM, which does not perform as well as SolarWinds' single module NPM solution."

"Alluvio Network Performance Management is good for troubleshooting."

"Currently, you cannot trace by transaction number alone; knowing the source and destination IP is necessary."

"Many improvements are needed for Riverbed NPM+, particularly in NetIM, which does not perform as well as SolarWinds' single module NPM solution."

"I would like to see integration with Kubernetes cluster and APIs so that you can manage the entire stack."

"I find that there could be improvements in the support service response time, as the urgency varies unless specified as Priority 2 or 1 cases."

"In the new version, I would love to see more prediction capabilities. It would be great if one could see the alerts get a little more enriched with information and become more human-friendly instead of the technical stuff that they put in there. I think those would be really awesome outcomes to get."

"Its billing model is consumption-based. I understand the consumption-based model, but it is not necessarily easy to estimate and guess how many points or how much we are going to consume on a specific application up until we get to that point. So, for us, it would be helpful to have more insights or predictability into what we can expect from a cost perspective if we are starting to use specific features. This can potentially also drive our consumption a bit more."

"VMware technical support has declined since the Broadcom acquisition. Previously, they were more focused on issue resolution, but now they prioritize licensing verification before providing support."

"The documentation and integration with Kubernetes could be improved."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing is high and I would rate it one out of ten."

"Different locations require different setups. In your terms, around 300 to around 400K USD."

"I don't have the details. In our case, there is a mixture in place. We have production usage, and we are also doing training for VMware. So, we also have a training instance. It is worth the money you would spend on it. That's because if you were to build all of this yourself by using some of the open source tools, then you would need a lot of time."

"The licensing costs are very high, particularly when you consider that we have to purchase a level 1 license for every integration, such as the load balancer, HAProxy, and the MSSP. And if you want to use vSAN, that's another license. Then, of course, Tanzu Observability has its own separate license."

"I would rate the pricing as three out of five."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Healthcare Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alluvio Network Performance Management?

The pricing of Riverbed NPM+ is indeed high, particularly as I work with enterprises in the banking sector primarily in India and the Middle East, and I have also interacted with clients in Europe....

See all answers

What needs improvement with Alluvio Network Performance Management?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Alluvio Network Performance Management?

Riverbed NPM+ has many primary use cases, making this NPM solution totally different from other tools like SolarWinds. They have a solution called AppResponse, which is not an agent-based solution ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

The solution includes cost drivers that can be configured according to your environment. You can input server-wise, CPU-wise, storage, and memory costs per hour or day. Once cost drivers are provid...

See all answers

What needs improvement with VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

I have been involved in several projects where I had to implement automation and monitoring alerting. I performed automation using VMware Aria Operations for Applications. There is an automation ta...

See all answers

Comparisons

NETSCOUT InfiniStreamNG vs Riverbed NPM+

Compared 17% of the time

Datadog vs Riverbed NPM+

Compared 15% of the time

IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) vs Riverbed NPM+

Compared 10% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Riverbed NPM+

Compared 9% of the time

ThousandEyes vs Riverbed NPM+

Compared 9% of the time

More Riverbed NPM+ Competitors

Grafana vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 7% of the time

Zabbix vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 6% of the time

Dynatrace vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 6% of the time

Datadog vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 5% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Network Monitoring Software

January 2026

Download Riverbed NPM+ product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Operations for Applications

January 2026

VMware Aria Operations for Applications report

Download VMware Aria Operations for Applications product report

Also Known As

Alluvio Network Performance Management

Tanzu Observability, Wavefront, Wavefront by VMware, VMware Tanzu Observability

Overview

Riverbed NPM+ is a SaaS-delivered service that uses Riverbed Unified Agent to collect decrypted packet data at every user and server endpoint. It fills visibility gaps caused by encrypted tunnels in Zero Trust, remote work, and cloud-native environments. Taking an agent-based deployment approach ensures flexibility, simplicity, and scalability. With this AI-driven Network Observability, Riverbed takes a revolutionary step towards faster issue detection and higher service availability.

Riverbed

VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront is a powerful tool for monitoring and analyzing the performance and availability of applications and infrastructure in real-time.

With its comprehensive monitoring capabilities, visualizing and analyzing data becomes effortless. The real-time alerting system ensures timely issue resolution, while scalability and a user-friendly interface provide a seamless experience for smooth operations.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

1. Atlassian 2. Cisco 3. Databricks 4. DigitalOcean 5. Equinix 6. Fidelity Investments 7. Google 8. Hewlett Packard Enterprise 9. Honeywell 10. IBM 11. Intel 12. JetBlue Airways 13. LinkedIn 14. Lyft 15. Mastercard 16. Microsoft 17. MongoDB 18. Netflix 19. Nvidia 20. Oracle 21. PayPal 22. Pinterest 23. Qualcomm 24. Red Hat 25. Salesforce 26. SAP 27. Spotify 28. Square 29. TMobile 30. Twitter 31. Uber 32. VMware

Buyer's Guide

Riverbed NPM+ vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

December 2025

Free Report: Riverbed NPM+ vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Find out what your peers are saying about Riverbed NPM+ vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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