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Senior Solutions Specialist (Network & Security) at Ooredoo Qatar
Real User
The GUI is good but it is lacking features found in competing products
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the graphical user interface."
  • "SolarWinds needs to be improved such that it is on par with the leading products in the market."

What is our primary use case?

We have a data center that is used by multiple clients and we need to see how applications are performing when clients are on our network. The NPM tool is used to analyze what different applications are consuming, in terms of bandwidth.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the graphical user interface.

What needs improvement?

SolarWinds needs to be improved such that it is on par with the leading products in the market. There are better products available, albeit more expensive.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using SolarWinds NPM for three months.

Buyer's Guide
SolarWinds NPM
April 2025
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a mature product and the stability is quite good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have eight users including an operations analyst, system analyst, and support engineers.

How are customer service and support?

We have been in contact with technical support and they are good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

SolarWinds was the first product of this type that we used.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. The implementation took about two weeks in a controlled environment. We had no problems with the installation and connecting to our devices.

What about the implementation team?

We did not require assistance for the deployment.

One person is suitable for deployment and maintenance.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is not an expensive product.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We will probably continue looking for a better product.

What other advice do I have?

This is a product that I recommend, although it requires technical skills in order to use it.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2675034 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Security Consultant at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Reseller
Top 5Leaderboard
An network monitoring solution that offers insights into servers and virtual machines
Pros and Cons
  • "SolarWinds NPM provides an overview of network monitoring, extending its capabilities to cover other aspects, such as virtual machines and servers. The platform has features like NetPath, which is particularly beneficial for end-users, offering insights into issues like latency, packet loss, and connectivity problems with routers, switches, or servers."
  • "The tool can only monitor up to 1000 instances in a single SolarWinds console. Customers may have over 1000 instances. Hence, it needs to support a minimum of 1500 instances. It should also improve support."

What is our primary use case?

We use the product for network monitoring. 

What is most valuable?

SolarWinds NPM provides an overview of network monitoring, extending its capabilities to cover other aspects, such as virtual machines and servers. The platform has features like NetPath, which is particularly beneficial for end-users, offering insights into issues like latency, packet loss, and connectivity problems with routers, switches, or servers. NetPath helps identify where the network path is disrupted or experiencing problems. For instance, if accessing Google services encounters issues, NetPath can pinpoint where the problem lies.  Another valuable feature is that it provides real-time data on device performance, including resource utilization, RAM status, and responsiveness.

What needs improvement?

The tool can only monitor up to 1000 instances in a single SolarWinds console. Customers may have over 1000 instances. Hence, it needs to support a minimum of 1500 instances. It should also improve support. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I worked with HPE for about six to seven months in 2016. It had similar features to SolarWinds NPM. However, the deployment process was complex.

How was the initial setup?

Deploying SolarWinds NPM is a straightforward process. The deployment steps include extracting the files, mounting them on the server, and deploying them. The documentation provided by SolarWinds is clear. 

What other advice do I have?

While I haven't extensively worked with ManageEngine, I've observed some of its features, and customization stands out as a strong aspect. ManageEngine can be a good option for those with budget constraints, as it offers similar features to SolarWinds NPM at a more affordable price. I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
SolarWinds NPM
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about SolarWinds NPM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1765383 - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO-OSS product development at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
Real User
Great for monitoring but report customizations are limited
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution ranks as one of the top five monitoring tools."
  • "The solution does not offer much customization so is somewhat inflexible."

What is our primary use case?

Our company specializes in the development of a SaaS site. Often times, we look for solutions to complement our existing tool based on customer's needs. 

We recommended the solution to a customer as an infrastructure configuration and monitoring tool that combines multiple domains in a single platform. The customer also wanted issue notifications to be provided in a real-time, viewable format. 

What is most valuable?

The solution ranks as one of the top five monitoring tools.

What needs improvement?

KPIs should correlate and combine in one simple report.

The solution does not offer much customization so is somewhat inflexible. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for one year. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our customer does not have broad scaling needs. They have fifteen users and the solution works fine with no issues in this small environment. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup can take time because it requires proper security access from the customer side. Setup and implementation took our customer one week. 

What about the implementation team?

Our customer utilized an internal team of four technicians to handle implementation themselves. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Our customer reports that the solution is somewhat costly and licensing is a bit complicated. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I recommend the solution if it is the best alternative for a customer's environment. It is one of five tools that I suggest for assessment of fit. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution a seven out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1682613 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Consultant at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
The network and server application monitoring features are strong.
Pros and Cons
  • "SolarWinds' network and server application monitoring features are strong."
  • "SolarWinds could offer more support and insights for a broader range of devices. Currently, it focuses on routers, switches, and some load balancers. However, it lacks an out-of-the-box dashboard for monitoring firewalls and some other modern network security devices. We have to customize it a lot."

What is our primary use case?

We use SolarWinds for network monitoring. It's suitable for mid-sized or enterprise-scale companies. It can work for a small business, too, because it's not too expensive. 

What is most valuable?

SolarWinds' network and server application monitoring features are strong.

What needs improvement?

SolarWinds could offer more support and insights for a broader range of devices. Currently, it focuses on routers, switches, and some load balancers. However, it lacks an out-of-the-box dashboard for monitoring firewalls and some other modern network security devices. We have to customize it a lot.

At the same time, some tools don't have the ability to customize, so SolarWinds is ahead of the competition, in that regard. I would also like to see more support for software-defined network platforms and enhanced API monitoring capacity.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using SolarWinds NPM for more than five years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

SolarWinds offers some options for scalability, but there is a bottleneck on some features. I hope the scale of NetFlow can be increased. Also, SolarWinds uses the Microsoft SQL database, which doesn't allow distributed architecture or scaling options.

How are customer service and support?

I rate SolarWinds support seven out of 10. The quality varies depending on who picks up the phone.

How was the initial setup?

In most cases, setting up SolarWinds is simple. However, when customers have some special requirements, the deployment can become highly complex.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I rate SolarWinds NPM six out of 10 for pricing. It isn't the cheapest solution, but it's still affordable.

What other advice do I have?

I rate SolarWinds NPM eight out of 10. I would recommend this product for medium-sized and enterprise-scale companies.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Director of Operations at 802BR
Reseller
Useful diagnostic, beneficial network search, and good support
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features in SolarWinds NPM are the network search and diagnostic tools."
  • "SolarWinds NPM could improve by adding the deepest inspection, performance networking, and IP address discovery."

What is our primary use case?

SolarWinds NPM is used for searching equipment in the network, troubleshooting the network, and mapping the networking.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features in SolarWinds NPM are the network search and diagnostic tools.

What needs improvement?

SolarWinds NPM could improve by adding the deepest inspection, performance networking, and IP address discovery.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using SolarWinds NPM for approximately three months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

SolarWinds NPM is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of SolarWinds NPM is easy to do.

We have three or four users using this solution.

How are customer service and support?

The support is very good for SolarWinds NPM.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of SolarWinds NPM is easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost of the personal perpetual license for SolarWinds NPM is approximately $2,000.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this solution to others.

I rate SolarWinds NPM a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
PeerSpot user
Instrumentation Superintendent Systems at a mining and metals company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Customizable with a straightforward setup and reasonable pricing
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is scalable."
  • "The reporting module that got integrated into the system itself, used to be a standalone solution and I preferred that."

What is our primary use case?

I primarily use it in the OT environment. We use it for important equipment, voice equipment, safety devices, and to alarm and report on.

How has it helped my organization?

Solarwind NPM gives you a quick overview of the OT environment. This greatly  improves response times on down equipment.

What is most valuable?

The solution is quite customizable. 

The initial setup is straightforward.

The solution is stable.

We have had a good experience with technical support.

The product is scalable.

So far, we have found the pricing to be reasonable. 

It meets expectations. With a bit of SQL knowledge, you do manage to get a lot out of your reports.

What needs improvement?

There are still huge concerns about security. The image of Solarwinds NPM took a huge knock due to SUNBURST and SUPERNOVA. Security experts are still concerned. I would suggest that Solarwinds put more effort into rebuilding trust with the customers and the market.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for five or six years. I've been using it for a while. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is great and any issues we face are addressed very quickly by technical support.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is there. If you need to scale the solution, you can. 

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is good. All of the issues I had were addressed by the support team within hours. They are helpful and responsive and I am satisfied with the level of support.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not difficult or complex. It's quite simple and straightforward.

We have an internal team that can handle any maintenance we need.

What about the implementation team?

In-house

What was our ROI?

As we monitor safety equipment and underground phones, the first incident you can prevent and save a life, the ROI is instantaneous. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product compares well against all the other monitoring software out there. It is not overpriced at all.

What other advice do I have?

We're just customers and end-users.

The solution is easy to use and customization is possible. It is extremely powerful when set up correctly.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. We've been pleased with its capabilities, although its level of security is still worrisome.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1585257 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Vice President and CIO at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Real User
Lets us track down brownouts in a multi-host, multi-guest virtual environment
Pros and Cons
  • "As we look to add more servers to our virtual environment and to understand the impact, the solution allows us to dig into the historical charts related to capacity planning."
  • "The solution's network discovery and node addition processes need more work."

What is our primary use case?

We have been making use of the most recent version.

We use it for monitoring our uplink ports on our routers and switches. We also use it to monitor our servers and we utilize its disc space and processor memory. We do the same thing for the routers and switches.

How has it helped my organization?

An improvement the solution has brought to our organization is that it enables us to track down what I call brown outs in a multi-host, multi-guest virtual environment. It allows us to see why and when this occurred and to know what else was transpiring at the time that we had received an end-user complaint of the system running slowly. 

What is most valuable?

As we look to add more servers to our virtual environment and to understand the impact, the solution allows us to dig into the historical charts related to capacity planning. It also gives us visibility of spikes and allows us to track down the reasons for their occurrences. So too, it makes room for potential processes that have gotten hung or runaway and to know when it's time to reboot a server or service. 

What needs improvement?

The solution should make things easier to set up on a node by node basis. When turning on the network scanning to try to set up nodes, it has a tendency to grab everything in site, every port on a firewall, for example. One should have the option of picking through these before they're automatically added, so that there should be no need to go through them manually and delete them. The solution's network discovery and node addition processes need more work. Once the nodes have been added, there is a need to go in and delete them manually. 

I cannot think of additional improvements that are worth mentioning. The solution does a pretty good job all around. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using some version of SolarWinds for 20 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable. We don't see many outages of the actual platform. The sole exception would concern us taking a process in which we would be restarting it on a monthly basis. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very scalable. I've never seen a problem with this.

I don't have any plans to increase the usage in the future. I would not say that the solution is being extensively used, as we're not necessarily monitoring everything that we could, there being no need for some of this in our environment. I would make use of the performance monitor should I wish to dive deeper into a running system for detailed analysis.

How are customer service and technical support?

As I have been using the solution for so long, I have not had any need for technical support. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used other products prior to SolarWinds NPM. I switched because the solution provides a consolidated view of everything. 

How was the initial setup?

A moderate level of knowledge of the product's use is required for installation. 

The initial installation occurred a long time ago. While, for me, this process would not take long, somebody who is new and who has never used the solution may take a day or two to do installation and to become fully up to speed of what is being added, the reason for doing so and how the solution should be configured. 

Installation is not easy for a person who lacks the requisite experience. 

What about the implementation team?

I did the integration myself. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I renewed the licenses around two-and-a-half to three years ago and do not have the relevant numbers off the top of my head. 

What other advice do I have?

I would estimate there are three insfrastructure managers, with myself as the head of the IT department. There is at least one other technician working on the wide area, local area network.

My advice to others is to add their nodes manually, not to let the network discovery and auto ad run.

I rate SolarWinds NPM as an eight out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1396410 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Systems Engineer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Covers everything from end to end, from the standpoint of endpoint machines and the routers and switches
Pros and Cons
  • "It covers everything from end to end, from the standpoint of endpoint machines and the routers and switches. The switch port also comes there."
  • "It has covered everything, so no improvement is required at their end. The only thing is the price."

What is our primary use case?

It is for our current infrastructure or servers and storage system. We're using it globally to monitor our global network. We are currently monitoring all the infrastructure APM, network, switches, and routers. We have some elements in the UK and the USA. 

What is most valuable?

It covers everything from end to end, from the standpoint of endpoint machines and the routers and switches. The switch port also comes there.

What needs improvement?

It has covered everything, so no improvement is required at their end. The only thing is the price. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for around eight years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's stable. We didn't face any issues in the last period.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable. We see expansion there. More than 500 users are currently using it.

How are customer service and technical support?

We contacted them once last year. We requested their support with an upgrade. They were very helpful.

How was the initial setup?

It's easy and straightforward. There is no complication. 

We deployed it in one day. We had POC in one day, and we prepared the servers, virtual machine. We did the installation, database setup, and firewall setup in one day. It was easy.

What about the implementation team?

We get some consultants. If there are some challenges, then we definitely need a consultant.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is too expensive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also use Microsoft Operation Manager SCOM. Microsoft is dedicated to monitoring servers, but it needs some improvement in network monitoring. SolarWinds is more appropriate.

We are also comparing SolarWinds NPM and Zabbix. Currently, we have SolarWinds NPM, but its license is about to expire. We need to see which product is suitable for our environment.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend SolarWinds NPM. From the product side, it covers everything. It is perfect.

I would rate it a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free SolarWinds NPM Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free SolarWinds NPM Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.