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IBM Netcool Network Management vs. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Netcool Network Management

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ANetcool Network Management integrates the IBM Tivoli Network Manager IP Edition, Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus and Netcool Configuration Manager products into a unified solution that consolidates the management of networks.N/A

    SolarWinds NPM

    Score7 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds NPM is a monitoring and performance management platform. It provides performance troubleshooting support, auto network discovery, customizable thresholds, and can be rapidly deployed.

    $1,638

    per year

    Pricing
    IBM Netcool Network ManagementSolarWinds NPM
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    NPM
    $1,638
    per year
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Netcool Network ManagementSolarWinds NPM
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM Netcool Network ManagementSolarWinds NPM
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    We really haven't had the need to shop around for other platforms, since we're completely satisfied with SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor. There is a group within our organization that does use Netcool. The comparison isn't even close. SolarWinds Network Performance …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    IBM was not as intuitive and required a development team to get that system running in a state that functioned for the tier 1 ISP. The lightweight coding allowed for hundreds of thousands of nodes to be monitored though (I believe it was upwards of 500k nodes)
    Remedy was great …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    91%
    Would buy again
    31 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    32 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    33 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    28 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    29 Answers
    Features
    IBM Netcool Network ManagementSolarWinds NPM
    Network Performance Monitoring
    Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of IBM Netcool Network Management and SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
    Feature
    IBM Netcool Network Management
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
    8.2
    231 Ratings
    0% above category average
    Automated network device discovery00 Ratings7.8210 Ratings
    Network monitoring00 Ratings8.8231 Ratings
    Baseline threshold calculation00 Ratings8.6201 Ratings
    Alerts00 Ratings9.4228 Ratings
    Network capacity planning00 Ratings7.9188 Ratings
    Packet capture analysis00 Ratings7.2130 Ratings
    Network mapping00 Ratings7.1190 Ratings
    Customizable reports00 Ratings7.9212 Ratings
    Wireless infrastructure monitoring00 Ratings7.6153 Ratings
    Hardware health monitoring00 Ratings9.4215 Ratings
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    User Ratings
    IBM Netcool Network ManagementSolarWinds NPM
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (237 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.4
    (27 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (21 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (28 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Netcool Network ManagementSolarWinds NPM
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    This tool was integrated with Control-M, so whenever we receive any job failure, long-running job, job not started yet, etc, we receive an alert against it. This tool is also integrated with Maximo where we receive the incidents as well for it. Alert's color was as per the criticality of the job and that makes it very easy for an associate to act on it to resolve. We have the SLAs for the jobs as per the urgency of the jobs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    Solarwinds NPM is well suited for medium to large networks, it may be a bit heavy for the SOHO environment as most of the tools and reports are designed for monitoring KPIs which may not be critical for a small shop. NPM can handle large networks with several sites and mixed technologies ranging from networks, server systems, storage devices and SLA reporting.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    IBM
    • This is one of the best monitoring tools.
    • Very simple to user.
    • Color code makes it very simple as per severity.
    • We receive the heartbeat alert every hour that shows the system is running up and fine.
    • We have black, red, yellow, and orange color alerts that show the critical, urgent, major, and minor incidents.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Out of the Monitoring of almost all Network Devices.
    • Build custom pollers to monitor which is not supported out of the box.
    • Further you can alert on these custom metrics and Out of the box metrics.
    • It provides you great dashboards, Reports features.
    • You can integrate it with any MoM layer tools either using its API or sending out traps.
    • Out of the box Integration with Service Now ITSM Tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    IBM
    • Sometimes color differences of the incidents as per the criticality .
    • We don't receive the heartbeat alerts sometimes.
    • If the tool is down and we don't receive the alerts on the console we wait for the heartbeat alert and it makes some extra delay in resolving things.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • The software upgrade process is a little hairy and has caused me trouble on occasion.
    • The server that it needs to run is a bit of a resource hog along with the SQL server.
    • Some additional features like the network map are a bit clunky compared to some other products that we use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    The entire IT staff relies on NPM in its daily operations. It would be impossible for us to maintain our level of service without it. If SolarWinds gets to proud of their product and begins to over charge for it, we would be forced to reconsider and use a different product. But as it stands it is worth the price to renew it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is quite an extensive product, covering all our bases and requirements. There are a lot of customizable options and features which you can work with for their alerting which is really useful. I haven't found anything yet which I thought SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) could do, but it actually couldn't so overall it works nicely and does the job.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Always available. Always is important to plan the software available during the machine/application setup.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Pages load slow, especially the bettors map. Could be that my server is old.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    In all of the times that we called support, someone at SolarWinds had the answer for us in a timely manner. Through thwack and other internet searching, we have been able to resolve all of our issues that arose to our satisfaction. The support staff have always been knowledgeable of their products or had a fellow support staff member to rely on to get the needed answers.
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    The training is good but during the implementation, you can get situations not learned during the training. The trainer was very open to hearing the questions about use cases and always sharing his experience. I really recommend having official training to take advantage of all features that the NPM can bring.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Make sure your inventory is accurate. Stand up some virtual machines for testing prior to installation. Make sure your database and its credentials are setup. Think about things you want to monitor that may not be obvious - UPS units, Door hardware, PBX systems, Fabric Channel switches, firewalls, routers, switches. Try to setup SNMP on these devices and have an IP that you will assign to the new server. If you do that it will go well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    This is one of the essential tools for monitoring. This tool was integrated with Maximo and Control-M in my organization. So whenever any job failed in Control-M, we receive an alert against it in the IBM Netcool/OMNIbus. We receive the alerts in different colors as per the criticality. Black for critical ones(Sev1), red for urgent (Sev2), yellow for major(Sev3), and orange for minor(Sev4). So it makes an easy to operate and act on the alerts as per the severity. This tool is very user-friendly and easy to use. No additional training is required for the tool to operate, just a simple KT is enough.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    We selected SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor because of the capabilities of the product versus the price. The tools also work well with their other products and support is fairly good. We have never had a problem when we needed to make a call.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    From the direction and information I have been given it is very flexible and scalelable
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • Color feature of the alerts as per the criticality is the amazing feature.
    • Heartbeat alert is also an unique feature.
    • No additional training is required to use this tool. just a simple KT is enough.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • SolarWinds allows us to proactively address hardware issues before they impact the business. We recently had a server that was experiencing issues sporadically and we were able to use the data from SolarWinds to track down and correct the issue before it tanked the server.
    • SolarWinds gives our IT department some piece of mind knowing that they'll be alerted of any issues real time.
    • We can use SolarWinds data to justify needed to replace or upgrade certain equipment that is key to our core business.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds NPM Screenshots

    Screenshot of Network monitoring software used to reduce network outages and detect, diagnose, and resolve multi-vendor network performance issues.Screenshot of See relationships for routers, switches, interfaces, volumes, and groups, updated automatically without user intervention to maintain the network, not network maps.Screenshot of Reduce visibility gaps into critical network switches, firewalls, and load balancers with Network Insight for Cisco Nexus, Cisco ASA, and F5 BIG-IP.Screenshot of Reduce the flood of unnecessary network alerts. Create alerts based on simple or complex nested trigger conditions, defined parent/child dependencies, and network topology.Screenshot of Identify dead zones and improve wireless coverage. With its network monitoring tool, users can access out-of-the-box wireless reports, including wireless availability and rogue access points.Screenshot of Configure alerts by calculating dynamic baseline threshold data with network performance monitoring software.