Progress WhatsUp Gold vs. Verizon Network Detection and Response (ProtectWise)

[Progress WhatsUp Gold (formerly Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold)] is good for what it is. An inexpensive but accurate monitor for alerting on systems and services. However, it is time consuming to configure, The GUI leaves a lot to be desired and the formatting for txt alerts stinks (I just use it now as an alert to check my email to view the actual alert.)

Incentivized

This software is well suited for engineering firms where different staff are working on a same design or document file. And this software would only serve its full potential if used in a mid-size to large company. It would be less utilized in a small firm where file sharing can be done in a local server.

Incentivized

• Easy to install and manage.
• While it does require a whole server with IIS and a SQL db it is low impact on resources but still quick to respond.
• Great for quick notifications about a server going above a configured resource threshold. We don't have to look at every server's resource utilization individually anymore.
• Quick and easy to setup a service up or down notification.

Incentivized

• Check-in and check-out of the files
• When saving and exiting out of the software, ProjectWise automatically asks whether I want to check the file in
• Ease of sending the file/folder links to coworkers in an email

Incentivized

• While it is easy to get up and running, I know I could utilize the software better if I had some formal training on it. There are a wealth of features available, but I don't have time to learn them all in depth.
• The training classes offered are very expensive. I'd love it if IPSwitch offered some kind of reasonably priced training options.

Incentivized

• Right now ProjectWise must be installed after installing all other software that would be integrated to it. This should be addressed so that any integrations can happen after the fact.
• Integrations with more variety of file extensions
• Easier user interface in navigation explorer

Incentivized

Not too much to support as it doesn't do that much.

Incentivized

WhatsUp Gold gives you a much better in-depth analysis and understanding of both your network and endpoint devices but the emphasis should be laid more on report generation. WhatsUp Gold has the ability to generate a report (e.g device uptime, bandwidth utilization, device health etc) and track events that took place even as low as 5 minutes ago.

Incentivized

Vault is just for Autodesk files, but the check-out/check-in system is the same. ProjectWise covers more comprehensive scope of file extensions that can be used by companies of any business field. But it can also see improvements where replacing a file that is referenced by other files can be as simple as saving a file with a same name.

Incentivized

• As I mentioned earlier, the monitoring of the external environment and uptime is a necessity. An hour down is a 1% loss of revenue per day which may not sound like much but in a million dollar company, that 1% is a huge chunk.
• The backup configuration has been very handy in turn around time for failed equipment. I did have a homegrown way of backing up configurations but had to check daily and verify every backup. This becomes very time consuming and a waste of company time.
• Only negative is the mapping. In the Cisco world CDP is a great way to map connections and they don't seem to do it that way.

Incentivized

• We strive to deliver the highest quality design and its documentation. ProjectWise helps us prevent any issues with outdated files.
• In our work we often research back into old documents that we have done in the past. Looking up files using keywords makes this process much faster.
• ProjectWise helps us archive our gargantuan amount of project documents in digital form, easy to access at anytime.

Incentivized