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SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) vs. SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

    Score8 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds LEM is security information and event management (SIEM) software.N/A
    Pricing
    SolarWinds NPMSolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Editions & Modules
    NPM
    $1,638
    per year
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SolarWinds NPMSolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SolarWinds NPMSolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Considered Both Products
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    We evaluated PRTG Network Monitor which was similar to SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor but was very resource-intensive, and the server kept crashing when we got close to 100 devices. Whereas on SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor, we were able to add several …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    We tested Observium as an alternative to Solarwinds in the past and it required all host to be added by DNS instead of IP addresses which we prefer. We have over 2000 devices so creating DNS records for all of these was a deal breaker.
    We tested PRTG and it required to much …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    We tried Dell OMNM manager suite but it was difficult to clear alerts, to setup, etc. It did more -- allowed us to back up and recover switch configurations etc. -- but it didn't present a very user friendly interface and it was impossible to manage correctly. We spent a lot …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds NPM
    A lot easier to configure. Maybe I got used to the software we are currently using or I am not too experienced in the field but I got literally lost in HP IMC not knowing what to do. İ really like SolarWind's next-next done configuration.
    Incentivized
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Fortianalzyer can only do logs from FortiGate so usefulness is limited. Elasticsearch was a lot slower than Solarwinds and the filters were a lot harder to set up and use. The connectors for SEM were far more stable.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Splunk was a pretty good product but the licensing structure needed a lot of work. They changed the structure three times that I am aware and I still had problems understanding LogRhythm had a lot of issues correlating users to IP addresses, the mappings were frequently wrong …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    We chose this product because of its integration to SolarWinds Orion. We were Threat Monitor users previously. This product has been a great substitute. Dollars to dollars this product performs fairly well.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    SolarWinds provides support so when you have problems you don't need to turn to information bases as you can just get a hold of SolarWinds support. I would say another reason for getting SEM is that it is generally easier to configure and easier to learn than the other …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    The SEM is a whole lot easier to install and maintain than Cisco Firepower. It is also less expensive which is a big plus. There are places where Cisco Firepower is needed but for a company of our size, the SolarWinds Security Event Manager hits the sweet spot for us.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    91%
    Would buy again
    31 Answers
    88%
    Would buy again
    29 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    32 Answers
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    27 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    33 Answers
    91%
    Happy with the feature set
    30 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    28 Answers
    88%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    15 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    29 Answers
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    24 Answers
    Features
    SolarWinds NPMSolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Network Performance Monitoring
    Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) and SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Feature
    SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
    8.2
    231 Ratings
    0% above category average
    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    -
    Ratings
    Automated network device discovery7.8210 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network monitoring8.8231 Ratings00 Ratings
    Baseline threshold calculation8.6201 Ratings00 Ratings
    Alerts9.4228 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network capacity planning7.9188 Ratings00 Ratings
    Packet capture analysis7.2130 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network mapping7.1190 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable reports7.9212 Ratings00 Ratings
    Wireless infrastructure monitoring7.6153 Ratings00 Ratings
    Hardware health monitoring9.4215 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
    Comparison of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) features of SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) and SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Feature
    SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    8.9
    18 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Centralized event and log data collection00 Ratings9.018 Ratings
    Correlation00 Ratings8.015 Ratings
    Event and log normalization/management00 Ratings8.018 Ratings
    Deployment flexibility00 Ratings10.018 Ratings
    Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools00 Ratings8.013 Ratings
    Custom dashboards and workspaces00 Ratings9.017 Ratings
    Host and network-based intrusion detection00 Ratings10.03 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SolarWinds NPMSolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Small Businesses
    Auvik
    Score9.9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    PingPlotter
    Score9.3 out of 10
    IBM Security QRadar SIEM
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Nmap
    Score10 out of 10
    Microsoft Sentinel
    Score8.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SolarWinds NPMSolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (237 ratings)
    8.0
    (46 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.4
    (27 ratings)
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (21 ratings)
    8.0
    (6 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (28 ratings)
    7.5
    (17 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SolarWinds NPMSolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    SolarWinds
    Optimal for SolarWinds Security Event Manager needs for smaller companies - it is a very cool product but has some limitations around EPS (which gets chewed up quickly if you're doing it the right way & adding servers/storage/FW & other network devices)... Also pricing model is GREAT (not consumption-based, which is the greatest grift the SIEM industry has created).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    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
    SolarWinds
    • It does a great job of notifying us when accounts have been locked out. We can then find out the device on the network where the login attempt occurred.
    • Searching for incidents is now a lot faster with the implementation of the HTML 5 interface.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    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
    SolarWinds
    • All SolarWinds product suffer from slow response times in management portals. SolarWinds SEM is no exception. While it is much preferred over a "thick client" there is much room for improvement in speed.
    • If you use the email alert features with SolarWinds make sure to prepare you staff and team for the large amount of emails they could receive. Make sure to reduce the number of alerts so your team does not ignore the alerts.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    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
    SolarWinds
    It is pretty likely that we will renew SEM when the time comes up. It is easy to use and maintain so there isn't much of a need to replace this product. It is also a pretty fair price for the capabilities provided by the SEM
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    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
    SolarWinds
    If you are familiar with SolarWinds then you can use this product it's as easy as that. If you have never used a SolarWinds product then it will take a minute to get how they do reports and make dashboards but that being said the tool is great and can make things very easy once you get a feel for how it works and get everything setup how you like it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    SolarWinds
    Always available. Always is important to plan the software available during the machine/application setup.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    SolarWinds
    Pages load slow, especially the bettors map. Could be that my server is old.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    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
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    The quality of support can vary depending on whom you end up speaking with. I was fortunate enough to work with a support representative who was very familiar with the product. He had even authored some of the support documentation on the website. On the flip side, I had two other experiences where I was simply directed to online training material.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    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
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    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
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    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
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    Fortianalzyer can only do logs from FortiGate so usefulness is limited. Elasticsearch was a lot slower than Solarwinds and the filters were a lot harder to set up and use. The connectors for SEM were far more stable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    SolarWinds
    From the direction and information I have been given it is very flexible and scalelable
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    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
    SolarWinds
    • For the price, it produced a decent value. It did a lot of the easy stuff well. I can't give any specific data given the objective of the product was to monitor very basic events in the environment.
    • There are free options that can do a better job.
    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.

    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot