TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor vs. IBM Turbonomic

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor

    Score6.9 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) delivers application and server monitoring capabilities. SAM allows for self-service for easy setup, 1200+ monitoring templates, and customization options, as well as integrate with other SolarWinds products.N/A

    IBM Turbonomic

    Score9.3 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    IBM Turbonomic is a performance and cost optimization platform for public, private, and hybrid clouds used by cloud, infrastructure operations, and architecture to assure application performance while eliminating inefficiencies by dynamically resourcing applications through automated actions. One of the key features of IBM Turbonomic is its ability to continuously adjust application resources in real time. By monitoring resource utilization and application performance,…N/A
    Pricing
    SolarWinds Server & Application MonitorIBM Turbonomic
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    IBM® Turbonomic On-Prem
    Varies - Request a Quote
    per month IBM Turbonomic On-prem optimizes data center resources in real time, ensuring app performance at the lowest cost by aligning infrastructure supply with dynamic application demand.
    IBM® Turbonomic Cloud Standard
    Varies - Request a Quote
    per month For customers with more than USD 1.6 million in annual cloud spend or 50 Managed Virtual Servers (MVS) or greater
    IBM® Turbonomic Hybrid Standard
    Varies - Request a Quote
    per month Advanced hybrid cloud optimization capabilities for customers with 200 managed virtual servers (MVS) or more
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SolarWinds Server & Application MonitorIBM Turbonomic
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional DetailsSAM pricing starts at $2,995.Volume discounting available.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SolarWinds Server & Application MonitorIBM Turbonomic
    Considered Both Products
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    IBM
    Chose IBM Turbonomic
    We used to use Solarwinds' Virtualization and Storage manager products. These were good products but always seemed to lack the full automation that VMTurbo brings to the table. I also tested VMWare's vCops at the time (now vRops). This product was very overwhelming and had a …
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Turbonomic
    I believe there is a specific tool for every job. Most vendors are trying to cram everything in to a single pane of glass which is beneficial to smaller shops. While in the ideal world it would be nice, in the real world there are things that get overlooked in such a large …
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Turbonomic
    VMTurbo's health performance data had more information to believe the recommendations were more viable. Also, the scope of devices available for performance review such as Azure, Cisco UCS, and Nutanix were other key factors. Lastly there were some great product reviews.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    33 Answers
    95%
    Would buy again
    40 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    31 Answers
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    40 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    33 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    40 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    26 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    33 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    28 Answers
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    32 Answers
    Features
    SolarWinds Server & Application MonitorIBM Turbonomic
    Application Performance Management
    Comparison of Application Performance Management features of SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor and IBM Turbonomic
    Feature
    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    8.6
    276 Ratings
    12% above category average
    IBM Turbonomic
    -
    Ratings
    Application monitoring8.9266 Ratings00 Ratings
    Database monitoring8.4230 Ratings00 Ratings
    Threshold alerts8.9271 Ratings00 Ratings
    Predictive capabilities8.2215 Ratings00 Ratings
    Application performance management console8.2239 Ratings00 Ratings
    Collaboration tools7.7148 Ratings00 Ratings
    Out-of-the box templates to monitor applications7.8256 Ratings00 Ratings
    Application dependency mapping and thresholding8.5216 Ratings00 Ratings
    Virtualization monitoring8.8234 Ratings00 Ratings
    Server availability and performance monitoring9.8269 Ratings00 Ratings
    Server usage monitoring and capacity forecasting9.1250 Ratings00 Ratings
    IT Asset Discovery9.0199 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cloud Management
    Comparison of Cloud Management features of SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor and IBM Turbonomic
    Feature
    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    -
    Ratings
    IBM Turbonomic
    6.7
    6 Ratings
    25% below category average
    Cloud Management Security00 Ratings6.25 Ratings
    Automation and Orchestration00 Ratings6.25 Ratings
    Cost Management00 Ratings7.96 Ratings
    Cloud Management Performance Monitoring00 Ratings7.26 Ratings
    Governance and Compliance00 Ratings6.86 Ratings
    Resource Management00 Ratings7.35 Ratings
    Systems Integration00 Ratings5.65 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SolarWinds Server & Application MonitorIBM Turbonomic
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Rackspace Fabric
    Score6.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    SolarWinds AppOptics
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Cisco Intersight
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Splunk AppDynamics
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Cisco Intersight
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SolarWinds Server & Application MonitorIBM Turbonomic
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.8
    (278 ratings)
    7.8
    (138 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.9
    (10 ratings)
    9.0
    (24 ratings)
    Usability
    8.6
    (29 ratings)
    8.0
    (20 ratings)
    Availability
    9.9
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Performance
    6.0
    (3 ratings)
    8.0
    (6 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (21 ratings)
    8.0
    (25 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (3 ratings)
    Online Training
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    4.5
    (3 ratings)
    9.7
    (18 ratings)
    Configurability
    1.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    4.5
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.9
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    4.5
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    4.5
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SolarWinds Server & Application MonitorIBM Turbonomic
    Likelihood to Recommend
    SolarWinds
    For monitoring applications that run on Windows hosts on VMware or HyperV virtualization, SolarWindows offers a nice, vertical view of both the loads and the resources. In such an environment, this makes life really good! But if you have something else -- for example, Linux hosts -- you're on your own to some extent. That is, the things it does well, it does very well -- but everything else is much less polished.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    Measure the usage of resources across different platforms, from Kubernetes to VMs on-premises or in the cloud, to obtain current capacity metrics and plan for future scenarios. Reduce IT infrastructure costs by taking automated actions based on resource underutilization, such as shutting down VMs or changing resource definitions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    SolarWinds
    • Monitor Azure Cloud Severs- We use SolarWinds SAM to monitor Active Directory and DNS on Several DCs published on Azure Cloud.
    • Monitor Hyper V and VMware - SolarWinds SAM monitors applications on both Hyper V and VMware, while also monitoring the physical host machines.
    • It also helps us monitor Warranty expiration for physical servers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • Presentation is nice. Its easy to understand what your looking at and the data that is being presented to you.
    • Properly identify resource utilization and recommendations for action on how VMs can be improved and resources can be better utilized.
    • It was also able to tell us the same information and analysis for cloud resources. I was not expecting that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    SolarWinds
    • Provides basic monitoring/visibility. Visibility into detailed/fine-grained issues best suited for more specialized/expensive solutions.
    • Licensing per monitored application rapidly uses up purchased license count.
    • More out-of-the-box templates or easier setup of monitoring less-common applications would make the solution more appealing given the target audience of the product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • It would be nice if the UI included a break-down of features that are both licensed as well as un-licensed. That way, you could not only see what you have, but what you don't.
    • The right-sizing recommendations are great, but very little info is given about why the recommendation is being made. More info would not only increase understanding, but would also help drive decision-making.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    SolarWinds
    We are heavily invested in Solarwinds products for a reason. They are generally easy to setup and run with, requiring only some interfacing with support or help articles on rare occasions. They do what we bought them to do and we can't ask for more.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    We are certainly happy with Turbonomic as a whole and have invested quite a bit of time and effort into learning the ins and outs of the product. We have our reporting setup the way we want it and have gained definite value from these features. I will say though that many products nowadays are offering more native monitoring, reporting, and alerting features which may eventually steer us away from this product
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is quite easy to use and super versatile. It allows you to do just about anything you can through premade templates or through scripting. You can use an agent on the servers if you want to, or you can monitor through WMI or SNMP credentials. You can customize thresholds for alerting quickly, and you can configure alerts to be as complex or as simple as you want.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    Excellent approach to larger VM organizational management. They have an very clean integrated dashboard that allows us to see everything in our environment and what that is doing in real-time. It works on multiple hyper-visors really well and integrates capacity planning on my local site as well as my cloud locations.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    SolarWinds
    The tool works and monitors items 24x7, it only requires maintenance a little more frequently due to security fixes in the Windows operating system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    VMTurbo has not caused any outages by not doing what we expect it to do.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    SolarWinds
    The graphical interface and the performance of the database leave a little to be desired, they could be better explored.Some functionality and screens do not work well depending on the browser used. The integrations never had any problems or caused crashes in other systems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    It allocates resources among applications by showing more on the cost breakdown by cloud service, with metrics on cloud provider information like Azure Management, Identity, Networking, Storage with costs per day, and total services costs. This then could facilitate and show the corresponding actions thereafter upon scaling.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    SolarWinds
    I think there was only a couple times I had to open a support case for SAM and one time they got multiple engineers on the phone to get a better idea what I was trying to monitor and was able to point me in the best direction to monitor that system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    When I contact support I get a quick response and they are able to solve my problem quickly. I also get a sense that they want to make sure that we are getting value from the product and walk me through whatever steps are needed to accomplish my goals.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    Alex (from VMTurbo) has worked with the product for years and helped develop the product. He was very knowledgeable and was able to provide our support team with details knowledge on how to get our deployment configured correctly as well as help with another VMTurbo POC within another customers environment.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    SolarWinds
    It was sufficient to read their documentation and watch videos.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    After buying VMTurbo Operations Manager, I was invited to an online user training event. I felt this training was effective and dug just deep enough to be informative yet still keep my attention. Additionally, the webinar was free.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    SolarWinds
    Make sure SNMP and WMI are configured ahead of time
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    The implementation was very simple. Just upload an OVA file and power on the VM. Once it comes up enter some networking information and you can then access the web interface. From there, just begin configuring the system for your environment by adding you license and the various virtual environments and storage through the inventory tab
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    SolarWinds
    It has been a while since we first purchased SolarWinds, but I looked over several other products that I can't remember now. Many other products tried to scan the network to find computers but given that our computers are located in various places across campus with other computers in our buildings that are not ours that type of network scanning was not what we needed. Other services have extra services that we had no need of and I liked the ability to add custom fields in SolarWinds so we can track the information on each computer that we need to know.
    Read full review
    IBM
    As the organization had experience of years in using IBM products, we had the confidence that they will provide us with great support. And we needed a reliable solution as a financial institute to ensure continuous operations. Even though the price was very high, we made the correct decision to go ahead with IBM Turbonomic as the feedback from existing users in the region was very positive. We needed a solution which was capable of handling our automation requirements. All these were green in IBM Turbonomic.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    SolarWinds
    It is hard to find the recommended SQL setup and convince others that is the way you should configure the server when you set it up
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    It’s very scalable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Professional Services
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    Professional services were always there to guide us in our transformation to the cloud. They understood our business model and then were able to provide guidance on what we needed from the tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    SolarWinds
    • Less time spent investigating causes of issues. We are alerted straight away and can find the root cause of the issue in less time.
    • We have been able to ditch all our previous individual monitoring solutions, none of which integrated with each other for a single solution which fully integrates with each of the different modules to provide a single portal for monitoring and alerting.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • Application performance has been a big one. With Turbonomic keeping everything running at top performance, it can make changes when extra resources are need, quicker than somebody being notified and then making the necessary changes.
    • Turbonomic has been a great cost savings for us on multiple occasions. We use it every time we are improving servers.
    • With the planning feature we get the best performance form new hardware purchases
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Screenshots

    Screenshot of Multi-vendor application performance monitoringScreenshot of Multi-vendor server monitoringScreenshot of Application dependency mapping with AppStack™ dashboardScreenshot of Microsoft Exchange performance monitoring with AppInsight™ templateScreenshot of Microsoft IIS performance monitoring with AppInsight™ templateScreenshot of Server hardware health monitoring

    IBM Turbonomic Screenshots

    Screenshot of IBM Turbonomic Action Center, where it shows the list of optimization actions across the global environment—on-prem and cloud—that should be taken to minimize cost while assuring performance.Screenshot of IBM Turbonomic Application, a view that shows the global environment across private and public infrastructure from the context of individual application components. Users can optimize one application at a time by viewing each app's pending actions. The Supply Chain at left shows all of the entities across applications and their interdependencies.Screenshot of The IBM Turbonomic Cloud Executive Dashboard, an out of the box dashboard that allow users to rapidly communicate value to executives. This view shows the cloud cost savings opportunities realized and not yet realized over any time period.Screenshot of The IBM Turbonomic On-prem Executive Dashboard, an out of the box dashboard that allow users to rapidly communicate value to executives. This view shows the savings opportunities realized and not yet realized over any time period.Screenshot of an IBM Turbonomic Cloud view, where the public cloud environment(s) and all of the pending actions required to bring them into an efficient, performant state. The Supply Chain at left shows all of the entities in the public cloud(s) and their interdependencies.Screenshot of The IBM Turbonomic On-Prem view that shows the user's private data center environment(s) and all of the pending actions required to bring them into an efficient, performant state. The Supply Chain at left shows all of the entities in data center(s) and the interdependencies between them.