Broadcom DX Unified Infrastructure Management vs. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Broadcom DX Unified Infrastructure Management
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Broadcom DX Unified Infrastructure Manager, formerly from CA Technologies, is a unified tool for systems monitoring and analytics. It offers multiple deployment options for IT teams and MSPs .N/A
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is network diagnostics and troubleshooting technology, from Austin-based SolarWinds.N/A
Pricing
Broadcom DX Unified Infrastructure ManagementSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Broadcom DX Unified Infrastructure ManagementSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
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
Broadcom DX Unified Infrastructure ManagementSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Considered Both Products
Broadcom DX Unified Infrastructure Management

No answer on this topic

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Chose SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) automates our Network Configuration task and provides reliable Configuration backup option. Integrates with the SolarWinds Network Performance platform for alerting and reporting. Provides meaningful dashboards to manage network …
Top Pros
Top Cons
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Broadcom DX Unified Infrastructure ManagementSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
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No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Broadcom DX Unified Infrastructure ManagementSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(6 ratings)
9.1
(141 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.1
(6 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(1 ratings)
7.1
(8 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
7.7
(9 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Broadcom DX Unified Infrastructure ManagementSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Likelihood to Recommend
Broadcom
Well Suited: - Multiple units (you may split Nimsoft per Groups, companies, etc.) - When your Business Teams NEED Dashboards (they'll love it after they learn how to use, for example, if they discover that the may even run SQL queries together with monitor the webpage of the application, and display business data) Less appropriate: - If you are beginning to monitor your environment (because you need to know your environment at least a little bit to check if the entire set of monitoring Nimsoft plugins will really help you or you will only use it to ping your application) - If you don't have at least one (i do recommend 2 or 3 after some short time) people dedicated to deploy and fine-tune the monitoring. The tool is really good, but if you don't have anyone working on it, you will notice that you're spending money in an elephant to kill an ant or worst, that you passed the entire year, and still have the same problems of the last year, cause no one put the hands enough time in the tool. I saw this happening during the first year when I was the only one working with the tool and still supporting the entire team.
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SolarWinds
If your IT team isn't proficient in automation and scripting, Solarwinds NCM can fill that gap (assuming your company's security team signs off on approving SW in your environment given the hack.) Basic device configuration, pushing mass changes reliably and backups are NCM's strong suites. If you have a complex scenario where if/then cases are needed, NCM is a bit lack luster. Auto discovery isn't as easy either as certain parameters need to be met for that feature to work 100% of the time
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Pros
Broadcom
  • Ease of management
  • Unified platform
  • Depth of infrastructure management. Has numerous probes which can help you monitor every aspect of your environment.
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SolarWinds
  • Integrates with Network Performance Management for Alerting and Reporting.
  • NetPath and detects issues due to Configuration Change.
  • Keeps a record of which user made the change.
  • Which devices are not being backed up, devices where backups are failing, dashboard and alerting available.
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Cons
Broadcom
  • I'd like to see improvements in inventory management. Currently node management isn't as efficient as I'd like.
  • I also see a big opportunity to offer greater customization in the Detail Tab. I'd like the ability to pick and chose which metrics are displayed by default in the Detail Tab snapshot.
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SolarWinds
  • For our use case, it does everything great and some of the features we underutilize but I would like to be able to set a configuration baseline when initially adding a node instead of after the configuration is pulled but it's not a particularly big deal to let it pull the configuration then set it as the baseline.
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Likelihood to Renew
Broadcom
Meets our business requirements
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SolarWinds
Medium complexity to set up in the beginning if using any non-standard devices or configurations, else fairly easy (e.g. Cisco Nexus or IOS-based devices). Reports are fairly straightforward to set up. Updates to the platform are fairly straightforward and don't take a major effort. Easy to add or remove devices.
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Usability
Broadcom
Easy to configure and use.
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SolarWinds
The user interface is lacking. It is difficult to navigate at times and things can be done multiple ways. Quite often I am confused by how their notification structure works. It is not very intuitive. They do offer a free Academy. They also offer a community of other technical folks. I have enjoyed both.
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Support Rating
Broadcom
Exceed Expectations.
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SolarWinds
To be fair, I have not had to involve Support in a number of years, but when I did, I was greeted with enthusiastic engineers who wanted to understand and solve the issue. It was a fairly complex scenario and I have discovered in my most recent implementation that engineering included that option as a standard now.
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Online Training
Broadcom
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
Solarwinds has actually produced new training since I last used it that is available on their site at any time. Their previous training was more than enough to get us started but now there is significantly more content. Since I'm comfortable with the Orion platform and the products we use I haven't checked the new training out yet but we have new staff go through portions of that training and they always come away with an understanding of the platform and ready to use it
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Implementation Rating
Broadcom
Plan it out based on your requirements.
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SolarWinds
it was a fairly easy implementation and everything was pretty straightforward. only challenge we had was getting all the snmp communities updated on the networking equipment
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Alternatives Considered
Broadcom
All tools have their own gaps , some seem to do more than others, some just work better. With UIM we have found a sweet spot with features, price point, pros, cons, etc
Read full review
SolarWinds
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is a great tool and matches much of the functionality of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. Nothing about Ansible will likely be overwhelming to an engineer with a little time to spare, but that spare time combined with SolarWinds already being our monitoring tool made the decision easy. Time is at a premium in small teams and SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is very easy to use right out of the box without all the tweaking required by powerful command line driven tools like Ansible.
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Return on Investment
Broadcom
  • Business Units love It - Good for them, but worse for the IT Team until we share the responsibility of the dashboards.
  • If no one put their hands on it, it will take some time to give results. I'm talking about environments with 400 devices, for example, in something about 6 months to one year, if no one is dedicated, and depending on the consulting company. Some, even certified by CA, was not good. If possible, try to use CA services directly.
  • IT Teams, after they start to notice that the tool really work, will want to monitor everything. Depending on the company, this will be more or less easy to measure, as ROI. And I'm telling this because usually IT teams don't know how to sell them to C-Levels, and the tool, because of the price, is always a motivation to questions like: "What is this tool? Do you really need it? Is there another way to monitor this?"
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SolarWinds
  • The time savings from automatic daily backups is significant
  • The compare configuration tool is super helpful at spotting errors when small changes occur that are hard to detect otherwise.
  • The compliance check tool saves countless hours going through configurations for errors.
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ScreenShots

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) Screenshots

Screenshot of Network Automation -  manage rapid change across complex and multi-vendor networks, reduce time needed to complete repetitive tasks, and maintain standards and service levels for uninterrupted ITScreenshot of Config Backup - rest easy knowing you can locate the most current configuration and quickly apply it to a replacement spare, or to roll back a blown configuration.Screenshot of Vulnerability Scanning - Take the hassle out of vulnerability scanning using NCM's integration with the National Vulnerability Database and access to the most current CVE’s to identify vulnerabilities in your Cisco devices.Screenshot of Inventory Management - Be able to know what devices are connected to your network, their hardware and software configurations, and when they approach end-of-service and end-of-life, with NCM device configuration management tool.Screenshot of User Management - Use NCM's integrated console to lock down devices from unauthorized access, delegate who can view device details and make configuration changes, and determine when network changes can occur.Screenshot of Baselines and Diffs - IT professionals can get a more comprehensive view by leveraging baselines across multiple nodes. Diff view in NCM’s network configuration management tool is designed to highlight only those lines that changed.