CA Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Discontinued) vs. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
CA Unicenter NSM (Discontinued)
Score 3.1 out of 10
N/A
Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Unicenter NSM) reached end of life (EOL) in 2015.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
CA Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Discontinued)SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
CA Unicenter NSM (Discontinued)SolarWinds 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
CA Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Discontinued)SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Considered Both Products
CA Unicenter NSM (Discontinued)

No answer on this topic

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Chose SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
We already had a large SolarWinds deployment before we selected NCM, so there really wasn't an alternative we considered. However, we did also demo NetBrain, which we liked a lot. We didn't go with NetBrain primarily because the pricing was exhorbitant for an enterprise our …
Chose SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Solarwinds has a broader range and a lower price point. So it allows us to monitor and configure more at less cost than other solutions.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
CA Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Discontinued)SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Monitoring Tasks
Comparison of Monitoring Tasks features of Product A and Product B
CA Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Discontinued)
6.0
1 Ratings
28% below category average
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
-
Ratings
Automated alerts and notifications6.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Management Tasks
Comparison of Management Tasks features of Product A and Product B
CA Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Discontinued)
6.0
1 Ratings
21% below category average
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
-
Ratings
Patch Management5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Service configuration management8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Software and hardware inventory5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting
Comparison of Reporting features of Product A and Product B
CA Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Discontinued)
5.5
1 Ratings
32% below category average
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
-
Ratings
Performance data reports5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable reporting7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Data visualization5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Risk analysis5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
CA Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Discontinued)
2.0
1 Ratings
107% below category average
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
-
Ratings
Antivirus and malware management2.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
CA Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Discontinued)SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Small Businesses
Atera
Atera
Score 8.9 out of 10
Auvik
Auvik
Score 8.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
ManageEngine Site24x7
ManageEngine Site24x7
Score 9.1 out of 10
PingPlotter
PingPlotter
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
ManageEngine Site24x7
ManageEngine Site24x7
Score 9.1 out of 10

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
CA Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Discontinued)SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Likelihood to Recommend
3.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(141 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(6 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.1
(8 ratings)
Support Rating
2.0
(1 ratings)
7.7
(9 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
CA Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Discontinued)SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Likelihood to Recommend
Broadcom
It's a decent system if you're a pure IT shop and want to become ITIL-aligned. It forces everyone into an ITIL mentality - service level agreements, change management, and asset tracking. It's very rote, for better and for worse. It's not appropriate at all as a customer-facing or non-IT facing self-service tool. You will never get your end users to really understand how to use the interface.
Read full review
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
Read full review
Pros
Broadcom
  • ITIL ticketing (incidents, problems, etc.).
  • Change orders.
  • Matching up its asset management system with incidents/change orders.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Cons
Broadcom
  • The user interface (UX) is antiquated and clunky. Compared to ServiceNow, it feels like it's 15 years behind.
  • It's complicated - We do routine internal training just to get people to use it correctly.
  • It doesn't have an automated way of discovering assets. Everything has to be force-fed.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Broadcom
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
Usability
Broadcom
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
Support Rating
Broadcom
We have to hire 2 full-time 3rd-party consultants to run this application. That tells me it's not a very IT-friendly, vendor-supported application. Compare that with, say, SolarWinds, which is much easier for regular IT staff to customize without sacrificing features and capability. Sure, we have to bring in Loop1 to consult for us when we need to do a major SolarWinds config change or need a really unusual custom query built, but we never need more than 10 hours of consulting per month.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Broadcom
No answers on this topic
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
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Broadcom
I did not select CA. If it were up to me, I would migrate us to ServiceNow. The user interface on ServiceNow is 100% more modern and 200% more user friendly. With ServiceNow, the front page for end users makes it clear: one button that says "Ask for something" and one button that says "Report a problem". That's what our end users need. The biggest problem we have in our organization is that our end users don't report issues to the Help Desk often enough and rarely ask for things through the Help Desk. A clean, simple self-service option like this would open up a world of new information for our customer service team.
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.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Broadcom
  • It helped make us an ITIL shop.
  • It was integral during our large IT consolidation 10 years ago in merging 10 different IT departments into one by converging on one ticketing system for all IT issues.
  • Its lack of user-friendliness has gated us from being able to deploy a true self-service IT help desk.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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.