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Checkmk vs. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Checkmk

    Score9.1 out of 10
    N/ACheckmk is a solution for IT Monitoring of servers, applications, networks, cloud infrastructures (public, private, hybrid), containers, storage, databases and environment sensors. It can be deployed under all major Linux distributions or users can run it as Docker container or virtual appliance on other operating systems including Windows. The tool is available as a Raw Edition, which is open-source, and as an Enterprise Edition with a many additional enterprise features. The…

    $0

    up to 10 systems

    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is network diagnostics and troubleshooting technology, from Austin-based SolarWinds.N/A
    Pricing
    CheckmkSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Editions & Modules
    Checkmk Free Edition
    $0.00
    up to 10 systems
    Checkmk Raw Edition
    $0.00
    unlimited & always free
    Checkmk Enterprise Edition
    starting at $600.00
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    CheckmkSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup Fee$600 for up to 3,000 Services / around 100 hostsOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    CheckmkSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Considered Both Products
    tribe29
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    92%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    31 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    35 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    32 Answers
    Features
    CheckmkSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Monitoring Tasks
    Comparison of Monitoring Tasks features of Checkmk and SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Feature
    Checkmk
    10.0
    1 Ratings
    18% above category average
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Network device monitoring10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple Server Monitoring10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-device monitoring10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated alerts and notifications10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Management Tasks
    Comparison of Management Tasks features of Checkmk and SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Feature
    Checkmk
    7.0
    1 Ratings
    1% above category average
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Software and hardware inventory7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting
    Comparison of Reporting features of Checkmk and SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Feature
    Checkmk
    10.0
    1 Ratings
    23% above category average
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Data visualization10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Checkmk and SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Feature
    Checkmk
    8.0
    1 Ratings
    9% above category average
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Data backup and recovery8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    CheckmkSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
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    Amazon CloudWatch
    Score7.8 out of 10
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    LogicMonitor
    Score8.9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    ManageEngine Site24x7
    Score10 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    CheckmkSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    8.0
    (142 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.1
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    7.0
    (9 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (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
    CheckmkSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    tribe29
    As we have many different applications running on different servers, we appreciate the possibility of writing our own scripts to monitor the different processes and elements. Using scripts of our choice helps us a lot, as we have many different administrators. Thus, we are able to be prepared for upcoming outages or events.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    Network Configuration Manager is well suited for backing up configurations of all your devices. It also has a great comparison tool for seeing only the differences in config. Another great feature is it's ability to push a script to any number of devices. This is very handy for pushing changes to one, 10 or multiple devices. There are also some great reports that you can run against the devices in inventory
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    tribe29
    • monitoring
    • alerts
    • Graphs
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    tribe29
    • Layout
    • Ease of Use
    • Upgradability
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    tribe29
    Very helpful software and I highly recommend to have on hand as a tool for testing, troubleshooting, and monitoring.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    tribe29
    After knowing the architecture it is very easy to manage the system, rolling out agents and creating new monitoring tasks.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    tribe29
    never contaced support
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    tribe29
    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
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    tribe29
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    tribe29
    We moved over to Checkmk from Nagios which felt like a natural evolution at the time as the raw version is based on Nagios, I vaguely not having any major issues moving over at the time. We still use the Raw version but we are planning to move to the enterprise version in the next 6 – 12 months as our needs expand.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    At the time SolarWinds was the biggest player in the space and their whole portfolio was very comprehensive. As time progressed and newer technologies came about (i.e. SDWAN) their products couldn't keep up with the consumer demands and changing market. Security became such a big focus that once Solarwinds got hacked we had to remove all their products from our environment
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    tribe29
    • avoid downtime
    • Plan updates based on usage of a VM or network switch to avoid impacting users
    • User satisfaction increased due to less visible downtime or issues with our IT infrastructure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Saves 100s of hours a year in man hours over manual configuration.
    • Saved easily 50k in lost revenue when a switch rebooted with months old unsaved configuration. NCM let us quickly restore a snapshot of the running config from the previous day.
    • Saves us several man hours per week of config auditing by reducing all changes to a summary email.
    Incentivized
    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.