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Cisco Multicloud Defense vs. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Multicloud Defense

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AA solution to simplify security and gain multidirectional protection across any public or private cloud to block inbound attacks, lateral movement, and data exfiltration using a single solution. Cisco Multicloud Defense protects all cloud environments using a single software-as-a-service (SaaS) control plane, eliminating inefficient, complex, and costly point solutions.N/A

    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
    Cisco Multicloud DefenseSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Multicloud DefenseSolarWinds 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
    Cisco Multicloud DefenseSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    31 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    35 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    32 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Multicloud DefenseSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Cloud Computing Security Features
    Comparison of Cloud Computing Security Features features of Cisco Multicloud Defense and SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Feature
    Cisco Multicloud Defense
    8.3
    4 Ratings
    3% above category average
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Automated Data Backup and Recovery8.22 Ratings00 Ratings
    Intrusion Detection and Prevention:8.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Regular Vulnerability Management8.22 Ratings00 Ratings
    Identity and Access Management8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Secure Data Transfer8.24 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security Incident Response8.33 Ratings00 Ratings
    Compliance and Auditing8.94 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Multicloud DefenseSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Small Businesses
    Armor
    Score6 out of 10
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    Medium-sized Companies
    Trend Micro Deep Security
    Score8.3 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    AWS CloudTrail
    Score8.8 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Multicloud DefenseSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.3
    (6 ratings)
    8.0
    (142 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.1
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    7.0
    (9 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.7
    (9 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Multicloud DefenseSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    For WAF functionality and delivery of websites, It's very well suited for traditional firewalling, if you're doing that already, it can be quite difficult to rearchitect everything around this product. So an example of that would be if, like us, you came from a datacenter style architecture within your cloud environment and you are trying to move to a more cloud-fronted architecture. Probably the best way to put it is that can be quite difficult, but once you've deployed, it gets easier operationally. So to kind of reverse engineer everything and then do everything again can be quite tedious in some ways. But that will be specific to people depending on where they're coming from with it.
    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
    Cisco
    • DLP monitoring - key item for us which helps to view if anything which should leave our environment our or even between each part of network between/inside specific clouds
    • Segmentation of subnet, basic but helpful to isolate each host into their own part of single subnet and connect them, including all visibility features which are offered by Cisco defense systems
    • Allow/deny rules helps us to block, monitor and logs traffic passing in each direction of our environment
    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
    Cisco
    • The ability to see traffic flowing and identify malicious traffic is amazing.
    • The ease of setting up the connections of the cloud platforms is perfect.
    • Dynamic based security policies allow for better protection.
    • I don't have any detailed examples of improvement so instead I highlighted a couple of aspects that make the solution amazing.
    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
    Cisco
    If it maintains its current direction it will be very disruptive in the cloud security space
    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
    Cisco
    Ease of Use
    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
    Cisco
    As of yet I havent logged a TAC case - It will be interesting to see how it is supported as a new product in the medium term
    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
    Cisco
    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
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    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
    Cisco
    Cisco Multicloud Defense, Crowd Strike Falcon, and Arctic Wolf Cloud Posture Security Management System as a service SAAS platforms are very comparable platforms. Unfortunately for Croud Strike, they had a mishap recently that caused major downtime for many companies worldwide. I do not think that you would have to worry about this happening with Cisco Multicloud Defense.
    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
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • The insight that it provides allows us to move away from other tools and just utilize the Cisco Multicloud Defense.
    • Insights into data usage provides tangible analytics.
    • Ease of management and use allows for less in-depth and specialized training.
    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.