Likelihood to Recommend Although Cisco Prime [LAN Management Solution] is a nice tool and no other 4rd party tools can match its native monitoring and managing capabilities still i have given less rating and that's because it is only for Cisco vendor Devices. Hence if you have only Cisco infrastructure then go for it or else look for another 4rd party tool in conjunction with Cisco prime.
Read full review On its own, it's a solid choice for an SMB or Mid-size Enterprise if you're price sensitive and looking primarily for core functionality. SolarWinds has a large family of products that can also be leveraged in conjunction with SWNDM. Turning the product loose on a very large environment for discovery and mapping should be done with care and concern for a number of reasons but including the performance of the product for this task. If you're looking for an all-in-one product with some presumed supporting features built in (config manager, etc.) you'll need to look elsewhere.
Read full review Pros Wireless file detection and planning mode has helped us expand into new areas of our buildings. Alerting is detailed when we have issues with hardwired and wireless devices, and Rogue Access Points are easily identifiable. Cisco equipment information is much more detailed than other management products' SNMP queries and is an excellent tool for troubleshooting end-device connectivity issues. Our KPI reporting for senior management and centralized management of our WIPS 'Wireless Intrusion Prevention' setup have both benefited significantly from the detailed reporting capabilities. Read full review Monitor for and record network device configuration changes. Allow for the creation, or modification, of hardening standards for multiple vendors' network devices. Automate the creation of alerts that can be sent to owners for correction of compliance violations. Allow you to organize a visualization of your network devices. Read full review Cons Maps. One thing that I miss is the fact that you can't see both wired and wireless equipment in the same topology map. For visualization and troubleshooting purposes, that would help a lot, and I honestly don' t think it's that much harder to implement. I'd love to see an option to show 'live dashboards,' maps, or other visual tools to publish in a NOC room, or even just to broadcast in a big monitor to allow multiple workmates to check that information. Again, I don't think that would be too hard to implement. I remember a similar feature was available in the first versions of the product, way back in the 90's (yes, I'm that old :-) ) Sometimes, depending on what screen you are, the solution can be a little slow. I'm not saying the whole system is slow, but sometimes that slowness can bother a little. Talking about areas for improvement, one area I think can be improved is the upgrade process. Even for not so large deployments, it can take a lot of time. Having this time decreased would be the right thing to do. Read full review More security put into the product, the Orion hack was not good news. More frequent releases to address small bugs rather than big releases that are rare. More IPv6 related features to make it easier for people familiar with IPv4 to learn IPv6. Ability to edit dashboards using JSON or another similar language. Read full review Support Rating We are very happy using Cisco Prime LAN Management Solution for the following reason: 1- Ease of use with the GUI. 2- Very well organized dashboard which can view many statistics on your devices. 3- Customized dashboard for different views ( for technical team and executives ) 4- Schedule configuration templates to use whenever we need on whatever device we want.
Read full review Alternatives Considered There are various 3rd party tools available in the market which not only supports monitoring of cisco devices but also supports non-cisco devices, even with these capabilities in these 3rd party tools Cisco Prime has maintained a uniqueness in its products being the native tool from Cisco. The uniqueness is about product supportability for given devices and some of the edge features such as configuration management, detailed heatmaps etc
Read full review MS is meant for windows monitoring and up/down for mostly everything else. Moved away from MS System Center. Now we have better visibility and management can get reports. The other teams have added Linux to Solarwinds and also see improvements in monitoring. Whether you use snmp (v3), wmi or some other credentials to connect to you system, Solarwinds will more than likely be able to manage and monitor it.
Read full review Return on Investment It has helped us with our quarterly wireless security testing by pinpointing the location of non-approved access points vs. hunting for them via signal strength. Saves time by helping to identify network health issues before they become a definitive problem causing downtime. With errors detected early, we have noticed our wi-fi network is much more stable thus freeing up our engineer's time elsewhere. Read full review Reduced site visits and recurring issues by 25 to 35% Enables proactive warning, thereby reducing downtime caused by unforeseen issues Provides a central panel for monitoring the entire network at a glance Allows for SLA management thereby increasing accountability by 50% Reduced time to repair by 35% as techs are more informed of root cause Read full review ScreenShots