DX Spectrum (formerly CA Spectrum) is network fault management software, from Broadcom company CA Technologies.
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Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)
Score 7.8 out of 10
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Microsoft's System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) is a monitoring and application performance management option, with the core datacenter and cloud-based systems monitoring.
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Pricing
DX Spectrum
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)
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DX Spectrum
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)
Free Trial
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Free/Freemium Version
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No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
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Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
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Community Pulse
DX Spectrum
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)
Considered Both Products
DX Spectrum
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Chose DX Spectrum
Other tools I have used are more server/application-centric. CA Spectrum seems to work effectively and efficiently for network devices. Notification delays can be set to grant grace periods in case of network blips or false positives, which occur ALL the time. Other monitoring …
As I said before, not only for Spectrum, but for any monitoring tool, you need to know what is critical in your environment and think about how exactly you should monitor and treat it. If you have done that, everything will work just fine.
Well Suited - Networking Monitoring
Less Appropriate - When you need to customize some monitoring and to update the version
One of the biggest drawbacks to SCOM is the sheer scope and complexity of the system. This can be a pro and a con. The system is very customizable, what you put into it is what you'll get out of it. That said, the learning curve is fairly steep. An organization needs to be committed to putting time and resources into SCOM to get the most out of it. I've heard stories from colleagues of several different companies that invested in SCOM and then abandoned it due to the excessive time and care required.
SCOM is expensive. Not only is the enterprise licensing costly, SCOM requires it's own servers, operational and warehouse databases to be maintained.
The OOB SCOM reports are a bit clunky and feel outdated.
Other tools I have used are more server/application-centric. CA Spectrum seems to work effectively and efficiently for network devices. Notification delays can be set to grant grace periods in case of network blips or false positives, which occur ALL the time. Other monitoring tools send event notifications immediately and would clear instantly, which while on-call can wake a technician for no reason.
We used Altiris and WSUS and in the beginning Altiris had the better admin interface than SCOM, but it is no longer the case as SCOM has refined their admin interface. Altiris still has better and more robust group assignments for management roles and those two other tools can better manage non Windows OS devices than SCOM but for a large enterprise Windows shop, if you can afford it, SCOM is the way to go.
