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FireMon vs. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    FireMon

    Score7.9 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    FireMon is a real-time security policy management solution built for today’s complex multi-vendor, enterprise environments. Supporting the latest firewall and policy enforcement technologies spanning on-premises networks to the cloud, FireMon delivers visibility and control across the entire IT landscape to automate policy changes, meet compliance standards, to minimize policy-related risk. Since creating their policy management solution in 2004, FireMon states they've helped…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
    FireMonSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    FireMonSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    FireMonSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Considered Both Products
    FireMon
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    94%
    Would buy again
    16 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    31 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    35 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    15 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    32 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    FireMonSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
    Score9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    Cisco IOS Security
    Score9.6 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    FireMonSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.9
    (69 ratings)
    8.0
    (142 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    6.8
    (7 ratings)
    8.1
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    7.0
    (9 ratings)
    Availability
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.7
    (17 ratings)
    7.7
    (9 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    7.9
    (48 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    FireMonSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    FireMon
    FireMon is best used in a large environment (for example, I have >100
    firewalls in my environment). It's best used when trying to improve
    security posture and showing changes in firewall security over time. It
    might not be the best choice for smaller environments or those that aren't concerned about security management.
    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
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    Pros
    FireMon
    • Give good real time reporting for anyone making a change to any of our firewalls
    • Provides good reporting tools that are out of box
    • Provide good customization tools that is specific to our needs
    • Upgrades are a simple process and support does relatively well with assisting us.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Cons
    FireMon
    • Some features could be added to the existing functionality which include NAT rules usage
    • Rule expiration normalization from firewalls rather than entering them in rule documentation
    • .csv exports of the files from the firewall pane only gives usage for 30 days by default and that should be increased
    Incentivized
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    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
    FireMon
    The shell is locked out and we can't run any general centos commands. The implementation and maintainence of the arch is very complex. Even with the right identifiers on log messages the log collection keeps failing. The warning messages on the device are ambiguous. The log messages on firemon are a bit confusing and don't show the exact issue.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Usability
    FireMon
    It save me time and I'm able to have the review - review the rule independently with using my time.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Reliability and Availability
    FireMon
    FireMon has been relatively stable overall. However, there have been a handful of times where we had issues with the console. For example, we couldn't update which devices to include in a security assessment. The initial suggestion from support was to just reboot it. It seems like there weren't many other options available such as to restart services before going to the extreme of a complete reboot.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    FireMon
    I'm not sure we have the largest implementation of FireMon out there but we do have a few 1000 devices being probed by FireMon. Overall, the system's performance has been rock solid. The console refreshes quickly and reports are generated within an expected timeframe.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    FireMon
    FireMon technical support is awesome! They respond quickly to our requests and they are well trained and very knowledgeable about the tool. Some issues have to be referred to the development team, but technical support largely provides solutions for any issues that we may have.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Online Training
    FireMon
    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
    FireMon
    Implementation is fairly simple. Most issues can be resolved by referencing manuals.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Alternatives Considered
    FireMon
    I has worked with AlgoSec and while they are very similar product, I find the FireMon is easier to understand and get rolling with. While both require some learning, FireMon is by far the easier one. Once you have an understanding of how things are arranged and labeled you can easily import firewalls and begin to work on them to improve them
    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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    Scalability
    FireMon
    Firemon Is easily scalable and maintainable with any size team. Although it requires some tech debt, it is well worth the time to invest to ensure compliance is visible and reports are accurate. Although our environment is very large we do not fully utilize the scalability of the Firemon product.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    FireMon
    • FireMon's Compliance Reporting provided an immediate and tangible benefit
    • FireMon helps identify egregious or erroneous rules quickly across multiple platforms
    • FireMon took our audit process from an Excel spreadsheet into a far more advanced process with readily available context for reviewers
    Incentivized
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    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.