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IBM NS1 Connect vs. SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM NS1 Connect

    Score7.9 out of 10
    N/AIBM NS1 Connect is a managed service for authoritative DNS and traffic steering designed to improve application performance and network resilience.

    $99

    per month

    SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)

    Score7.6 out of 10
    N/AAustin-based SolarWinds offers Internet Protocal address management (IPAM) networking service.N/A
    Pricing
    IBM NS1 ConnectSolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
    Editions & Modules
    IBM NS1 Connect Essentials
    USD 99*
    per month
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM NS1 ConnectSolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
    Additional DetailsOptions include IBM NS1 CONNECT FREE DEVELOPER ACCOUNT The IBM® NS1 Connect® free developer account showcases IBM's authoritative DNS capabilities, allowing users to start using it in minutes. Although traffic scale is limited, the full API is available for unlimited usage. It can be used in production as a primary or secondary solution. IBM NS1 CONNECT ESSENTIALS Scaled for growing businesses, the Essentials plan offers features to ensure fast, reliable connections to end-users. Available for purchase on IBM.com or AWS. IBM NS1 CONNECT PREMIUM NS1 Connect Premium is for businesses needing scalable authoritative DNS. Pricing is based on query volume and DNS records. Additional services are also priced through query volume. Enterprise plans offer customizable support and professional services. *(Calculated prices are estimates provided for planning purposes only taking into account potential IBM discounts, and are not a formal offer from IBM or an IBM Business Partner. The estimation may reflect the total discounted price. Certain factors such as configuration, add-ons, or additional requirements will affect final price. IBM Business Partners set and provide their own IBM NS1 Price Estimator pricing, and neither IBM nor IBM Business Partners are bound by the provided estimate.)SolarWinds professional support is included to help customers on active maintenance 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM NS1 ConnectSolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    94%
    Would buy again
    68 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    92%
    Delivers good value for the price
    12 Answers
    90%
    Delivers good value for the price
    57 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    69 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    89%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    8 Answers
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    55 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    12 Answers
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    57 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    IBM NS1 ConnectSolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
    Small Businesses
    Amazon Route 53
    Score8.8 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Azure DNS
    Score8.9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    Amazon Route 53
    Score8.8 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM NS1 ConnectSolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.7
    (13 ratings)
    8.0
    (94 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    8.3
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    8.0
    (14 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (58 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM NS1 ConnectSolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    where is well suited - in terms of managing high scale application networks which needs to be present and working in lot of regions - so multi-region failover setup - this is a strength of NS1 connect. Where is it less suited - in term of reporting, like visually ibm team needs to work on their UI UX graphs and all that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds IP Address Manager is very useful the bigger and more complex the environment. Smaller organizations will have to consider the cost as it provides little benefit over monitoring maybe 2-3 servers. But I have over 24 DHCP servers with on average 15 subnets each so tracking and monitoring all that was very time-consuming. As a result, it was generally ignored until there was an issue. With SolarWinds IP Address Manager, I was able to set alerts to monitor scope utilization and duplicate IP addresses.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    IBM
    • IBM NS1 Connect provides a comprehensive solution for managing and optimizing traffic steering.
    • It provides solutions like Dedicated DNS, which offers a separate resolution network for authoritative DNS, ensuring maximum uptime even in the face of outages.
    • It utilizes real-time metrics and automated DNS routing decisions to optimize traffic distribution and ensure resilience.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • With IPAM automated address scanning, we can be confident that we are looking at an up-to-date, accurate snapshot of our network.
    • The built-in alerts are a great safety net. We know that even if we aren't paying close attention to our IP address space, IPAM is. If a range is nearly full, IPAM lets us know before it becomes a real problem.
    • IPAM's event logging gives us insight into any and all changes made by our network engineers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    IBM
    • User Experience - Please make it more easy to use for Admins
    • Also add some more details in the reference documents
    • Try if they can offer a monitoring tool
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • The user experience is not as intuitive as other products. We have to be more restrictive around level 1 help desk access compared to NCM or NPM in SolarWinds.
    • Making and enforcing changes, not just monitoring, has been hit or miss in some instances.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    The product is very easy to use even for a junior admin new to the job. It has an intuitive interface, logical layout and easy to generate reporting. We have been able to catch configuration errors, DDOS attacks and logging of unusual behavior. We also love how it can be used in a redundant fashion to eliminate downtime
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    We are heavily invested in SolarWinds. We currently own Network Performance Monitor, Netflow Traffic Analyzer, User Device Tracker, Server Application Monitor and Network Configuration Manager. We have NOC mode setup for deskside support for monitoring any down devices that may effect our network across the globe. This application gives us the information we need when we need it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    IBM
    The interface can be better. As of now, it is a bit difficult to manage multiple records at the same time or to test the rules effectively. The data reporting is also not as great as we expect with tools of today’s maturity.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds IPAM is like what SolarWinds itself says, i.e. easy to use and simple. SolarWinds has really made their orion and non-orion platform products so simple that any newbie can give a try and make the best use out of it. I learned SolarWinds IPAM by myself in a POC environment, and not just IPAM but other modules and now I own 6 certifications. You see how easy to use this product is.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    We don't have any issues with availability. Our cluster setup provide us a 99,9% availability that is enough for us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    We do not integrate IPAM into other systems other than the standard Orion integration. The performance is reasonable, however, we are running all the SolarWinds applications on a very large server.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    I have not contacted customer support and therefore have no experience in this area. I know we have some issues with our VAR support at this time for Orion, but I don't know if the IPAM falls into the same support structure. Perhaps others in the organization may know more regarding the support area.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Know the full scope of what you will be installing. Solarwinds can be a very complex installation. IPAM is just one fairly simplistic piece.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    Cloudflare offers a very intuitive interface and strong security features, but its DNS traffic management is more opinionated and provides less granular control for complex routing use cases. Akamai is powerful and enterprise‑grade, but it felt heavier and more complex than what we needed for DNS‑focused traffic steering. We ultimately selected IBM NS1 Connect because it struck the right balance between flexibility, intelligence, and control.
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds IP Address Manager was cheaper than both alternatives and far easier to manage. Device42 interface is years behind what Solarwinds offers. It is very outdated; BT Diamond required remote management and we constantly had to message support, it reached a point where it was better not to have the product at all.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    IBM
    I gave it an 8 because it handles massive datasets and high user concurrency very reliably without significant performance lag. It’s built for enterprise-level growth, but the infrastructure setup for that maximum scale can get quite complex to manage.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    We have not experienced any scalability issues with this product. However, SolarWinds needs to allow users to scale horizontally without any license restrictions. For example, we would like to separate Netflow and Orion onto different platforms but are unable to due to license restrictions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • Enhanced end-user experience as a result of better performance & uptime
    • Easy management - resulting in cutting down in operations cost
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • IPAM has saved countless hours of running scripts and gathering data to compile reports to plan re-subnetting globally.
    • IPAM has reduced helpdesk incidents by immediately spotting bad DNSR and IP conflicts.
    • IPAM has helped eliminate blocks on projects whereas there is not currently enough address space requiring major changes to accommodate more IP'ed servers, gear, etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    IBM NS1 Connect Screenshots

    Screenshot of the IBM NS1 Connect home page

    SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM) Screenshots

    Screenshot of Customize your IP address management dashboard to quickly focus on your top priorities.Screenshot of Manage your DHCP and DNS services in one place.Screenshot of Streamline IP requests with a simple intake and approval wizard.Screenshot of Automatically scan for subnets or manually add.