Likelihood to Recommend More appropriate for:
Pure Microsoft ecosystem environments (Windows Server and SQL server) and the most common Linux and UNIX platforms. Environments where cost is less of a factor than settling on a single platform for monitoring Environments where the administrators are familiar with the setup and installation of SCOM. Less appropriate for:
Pure UNIX/Linux shops, especially versions not supported out of the box by SCOM. Shops that cannot afford the engagement to setup/configure and maintain on a continuous basis. Shops that cannot dedicate personnel to the care and feeding of SCOM, especially when supporting larger environments. Read full review I would suggest this tool to any user that has to monitor multiple sites and locations where bandwidth monitoring can be a labor. This software works really well for central monitoring of multiple sites and services where having a technician onsite isn't feasible. I really like the reporting, though, and would recommend this for someone wanting to keep an eye on bandwidth usage for replication of data across sites.
Read full review Pros Allows us to visualize our systems in a single interface and see the status of health as well as relevant performance metrics. A flexible and powerful interface with active alerting covering domain controllers, SQL servers, etc... Allows you to customize your views and workspaces for specific tasks and needs. Reporting is powerful and flexible. Read full review The level of customization possible with Network Bandwidth Analyzer is very valuable. Rather than being stuck with a "one-size-fits-all" presentation, an administrator can easily create customized views, reports, and alerts so that users can have a more tailored view of the data provided by Network Bandwidth Analyzer. This has the effect of making the tool more attractive to the end user. The NetFlow Traffic Analyzer piece of Network Bandwidth Analyzer provides the details on bandwidth usage on the network. More than knowing how much bandwidth is being used, one is provided with detailed information on how that bandwidth is being used. This provides invaluable information for capacity planning and even certain forensic tasks faced by the network engineer. The ability to produce network maps provides an easy way to create an attractive and functional NOC/SOC view of the entire network. Both technician and the occasional passerby can quickly determine if there are issues to be addressed. The ability to customize a map with background images and custom icons and stencils can make these maps really pop. Read full review Cons 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. Read full review The ability to intuitively and quickly serve up specified information up to a dashboard for general “public” consumption, that cycles through several pages of information. The ability to intuitively set up alerting on bandwidth levels, instead of having to dig through all types of alerts available to find the one needed. Provide a pricing model based on different support levels: if I want only available update installations, don’t make me pay the same amount as those wanting full support. Read full review Usability As far as rating for usability is concerned I would give 10/10 as NTA is very easy to use. All you need to do is install that module and ask network Team to configure the Netflow towards Server IP. [The] rest is pre-configured and reports are pre-built. Moment you receive the flows from Network all you will have is information about traffic.
Read full review Support Rating Hard to get support. The product is not being actively developed anymore, so it is hard to get new features for the product.
Read full review It is useful for our Infrastructure team and also provides valuable insights to our application team regarding the traffic being sent from various endpoints. They can monitor their applications and ensure there are no network issues that may impact their application.
Read full review Online Training The training offered by SolarWinds is some of the best out there. They have several different videos that go into great detail from initial setup to advanced configurations. In addition to the view at your own pace video, they also have live training for customers that focus on a single product and you can ask questions with the folks who develop the software. I have had good success with their live sessions and getting questions answered.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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.
Read full review SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer compared to
Wireshark and
PRTG Network Monitor beats it by just the simple interface. Though all are manual setup, NTA takes it a step further with graphs and reports that analyze the data for you. In comparing to Extrahop from a bandwidth comparison, Extrahop wins but Extrahop is a lot more than just a bandwidth monitoring and cost.
Read full review Return on Investment It has allowed us to provide an Enterprise Event/Alert management solution to the Global company It has taken a long time to get it to provide valuable alerts and information, lots of user resources and investment. It assists with 24/7 monitoring and out of hours support Read full review Be prepared to answer lots of questions. When people see the data in NTA they are going to want to know why App A is talking to App B. Be ready to explain! Hand the keys to the NTA kingdom to the network team. They will thank you. Everyone wants to have friends on the network team, right? Be prepared to invest in some significant compute and storage performance to keep up with your NTA monitoring Running the latest firmware for your network gear is (often) required to take advantage of all the flow-monitoring. You upgrade regularly, right?? Read full review ScreenShots