Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) vs. SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)
Score 7.3 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) is a monitoring and application performance management option, with the core datacenter and cloud-based systems monitoring.N/A
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) delivers application and server monitoring capabilities. SAM allows for self-service for easy setup, 1200+ monitoring templates, and customization options, as well as integrate with other SolarWinds products.N/A
Pricing
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details—SAM pricing starts at $2,995.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
Considered Both Products
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)
Chose Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)
All comparative features are way expensive and complex to configure in all other competitors. Value to money and ease of deployment for Microsoft based environment
Chose Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)
SolarWinds stacks well on the ease of use with an easily installable version and highly modular (products can be added to the basic installation and are easily managed from a single endpoint. System Center Operations Manager was selected because the majority of the environment …
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
Simplifying our environment from multiple tools to a single monitoring tool has greatly reduced the amount of time we spend configuring our monitors. SCOM is decent at monitoring Microsoft applications but doesn't do a good job with network equipment, and Nagious can be very …
Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
  • Monitor applications - SCOM - difficult & complicated, Solarwinds - Easy
  • Reporting - SCOM - Difficult & needs to have knowledge of SQL querying, Solarwinds - Easy
  • Alerting - SCOM - shows alerts only when the nodes are down, Solarwinds - can create custom views to see all nodes …
Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
SAM is more flexible and less monolithic than SCOM, and much easier to configure and manage than Nagios. I've used a great many other monitoring systems in various companies over a 20+ plus year career as a monitoring and server guy, and SolarWinds really does stack up against …
Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
The monitoring capabilities of both SCOM and Zabbix was OK, the licensing and configuration complexity for SCOM was huge. The Zabbix system was very good on the non-windows side, and limited on the Windows side. SAM, when utilized with the different modules that we own, …
Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor has a better dashboard, better customization. Agentless. Cheaper.
Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
We migrated from System Center Operations Manager to gain integration with better network device and configuration management & monitoring. It also enabled us to better deal with non-Microsoft applications that we use, as well as more useful alerts and notifications.
Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor allows us to take a holistic look at our entire network through the integration of various SolarWinds products, and present data across multiple disciplines in a single interface. This way our network, server, database, and application …
Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
If you work only with Microsoft applications and environment (or you need to focus on them above other applications), Microsoft SCOM is the way to go. Otherwise, if your environment is large and diverse and you need a central and total monitoring, SolarWinds SAM is the best …
Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
It does not give you near the detail SCOM does. The CA products are much harder to configure, but they give you a more fluid look and much more reliable information. Out of the four, I would rate SAM at the bottom.
Chose SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
Way less expensive than SCOM and much faster time to deployment. Much less manual work than Nagios and much easier to customize quickly.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
Application Performance Management
Comparison of Application Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)
6.1
22 Ratings
22% below category average
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
8.7
276 Ratings
13% above category average
Application monitoring5.020 Ratings9.0266 Ratings
Database monitoring9.022 Ratings8.5230 Ratings
Threshold alerts10.022 Ratings9.0271 Ratings
Predictive capabilities2.120 Ratings8.2215 Ratings
Application performance management console3.119 Ratings8.2239 Ratings
Collaboration tools6.017 Ratings7.8148 Ratings
Out-of-the box templates to monitor applications4.120 Ratings8.0256 Ratings
Application dependency mapping and thresholding4.018 Ratings8.7216 Ratings
Virtualization monitoring7.020 Ratings9.0234 Ratings
Server availability and performance monitoring10.021 Ratings9.8269 Ratings
Server usage monitoring and capacity forecasting8.021 Ratings9.1250 Ratings
IT Asset Discovery5.118 Ratings9.0199 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
Small Businesses
GitLab
GitLab
Score 8.9 out of 10
GitLab
GitLab
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
ManageEngine Site24x7
ManageEngine Site24x7
Score 9.1 out of 10
ManageEngine Site24x7
ManageEngine Site24x7
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
ManageEngine Site24x7
ManageEngine Site24x7
Score 9.1 out of 10
ManageEngine Site24x7
ManageEngine Site24x7
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(25 ratings)
8.9
(278 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(10 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(29 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.9
(3 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(3 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(8 ratings)
9.0
(21 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(3 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.9
(3 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(2 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
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
SolarWinds
For monitoring applications that run on Windows hosts on VMware or HyperV virtualization, SolarWindows offers a nice, vertical view of both the loads and the resources. In such an environment, this makes life really good! But if you have something else -- for example, Linux hosts -- you're on your own to some extent. That is, the things it does well, it does very well -- but everything else is much less polished.
Read full review
Pros
Microsoft
  • 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
SolarWinds
  • Monitor Azure Cloud Severs- We use SolarWinds SAM to monitor Active Directory and DNS on Several DCs published on Azure Cloud.
  • Monitor Hyper V and VMware - SolarWinds SAM monitors applications on both Hyper V and VMware, while also monitoring the physical host machines.
  • It also helps us monitor Warranty expiration for physical servers.
Read full review
Cons
Microsoft
  • 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
SolarWinds
  • Provides basic monitoring/visibility. Visibility into detailed/fine-grained issues best suited for more specialized/expensive solutions.
  • Licensing per monitored application rapidly uses up purchased license count.
  • More out-of-the-box templates or easier setup of monitoring less-common applications would make the solution more appealing given the target audience of the product.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
We are heavily invested in Solarwinds products for a reason. They are generally easy to setup and run with, requiring only some interfacing with support or help articles on rare occasions. They do what we bought them to do and we can't ask for more.
Read full review
Usability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is quite easy to use and super versatile. It allows you to do just about anything you can through premade templates or through scripting. You can use an agent on the servers if you want to, or you can monitor through WMI or SNMP credentials. You can customize thresholds for alerting quickly, and you can configure alerts to be as complex or as simple as you want.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
The tool works and monitors items 24x7, it only requires maintenance a little more frequently due to security fixes in the Windows operating system.
Read full review
Performance
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
The graphical interface and the performance of the database leave a little to be desired, they could be better explored.Some functionality and screens do not work well depending on the browser used. The integrations never had any problems or caused crashes in other systems.
Read full review
Support Rating
Microsoft
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
SolarWinds
I think there was only a couple times I had to open a support case for SAM and one time they got multiple engineers on the phone to get a better idea what I was trying to monitor and was able to point me in the best direction to monitor that system.
Read full review
Online Training
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
It was sufficient to read their documentation and watch videos.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
Make sure SNMP and WMI are configured ahead of time
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
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
It has been a while since we first purchased SolarWinds, but I looked over several other products that I can't remember now. Many other products tried to scan the network to find computers but given that our computers are located in various places across campus with other computers in our buildings that are not ours that type of network scanning was not what we needed. Other services have extra services that we had no need of and I liked the ability to add custom fields in SolarWinds so we can track the information on each computer that we need to know.
Read full review
Scalability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SolarWinds
It is hard to find the recommended SQL setup and convince others that is the way you should configure the server when you set it up
Read full review
Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • 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
SolarWinds
  • Less time spent investigating causes of issues. We are alerted straight away and can find the root cause of the issue in less time.
  • We have been able to ditch all our previous individual monitoring solutions, none of which integrated with each other for a single solution which fully integrates with each of the different modules to provide a single portal for monitoring and alerting.
Read full review
ScreenShots

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Screenshots

Screenshot of Multi-vendor application performance monitoringScreenshot of Multi-vendor server monitoringScreenshot of Application dependency mapping with AppStackâ„¢ dashboardScreenshot of Microsoft Exchange performance monitoring with AppInsightâ„¢ templateScreenshot of Microsoft IIS performance monitoring with AppInsightâ„¢ templateScreenshot of Server hardware health monitoring