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NETSCOUT nGeniusONE vs. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    NETSCOUT nGeniusONE

    Score9.4 out of 10
    N/ANETSCOUT’s nGeniousONE is a platform designed to monitor enterprise-level networks. It includes standard monitoring capabilities, as well as advanced inspection and analytics features.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
    NETSCOUT nGeniusONESolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    NETSCOUT nGeniusONESolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    NETSCOUT nGeniusONESolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Considered Both Products
    NETSCOUT
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    92%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    31 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    35 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    32 Answers
    Features
    NETSCOUT nGeniusONESolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Network Performance Monitoring
    Comparison of Network Performance Monitoring features of NETSCOUT nGeniusONE and SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Feature
    NETSCOUT nGeniusONE
    8.7
    6 Ratings
    9% above category average
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Automated network device discovery10.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network monitoring10.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Baseline threshold calculation8.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Alerts8.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network capacity planning7.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Packet capture analysis10.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network mapping9.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable reports8.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Wireless infrastructure monitoring9.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Hardware health monitoring8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    NETSCOUT nGeniusONESolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
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    Enterprises
    Nmap
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    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    NETSCOUT nGeniusONESolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    8.0
    (142 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.1
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    6.5
    (2 ratings)
    7.0
    (9 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.5
    (2 ratings)
    7.7
    (9 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    NETSCOUT nGeniusONESolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    NETSCOUT
    NETSCOUT nGeniusONE is a great network performance monitoring tool as it helps to trace the path of packet and to identify the exact place where the packet is loss. It is well suited in scenarios where the organization have large network and they need continuous monitoring because loss of connectivity may lead to serious financial loss in sectors like banking, hospitals. The network performance and connectivity needs to be stable for proper execution of transactions, bookings, data transfer and other critical task. Performance monitoring of large enterprise is a big task and doing that manually requires very much effort, but with NETSCOUT nGeniusONE it becomes easy. It is not well suited in scenarios where there is small network and they can survive if any link flaps for small duration of time.
    Incentivized
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    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
    NETSCOUT
    • NetScout nGeniusONE can help to deep dive into the packet layer, help to identify the real network and service performance problems in the protocol layer. We have been using NetScout nGeniusONE as the main monitoring solution for the mobile network for many years.
    • I have recently use NetScout nGeniusONE to support problem troubleshooting for a customer issue complaining of slow application connection into our Datacenter services. it was easy to use NetScout nGeniusONE to capture the problematic connection sessions by using various type of filters and export a pcap file for further analysis.
    • I‘ve also use NetScout nGeniusONE to investigate an NBN connection issue which was intermittent and hard to capture, however, by using NetScout nGeniusONE it was easy to go back to the history capture and logs, so we won't miss any important leads.
    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
    NETSCOUT
    • Better access to resources
    • Pricing in this niche market is very high, hard for the little guy to take advantage of these solutions
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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
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    Likelihood to Renew
    NETSCOUT
    No answers on this topic
    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
    NETSCOUT
    Requires quite a bit of training not only for config but to use. Highly recommend having a SME come in from Netscout to help initially for these. Once you learn the UI, it’s much better to use but is not intuitive.
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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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    Support Rating
    NETSCOUT
    If you spend the right amount of money with them they work very close to you to support your needs. I ignore how they work in companies with lower expenses on their products. NetScout is not a very dynamic introducing platform with enhancements that their customers need. We contract their professional services so support level is good, although too pricey from my perspective.
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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.
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    Online Training
    NETSCOUT
    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
    NETSCOUT
    No answers on this topic
    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
    NETSCOUT
    Wireshark has been around for years and has been used primarily for packet analyzing. NetScout does this and goes above and beyond with the graphics interface analyzes and customer filtering for packet analyzes. You can go straight to the packet analyze within NetScout but you will find that to be more work, this would be like starting with Wireshark. Instead, begin with the graphical interface to narrow down the traffic, a visual effect. Then go to the packet analyzer, time saver. As for PRTG, it's a NetFlow/SNMP collector with a quick and dirty look at traffic but lacks the tools to dig into the information it provides.
    Incentivized
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    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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    Return on Investment
    NETSCOUT
    • NETSCOUT nGeniusONE is the best tool and very profitable for our organization as it helped in to reduce the manual effort of engineers to track the Network flaps and connectivity issue.
    • Return on investment for this product is quiet good as of now and we have achieved 80% ROI till now and we are very much confident that we will achieve the full ROI.
    • It has helped in cost cutting as we need only few network admin and engineers to track the discovery, behavior and connectivity. Earlier we need a lot of employee to do that due to which the organization may suffer some financial loss.
    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
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    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.