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OpenNMS Meridian vs. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    OpenNMS Meridian

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/AOpenNMS Meridian is a scalable open source network management platform with network traffic analysis, network discovery, alerting, and monitoring. It's presented as a solution to monitor enterprise network performance and ensure the availability and performance of critical network services.

    $42,000

    per year

    SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds Netflow Traffic Analyzer is a network monitoring tool within the broader SolarWinds ecosystem. It includes core traffic monitoring features, as well as customizable traffic reports and alerts.N/A
    Pricing
    OpenNMS MeridianSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Editions & Modules
    Essential
    $42,000
    per year Up to 2 Meridian and cores Up to 25 Minions
    Premier
    $56,700
    per year Up to 4 Meridian cores and Up to 100 Minions
    Premier+
    Custom
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    OpenNMS MeridianSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
    Additional DetailsAdd-Ons: -24/7 Emergency Support: $24,000 / year -Mini OpenNMS Appliance: $750 ea.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    OpenNMS MeridianSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Considered Both Products
    The OpenNMS Group
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    [SolarWinds] NTA is vastly inferior to Palo Alto's built-in monitoring tools. The only benefit [SolarWinds] NTA has over Palo [Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls] is historical link utilization and reporting.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Would buy again
    42 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    37 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    42 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    36 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    37 Answers
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    OpenNMS MeridianSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
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    User Ratings
    OpenNMS MeridianSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.4
    (4 ratings)
    9.0
    (62 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (49 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    OpenNMS MeridianSolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    The OpenNMS Group
    I would recommend all system administrators use some form of network monitoring if they are not already doing so, and I'd definitely recommend people consider OpenNMS if they're shopping around. Small businesses will benefit from the low-cost of entry (it's free!), whilst getting all the enterprise features. Larger businesses can benefit from paid support plans.
    However, there's no getting around the fact that you will require some advanced networking and sysadmin knowledge to get the most out of OpenNMS, or at least, be prepared for a steep learning curve. If you don't have the resources to devote this time initially, you may struggle.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    We use and depend on it for status state of our network gear, switches and routers. It does an excellent job of getting you the details you need to confirm all devices and products are working at the level needed. At times, it does tend to flag network switch ports and/or switches themselves as exceeding their rated capacity when frequently it was a quick blip of high traffic due to downloads, or uploads causing the max'ing of the device. Again, you can adjust the settings but then you adjust it too high and miss real activity. It can become nuisance alerting when you tend to then ignore
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    The OpenNMS Group
    • Report on SLA
    • Group network areas
    • Discovery of elements
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • 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.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    The OpenNMS Group
    • We've had a few issues with delayed alerting.
    • I haven't quite figured out how to make topologies work yet, but I haven't spent a ton of time on it either.
    • We've also had a bit of trouble importing some MIBs, but that usually boiled down to working with the vendor to make sure we had the right MIBs and dependencies.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    • 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.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    The OpenNMS Group
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    The OpenNMS Group
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    I know we could probably pay for it, but it would be nice if we could get to a tier 2 technician faster. Spending a couple of hours on the phone with the level 1 technician, when we have already tried the troubleshooting they are walking us through, is just a waste of time.
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    The OpenNMS Group
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    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.
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    Alternatives Considered
    The OpenNMS Group
    OpenNMS's more attractive GUI and its price break were the main reasons our company chose to explore and use this product. However, it never managed to actually replace Nagios which had a much more established hold within the company. Perhaps we were over-monitoring, but our company claimed a $100k loss per hour of downtime.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    The OpenNMS Group
    • Initial adoption required quite a lot of resources and time to get everything right. Totally worth it for us; just be prepared for a gradual process that will get better and better with time.
    • Once setup and running smoothly, it provides us with all the reporting we could hope for, at near zero cost.
    • With OpenNMS, we're able to offer a much more reliable service to our customers, and spend a lot less time dealing with issues.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    • 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??
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots