Riverbed Modeler (discontinued) vs. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)

Riverbed Modeler is well suited for wireless, wired, ZigBee, and Cisco networks. All these scenarios are efficiently designed and simulated using Riverbed Modeler, as all the devices are available in its object pallet, so we just need to drag and drop for the best scenario design in the given dimensions. The simulation results are around 95% accurate. However, it is not suited for data security, as data encryption algorithms are not available in Riverbed Modeler.

Incentivized

Solarwinds NPM is well suited for medium to large networks, it may be a bit heavy for the SOHO environment as most of the tools and reports are designed for monitoring KPIs which may not be critical for a small shop. NPM can handle large networks with several sites and mixed technologies ranging from networks, server systems, storage devices and SLA reporting.

Incentivized

• Allows the USE of C++ In Routing protocol of individual switch nodes
• Easy to use, Easy to setup a working network model, allows to even have computers and all sorts of peripherals like IP Printers etc
• You can stress test your network simulation, absolutely fantastic tool, bridges Monte Carlo with visual representations of the network in question
• Great Customer Support
• Good training articles available online, used as a staple in university setting.

Incentivized

• Out of the Monitoring of almost all Network Devices.
• Build custom pollers to monitor which is not supported out of the box.
• Further you can alert on these custom metrics and Out of the box metrics.
• It provides you great dashboards, Reports features.
• You can integrate it with any MoM layer tools either using its API or sending out traps.
• Out of the box Integration with Service Now ITSM Tool.

Incentivized

• Riverbed Modeler needs to improve the scenarios of LAN MAN WAN, as the available scenarios under all of these follow a simple area structure that's not connected to the ISP when it comes to simulation. This generates dummy traffic.
• Riverbed Modeler also needs to work on the selection of result sets so that, as with most designed networks, we can select any result parameter to show. All the parameters are displayed, whether they are relevant or not. It needs to display only relevant result parameters to select.
• The back-end TCP/IP model needs more clarity to expose the structure to some changes.

Incentivized

• The software upgrade process is a little hairy and has caused me trouble on occasion.
• The server that it needs to run is a bit of a resource hog along with the SQL server.
• Some additional features like the network map are a bit clunky compared to some other products that we use.

Incentivized

The entire IT staff relies on NPM in its daily operations. It would be impossible for us to maintain our level of service without it. If SolarWinds gets to proud of their product and begins to over charge for it, we would be forced to reconsider and use a different product. But as it stands it is worth the price to renew it.

Incentivized

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is quite an extensive product, covering all our bases and requirements. There are a lot of customizable options and features which you can work with for their alerting which is really useful. I haven't found anything yet which I thought SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) could do, but it actually couldn't so overall it works nicely and does the job.

Incentivized

Always available. Always is important to plan the software available during the machine/application setup.

Incentivized

Pages load slow, especially the bettors map. Could be that my server is old.

Incentivized

In all of the times that we called support, someone at SolarWinds had the answer for us in a timely manner. Through thwack and other internet searching, we have been able to resolve all of our issues that arose to our satisfaction. The support staff have always been knowledgeable of their products or had a fellow support staff member to rely on to get the needed answers.

Incentivized

The training is good but during the implementation, you can get situations not learned during the training. The trainer was very open to hearing the questions about use cases and always sharing his experience. I really recommend having official training to take advantage of all features that the NPM can bring.

Incentivized

Make sure your inventory is accurate. Stand up some virtual machines for testing prior to installation. Make sure your database and its credentials are setup. Think about things you want to monitor that may not be obvious - UPS units, Door hardware, PBX systems, Fabric Channel switches, firewalls, routers, switches. Try to setup SNMP on these devices and have an IP that you will assign to the new server. If you do that it will go well.

Incentivized

The only thing comparable to OPNET is Packet Tracer, which is basic and very limited. Packet Tracer in terms of tool comparison between the two is like OPNET's stone-age relative.

Incentivized

We selected SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor because of the capabilities of the product versus the price. The tools also work well with their other products and support is fairly good. We have never had a problem when we needed to make a call.

Incentivized

From the direction and information I have been given it is very flexible and scalelable

Incentivized

• It comes with a costly paid license, but simulating the network before actual deployment saves a lot of costs, in case after deployment we feel performance is not good and we need to change. This would waste a lot of money, but Riverbed saves this money.
• Its OPNET GURU academic edition is available free of cost, but with limited functionality, which is good for students in maximum case. This will degrade our sale of Riverbed Modeler.
• A one-time investment in Modeler saves a lot of cost regarding networks, topology, designing, and provides a lifetime license with updates.

Incentivized

• SolarWinds allows us to proactively address hardware issues before they impact the business. We recently had a server that was experiencing issues sporadically and we were able to use the data from SolarWinds to track down and correct the issue before it tanked the server.
• SolarWinds gives our IT department some piece of mind knowing that they'll be alerted of any issues real time.
• We can use SolarWinds data to justify needed to replace or upgrade certain equipment that is key to our core business.

Incentivized