ShareFile vs SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor (SRM)

If you need a file sharing, collaborative product with version control, permissions, etc. But don't want something you need a dedicated, highly technical person to administer, this is the option. Easy to use, has the features that most people use and not so worried about the features that only 1% of the companies out there use. ShareFile is perfect for small to mid-sized companies.

SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor is well suited when you have several storage from different vendors and you need a single point of view of all of them. Also, when you need more details of how your applications use the storage and get more detailed information like usage, IOPS, and other metrics that can help you to do fast troubleshooting or do track of the data flow.

• Authenticated electronic document signatures--self-signing, and sending out for signatures. This is a robust feature that also allows for additional information to be added to documents being sent for signatures, such as dates, notes, and items omitted but needed.
• Encrypted emails through ShareFile, Citrix apps for Outlook, Gmail, and Mac email systems. Encrypted email messages cannot be cut/pasted, nor forwarded without encryption. If only the attachments need to be encrypted, the email message can be unencrypted. Also, two options for securely opening an encrypted email (one with less credentials, one with more).

• Unmasks storage performance metrics and gives a common dashboard for monitoring.
• A simple, intuitive interface for adding supported storage frames.
• Lineage -- "The guest OS is connected to the virtual host and the virtual host is connected to the ... wait, what LUN is that?!?" #SOLVED.

• Users grow quickly (each client gets a separate account). Automated pruning would be nice.
• I'm not aware of integration with Office365 online (only the outlook app). This could make it harder for some users.
• It would be nice to have something that auto-scans emails and attachments for PII and would require Sharefile for those emails.

• Most of the metrics are fairly high level
• No visibility into virtual disks (you need Virtualization Monitor for that)
• Not much granularity in hardware health

The cost is fair and the program does what it has promised to do. Customer service is attentive. I'm not aware of any better-sounding file sharing systems out there that would tempt us to discontinue ShareFile.

It has helped me prove that we need more storage as well as faster storage to management

ShareFile is so easy to use I was able to download all of my projects files and have them set up to sync before my supervisor could even come over to explain the process to me. It is a neatly organized and intuitive software that allows even the less tech-savvy to become power users.

Easy to set up and start. Out of the box alerts which you can tweak to your needs. Easy to use interfaces as well

Easy to use, easy to integrate with Outlook. I only gave it a 9 because I have found that sometimes it does not play nicely with Outlook and can slow it down. But, when that happens (not frequent), I restart Outlook and all is well again

Typically the support is very knowledgeable and interested in following an issue until it is fully resolved. I have not had any issues working with their staff as they are all polite and easy to communicate with. If the first or second level tech does not fix the concern then it is escalated until we get to someone who can close the case.

Do not have to contact support for issues often and when i do it is fast to get response and resolve my issues

Easy to use set up wizard went off without a hitch.

Dropbox was sufficient, but it required downloading Adobe Acrobat. And I'll tell you this - many people in our organization aren't the best with installing the 'right' software (i.e., they do a Google search, click a link, click the wrong download button and install some other nonsense like a toolbar or what have you) and then it has caused more issues than are needed. ShareFile is plug & play.

SRM is a standout against all of the competitors really. If you own Orion, then this is a must-have module to integrate, especially with DPA, if you also have the module. Out of the box, it is a fantastic product. Whereas a product like Nagios requires development work to get it even remotely close to SRM. PRTG is cluttered and messy and OpsManager functionality isn't even on the same level.

• POSITIVE IMPACT: Considering the process we were using prior to ShareFile (FTP and WinZip), our ROI was almost immediate. ShareFile took the complexity out of the process and gave us control and audits over our file collaboration functions.
• POSITIVE IMPACT: We all know that a happy user is soo much better than an unhappy one. I have approximately 20 users at this time and they have provided nothing but POSITIVE remarks about how simple and fast it is to use.
• POSITIVE IMPACT: Centralized management as an IT Manager is paramount. ShareFile is easy to manage and deploy to end users. I would say it's as close to effortless as it can possibly be.

• With SRM we have proactively monitored devices to stay ahead of data growth
• SRM makes monitoring of internal asset condition much easier
• SRM make monitoring of live statistics much easier.