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SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer vs. SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer

    Score5.6 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer (DPA) enables deep visibility into database performance and expert advice for performance optimization and tuning. What can you monitor with DPA? Oracle Oracle Exadata Oracle EBS Microsoft SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Database Managed Instance MySQL DB2 SAP ASE Aurora MariaDB DPA monitors physical, virtual,…N/A

    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

    Score8 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds LEM is security information and event management (SIEM) software.N/A
    Pricing
    SolarWinds Database Performance AnalyzerSolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SolarWinds Database Performance AnalyzerSolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SolarWinds Database Performance AnalyzerSolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Considered Both Products
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    At the time we evaluated Database Performance Analyzer, we were already using other Solarwinds products and we were looking for that continued ease of use and integration so we didn't really evaluate any other products.
    Incentivized
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    We picked SolarWinds because of the better price point, integration with other SolarWinds products, and the ease of training. Because we were already familiar with the SolarWinds way of doing alerts and reports, it made this product a nice fit for our company and it has great …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    SolarWinds provides support so when you have problems you don't need to turn to information bases as you can just get a hold of SolarWinds support. I would say another reason for getting SEM is that it is generally easier to configure and easier to learn than the other …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    We implemented SolarWinds Security Event Manager to replace our Cisco MARS appliance. We found the Cisco MARS appliance cumbersome and difficult to connect to and use, as well as very costly from a support and maintenance perspective. SolarWinds Security Event Manager has more …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    13 Answers
    88%
    Would buy again
    30 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    28 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    91%
    Happy with the feature set
    31 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    12 Answers
    89%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    16 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    12 Answers
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    25 Answers
    Features
    SolarWinds Database Performance AnalyzerSolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
    Comparison of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) features of SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer and SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Feature
    SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    8.9
    18 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Centralized event and log data collection00 Ratings9.018 Ratings
    Correlation00 Ratings8.015 Ratings
    Event and log normalization/management00 Ratings8.018 Ratings
    Deployment flexibility00 Ratings10.018 Ratings
    Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools00 Ratings8.013 Ratings
    Custom dashboards and workspaces00 Ratings9.017 Ratings
    Host and network-based intrusion detection00 Ratings10.03 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SolarWinds Database Performance AnalyzerSolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Redgate Monitor
    Score8 out of 10
    IBM Security QRadar SIEM
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Foglight
    Score10 out of 10
    Microsoft Sentinel
    Score8.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SolarWinds Database Performance AnalyzerSolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (114 ratings)
    8.0
    (46 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    8.2
    (7 ratings)
    8.0
    (6 ratings)
    Availability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.3
    (6 ratings)
    7.5
    (17 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SolarWinds Database Performance AnalyzerSolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    SolarWinds
    This is an easy 10 because I actually have recommended this product to multiple clients and colleagues! Any shop that writes its own SQL queries will benefit from the insight provided by SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer, so they know which of their queries is causing a bottleneck. Small shops or databases with only a few tables likely will see far fewer opportunities for optimization.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    Optimal for SolarWinds Security Event Manager needs for smaller companies - it is a very cool product but has some limitations around EPS (which gets chewed up quickly if you're doing it the right way & adding servers/storage/FW & other network devices)... Also pricing model is GREAT (not consumption-based, which is the greatest grift the SIEM industry has created).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    SolarWinds
    • Maintains historical SQL execution data, enabling forensic analysis
    • Has the ability to slice and dice the data so that you can drill down to the execution of a single SQL statement being executed by a stored procedure
    • Alerts to when the consumption pattern changes
    • Shows historical average run times against the current, illustrating problems when they arise
    • Provides tuning advice based on best practices
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • It does a great job of notifying us when accounts have been locked out. We can then find out the device on the network where the login attempt occurred.
    • Searching for incidents is now a lot faster with the implementation of the HTML 5 interface.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    SolarWinds
    • Alerts seem to be lacking in DPA compared to competitor's tools. They can be setup but are not quite as easy or as helpful as some other tools I have used.
    • Grooming/pruning the repository database isn't very easy. We don't manage a lot of instances but our repo DB has grown pretty significantly.
    • At times when I am drilled-down to a chart, it can be difficult to navigate around from that point to another time range/query/metric.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • All SolarWinds product suffer from slow response times in management portals. SolarWinds SEM is no exception. While it is much preferred over a "thick client" there is much room for improvement in speed.
    • If you use the email alert features with SolarWinds make sure to prepare you staff and team for the large amount of emails they could receive. Make sure to reduce the number of alerts so your team does not ignore the alerts.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    SolarWinds
    We have relied on this product for a very long time and it continues to exceed expectations. The product is a vital part of our organization at this point, it would not be very ideal for us to abandon it. We use it almost every day and depend on its alerts for critical parts of our business
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    It is pretty likely that we will renew SEM when the time comes up. It is easy to use and maintain so there isn't much of a need to replace this product. It is also a pretty fair price for the capabilities provided by the SEM
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    SolarWinds
    I don't want to think about managing clusters of SQL servers in the future without this tool. We have demoed other tools and SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is the gold standard for usability and insight into what your servers are doing. The UI is a bit dated, but everything is laid out in a logical manner and drilling down into queries or timeslices is extremely intuitive.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    If you are familiar with SolarWinds then you can use this product it's as easy as that. If you have never used a SolarWinds product then it will take a minute to get how they do reports and make dashboards but that being said the tool is great and can make things very easy once you get a feel for how it works and get everything setup how you like it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    SolarWinds
    I have had to use their support on a few occasions, for reasons that I am not clear about until recently I have always had problems upgrading the software (although the last 2 updates have gone without issue which I am very pleased to say). On those unfortunate occasions, the support has been brilliant with either excellently documented guides on how to resolve the issue by myself or have been hands-on with calls and screen sharing to remotely fix the issue. Every time the problem was sorted and more importantly, nothing was lost (apart from a bit of time). And as I stated above whatever the problem was that was causing my upgrade issues appears to have been resolved in the last 2 updates.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    The quality of support can vary depending on whom you end up speaking with. I was fortunate enough to work with a support representative who was very familiar with the product. He had even authored some of the support documentation on the website. On the flip side, I had two other experiences where I was simply directed to online training material.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    SolarWinds
    Follow the guidelines for the capacity of the servers. We found that the DPA databases were getting rather large and also that there are ways to reduce their size built into some of the options.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    SolarWinds
    At the time, we found SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer to be easier to setup and to have a richer feature set than Redgate SQL Monitor, plus, from what I remember, the DPA pricing worked better for us over the course of a year. We're very happy with all the features DPA has to offer.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    Fortianalzyer can only do logs from FortiGate so usefulness is limited. Elasticsearch was a lot slower than Solarwinds and the filters were a lot harder to set up and use. The connectors for SEM were far more stable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    SolarWinds
    • It has allowed us to progress as an organization with much less reliance on a direct DBA than would traditionally be required
    • Allowed us to be much more proactive in our performance monitoring and responding to issues that would affect users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • For the price, it produced a decent value. It did a lot of the easy stuff well. I can't give any specific data given the objective of the product was to monitor very basic events in the environment.
    • There are free options that can do a better job.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer Screenshots

    Screenshot of DashboardScreenshot of Alerts and reportsScreenshot of Application-centric view of DPAScreenshot of Blocking deadlock analysisScreenshot of Collaboration across teamsScreenshot of Intuitive performance monitoring

    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot