Redgate SQL Monitor vs. SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)

Redgate SQL Monitor is well suited for database administrators or companies who implement software that relies on SQL servers. It will help them test new changes and ensure this will not impact the performance of their software. It is a last resort for MSPs to use to get to the bottom of an ongoing performance issue with their SQL server.

Incentivized

SolarWinds IP Address Manager is very useful the bigger and more complex the environment. Smaller organizations will have to consider the cost as it provides little benefit over monitoring maybe 2-3 servers. But I have over 24 DHCP servers with on average 15 subnets each so tracking and monitoring all that was very time-consuming. As a result, it was generally ignored until there was an issue. With SolarWinds IP Address Manager, I was able to set alerts to monitor scope utilization and duplicate IP addresses.

Incentivized

• It will tell you if your server is under attack.
• You can quickly see how your server is performing and which queries are taking the longest
• I gives you the feeling that you are in control of your database, that you know what is going on for when they users ring up and tell you that the server is slow

Incentivized

• With IPAM automated address scanning, we can be confident that we are looking at an up-to-date, accurate snapshot of our network.
• The built-in alerts are a great safety net. We know that even if we aren't paying close attention to our IP address space, IPAM is. If a range is nearly full, IPAM lets us know before it becomes a real problem.
• IPAM's event logging gives us insight into any and all changes made by our network engineers.

Incentivized

• Incremental releases can be buggy
• Isn't the best for pinpointing performance issues
• Web interface can be sluggish

Incentivized

• The user experience is not as intuitive as other products. We have to be more restrictive around level 1 help desk access compared to NCM or NPM in SolarWinds.
• Making and enforcing changes, not just monitoring, has been hit or miss in some instances.

Incentivized

We are heavily invested in SolarWinds. We currently own Network Performance Monitor, Netflow Traffic Analyzer, User Device Tracker, Server Application Monitor and Network Configuration Manager. We have NOC mode setup for deskside support for monitoring any down devices that may effect our network across the globe. This application gives us the information we need when we need it.

Incentivized

Access to metrics is simple but I like easy access to top SQL

SolarWinds IPAM is like what SolarWinds itself says, i.e. easy to use and simple. SolarWinds has really made their orion and non-orion platform products so simple that any newbie can give a try and make the best use out of it. I learned SolarWinds IPAM by myself in a POC environment, and not just IPAM but other modules and now I own 6 certifications. You see how easy to use this product is.

Incentivized

We don't have any issues with availability. Our cluster setup provide us a 99,9% availability that is enough for us.

Incentivized

We do not integrate IPAM into other systems other than the standard Orion integration. The performance is reasonable, however, we are running all the SolarWinds applications on a very large server.

Incentivized

Fast support responses from Redgate

Incentivized

I have not contacted customer support and therefore have no experience in this area. I know we have some issues with our VAR support at this time for Orion, but I don't know if the IPAM falls into the same support structure. Perhaps others in the organization may know more regarding the support area.

Incentivized

Know the full scope of what you will be installing. Solarwinds can be a very complex installation. IPAM is just one fairly simplistic piece.

Redgate SQL Monitor is a lot cheaper than SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer. I prefer the SolarWinds' design and that it offers integration with other SolarWinds products we already use. SolarWinds supports more than SQL servers (Oracle, MySQL, Maria DB, IBM DB2) and the analysis seems to be much better. The Spiceworks SQL Server monitoring is a free tool and is ideal for monitoring small business SQL instances.

Incentivized

SolarWinds IP Address Manager was cheaper than both alternatives and far easier to manage. Device42 interface is years behind what Solarwinds offers. It is very outdated; BT Diamond required remote management and we constantly had to message support, it reached a point where it was better not to have the product at all.

Incentivized

We have not experienced any scalability issues with this product. However, SolarWinds needs to allow users to scale horizontally without any license restrictions. For example, we would like to separate Netflow and Orion onto different platforms but are unable to due to license restrictions.

Incentivized

• The quality of the product and give a negative investment impression, on the plus side when it does work it is a god send.
• Day to day tasks as made simpler, and a feeling of security of realised. Just don't change anything.

Incentivized

• IPAM has saved countless hours of running scripts and gathering data to compile reports to plan re-subnetting globally.
• IPAM has reduced helpdesk incidents by immediately spotting bad DNSR and IP conflicts.
• IPAM has helped eliminate blocks on projects whereas there is not currently enough address space requiring major changes to accommodate more IP'ed servers, gear, etc.

Incentivized