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SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server vs. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server

    Score8.1 out of 10
    N/ASolarwinds® Kiwi Syslog® Server is a syslog management tool for network and systems engineers. It receives syslog messages and SNMP traps from network devices (routers, switches, firewalls, etc.), and Linux®/Unix® hosts. Users can filter and view these messages based on time, hostname, severity, etc., and set up custom alerts. Kiwi Syslog Server has built-in actions to react appropriately to syslog messages. There are also log archival and clean-up features to help comply with security policies.

    $319

    Per Instance

    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is network diagnostics and troubleshooting technology, from Austin-based SolarWinds.N/A
    Pricing
    SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog ServerSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Editions & Modules
    One Time Price
    $319.00
    Per Instance
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog ServerSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog ServerSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Considered Both Products
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Auvik has some similar features but it is very expensive. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) has gone up in price but it is much more affordable than Auvik. Auvik has no way of sending a script to more than one device at a time so that is a downside of Auvik versus …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    At the time SolarWinds was the biggest player in the space and their whole portfolio was very comprehensive. As time progressed and newer technologies came about (i.e. SDWAN) their products couldn't keep up with the consumer demands and changing market. Security became such a …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    When I took over my current position, we'd already purchased SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager, but we were not using it. I can't, therefore, compare it with other tools, as the only thing I have to compare it to was our manual processes. When compared to any …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    31 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    35 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    32 Answers
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    User Ratings
    SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog ServerSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (7 ratings)
    8.0
    (142 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.1
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.0
    (9 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.9
    (3 ratings)
    7.7
    (9 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog ServerSolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    SolarWinds
    To monitor syslog events Kiwi syslog much helpful and needed .Its saving human efforts and cost.Easy to check on GUI panel flow and status of server ,start and stop services we can do them from GUI panel it self . Recent version also no need C++ libraries to install .We can store the ingested events and archive based on our threshold criteria .We can import and export INI file which contain everything what we have configured
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    SolarWinds
    Network Configuration Manager is well suited for backing up configurations of all your devices. It also has a great comparison tool for seeing only the differences in config. Another great feature is it's ability to push a script to any number of devices. This is very handy for pushing changes to one, 10 or multiple devices. There are also some great reports that you can run against the devices in inventory
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    SolarWinds
    • Collection of SNMP traps a reliable and stable collection server for these is crucial to troubleshooting and time to ROS. Kiwi excels at this.
    • Easy to install set up and train users on.
    • The free version is a good free tool and handy to use for personal labs and other smalle use cases.
    • SNMP traps to user readable format is great, sometimes syslog and smnp messages can be hard to interpret and read with out a knowledge of how to do this.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Integrates with Network Performance Management for Alerting and Reporting.
    • NetPath and detects issues due to Configuration Change.
    • Keeps a record of which user made the change.
    • Which devices are not being backed up, devices where backups are failing, dashboard and alerting available.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    SolarWinds
    • Minimalistic; If you're looking for something with analysis features look elsewhere.
    • Operating System support is Windows only.
    • Some management features cannot be configured via web interface.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • For our use case, it does everything great and some of the features we underutilize but I would like to be able to set a configuration baseline when initially adding a node instead of after the configuration is pulled but it's not a particularly big deal to let it pull the configuration then set it as the baseline.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Medium complexity to set up in the beginning if using any non-standard devices or configurations, else fairly easy (e.g. Cisco Nexus or IOS-based devices). Reports are fairly straightforward to set up. Updates to the platform are fairly straightforward and don't take a major effort. Easy to add or remove devices.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    SolarWinds
    Kiwi Syslog has the best usability of any syslog server. While not being able to offer the most features, the ones it does have are intuitive and easy to work with. Everything that it has is where you think it should be. If you can't find it in the menus, it doesn't exist.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    The user interface is lacking. It is difficult to navigate at times and things can be done multiple ways. Quite often I am confused by how their notification structure works. It is not very intuitive. They do offer a free Academy. They also offer a community of other technical folks. I have enjoyed both.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    SolarWinds
    Because the solution is so simple to use and implement, support wasn't very necessary. The one time I did call them to better understand where logs were stored, they were very helpful and friendly. Kiwi has been around for some time and not a lot has changed over the years, so support for it is pretty straightforward and quick.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    To be fair, I have not had to involve Support in a number of years, but when I did, I was greeted with enthusiastic engineers who wanted to understand and solve the issue. It was a fairly complex scenario and I have discovered in my most recent implementation that engineering included that option as a standard now.
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Solarwinds has actually produced new training since I last used it that is available on their site at any time. Their previous training was more than enough to get us started but now there is significantly more content. Since I'm comfortable with the Orion platform and the products we use I haven't checked the new training out yet but we have new staff go through portions of that training and they always come away with an understanding of the platform and ready to use it
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    it was a fairly easy implementation and everything was pretty straightforward. only challenge we had was getting all the snmp communities updated on the networking equipment
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    SolarWinds
    PRTG is a great package and very useful, but the jump from the free 100 sensor price model to the first tier of the paid model is WAY too expensive. SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server is very inexpensive and provides us with the results we needed for log monitoring.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    At the time SolarWinds was the biggest player in the space and their whole portfolio was very comprehensive. As time progressed and newer technologies came about (i.e. SDWAN) their products couldn't keep up with the consumer demands and changing market. Security became such a big focus that once Solarwinds got hacked we had to remove all their products from our environment
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    SolarWinds
    • Its provides centralized console for Server and Network devices log collection, reducing need of two separate Log collectors.
    • It reduces cost
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Saves 100s of hours a year in man hours over manual configuration.
    • Saved easily 50k in lost revenue when a switch rebooted with months old unsaved configuration. NCM let us quickly restore a snapshot of the running config from the previous day.
    • Saves us several man hours per week of config auditing by reducing all changes to a summary email.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server Screenshots

    Screenshot of Manage syslog messages and SNMP traps from network devices, including Linux, UNIX, and Windows systems from a single console.Screenshot of Trigger email alerts, run scripts, log to file or ODBC database, forward messages, and more.Screenshot of Schedule automated log archival and cleanup to help you comply with SOX, HIPAA, PCI DSS, etc.Screenshot of View graphs of syslog statistics over specific time periods.Screenshot of Filter and monitor log messages on an intuitive syslog viewer web console with multiple custom views.Screenshot of Perform advanced message filtering by host name, host IP address, priority, or time of day.

    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) Screenshots

    Screenshot of Network Automation -  manage rapid change across complex and multi-vendor networks, reduce time needed to complete repetitive tasks, and maintain standards and service levels for uninterrupted ITScreenshot of Config Backup - rest easy knowing you can locate the most current configuration and quickly apply it to a replacement spare, or to roll back a blown configuration.Screenshot of Vulnerability Scanning - Take the hassle out of vulnerability scanning using NCM's integration with the National Vulnerability Database and access to the most current CVE’s to identify vulnerabilities in your Cisco devices.Screenshot of Inventory Management - Be able to know what devices are connected to your network, their hardware and software configurations, and when they approach end-of-service and end-of-life, with NCM device configuration management tool.Screenshot of User Management - Use NCM's integrated console to lock down devices from unauthorized access, delegate who can view device details and make configuration changes, and determine when network changes can occur.Screenshot of Baselines and Diffs - IT professionals can get a more comprehensive view by leveraging baselines across multiple nodes. Diff view in NCM’s network configuration management tool is designed to highlight only those lines that changed.