SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
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Top Rated
254 Ratings
Learn more about NCM
SolarWinds Network Device Monitor
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48 Ratings

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

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Top Rated
254 Ratings
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Score 8.8 out of 100

Based on 254 reviews and ratings

Learn more about NCM

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

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48 Ratings
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Score 8.2 out of 100

Based on 48 reviews and ratings

Attribute Ratings

  • SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) is rated higher in 1 area: Likelihood to Recommend

Likelihood to Recommend

8.7

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

87%
138 Ratings
8.4

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

84%
19 Ratings

Likelihood to Renew

7.7

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

77%
4 Ratings

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

N/A
0 Ratings

Usability

7.2

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

72%
8 Ratings

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

N/A
0 Ratings

Support Rating

7.7

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

77%
13 Ratings

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

N/A
0 Ratings

Online Training

10.0

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

100%
1 Rating

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

N/A
0 Ratings

Implementation Rating

9.1

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

91%
6 Ratings

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

N/A
0 Ratings

Likelihood to Recommend

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

If your IT team isn't proficient in automation and scripting, Solarwinds NCM can fill that gap (assuming your company's security team signs off on approving SW in your environment given the hack.) Basic device configuration, pushing mass changes reliably and backups are NCM's strong suites. If you have a complex scenario where if/then cases are needed, NCM is a bit lack luster. Auto discovery isn't as easy either as certain parameters need to be met for that feature to work 100% of the time

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

For a network admin or security team, NCM can be very useful in keeping config parameters standardized, this can mean anything from ensuring the timezone setting is standard to ensuring SNMP or logging is set up as you want it. The alerting is good if you want a record of findings for audit purposes so that you can show that you are monitoring configurations, you are alerting when a config goes out of compliance, and a ticket is created to drive remediation. Alternatively one can choose to automate remediation by running a configuration change script but that scares me so we never used it, this is a me-problem and not a tool problem. Where it falls down is in the data storage architecture as we had constant problems with our server running out of disk, this seems to be because it does a lot of basic monitoring of the devices along with storing many, many copies of the configurations. This may have been a user-side issue, though NCM runs under the Orion app which is where the storage issues come from I think.

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holt archer | TrustRadius Reviewer
holt archer
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Pros

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

  • 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.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

  • Real time performance details and historical data.
  • View the specific nodes very easily and get the information.
  • NetPath features help to analyze traffic paths whether it is hosted on premised or cloud.
  • Customize alert and reporting tools to get performance information.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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Cons

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

  • 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.

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James Jakimowicz | TrustRadius Reviewer
James Jakimowicz
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SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

  • More security put into the product, the Orion hack was not good news.
  • More frequent releases to address small bugs rather than big releases that are rare.
  • More IPv6 related features to make it easier for people familiar with IPv4 to learn IPv6.
  • Ability to edit dashboards using JSON or another similar language.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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Pricing Details

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

General

Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
—
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—
Entry-level set up fee?
Optional

Starting Price

—

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

General

Free Trial
—
Free/Freemium Version
—
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—
Entry-level set up fee?
No

Starting Price

—

Likelihood to Renew

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) 7.7
Based on 4 answers
I simply love this product for what it does. it backups our configs and stores them so i don't have to worry about if we have current configs. It allows me to recover from a cisco failure in a matter of minutes rather than hours. I only have to copy and paste instead of recreate. so the maximum downtime we have is the time it takes to get the physical hardware replaced

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Aaron Coody | TrustRadius Reviewer
Aaron Coody
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SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Usability

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) 7.2
Based on 8 answers
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.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Support Rating

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) 7.7
Based on 13 answers
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.

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Wyant Niswonger | TrustRadius Reviewer
Wyant Niswonger
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SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Online Training

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) 10.0
Based on 1 answer
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

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James Jakimowicz | TrustRadius Reviewer
James Jakimowicz
View all 1 answers on this topic

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Implementation Rating

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) 9.1
Based on 6 answers
Change management played a key role in our organisation. We didn't have any major downtime but it was crucial for us to get his product.

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Nandini pallipamu | TrustRadius Reviewer
Nandini pallipamu
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SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is a great tool and matches much of the functionality of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. Nothing about Ansible will likely be overwhelming to an engineer with a little time to spare, but that spare time combined with SolarWinds already being our monitoring tool made the decision easy. Time is at a premium in small teams and SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is very easy to use right out of the box without all the tweaking required by powerful command line driven tools like Ansible.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

MS is meant for windows monitoring and up/down for mostly everything else. Moved away from MS System Center. Now we have better visibility and management can get reports. The other teams have added Linux to Solarwinds and also see improvements in monitoring. Whether you use snmp (v3), wmi or some other credentials to connect to you system, Solarwinds will more than likely be able to manage and monitor it.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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Return on Investment

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)

  • The time savings from automatic daily backups is significant
  • The compare configuration tool is super helpful at spotting errors when small changes occur that are hard to detect otherwise.
  • The compliance check tool saves countless hours going through configurations for errors.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

  • Reduced site visits and recurring issues by 25 to 35%
  • Enables proactive warning, thereby reducing downtime caused by unforeseen issues
  • Provides a central panel for monitoring the entire network at a glance
  • Allows for SLA management thereby increasing accountability by 50%
  • Reduced time to repair by 35% as techs are more informed of root cause

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Jesse Bridgelal | TrustRadius Reviewer
Jesse Bridgelal
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Screenshots

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

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