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SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) vs. Splunk Enterprise

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    Splunk Enterprise

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/ASplunk is software for searching, monitoring, and analyzing machine-generated big data, via a web-style interface. It captures, indexes and correlates real-time data in a searchable repository from which it can generate graphs, reports, alerts, dashboards and visualizations.N/A
    Pricing
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Splunk Enterprise
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Splunk Enterprise
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Splunk Enterprise
    Considered Both Products
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    All of the SolarWinds solutions stack up against their competition. The customer support is excellent, KB articles are details, and the community (Thwack) is the best when it comes to working through complex configurations/monitors. These are the things that make them the right …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    I actually prefer the ManageEngine Network Configuration Management engine product but switched to SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager to standardize to our Orion deployment.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    SolarWinds NCM solution is more flexible and GUI is from my point of view more intuitive, from the other hand Manage Engine solution is [a] cheaper solution which has almost [the] same functionality but suffers of luck of deeper integration with other Manage Engine modules.
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) automates our Network Configuration task and provides reliable Configuration backup option. Integrates with the SolarWinds Network Performance platform for alerting and reporting. Provides meaningful dashboards to manage network …
    Incentivized
    Chose SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    The primary benefit when compared to the three listed are:
    • Rancid: Commercial support, plus pre-built remediation templates. Config auto-deploy as well
    • Prime and Panorama: These two products have strengths, but only when in a network compromised only of the vendor's gear
    Incentivized
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    97%
    Would buy again
    59 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    31 Answers
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    49 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    35 Answers
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    59 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    43 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    32 Answers
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    50 Answers
    Features
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Splunk Enterprise
    Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
    Comparison of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) features of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) and Splunk Enterprise
    Feature
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Splunk Enterprise
    8.2
    91 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Centralized event and log data collection00 Ratings9.085 Ratings
    Correlation00 Ratings8.487 Ratings
    Event and log normalization/management00 Ratings8.488 Ratings
    Deployment flexibility00 Ratings8.081 Ratings
    Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools00 Ratings8.282 Ratings
    Custom dashboards and workspaces00 Ratings8.887 Ratings
    Host and network-based intrusion detection00 Ratings7.865 Ratings
    Data integration/API management00 Ratings8.334 Ratings
    Behavioral analytics and baselining00 Ratings7.732 Ratings
    Rules-based and algorithmic detection thresholds00 Ratings7.933 Ratings
    Response orchestration and automation00 Ratings7.529 Ratings
    Reporting and compliance management00 Ratings8.634 Ratings
    Incident indexing/searching00 Ratings8.737 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Splunk Enterprise
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    IBM Security QRadar SIEM
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Score8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Splunk Enterprise
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (142 ratings)
    8.7
    (112 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.1
    (6 ratings)
    8.5
    (25 ratings)
    Usability
    7.0
    (9 ratings)
    8.5
    (45 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.7
    (9 ratings)
    8.0
    (19 ratings)
    Online Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Splunk Enterprise
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    Read full review
    Cisco
    I'm liking the newer products, and I'm looking forward to how they integrate with the overall product when they come together. Just log in and be able to query a large number of systems for similar issues or a unique one. That is a great fit for Splunk Enterprise, looking for a simple case or a simple String or something of that nature across multiple machines. It's a great fit for that to identify issues or particular software, whatever your scenario is, String, to find it across any particular server or group of servers, so that you can update or do a deployment or whatever it is you're looking to do.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    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
    Cisco
    • It is very useful in creating custom rules for analyzing system logs and display relevant information. The query language is very easy to learn.
    • We can create custom UI to visualize the output of our data. The interface is very flexible. It also allows the sharing of rules among users.
    • There is an open online community to help others. Stackoverflow also has a splunk community. These resources make it more convenient to learn.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    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
    Cisco
    • Splunk light limits number of users to 5. Wish there was a flexible license, where one could add more users.
    • Splunk light does not let you add > few realtime alerts. Wish there was a flexible license, where one could add as many realtime alerts as wanted.
    • Better insight into daily ingestion values
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    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
    Cisco
    We are using Splunk extensively in our projects and we have recently upgraded to Splunk version 6.0 which is quite efficient and giving expected results. We keep track of updates and new features Splunk introduces periodically and try to introduce those features in our day to day activities for improvement in our reporting system and other tasks.
    Read full review
    Usability
    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
    Read full review
    Cisco
    You can literally throw in a single word into Splunk and it will pull back all instances of that word across all of your logs for the time span you select (provided you have permission to see that data). We have several users who have taken a few of the free courses from Splunk that are able to pull data out of it everyday with little help at all.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    When properly setup and configured, Splunk is extremely reliable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    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
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Splunk maintains a well resourced support system that has been consistent since we purchased the product. They help out in a timely manner and provide expert level information as needed. We typically open cases online and communicate when possible via e-mail and are able to resolve most issues with that method.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    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
    Read full review
    Cisco
    The online course was simple clear and described the main capabilities of the solution. There is also an initial module that can be done for free so anyone can familiarize themselves with the functionality of this solution. On the other hand, however, there could be more free online courses. Maybe even with a certificate, this would broaden the group of people who are familiar with the platform while increasing familiarity with the solution itself.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    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
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Smooth without too many major issues.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    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
    Cisco
    A lot of products have natively inside their own dashboards and or their own logging repositories. And each one is difficult to learn or they're too complex or they're not verbose in the sense that they're not easy to mine the data that you're looking for. So that could be anything from the native logging that you find in other Cisco products. It's easier to use Splunk to draw the data that you're looking for as opposed to going to the individual's products themselves to get the logs that you're looking for.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    SolarWinds
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    Splunk can scale in to the petabyte per day range which of course is awesome
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    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
    Cisco
    • Splunk has allowed developers to diagnose production issues when access of control was taken away from them to be allowed to view items in production environments and I believe that is invaluable.
    • At times some developers weren't super happy about using it, but it was more of the fact that they were used to having production access and not creating their splunk queries to get information.
    • Going one place to view logs was very beneficial to have.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    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.