Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is network diagnostics and troubleshooting technology, from Austin-based SolarWinds.N/A
Splunk Enterprise
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Splunk 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
Splunk Enterprise Security
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Splunk Enterprise Security is an analytics-driven SIEM that helps to combat threats with actionable intelligence and advanced analytics at scale.N/A
Pricing
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Splunk EnterpriseSplunk Enterprise Security
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Splunk EnterpriseSplunk Enterprise Security
Free Trial
YesYesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Splunk EnterpriseSplunk Enterprise Security
Considered Multiple Products
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
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.
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 …
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.
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 …
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
Splunk Enterprise

No answer on this topic

Splunk Enterprise Security
Chose Splunk Enterprise Security
Using Splunk Enterprise Security allows the combination of security data sources from any number of services or products, giving analysts a single view of the entire security footprint throughout the organization and correlating events across services that may otherwise be …
Chose Splunk Enterprise Security
Splunk Enterprise Security is overall a better choice due to multiple factors. It can be easily deployed in any type of environment, whether you are looking for On-Premise or Cloud hosting. It scales amazingly well and it is very intuitive to use. It has a strong community, …
Chose Splunk Enterprise Security
Above mentioned tools are environment-specific and provide insights into what is happening in the environment. We were looking for a product that is environment agnostic & able to work with many environments. Hence Splunk Enterprise security stands out for us. Also, we were …
Chose Splunk Enterprise Security
Splunk Enterprise Security allows for data normalization that does not compare to other SIEMs such as QRadar or Trustwave. QRadar requires custom dsm parsers before the data can be onboarded. I appreciate that Splunk Enterprise Security can ingest any source of data and …
Chose Splunk Enterprise Security
The fact that it is used by many large companies was a strong reason for selecting Splunk Enterprise Security.
After several demos and POCs, the teams were convinced of the value it brings: it demands the right amount of customization to fit with the company data sources.
Also …
Chose Splunk Enterprise Security
I believe it is definitely a leader in the security space
Chose Splunk Enterprise Security
I performed a migration from RSA SA and I found that ES is very easier to implement new Correlation Searches.
Chose Splunk Enterprise Security
Qradar is easy for first-timers. Easy to deploy and manage but if you need an advanced solution for ML, Anomaly Detection you need to use Splunk. Qradar is solid, too. But Splunk has advanced functionality for detection and automation.
Features
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Splunk EnterpriseSplunk Enterprise Security
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
Comparison of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) features of Product A and Product B
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
-
Ratings
Splunk Enterprise
8.1
85 Ratings
3% above category average
Splunk Enterprise Security
8.1
107 Ratings
3% above category average
Centralized event and log data collection00 Ratings9.081 Ratings7.5105 Ratings
Correlation00 Ratings8.383 Ratings9.0104 Ratings
Event and log normalization/management00 Ratings8.482 Ratings9.0105 Ratings
Deployment flexibility00 Ratings7.975 Ratings7.0106 Ratings
Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools00 Ratings8.176 Ratings8.0101 Ratings
Custom dashboards and workspaces00 Ratings8.682 Ratings9.0107 Ratings
Host and network-based intrusion detection00 Ratings7.761 Ratings8.0101 Ratings
Data integration/API management00 Ratings8.229 Ratings7.9102 Ratings
Behavioral analytics and baselining00 Ratings7.527 Ratings7.599 Ratings
Rules-based and algorithmic detection thresholds00 Ratings7.728 Ratings8.5100 Ratings
Response orchestration and automation00 Ratings7.324 Ratings7.592 Ratings
Reporting and compliance management00 Ratings8.529 Ratings8.9100 Ratings
Incident indexing/searching00 Ratings8.632 Ratings8.0106 Ratings
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User Ratings
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Splunk EnterpriseSplunk Enterprise Security
Likelihood to Recommend
9.4
(141 ratings)
8.6
(86 ratings)
7.0
(100 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.1
(6 ratings)
7.0
(18 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
7.1
(8 ratings)
8.3
(19 ratings)
6.0
(3 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
7.7
(9 ratings)
8.0
(18 ratings)
6.6
(6 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.1
(2 ratings)
7.0
(3 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.3
(96 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Splunk EnterpriseSplunk Enterprise Security
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
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Cisco
It's well suited for what I do, which is network security operations. And that's for anything from troubleshooting incidents, troubleshooting performance, troubleshooting for the purpose of a compliance and auditing. It's not best suited for users who are new in terms of they're new to the product and they have expectations that probably Splunk cannot meet.
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Cisco
Based on my experience, Splunk is a strong git for some environments and a poor match for others. The distinction is primarily based on infrastructure complexity and budget. It's perfect for large enterprises with a mix of on-prem/cloud infrastructure. It's not a perfect match for small teams with restricted resources.
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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.
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.
Read full review
Cisco
  • Writes Powerful Queries: The queries that can be written using the Splunk Query Language are very powerful and highly customizable to meet every need. Ex: Writing queries to search the intersection of two different sources like Network and Endpoint Logs.
  • Offers Dashboard Abilities: Helps build complex panels for Dashboards in addition to providing several out-of-the-box panels. Ex: creating panels to calculate the performance of analysts in a given timezone.
  • Helpful Search Aids: It helps to set up complex custom alerts very easily. The interesting fields section is very helpful while threat hunting. Ex: It shows all the users and the frequency of each in a failed login event. The user list on the interesting fields is useful to look for suspicious logins.
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.
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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
Read full review
Cisco
  • Improved User Interface Customization: While the interface is generally intuitive, providing more options for users to customize their dashboards and views would enhance the overall user experience. Tailoring the interface to specific roles or use cases could be a valuable addition.
  • Simplified Alert Management: Streamlining the process of managing alerts, such as grouping or categorizing them based on severity or type, would make it easier for security teams to prioritize and respond to incidents effectively.
  • Expanded Threat Intelligence Feeds: Increasing the variety and sources of threat intelligence feeds available within ES would provide a broader context for identifying and mitigating emerging threats, ensuring a more comprehensive defense against evolving attack vectors.
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.
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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
Cisco
We are very happy with Splunk and would advise anyone to take a serious look at it. It might look pricey but the rewards Splunk offers seem endless.
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.
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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.
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Cisco
Maintaining hundreds or even 1000+ SOC use cases is really difficult, considering that the Data sources may not always send the data. A module that detects data freshness issues and detect data format changes would be a great help. the main challenge today using Splunk Enterprise Security is making sure that the detection rules are still working properly given all the changes that occur in data source applications. Also, maintaining the data collects on tens of thousands of servers and more than 100k workstations is a real company IT challenge: the splunkbase forwarder may not support old OS anymore, while these are the most important to monitor. Moving to the Open Telemetry collector has become essential so that only 1 agent is required for both SIEM and application observability.
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Reliability and Availability
SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
Cisco
When properly setup and configured, Splunk is extremely reliable.
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Cisco
I don't think I've ever seen Splunk ES go fully offline or have any downtime greater than a few minutes on rare occasions.
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Performance
SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Cisco
It takes a long time for items to load if you are just generally searching through logs. It is best to use the data models which load faster but can be strange in terms of what is coming from which logs where. Yes, you can look it up, but this also requires familiarity with where things are and how to look them up.
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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.
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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.
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Cisco
It's good when it's responsive, but I've had times where I had to wait quite a while for a response. But these are typically the exceptions rather than the rule. When you do get a response it is always well-informed and appropriate. I would say they've been trending better over time with this.
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In-Person Training
SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Cisco
I experienced only on-line training, but the trainers were very professional and competent. Maybe it could be more useful if they also have an experience in projects because sometimes they didn't have a real project experience to communicate to the students. Anyway, it was very interesting and I learned many thing that's very difficoult (or maybe impossible!) to have by myself, aven if I have more than 10 years of Splunk activity experience.
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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
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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.
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Cisco
It was very interesting and I learned many thing that's very difficoult (or maybe impossible!) to have by myself. The only problem was that, when I worked with the Splunk Professional Services, I found some difference between the training contents and the information from PS. In addition is required a long experience on Splunk Enterprise for the data ingestion part, in other words I'm able to work with ES because I'm worling on Splunk since 11 years, otherwise I'd some problem.
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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
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Cisco
Smooth without too many major issues.
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Cisco
It's a fantatic product and it was very useful the presence of Splunk Professional Services for the Design Phase and the final Health Check.
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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
Read full review
Cisco
I didn't get to fully evaluate Logstash as our corporation was already using Logstash, but both seemed like viable solutions to the problem that we were having. I wanted to evaluate Logstash some more, both did seem like they would work for the business needs that we had, we went with splunk as many teams were already using it.
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Cisco
Splunk enterprise is the only solution that we’ve been able to identify that provides risk based alerting, which allows our SOC to reduce analyst fatigue which would be a huge problem without it. Before RBA, there were thousands of alerts a day and it was impossible to review all of them
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Cisco
for my exterience, unit pricing and billing frequency are correct. As I already said, I hint to have more discount flexibility, expecially with new customers, because there are competitors less expensive and very aggressive that are dangerous. In addition the possibility to don't pay the license for the development period could be a very interesting feature for the final customers.
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Scalability
SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
Cisco
Splunk can scale in to the petabyte per day range which of course is awesome
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Cisco
- 8 out of 10 and took 2 for the data pipeline and administration part. Even if you'd like to improve yourself or your team, you have to pay a lot of money and it could be more than GIAC education + cert. - Normalization for Data models and CPU-based searches can be a problem sometimes.
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Professional Services
SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Cisco
I had a fantastic experience with Splunk Professional Services: they worked with us in our last SON project (a SOC migration for a very large customer) and helped to build a multi tenent environment even if ES isn't a multi tenant platform. Th Splunk PS was a very professional and competent people, he is italian and was able to speak with our italian customers.
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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.
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Cisco
  • I don't have any numbers to share but Splunk has positively served as a 24/7 monitoring tool that has saved hours of work by self-detecting, saving statistics and alerting problems in the system or from external interfaces as soon as they happen.
  • Splunk dashboards does a solid job in collecting, analyzing data and creating reports that contain an entire day's activity and then automatically sent out to the business.
  • Splunk is very easy to learn and very useful to any program or business application.
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Cisco
  • We have a 100% success rate on all our ES implementations due to the amazing documentation and Splunk enablement on the subject.
  • Our Splunk ES business has grown 100% YoY for the last 3 years.
  • In terms of long term management and maintenance, ES has been highly stable and predictable, reducing our overhead on costly services team for ad hoc maintenance work.
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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.