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SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) vs. Tenable Vulnerability Management

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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

    Tenable Vulnerability Management

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/AVulnerability management specialist Tenable offers their cloud application and container security platform Tenable Web App Scanning (formerly Tenable.io), a vulnerability management tool that emphasizes visibility of web applications, automatic scanning, and a unified view of cloud infrastructure and possible inconsistencies indicating a vulnerability.N/A
    Pricing
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Tenable Vulnerability Management
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Tenable Vulnerability Management
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Tenable Vulnerability Management
    Considered Both Products
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Tenable
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    31 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    35 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    32 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Tenable Vulnerability Management
    Threat Intelligence
    Comparison of Threat Intelligence features of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) and Tenable Vulnerability Management
    Feature
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Tenable Vulnerability Management
    8.4
    2 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Network Analytics00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
    Threat Recognition00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
    Vulnerability Classification00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
    Automated Alerts and Reporting00 Ratings4.02 Ratings
    Threat Analysis00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
    Threat Intelligence Reporting00 Ratings5.02 Ratings
    Automated Threat Identification00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
    Vulnerability Management Tools
    Comparison of Vulnerability Management Tools features of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) and Tenable Vulnerability Management
    Feature
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
    -
    Ratings
    Tenable Vulnerability Management
    8.8
    2 Ratings
    6% above category average
    IT Asset Realization00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Authentication00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
    Configuration Monitoring00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Web Scanning00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Vulnerability Intelligence00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Tenable Vulnerability Management
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    Tenable Nessus
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Tenable Nessus
    Score8.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Tenable Vulnerability Management
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (142 ratings)
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.1
    (6 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    7.0
    (9 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.7
    (9 ratings)
    8.8
    (2 ratings)
    Online Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)Tenable Vulnerability Management
    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
    Tenable
    I've been using this product since it began as an open source product, I really like it and for the money, I think it's probably the best choice for most companies who need a product like this. Over the years I've seen the interface change quite a bit and sometimes I think it's a bit unclear how to do certain things and the different packages can be confusing, these are the only reasons I'm giving it a 9 instead of a 10.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
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    Tenable
    • Setup of the internal scanner was fairly simple and straight forward.
    • An update came out for the internal scanner that allows you to add an Internal Certificate Authority for lookup.
    • Has automated reporting to keep executives and compliance departments informed.
    • Internal scanner can be configured to auto-update itself.
    • "Recast Rules" allows your organization to redefine a vulnerabilities' classification, if it is not applicable or your disagree.
    • External PCI scans allow you to remediate before submitting to Tenable.io for review.
    • Tenable.io staff was very patient and helpful. They provided some limited guidance with remediation.
    • Internal and External scans can be automated. schedule for the automated scans is very granular.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Tenable
    • Expensive - You do pay a slight premium for the best product in the space.
    • Asset management is difficult to work with if you have a lot of asset turnover, the license can be ''held'' for 3-6 months after the asset is gone from your environment.
    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
    Tenable
    We like to renew tenable each year we have had it so far.
    Incentivized
    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
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    Tenable
    Overall it is good, it took a little while to understand it and figure things out but once you have a good grasp on it then, it is very good.
    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
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    Tenable
    Support is usually really great at walking you through any steps you need to take when you get stuck on something. There are a few false positives and errors that have come up over the years that required their help to get through. Unfortunately, the steps required to diagnose some problems are more tedious than I think should be necessary. (IE: SQL instances can throw errors that clog up your logs because one plugin affects it in a certain way. The process to diagnose this is to watch timestamps of plugins in a log while monitoring the SQL logs at the same time and using your best guess as to what is causing it.)
    Incentivized
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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
    Incentivized
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    Tenable
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Tenable
    No answers on this topic
    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
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    Tenable
    Tenable.io has a comparable set of features, with excellent support and a competitive price. After less than desirable experiences with another company, we moved to Tenable and haven't looked back since.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
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    Tenable
    • Since this is a requirement for our PCI compliance and the cost is relatively low, the ROI isn't really something we need to think too much about, Tenable's pricing is fair and affordable.
    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.