N-central deployment
March 01, 2019

N-central deployment

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds N-central

We use N-central for a variety of end user/endpoint purposes. We monitor laptops, desktops, and servers. We deploy security patches with n-central. We monitor suspicious activities with n-central. We also utilize n-central for anti-virus. We group internal devices, customer-facing devices, as well as various portions of the infrastructure within the GUI interface.
  • Endpoint monitoring.
  • Deployment of security patching.
  • Deployment of agents on new assets.
  • Group policy integration.
  • Initial setup/categorization of devices.
  • Pricing per device.
  • Holistic monitoring and AI of devices.
  • Positive impact on external device deployment.
  • Scales well for customer devices.
  • Allows SLA-based device management.
All three systems integrate with Connectwise Manage. All systems have integration to active directory. Automation does configuration deployment better. Ninja is a SaaS, N-central is a Saas, whereas Automate is on-premise. Automate is more scalable. Pricing and seat deployment is complicated on all three platforms. I would recommend that any organizations that are considering deployment test all three for the best fit.
N-central is good for deployment and utilization via Group Policy. N-central is good for Microsoft security patch deployment. N-central is good for monitoring suspicious activity. N-central is well suited for categories of devices. N-central, at least for us, does require intervention for the initial deployment and setup. N-central integrates well with an active directory.

Using SolarWinds N-central

The user interface is fairly straight forward, with logic groupings for objects. I did not deploy this software, but am one of the daily administrators. Once you get the correct agent package (Which can be a challenge) the integration into AD is not bad. The UI could be more customized, but that may have been a design choice.
ProsCons
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Feel confident using
Unnecessarily complex
Inconsistent
Slow to learn
  • Addition of devices to the org
  • GUI/web interface
  • AD integration
  • Agent deployment with auto discover
  • Remote access
  • Parsing