Item: SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We're using SolarWinds Netflow Traffic Analyzer to monitor network traffic, with an emphasis on identifying bottlenecks and remediating those pain points to improve performance. We're also using it as a tool during the incident process, where we can see potential impacts to systems and processes. The primary business problem that we're addressing is performance, and that manifesting itself as slowness in our branches, contact center, or at employee points of interaction with the technical environment.

Pros and Cons

Overall database system health monitoring is a quick check for incident management.
Database dashboard view is very helpful for starting detailed issue analysis.

The package could do better with actual transaction level monitoring
If you are using a mainframe, your options for monitoring are very limited

Return on Investment

Increased uptime across the enterprise
Increased performance during times where the system is up

Alternatives Considered

Site24x7, New Relic, Dynatrace, AppDynamics and AlertSite

If you want to have a total view of your network and enterprise, it's a challenge to go with only a point solution. We've taken an approach that, while it feels sub-optimal in some ways, leverages multiple monitoring products to see the entire enterprise. Part of the issue that we face on a daily basis is that we make vendor choices, and those vendor choices have implications on our ability to monitor. For example, our core processing system and our online banking system are from two different vendors with two different architectures and two separate levels of system access. Sometimes we're forced to put in place what we can, rather than what we want. SolarWinds Netflow Traffic Analyzer is one of the suite of tools we use that helps us get closer to that total view.

Support Rating

We do not regularly leverage support for SolarWinds, however, when we have, we've pretty much gotten what we needed in a reasonable amount of time. In addition to the support from the vendor, there is a robust online and in-person community that we can leverage when we need to do something that we don't readily understand.

Key Insights

Do you think SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)'s feature set?

Yes

Did SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Azure DevOps Server (formerly Team Foundation Server), Microsoft Visual Studio Code, Octopus Deploy

Likelihood to Recommend

The single best use case that we've been able to exploit is tuning and monitoring our core databases in an extremely complex technical environment. Our systems are outward facing, with multiple endpoints, and very large traffic volumes with largely unpredictable patterns -- that causes Oracle stress that is difficult to manage and predict, even using the best of the database optimization tools out there. When we've got problems, we can look at the dashboards and easily rule in, or out, that our database is part of any end user experience problem.

Helps to provide a total view of your enterprise

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)