SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer has the answers for that bandwidth hog!!
February 28, 2019
SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer has the answers for that bandwidth hog!!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Modules Used
- SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer Pack
Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
Network Bandwidth Analyzer is our "go-to" tool for basic performance and availability monitoring of our network. It provides us with the ability to quickly and easily see the current status of our network and systems environment, while also making it easy to personalize the presentation of the information so it is accessible and actionable for our different teams. Some of the newer features in NPM and NTA have made Network Bandwidth Analyzer even better in root cause analysis procedures.
- The level of customization possible with Network Bandwidth Analyzer is very valuable. Rather than being stuck with a "one-size-fits-all" presentation, an administrator can easily create customized views, reports, and alerts so that users can have a more tailored view of the data provided by Network Bandwidth Analyzer. This has the effect of making the tool more attractive to the end user.
- The NetFlow Traffic Analyzer piece of Network Bandwidth Analyzer provides the details on bandwidth usage on the network. More than knowing how much bandwidth is being used, one is provided with detailed information on how that bandwidth is being used. This provides invaluable information for capacity planning and even certain forensic tasks faced by the network engineer.
- The ability to produce network maps provides an easy way to create an attractive and functional NOC/SOC view of the entire network. Both technician and the occasional passerby can quickly determine if there are issues to be addressed. The ability to customize a map with background images and custom icons and stencils can make these maps really pop.
- Network Bandwidth Analyzer needs to provide even more capabilities to restrict individual users in terms of their ability to edit or create web views. Currently, it is an all-or-nothing proposition, which means that any user can change any view rather than being restricted to changing only designated views.
- Continued improvements in the ability to manage the custom fields used in Network Bandwidth Analyzer is needed. Custom properties are a critical feature in terms of customization of any SolarWinds Orion application, but there is still too much manual intervention and updating required in their management.
- SolarWinds needs to work on the addition of in-context help in processing the information presented by Network Bandwidth Analyzer. Not all end users are seasoned engineers or systems administrators, so any tools that might tell the user what a "next step" might be when presented with particular types of data or events would be invaluable. SolarWinds has experimented with similar functionality in the past.
- The customizability of Network Bandwidth Analyzer has enabled our engineers to reduce their time to resolution significantly compared to other tools we have used.
- Recent improvements in the installation/upgrade of Network Bandwidth Analyzer has made the prospect of carrying out such tasks more appealing to the system administrator.
We found Network Bandwidth Analyzer to be superior to other competing applications in price and performance. Ease of operation and customization was also a factor in favor of Network Bandwidth Analyzer. The user community associated with SolarWinds was also a factor in our selection process. The Thwack community is very active and helpful in bringing a SolarWinds instance online and into production.