Item: SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Rating: 10
Author: Larry Scott

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

NCM is used to manage and report on the configuration of all network switches and routers across the organization. It was used to assure consistent configuration and for remediation if a device was misconfigured. It was also used to update configurations across all devices when required.

Pros and Cons

Backup of current running configuration
Reporting any change to configuration and who made the change
Searching and reporting specific configuration issues

Creating and verifying new config scripts
Web interface to hundreds of devices can sometimes be challenging

Return on Investment

The ability to remediate a configuration and then apply it to anywhere from one to hundreds of devices with confidence significantly reduced the consulting time we had previously used; engineering time was dramatically reduced because you did not have to log on to every device to update configuration.
The time needed to create PCI compliance reports and time to review current compliance posture was significantly reduced.

Alternatives Considered

Probably the best feature of NCM is integration with other SolarWinds products. This enabled us to have a single pane of glass for management of all our network infrastructure. Simply adding NCM management to all our devices also gave us basic performance monitoring to the same devices. Network management integration also gave us the ability to easily manage roles and access to various management functions.

Other Software Used

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Log & Event Manager, Azure Multi-Factor Authentication

Likelihood to Recommend

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) is very good at creating backups of current running configurations, daily reporting changes to configurations and who made the change, reporting best practice configurations and any deviations from best practices, and remediating configuration across multiple devices for the same issue. NCM was extremely helpful in preparing reports for PCI compliance, for both current configurations and historical configurations during the previous reporting period.

Products Replaced

Yes - Alterpoint. Alterpoint appeared to be a product on life support and was very difficult to use. The biggest advantage of SolarWinds NCM was integration with our existing products from SolarWinds including NPM and SAM. This gave us a single pane of glass to monitor all critical network and server infrastructure performance criteria.

Key Differentiators

Product Features
Product Usability
Vendor Reputation
Existing Relationship with the Vendor

SolarWinds has had a sterling reputation with their NPM product. It was a no brainer to seriously consider their other products, especially since they integrated into the same management platform. NCM further enhanced their reputation as it gave us the same super quick time to implementation and great reporting and management.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I wouldn't change anything about our process. Again, SolarWinds has a sterling reputation with their NPM product. This gives them a significant advantage when considering other management tools. They were our first choice when evaluating additional management tools.

Solarwinds NCM for rockstar configuration management

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager