Solarwinds NCM for rockstar configuration management
September 09, 2016
Solarwinds NCM for rockstar configuration management
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager
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
- Backup of current running configuration
- Reporting any change to configuration and who made the change
- Searching and reporting specific configuration issues
Cons
- Creating and verifying new config scripts
- Web interface to hundreds of devices can sometimes be challenging
- 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.
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.
Evaluating SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager and Competitors
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.
- 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.
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.
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