Item: SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
Rating: 1
Author: Graham Clarkson

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

NCM is being used to:

1. Back up configurations.
2. Check that they meet our security requirements.
3. Make sure no one has made unauthorized changes.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Works with a variety of vendor products.
Allows us to tailor the config comparisons.

Cons

SolarWinds completely broke the baseline function. It no longer meets our needs.
Can no longer baseline an entire network in one step.

Return on Investment

Prior to breaking the baseline function, NCM was considered our most valuable network tool. Without adding any additional FTEs, we could ensure we maintained current backups, ensured consistent application of security settings and can monitor for unauthorized changes.
For a very little additional cost, we vastly improved our network security and availability.

Alternatives Considered

None so far, however we will be actively evaluating replacement products.

With the deletion of the ability to baseline an entire network, NCM is no longer of any use to our organization. We recently ran an NCM job that changed the NTP servers used by 800 of our network assets. We will now need to spend up to 80 hours manually applying a baseline for all 800 assets individually. This isn't going to happen and we are actively looking for a different solution. We certainly won't be paying for any further support contracts.

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