Solar Winded
November 03, 2015

Solar Winded

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor

We currently use SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor to detect any problems we may see on WAN links. We are also using it to detect any UDP jitter from VoiP services.
  • The alert system is fantastic. We get nearly instant alerts from anything from EIGRP changes to WAN links going down.
  • The ability to add groups and add devices to groups makes it easier to shut off all alerts for a given group at any given time.
  • Email notifications come out swiftly, allowing for quick resolution of any problems that may occur.
  • The maps feature leaves a little to be desired. It's decently solid, but could be done much better.
  • The user interface is a little clunky with the tabs being at the top.
  • I really don't have anything else that I can say negative to the product. It's generally easy to use and I haven't had any issues with it.
  • Hands down, the biggest positive impact SolarWinds has had is response time. We are able to respond to issues very quickly.
  • Because our response time is so high, everyone's efficiency has gone up.
I would say that they are all about equal when it comes to small to mid-size businesses. Though NMC/Nagios is a better solution for larger companies. With SolarWinds, you're required to use SNMP for device discovery. In NMC/Nagios you need to populate their databases.
I would say it's most suited for a small to medium sized business. Large corporations and enterprises would be better off staying with a solution like Nagios or NMC.

SolarWinds NPM Feature Ratings

Automated network device discovery
7
Network monitoring
8
Baseline threshold calculation
7
Alerts
10
Network capacity planning
3
Packet capture analysis
2
Network mapping
1
Customizable reports
9
Wireless infrastructure monitoring
6
Hardware health monitoring
10