Item: SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are a University with 13 locations with 2 employees monitoring all locations inclusive of over 300 Switches and 200 Servers that host various apps. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor allows us to monitor
all devices from one console including switches, routers, servers, and even printers.
It
allows us to monitor for hardware errors and bandwidth issues which
is a major help in troubleshooting errors and planning for the future. I use it to view all of the switches and apps and ensure everything is up and functioning at just a glance.

Pros and Cons

Monitors all the switches
Alert when a network device is down
Monitor bandwidth usage across the network
Monitor Hardware health on devices

Bandwidth monitoring could be improved, when creating a map we need to either show bandwidth usage or interface speed. I would like to see both
Wireless heat maps could be improved. It only works with certain vendors

Return on Investment

Always keeps us aware of networking equipment hardware problems
It has been very useful in monitoring the bandwidth on the network across our various locations.

Alternatives Considered

PRTG Network Monitor and Nagios Core

We evaluated PRTG Network Monitor which was similar to SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor but was very resource-intensive, and the server kept crashing when we got close to 100 devices. Whereas on SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor, we were able to add several thousand devices. We also evaluated Nagios Core as a free alternative but being free it could not be trusted to be secure, and it was very difficult to add and manage devices.

Key Insights

Do you think SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)'s feature set?

Yes

Did SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) again?

Yes

Other Software Used

SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM), SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM), SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor, SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

Likelihood to Recommend

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is well suited for large organizations with many devices. I appreciate the fact that I can monitor all of our devices very easily. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is great at detecting hardware errors allowing us to react and replace devices at the first signs of hardware errors. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is great at monitoring bandwidth usage which helps determine which links are saturated and allows us to respond and rectify the problem.

Best Network Monitoring Tool out there

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)