Item: SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
Rating: 6
Author: Curt Sminkey

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We essentially use it to monitor our network devices - switches, routers, firewalls, ETC. We have our uplink interfaces monitored as well so that we can see usage and report on them as needed for things like bandwidth bottlenecks both internally and externally.

Pros and Cons

Notify us when a network device goes down and comes back online.
Reports for network interfaces.
Fairly simple to add or remove a network device.

The software upgrade process is a little hairy and has caused me trouble on occasion.
The server that it needs to run is a bit of a resource hog along with the SQL server.
Some additional features like the network map are a bit clunky compared to some other products that we use.

Return on Investment

Compared to other products, I think it's a bit pricey for what we are using it for.
There have been a few occasions where we were able to see historical device performance when deciding if a particular device or the link between devices needed more attention and address it as needed.
NPM allowed us to notice a network bottleneck when a group of users reported slow Internet speeds.

Alternatives Considered

Site24x7 All-in-One Monitoring, Extreme Ethernet Switches, ArubaOS, Statseeker and Progress WhatsUp Gold (formerly Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold)

We use all of these at the moment just because we haven't found one that does everything we like. For products like the Aruba Wifi we mainly use Airwave to monitor. For our network switches, we mainly use the Extreme Management Console. Because these are products directly from the manufacturer, they can do more than what a 3rd party can provide.

Key Insights

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

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?

Likelihood to Recommend

NPM is well suited for small to medium-sized organizations. It does the basic functions of a network monitoring suite very well however some of the more advanced features aren't as straightforward. Basic up/down email alerts work well but there are obviously many solutions that do this as well. I wouldn't recommend NPM for very large organizations because the server needed to support that many devices.

If you're looking for advanced monitoring, NPM has it - but it falls short

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)