Item: SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
Rating: 9
Author: Mandy Ferguson

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SolarWinds helps our team to manage the network and all of the servers we support for our entire line of centers across Marriott International. Prior to SolarWinds, our server management was done manually, and was not very organized. We were unable to collect much data. After implementing SolarWinds, we were able to manage the network and servers in a more efficient way. We were also able to provide much better data for both of these areas.

Pros and Cons

Provides specific data on how network is performing.
Allows for easier management of large amounts of servers.
Creates a more organized way of reporting out on data.

Training could have been better so more employees know how to correctly use the system.
Better price point would allow a company to use more product features.
Ability to add more custom fields.

Return on Investment

Efficiency within our teams greatly increased.
Having one tool saved time and money.
Ability to adjust data saved associate time in creating reports.

Alternatives Considered

All monitoring was done manually prior to SolarWinds and in my mind, there really is no comparison. Having internally built databases created a dependency on our internal teams to support, change, alter the tool any time we needed something different. SolarWinds already had built in capabilities and took the pressure off our internal teams to meet our needs.

Key Insights

Do you think SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor's feature set?

Yes

Did SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor again?

Yes

Support Rating

I didn't ever have to reach out to support but the team members that implemented SolarWinds didn't seem to have any issues working with SolarWinds support at any time. They were always able to get their issues resolved in a timely manner or receive more help at any time. I think training could have been better but that may have been on our team, more than it was on SolarWinds support.

Usability

Even for someone like me, who is not used to tools like SolarWinds, it was easy to understand, easy to adjust to using and had a lot of capabilities. Our more experienced team members had no trouble at all adjusting to using the tool once it was implemented across our organization.

Likelihood to Recommend

I did not use SolarWinds as much as my colleagues but when I used it, it was easy to understand. All of my colleagues really enjoyed using the tools and found it much easier than previous things we were using.

From manual monitoring to SolarWinds...

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor