Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor Sl2000
Exequiel Mondragon
The setup process is one of the most important factors to consider when deploying a new program. The ease with which you can complete the setup process determines how easy it is to deploy your program of choice. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor operates with a core server and one (or more) probes. This keeps the setup process relatively simple as you monitor your entire network with a single server.
You can download Paessler PRTG Network Monitor for Windows in about five minutes. You are taken through the configuration process by the Configuration Guru which requests information from the admin so that you have login credentials for future use. The setup process is quicker than other products as Paessler PRTG Network Monitor stores data in its own unique system rather than an SQL database.
The main advantage of this is the time savings. On devices without an autodiscovery feature, it is very inconvenient to go through each device and add it to your network. An autodiscovery feature makes SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor suitable for fast deployment and saves you time which you can use to do more important things.
Like SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor, Paessler PRTG Network Monitor also has its own autodiscovery feature as well. With Paessler PRTG Network Monitor you can scan your network via IP ranges. Though both products have autodiscovery, SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor has the edge based on its intuitive design and excellent autodiscovery topology maps.
With SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (shown in the image above) you can customize your dashboard as you see fit. You can view devices in pie charts, graph and color-coded buttons which detail how your infrastructure is performing. Similarly, SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor also has its own PerfStack Performance Analysis Dashboard. This allows you to drag and drop usage data into a timeline to compare it with other data.
This is advantageous because you can compare disparate datasets side by side. Viewing data sets in such a way is unique to SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor and allows you to troubleshoot for certain network faults without having to look through lots of different windows.
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor also offers its own customizable dashboards with a selection of dials, charts, and maps. You can actually use custom HTML code to create your own map objects. This is useful for allowing you to create a unique perspective of your network.
Based on the simplicity of the dashboard and the malleable Perfstack Performance Analysis Dashboard, SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is the top pick here. The chance to compare disparate datasets in such a way is invaluable when analyzing a cross-section of data.
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor and SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor both offer users a Windows GUI and a web-based GUI. This means you can access each platform online and on your device. The bulk of users on each product will gravitate towards the web-GUI based on their accessibility. This is one area where SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor and Paessler PRTG Network Monitor are evenly matched.
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor also gives you a large amount of control over your alert conditions. You can create your own trigger conditions to activate alerts. With this program, the focus has been placed on cutting your alerts down so that you only have to deal with the most pressing issues at hand. You can also dictate what time of day alerts are active and to whom they are sent.
This is also an intelligent alerts system which allows you to prescribe specific actions to take once predefined criteria have been met. For example, you can send an email text or execute a program once an activity has been flagged. This allows you to incorporate a touch of automation into your event response.
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is available in a bundle called the Network Bandwidth Analyzer Pack. This also provides the NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, which is a flow monitoring module with the ability to communicate with NetFlow, IPFIX, J-Flow, sFlow, and NetStream. The Network Performance Monitor uses SNMP for traffic monitoring, so in order to get a fair comparison on flow monitoring, it would be better to assess PRTG alongside the Network Bandwidth Analyzer Pack. If comparing PRTG to only the Network Performance Monitor for bandwidth monitoring, PRTG is by far the better choice. You can access the Network Bandwidth Analyzer Pack on a 30-day free trial.
This means that once you add a new device to your network SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor will automatically add it to the map. Having a map that automatically updates is very useful for providing you with an up-to-date network map. This is also color-coded so if there is a device that is experiencing problems it is denoted by the color red so that you can see it easily.
Reports is an area where SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor really knocks it out of the park. There are over 100 default templates which you can use to schedule network performance reports. You can customize these so that you generate only the information you need.
Based on the simplicity of the reporting system, Paessler PRTG Network Monitor slightly outperforms SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor here. The report design and the ease with which you can schedule future reports eliminates the hassle of trying to monitor data retrospectively.
Each of these products is competitively-priced but based on the flexible pricing structure of Paessler PRTG Network Monitor and its lower entry point, we have to give this product the advantage here. The pricing is not only competitive but also allows you to monitor a number of sensors in line with the needs of your organization.
From the rapid autodiscovery process to the brilliance of the PerfStack Performance Analysis Dashboard and customizable alerts, SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor allows you to create your own monitoring experience with minimal effort.
SolarWinds is active primarily in the network and systems management spaces, making them an excellent choice for anyone that is looking to improve their monitoring and visibility capabilities within an organization.
The SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor summary page shows all of the most common networking items that you would expect to find such as the number of devices that are up, as well as the devices that are in a warning or critical state.
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is centralized, which means that all of the alerts that come up are quick and easy to go through, helping you to cut through the unnecessary flood of unnecessary alerts.
It allows you to acquire the current availability and performance metrics of your network, and lets you set up the automation processes that you need to remediate and reduce issues that cause downtime and performance problems.
It also gives you Network Insight for Cisco ASA, which allows you to automate the actual monitoring and management of firewall installations across you setup, and gives you a singular unified platform that you can easily monitor and watch.
Using SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor gives you all of the visibility that you need from the same application, meaning that your team only needs to learn the features and capabilities that relate to a single tool.
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Hop-by-hop analysis of cloud or on-prem applications or services.
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Automatically updated network maps.
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Want more customization? Build network maps from scratch or import auto-generated maps, customize layouts, and add them to any view or dashboard using the new Orion Maps widget. Spend time maintaining your network, not your network maps.
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