We performed a comparison between Cisco Prime and SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Network Management Applications solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."Cisco Prime is a good tool for inventory monitoring and wireless management."
"The interfaces are a valuable feature."
"We use Cisco Prime for network mapping and surveys."
"It helps us manage and monitor analytics and fix issues."
"The most valuable is the assistance for network support."
"It gives you the ability to upgrade switches remotely, schedule the upgrade time, perform backups, and monitor the health of all networks."
"The most valuable features of Cisco Prime include its comprehensive functionality as a one-stop solution for basic SNMP port management."
"Cisco Prime allows us to manage all the wireless controllers and access points."
"I use it for monitoring the entire network for the company. We oversee nodes down, we oversee devices heading up to crossing the threshold for CPU usage. We oversee power so power backups on the switches, we oversee if they're down or if they're failing. We oversee any node down or any router from any vendor."
"What's nice with NCM is you can set up policies that you can then check against the configs to ensure that your device configs adhere to a baseline or standard that you've set in place."
"SolarWinds NCM provides updates on the status of your network infrastructure. If any issues arise, such as a link failure or a device going offline, you will receive notifications and alerts. Additionally, if someone unplugs a cable, SolarWinds NCM will detect it. It also features a Topology Mapper that displays the connectivity of your network devices, giving you a visual representation of the network's structure. With SolarWinds NCM, you have a clear understanding of what's happening within your network and can generate comprehensive reports."
"Compared to other vendors, like NetBrain, managing the solution is easy. They made it very user-friendly."
"The most valuable Real-time fault detection is beneficial as it enables the identification of changes made to a device's configuration through the SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. This makes it easy to pinpoint which configurations were added or removed, potentially causing network issues. Such changes are saved in logs for future reference."
"The configuration compliance aspect of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager allows for easy comparison of configuration settings across branches, ensuring adherence to security guidelines and best practices. Automation capabilities have greatly impacted workflows, enabling tasks such as configuration backups, template deployment, and firmware upgrades to be automated, thereby streamlining processes and saving time. Compliance reporting features provide valuable insights into network compliance, offering pre-built security audit reports and customizable options to meet specific requirements."
"We push all our configurations to the servers with ease and the logs capture almost all the transactions needed for an internal audit."
"The most valuable features the solution offers are compliance, reliability, and information about reliability."
"The product needs to improve its interface and reporting."
"The user interface of Cisco Prime could be more user-friendly and increase its performance."
"I would love for Cisco Prime to show bandwidth usage and consumption, but I can't monitor bandwidth usage at a given time."
"Cisco needs to improve Prime's monitoring tab. If any device goes down, there is a 15-second lapse before we know. It would be much better if we were alerted two or three minutes before a device is about to fail, so we can dispatch a field engineer and avoid network downtime. I would like to see a feature that allows you to access the devices directly from Prime's monitoring tab. That would make work easier for us."
"Maybe it could be a little cheaper."
"Cisco Prime needs to have lower prices and more customization options."
"It should be able to monitor Palo Alto, Juniper, and Check Point products - not just Cisco solutions."
"The reporting feature of Cisco Prime should be improved."
"The third-party plugins available in the solution could improve. I have received some issues with the templates."
"The solution could improve by being more secure."
"I would like to see more integration tools. Something like dialysis, for example."
"The network flow is a problem for this solution."
"The network logs could be improved. When the error logs come across with those false positive alarms in the error logs."
"It would be great if they include a network service manager, network performance manager, or a privileged assessment in the next release."
"Improvements are needed in the automatic network mapping function."
"I'd like to see additional features like support for devices that don't use CLI for configuration backups, expanded inventory support for other vendors beyond Cisco, and compatibility with newer SD WAN devices. These enhancements would further improve the product's versatility and utility for users. we hope for future enhancements, especially in supporting security devices that lack CLI backup options."
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Cisco Prime is ranked 2nd in Network Management Applications with 35 reviews while SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is ranked 10th in Configuration Management with 22 reviews. Cisco Prime is rated 7.8, while SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Cisco Prime writes "Robust, cost-effective, and provides good visibility, but the scalability could improve". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager writes "Streamlines network configuration and compliance processes through its centralized dashboard, although its compatibility with multi-vendor devices may present limitations". Cisco Prime is most compared with Cisco DNA Center, Aruba Airwave, Huawei eSight, Fortinet FortiManager and HPE Intelligent Management Center, whereas SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is most compared with Cisco DNA Center, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, OpenText Network Node Manager i, VMware NSX and IBM Tivoli NetCool. See our Cisco Prime vs. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager report.
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