Auvik Network Management (ANM) Reviews

It has got a lot of use cases, but in my opinion, it's probably the best full-stack network monitoring management and alerting platform that's out there for routers, switches, firewalls, and non-server infrastructure.

It makes it a lot easier for our IT teams to have visibility into remote and distributed networks. Once you get your IT team members used to it, when you're having an issue, for example, while trying to SSH to something, they will go to Auvik first just because they have the geographic map, and they have these little dummy-proof exclamation marks. So, there might be an issue here. The way Auvik portrays the network from the outside looking in is like being Zeus on a little cloud. We can see what's going on with all our devices which we couldn't see before without having to log into each device individually, or we had to use a diagram that we made when they were set up and refer to that. Now, we have a live reactive changing diagram that allows our network guys to go straight to the actual device that's causing the network issue somewhere in this region and start troubleshooting that right away versus having to troubleshoot three, four, or five devices in that general area blindly, and then, eventually getting to the device they need to work on. It has saved an insurmountable amount of hours of network outages and down networks. It has also reduced our response times. We are able to get that information really quickly, and we don't have to go back and forth. What used to be a four-hour fix is now done in 30 minutes.

It has been great to allow our teams to focus on high-value tasks and delegate low-level tasks to junior staff. It has been great just because of the integration with our PSA ticketing system and the way we can set triggers, priorities, and levels of urgency with notes and all the other cool features they have there. It allows us to route tickets appropriately and then, they already have little checklists that pop up for common alerts that say, "If it's this and this, try this. If not, escalate to senior staff." It has sped that up quite a bit. Often, there's a lot of noise, and by getting the alerting down right to where there are actionable incidents that come in, it has sometimes added a little extra time for the tier one guys because often there are just too many alerts. You have one device that brings down a whole network, but you get alerts on every single device that's inside that network, whereas you only need to know the one. Sometimes, it's not easy from the face value to know which specific device it's until you get used to the tool and the customer.

Auvik keeping our device inventories up-to-date has helped save us time and money. We don't miss a lot of the warranty and inversion roll-ups, and some of our commitments where we have to do quarterly upgrades of the router, switch, and firewall environment. They are the kind of upgrades that aren't done automatically for anyone because you can't do those in the middle of the day. So, our ability to track assets, models, versions, and even warranty expiration dates, which they pull from public databases automatically for you, is invaluable.

They allow for integrations into their platform via API with PSA tools like ConnectWise Manage and ConnectWise Automate. They have a lot of add-on integration and plug-ins for a lot of the big names and IT RMM stacks commonly used in my industry space. These integrations are absolutely valuable. With the integrations into ConnectWise, we are able to automatically create and close tickets across systems. As alerts and new information comes into Auvik, when an issue or a trigger that was alarmed has been resolved, and it detects that it has gone away, based on our threshold, it can talk back to our ticketing system and auto-close it and send a notification. It's phenomenal. You don't have to wait on an email to go to another email, and then that email creates a ticket. It's very useful.

The network visualization is great in terms of overall intuitiveness. They couldn't do any more than doing a coloring book with pop-up pictures and coloring stuff. They made it easy for you to know where to look. They guide you to the right place. I always use the term Windows 85 just because they tried to simplify it so much and make it so easy that it became difficult for people because they are used to doing more steps. They're like, "Wait, that can't be right. That's all I had to do? There have to be more steps." Some of the things are hidden in plain sight, but when you find it once, you're good. The diagrams and the groupings of the sections are very down and out. Like Merkle Tree, they are easy to navigate, and then, they have a lot of cross-referencing hooks inside those sections of the UI that lead you back to the next expected place you'd want to go after making a change in that section. It's nice.

The monitoring and management functions or the out-of-the-box functions are fairly easy to use. When you need to tailor an onboarding for a customer who wants different triggers and conditions for alerts that don't come out of the box in their default alert set for certain device types, you can make it happen and create those, but doing so isn't that easy. Luckily, Auvik support is usually the best. They respond very quickly. You can message them right on a chat. You always get someone who knows what they're talking about, and then, they get you in the right direction. From a user perspective, customizing it's not intuitive, but it can be done with their help.

Its asset inventory is amazing. The only thing that they're still lacking is the ability to make it easier to import assets into their system when onboarding. Other than that, exporting and pulling data that is set up in Auvik is very easy, and it has made QBR with customers and things like that a lot of fun.

So, there should be more custom reporting options when importing or exporting. It should have better data ingestion capabilities, and we should be able to import more than just a CSV. They should also improve it in terms of customization for customer tenants and reporting and onboarding options for migrating from non-Auvik systems or no network monitoring systems into Auvik. It's still a very manual process even with the discovery. The onboardings are probably the longest part.

There is a hidden or unspoken bottleneck that I would like to see improved. When there are 800 to 1,000 devices in one subtenant, that is huge performance segregation. Generally, you're not going to have a lot of customers that have that much, but the solution is to create different sub tenants and such, but it's more of a hassle than it's worth. In the future, I would like to see if they could find a way to break through that bottleneck for the namespace tenants or for the customer tenants to where I could have all the customer network devices in one tenant. They could even be sectionalized inside the tenant, or there could be a way to mask the US1, US2, Customer-1, Customer-2, or whatever namespace in a way that they all also show up in the same portal tenant customer organization, and they all tie into our PSA tools with same API integration. I would like to see that happen. That's been the biggest hurdle for our enterprise customers and deployments because when you're first doing discovery and you start scanning, it starts pulling in everything like printers, computers, phones, and all the stuff you don't need. It adds up to 1,000 really quickly, and then the UI or refresh rate on the tool cripples drastically. That's the biggest thing, but it's not something that can't be overcome either by the options and suggestions they provide as of today. In those kinds of situations, it just requires a little bit of extra work to set up the additional tenants and get everything integrated.

I've been using it for about five years.

Its stability is great. 

I couldn't speak on their actual infrastructure because of the hosted solution. So far, I've seen just massive fast scaling from their infrastructure side just based on namespaces alone. I haven't seen any limitations personally other than the bottleneck I have, but that's not a limitation when there's a solution to create satellite tenants that will talk to each other for the same customer. If that were to continue on, I haven't seen anything that would stop me from creating unlimited 1,000 device namespaces per customer all tied into the same functions of their stack.

I would rate their support a 10 out of 10. It's like they look out for me when I message support. For the last five years, every time I messaged them, they sent me the best guy they had, or that's the experience I've had. I have had nothing but a great experience with their support. I never had to get them on the phone either. It has always been through the chat, which is amazing.

Positive

We only use Auvik for routers, switches, and firewalls or just the network. We don't use it for any servers. We use a combined stack for that piece. Before we moved to Auvik, we used to use two extra tools, and then Auvik replaced those two. Now, we're just down to using two main tools to manage the entire customer infrastructure. We got Auvik and ConnectWise Automate.

In the past 13 years, I've used SolarWinds, NetNat, and Kaseya Traverse. We have used a good handful of managed service provider-focused tools. I used LabTech's very limited network monitoring management tool before they got bought and the name was changed to ConnectWise and ConnectWise Automate, but essentially, LabTech was the same tool as Automate. Anyone in the MSP business over in Houston was either using the Kaseya RMM tool or they were using LabTech's RMM tool to manage their customers. They mainly excelled at just workstations and server management, but they had some limited network functionality or network monitoring and management that you could do. Outside of that, this is the first one that would do it all. Usually, you had to get a vendor-specific one. You'd be doing a bunch of different vendor tools. You'd have a Cisco tool, you'd have a Fortinet tool, or you'd have a SonicWall tool. Each one of those tools monitored and managed just that class of product. It's nice to have one that does it all.

In terms of comparison of Auvik's cloud-based solution versus other on-prem network monitoring solutions, the only thing they have is collectors. They got the collectors, and all they do is that they relay information via HTTPS back to the AWS. AWS does all the magic with the databases.

Deployments are extremely straightforward. My response would be biased because I have been using it for a while, but I don't see anything that someone who doesn't use it regularly might see as a problem or hurdle. I've worked with the support and used the tool so often. So, I know the little caveats where if something is wrong with the way it's talking to a device, if I wait 30 seconds and set the device to unmanaged and then set it back to managed again, I can reset it and reconnect the service. So, it's super easy. Their level of support is quick and very knowledgeable because their support doesn't work with any non-technical people because all of their customers are IT teams. You could probably log into a tenant, and if you have no idea what you're doing, just pop in there in message chat, and you can probably have them walk you through it at a fast enough rate to get you up in line and managing the day-to-day tasks for the customer in that tenant portal in just a matter of a week or less, depending on the size of the network. It could be a matter of a couple of hours.

We have our own process. We streamlined the onboarding process. We took the bits and pieces out of the Auvik documentation that we found to be more relevant and valuable during the initial customer discussions. When you're dealing with a lot of customers who also have internal IT departments, you have to lay out a lot of different concerns, questions, and things that evolve around their specific operations that you just can't predict from the get-go. So, we have our own process where it picks out the protocols that are relevant, the level of permissions that we need, the service accounts that we need, etc. We set those requirements and expectations in our scope with the customer, and they sign off on it that they get us this information within a certain timeframe. That helps speed up the process out of the box. Assuming everything is perfect and we have all of the access and all the keys to the kingdom of someone we're trying to deploy out of the box, we should have no problem deploying it very quickly. That's because all the credentials that we need to manage those devices are automated by an Auvik service account for logins, remote sessions, and SNMP. If all those are plugged in before we deploy the collector, and as we deploy the collector, it does all that magic for us. That's the automation piece involving connecting, discovering, pulling information, and wrapping everything together.

I got a new guy who works with me now, but for the last three years, it has been solely me deploying Auvik for every customer and internally for our operations as well. I deploy it, configure it, and then I hand it off to Ops to maintain it, and they handle it from there. 

In terms of maintenance, it doesn't require much maintenance. In the past few years, there were some instances where they couldn't automatically update collectors from certain versions to certain versions when you passed a certain point. So, you just have to go in and update or just redeploy collectors for customers, which is due to the nature of how they are set up. You could have one that just breaks. You can spin off a brand new one in less than 30 minutes, and you're back to where you were before.

Every time we onboard a new customer to provide our IT services, there's a kickoff call that just says, "Hey, we're doing this." Auvik provides us the ability to perform discovery as soon as we have keys to their infrastructure.

There has been a reduction in our mean time to resolution (MTTR). From incident to resolution, it has probably cut that time down in half for the operations side.

The prices change based on your partnership with them and based on the bulk amount that you buy and the account rep you're talking to. It depends on negotiations and the number of customers you have. 

It's absolutely worth the money. I would probably charge more if I were them. They don't charge you for anything that's not a router, switch, or firewall controller, or a network device. So, you can throw anything like servers and ESX hosts. You can throw network storage and all that stuff in there, and they have functionality in there for you to build out, monitor, and manage those as well, which you don't get charged for. You only get charged per device for a switch, router, or firewall, which is nice. You can have a collector for a customer, and it's just a minimal fee for the tenant. It's pretty neat. You can deploy as many collectors as you want to talk to that tenant for the customer on the fly and do discoveries. We also handle some emergency requests such as, "We need to figure out what we have on our network because we got ransomware, and we need to make sure all of our devices and all of our assets have the new antivirus. We're supposed to have 6,000 devices, but we're only showing this many." There have been times when we've literally just used the tool for discovery on a customer to collect a full report of assets and then used that to fix another whole different type of issue and provide solutions for more revenue to additional projects for that engagement. We use it ad hoc. We use it for month-to-month management of infrastructures. Now, we use it for discoveries and emergency projects where we need to collect a lot of information very quickly when we don't have any other IT at the other end to provide information on situations.

When I got hired with Computex, now Calian, they hired me because they didn't know what to do with Traverse. I made the decision and met with the engineering team. I was certainly 90% of the reason for the decision for them to move away from Kaseya's Traverse tool to Auvik's tool. I made that decision when I came on because I had a lot of background in it, and they had an acquisition where they had that tool for half of their businesses they were providing IT for, and then, they had Traverse. I convinced them to get away from Traverse because it wasn't a good tool, and then we moved over to a tool that did what we needed.

I had to do a lot of training. I had to host a lot of training and calls and some webinars for our NOC team, but once we got a hang of it, we were able to display it while the customer was at our NOC. We could display the active live network monitoring diagrams on our dashboards with all our other systems. It gives everyone a warm feeling when they can look over and see what's going on.

I would advise first figuring out what you're trying to accomplish. If you are trying to ad hoc or duct tape other tools, rethink. Auvik performs and shows the most value when it becomes your sole tool for all of your network monitoring and management and alerting. If you're trying to ad hoc, duct tape, or throw in just for a feature or a filler for another product, you're just going to run into more headache. You only need Auvik to manage all of those things. If you're looking to Auvik for server management, workstation management, it's possible, but it's not built for that. So, make sure that it's for network devices only. It's not really designed to manage storage and hypervisors and remote access. It's not a day-to-day help desk support tool for you to hop on to user workstations and troubleshoot from that standpoint.

If you want just another monitoring solution, Auvik can do it, but Auvik's magic is the fact that it's a full stack. It's not just monitoring. It's full network management, remote access, and preventative maintenance. It's a full RMM tool. So, if you're looking for strictly an alerting tool for your network, you'd be wasting some very well-engineered features on the product by going with Auvik just for that. 

Its ease of use isn't too important for us, but it depends on the kind of use because we have layered access and levels of skill sets that are allowed to do certain things in it. From a broader perspective, 90% of the engineers that work for a managed services provider and 90% of the guys on our support desk aren't going to be there changing anything. It's just going to be the project team that sets it up, onboards it, and configures it. Once that process is standardized for us, there are only minor tweaks, based on the customer type, when we set up new clients. It becomes pretty streamlined. The only time that the ease of use helps is in the beginning when you first start using the tool itself. Once you've been a partner with Auvik, you've onboarded a few customers, and you've dug your way in and out, and around it, and you do a couple hundred after that, it's not as relevant.

It hasn't helped reduce repetitive, low-priority tasks through automation. They don't have much automation in the platform itself. The only automated thing that they do is to monitor conditions, and then the routing of the alerts, who they go to, and how those are handled. In terms of automation of maintenance on the network, there isn't any function like that in Auvik that I'm aware of. It's mostly just analytics monitoring and a remote access tool.

I would rate it a nine out of ten.

We use Auvik to discover devices on the network, to get a good layout of the network, and to have the solution back up the configuration of certain network devices.

Auvik provides a single integrated platform for our organization which is super helpful.

Before Auvik, our network was a little bit of a mess. Sometimes we would use an application, and other times we wouldn't use anything. We wouldn't know anything about the network. As a result, it was all over the board.

The solution gave us the ability to see the network's layout, which gave us a better understanding of how it worked. Auvik can help identify where a device is plugged in and how it is accessing the network. This can help troubleshoot any issues with devices not working properly.

Auvik's mapping is great. It is one of the better-looking mappings that I have seen. Having the mapping available visually is great. It is super helpful for the techs to be able to pop open Auvik and see where everything is plugged in.

Auvik has affected our team's visibility into our remote and distribution networks globally in a positive way, making the network easier to manage.

It helps keep our device inventories up to date. When a device breaks, we get an alert from Auvik, and then we deal with it. We have the alerts set up for high-value tasks or high-importance devices, such as a network switch going down. We don't use Auvik for low-priority tasks at all.

I love that Auvik can automatically back up the configuration of switches and firewalls.

It's not difficult to use the monitoring and management functions of Auvik, but it's not entirely intuitive either. Once we get the hang of it, it's simple enough.

We have other solutions that keep our inventory up to date, therefore using Auvik to keep inventory up to date for us is redundant. However, I see how other people would use the solution because it scans the network constantly and keeps the inventory up to date. Auvik can save time. 

Auvik requires almost zero maintenance.

I would recommend fixing the visual layout of the screen. I dislike not being able to zoom in and out with the mouse wheel. To zoom in and out, we have to use the plus and minus buttons on the side of the screen. I also recommend not having the device constantly refresh while we're looking at it. At times, we'll be trying to figure out where things are and devices will suddenly start moving back and forth. Sometimes we want the information to pause so we can check the layout.

I wish there was a way to reduce the cost somehow.

I have been using Auvik for a few years.

Auvik is very reliable. I've seen the solution break a couple of times, but it's rare.

The scalability is great. It can handle small networks and humongous networks.

I had a question that was answered by technical support quickly.

Positive

The initial setup was straightforward. It was very simple, we installed the agent and let it scan out of the box.

It takes under ten minutes for Auvik to start network mapping once the collector is implemented.

The implementation was completed in-house using just me.

Auvik helped speed up network troubleshooting. And having the layout can help us figure out where devices are when somebody's unsure, remotely. The solution definitely improved our time.

Depending on the situation we occasionally see a reduction in our MTTR. If there's a network issue, Auvik can help with troubleshooting, significantly reducing our time.

Auvik is expensive but worth the cost for a network management solution.

It can get expensive quickly if we monitor a lot of devices, which is unfortunate because we have a lot of devices to monitor.

Auvik is definitely the leader in the visual layout field. We looked at SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor, but it didn't have the feature set or reliability that Auvik offers.

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

Auvik is deployed across multiple locations. We're an MSP, and we have multiple clients, each with separate networks. We installed an Auvik agent for each of those clients.

Before using Auvik we must have all the credentials in our hands. It makes the deployment easier.

I was looking for a solution that we could use to catalog and keep track of our inventory. I thought about using Auvik in our lab environment to see how it would work for tracking inventory in a production setting.

Auvik's ease of use has bettered our operations by allowing us to add or remove platforms as they get added in or get deprecated, improving quality of life.

The solution was able to integrate with most of our platforms. There were a couple of vendors that were not added in yet, but it wasn't an issue.

It would be beneficial having a single integrated platform for our organization but no solution is able to fully integrate with every vendor. We work with what we have.

If I can deploy the solution into production, it would be beneficial because we can also upload documentation to the Auvik page so we can have quick access for our support team. If our organization leverages Auvik to pull down documentation on the specific vendors as well as just our internal processes, workflow, and troubleshooting approach, Auvik would improve our organization.

Auvik helps us keep our device inventory up to date. After adding all the necessary information, the quickest way I could see the code versions running was by querying the SNPs.

In the long run, the time Auvik would save us quickly pulling the information required to keep our inventory up to date would be a lifesaver. 

Using the monitoring and management functions of Auvik is easy. The solution is straightforward to set up. It communicates well with the SNP and some of the cloud platforms via API keys.

I like the view Auvik offers to help visualize the network mapping/topology for our organization. When we have a large deployment with tens or hundreds of devices, the view can get a little cluttered. The fact that the view is there and we can zoom in and zoom out still makes it valuable to see how things are interconnected and laid out.

I am sure that if we moved forward with the solution it would affect our IT team's visibility into our remote and distributed networks globally, but for evaluation purposes, I was the only one using Auvik.

The fact that Auvik can be accessed anywhere is a good benefit. Not having to use a VPN to access the solution is advantageous. If I'm at a customer site or I'm on vacation, and I need to pull information up because I get an email or a phone call from somebody at work, having Auvik is beneficial because it is cloud-based compared to on-prem network monitoring solutions. 

Auvik mostly supports large vendors such as the Cisco Aruba networks, Meraki, and Extreme Networks. They have the ability to tie into Meraki's dashboard, which is a subsidiary of Cisco. We're using some of the Ruckus hardware. If Auvik can add in some of the smaller vendors to be able to work with their products or even Extreme Networks' cloud platform, that would be beneficial for our organization. 

I have been using Auvik for a couple of weeks.

It is stable and we have not encountered any problems.

I added a Meraki platform with 20,000 access points to test Auvik's scalability. The platform accepted the additional access points without issue and was able to handle the additional load.

The technical support was good. They responded quickly to my question and helped me resolve the issue.

Positive

The initial setup was straightforward. I had to set up a VM in our network that acted as the collector of the data. I didn't read the directions well enough myself and tried to install Auvik on a newer version of Ubuntu. Once I realized my error I moved the solution back down to the correct version and it was up and running within a few minutes. 

The deployment took around two hours. We deployed the solution in a single location for one of our departments to conduct initial testing and proof of concept.

The implementation was out-of-the-box and completed in-house.

It seems that the pricing is a little higher than some of the other solutions, but it also offers more value and data. The pricing shown on the website goes up to 40 devices and for anything higher, we are required to contact the vendor.

We also evaluated PRTG Network Monitor.

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

We need a better system for tracking inventory and assets in our production world. Currently, we have an Icinga instance that is not suited for this purpose.

The biggest challenge I faced with Auvik was configuring SNP for devices that did not have it pre-configured because some versions need to talk to the crawler or collector. Once configured, we can add as many devices as we can and view the data Auvik feeds back to us.

We are using Auvik specifically for monitoring network devices. We are an IT company that's focused on network integration and monitoring for our customers. We use Auvik to monitor routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, and other network devices.

If there is an alert, we can just click on it in the email, and it redirects us to the Auvik page where we can see what's going on with that device. That makes it quick to find what's going on in the network.

And the visibility into remote and distributed networks globally was one of the reasons we moved to Auvik. The cloud platform means our team can work from home and it takes seconds to access a customer's network to see what's happening. We don't have to deal with VPNs and go through something on-prem. That has saved a lot of time. You access Auvik and you are good to go. Everything is there.

It also helps keep device inventories up to date so that we can pull this information and have it ready. There is no need to engage someone to have them reassess the inventory or split inventory into categories. You already have all the categories and you can just export the information. For example, when we want to renew a support contract with a customer and we need to know their inventory, we can use Auvik to export it and we are good to go. It saves us 90 percent of the time it would otherwise take.

The first feature that I appreciate is the topology drawing in real time. If our NOC wants to troubleshoot, they can go to the topology map and see that this access point is connected to that switch via that specific port. And when something changes in the topology, it's dynamically updated.

The network mapping is such a great tool. We have some customers for which we manage access points and switches. The management platform for those products, like Meraki, shows you topologies on their cloud dashboard. But if you look at the topology in the Auvik, it is much better with colors. It shows Layer 1 and Layer 3 connectivities and provides you with a view that has a look and feel that is better than what the vendor itself provides. Its overall intuitiveness is excellent.

The backup feature is also important. Once we have access via SSH to devices, Auvik will detect if there are any changes and will back up the configurations.

And using the cloud ping feature, it will monitor WAN circuits. It sends a ping and alerts you if anything goes wrong with your WAN. It will also give you the speed and the round-trip time.

Comparing Auvik to SolarWinds and other platforms, it is pretty straightforward when it comes to monitoring. The people we recruit in our NOC learn how to use Auvik very fast. It's a core element for our NOC service. Before, we were using legacy vendors for NMS. When we moved to Auvik, things became more flexible and easier. We can onboard people easily when it comes to learning how to use Auvik to do monitoring for our customers.

It also provides one pane of glass. You can do the things you want to do in one place. Your NOC team can access and look at the alerts, check all the backup configurations, see the status of the devices, et cetera. It's one place to look at everything.

We would like them to make the alerting more customizable. We had a conversation about this yesterday. We want to be able to access more fields.

I have been using Auvik for about three years.

It's stable.

It is also scalable. We plan to increase our usage of the product.

We use it across multiple locations and we are at about 600 endpoints.

Their technical support is great overall.

But recently, we got a little bit frustrated. Two weeks ago, we were able to access the support chat via a small button on the bottom right side of the screen. Now, that button has gone away. I'm not sure if it is a limitation of my browser and I tried to find out about it on the internet. But it has become pretty difficult to access support right now, as long as there is no chat button available. Before, it was great. We need the support button to come back.

Positive

We tried other vendors, including SolarWinds, but you had to host those solutions in your data center and maintain them. Auvik is cloud-based, and it's a new way to think about monitoring. It gives us simplicity and enables a multi-tenant philosophy.

The cloud is a trend. That is what the world looks like now. Everything is cloud-based, making it easy to access, wherever you are. With on-prem solutions, you have to maintain your stuff, such as VPNs with your customers to collect information. Cloud-based stuff is great.

The initial setup to install a collector takes about 10 minutes. Within 10 to 20 minutes after that, you can have your topology built. Of course, you have to configure the devices to the SNMP, so it can grab the information. The whole process to get a rock-solid topology will take two hours or so. You have to engage the customer to do additional configuration on the devices. But if they have that configuration done ahead of time, it won't take more than one hour.

Most of the time, it's just me doing deployments.

As for maintenance, because it's cloud-based, Auvik maintains it on a regular basis. I notice every weekend that they have something to do, but it doesn't disturb us. We are not maintaining the solution.

For the first deployments, we had someone from Auvik who supported us. We learned in real time with someone who was an expert in the product. After that, we just replicated what he did and added more things as we went forward.

Our ROI is in saving a lot of time in terms of onboarding. When we want to engage a new customer, we can do that in about 10 minutes. With the legacy stuff, we would have to spin up a VPN and maintain it. Now, we just put in the Auvik collector and we are good to go. It starts scanning and collecting information.

The pricing of Auvik is good. If it could be less, that would be even better, but as long as they offer free devices, that is great.

We looked at LogicMonitor at the same time. But we had a salesperson from Auvik who demonstrated more features. In the end, we saw that the solutions are pretty similar, but we picked Auvik.

While I didn't check the price of LogicMonitor, Auvik is cloud-based and you have to pay a monthly subscription. But what you gain is that it will monitor servers and APs, et cetera, for free. It's a subscription and not a one-time fee like SolarWinds and other legacy platforms. For instance, we have some customers with 20 switches, two controllers in high-availability mode, and 200 APs. We get monitoring of those 200 APs without paying for it. We just pay for the switches and controllers.

I would recommend Auvik.

We're a managed services provider using Auvik for network management of firewalls and switches. We use several tools alongside Auvik, which we primarily utilize for network mapping and managing communication between switches and firewalls. Our clients are set up on tenants within the solution.

Auvik enables us to make comprehensive network diagrams of the various companies that we manage. It gives us complete visibility into the network infrastructure, but we use an RMM for some of our other items. It doesn't replace the RMM or stuff like antivirus.

Our tier 1 support techs generally do not use Auvik because they're handling basic tasks. Auvik's interface is intuitive, but you need to know what you're seeing. Tier 2 and tier 3 engineers have the understanding needed to delve into the information Auvik provides. 

Auvik has lowered our mean time to resolution. When there are network issues, we can hop on Auvik and quickly see what's happening. It enables us to resolve problems much faster than before. Previously, we were hunting through all the switches, trying to understand the problem on a switch-by-switch basis, but Auvik lets us see precisely what's happening on the entire network.

For example, we were ripping apart an entire server rack yesterday. In the past, we had to manually map each individual port on a switch to where it connected on the other side. Now, we can go into Auvik to grab that information right instead of going to each switch individually or physically mapping this port over to this port on this switch. That can get hard, especially when you're dealing with switches that may or may not be on the same switch rack. Auvik definitely helps out with stuff like that.

We started realizing Auvik's benefits within the first month or so. Some of our more experienced network guys could start taking advantage of Auvik as soon as the network maps started populating. 

I like the information Auvik provides you about switches that helps you troubleshoot connectivity issues between clients and switches. It's much easier to locate where the problem is on the network. We were using N-central for our RMM. Unfortunately, that doesn't map out the switches. It tells us what is up or down but doesn't do a good job of network troubleshooting like Auvik does. 

Auvik's intuitive interface enables us to troubleshoot networks much faster than before. In the past, we were going into a connectivity issue blindly. With Auvik, we can pinpoint exactly where things might be breaking down on the network.

When you remove an item from the network, Auvik puts it off to the side so it stays on the map for a long time. I'd like the ability to completely delete unnecessary items. For example, when you replace a switch, the old one still displays on the map as a disconnected item. It would be nice if you could go in there and remove it from the map. 

Network setups take time regardless of the tool you use. It will always take time to build. I wish you could order Auvik to rescan the network on demand when I make changes. Sometimes, I want the network to scan immediately instead of waiting for it to detect the changes.

I have used Auvik for around six months.

I haven't had issues with stability, but there's a little lag when you make a network change. Sometimes it can take a little while. 

Auvik is highly scalable.

I rate Auvik's support eight out of 10. We've contacted support a couple of times. Once, it would not install the collector properly. It took a little back and forth, but they resolved the issue pretty quickly. 

Positive

We were using Microsoft Visio to create our network maps by hand. When something changed, we had to remember to update the map. Auvik updates the map in real-time when something changes, so you can see it update within minutes. We used that and N-able N-central RMM, which we continue to use, but we've limited our N-central license and started to use Auvik for some of the functions related to switches and firewalls because Auvik gives us a clearer understanding of the network. 

Auvik is a cloud-based solution. It's fairly easy to set up. I handled most of the deployment, but two other people were involved. The setup involves adding all the passwords, SMPs, etc. for the network. 

It takes a little time to fine-tune it. It probably takes around two hours for the average network. It's a little less for the smaller sights, but we had a couple of massive ones that took a while to do. I'm also meticulous, so I want to ensure all the workstations pull correctly and show the right names. After deployment, Auvik doesn't require much maintenance.  Sometimes, we have to update the credentials when we add something new. 

We can identify issues a lot faster and make the cluster work a lot quicker. Previously, a technician could spend hours trying to find the issue. Now, it takes minutes. 

Auvik's pricing is fair overall, but some advanced stuff is a little expensive. I like that the licensing model is based on switches instead of endpoints. We don't use some of the more advanced features because they're a little beyond our price range.  We're using the tool internally, but the expense is passed on to the customer, and the advanced features aren't something that most customers are willing to pay for. 

We had researched Auvik before, and so we already had a prior understanding of what Avid does. It was a matter of convincing the people who pay the bills that this is something they should invest in. There weren't many other solutions that did the same thing, and they were expensive. Auvik has a better price point than some solutions like SolarWinds. Also, SolarWinds is too basic for what we're trying to do. 

I rate Auvik nine out of 10. I'm happy with it and how it works. New users should get training from Auvik and play with it. The best way to learn the solution is to use it and try things. Also, I recommend not turning on all the alerts immediately because you'll get overwhelmed. 

We're an MSSP serving many customers. Auvik is one of a set of tools that we offer our clients, including network monitoring and management, SIEM, and endpoint protection. They buy the bundle and get access to Auvik. 

We use Auvik for network monitoring, availability, and troubleshooting. The solution provides asset visibility and inventory management. Most people don't know what they have and where it is. They also use it to centrally monitor remote access from multiple sites. 

Auvik's alerts speed up troubleshooting because you can correlate them. It decreases the mean time to resolution because it's easier to zero in on a customer's site or device. That is so much faster than pulling up a spreadsheet, looking up a device, and connecting to your remote access point. Auvik streamlines many of the steps you must take to begin troubleshooting.

It's more convenient to manage the devices in Auvik instead of going directly to them. Having them all in one place is convenient, and you can easily compare configs and revisions. If you don't have a central management platform for the vendor you use, Auvik is probably the next best thing.

The UI is more accessible to lower-level technicians because you typically need to know the syntax to gather information from the command line interface, but Auvik does that for you.  

If you have all the information you need to begin the discovery, you begin to see the value immediately. When I'm doing an on-site deployment for our customers, they're always amazed at how quickly the map starts to fill out and the inventory begins to populate, they realize the value right away.

Auvik's network map is cool, and the automatic discovery process is effortless. The map gives you a representation of your network that's nearly in real-time. It's a good starting point. If you can see when there has been a significant change or a critical problem. The visibility is as good as your deployment. You can gain total visibility if you deploy it well.

The interface is intuitive and consistent. All of the menus are in the same place. The various buttons for devices and the dashboard all have a theme that's cohesive, so it's easy to learn. When you learn how to do something in one area, it generally applies to other parts of the tool. The UI is so easy to navigate that you don't really have to think about how to get the information. You just get it and start using the tool.

When mapping complex network architectures or nonstandard things, the map doesn't always accurately reflect reality. Sometimes the interface is pretty sluggish. It's much worse if the customer environment is relatively large and complex. But even if you split a site that's large into a couple of multi-sites, The performance is still a bit slow sometimes.

I have used Auvik for three years.

Auvik is mostly stable. They have regular maintenance windows, but they let you know that well in advance. There haven't been other problems aside from occasional slowness on some networks. 

Auvik is growing with us. We started with two customer sites, and now we have nearly two dozen. 

I rate Auvik support nine out of 10. Their response times are good. They have this live chat feature that's available most of the time, and they respond quickly. The support team can access what you're asking them to look at immediately and typically resolve issues quickly. Most of my problems are addressed during the chat session and don't require a follow-up email or phone call.

Positive

I've used PRTG. Auvik is simpler to deploy and the licensing model is more straightforward. I like PRTG, but it's expensive and more complicated.

The deployment in general is super easy. Auvik is probably the easiest tool of this nature to deploy. Our internal team did the deployment following the provided documentation and Auvik's knowledge base. Everything is in the cloud except for the collectors. I was still learning the tool when we first deployed it, but it was still relatively straightforward. The hardest part was going in and setting up the monitoring.  If you don't already have SMPP configured on your network devices, you need to figure out how to do all that so Auvik can take over.

Auvik requires very little maintenance after deployment. Once, there was a collector update for the Linux-based collectors, and there was a process of redeploying all the collectors and migrating some to this new version. That was the most invasive maintenance I've ever had related to Auvik.

I'm not in charge of purchasing, but I like the fact that some network devices don't count toward the license. Licensing is probably the area I know the least about. I know that it's based on the number of devices instead of the sensors. It seems pretty straightforward.

I rate Auvik nine out of 10. New Auvik customers should be prepared with their device monitoring setup, credentials, IP addresses, etc. documented and ready to go. That will make the deployment process smooth and fast. 

We have several different physical sites and we run our own network. Auvik has some exciting capabilities for aggregating Syslog from switches and having remote console administration across geographic locations. The solution puts a common off-wall in front of switch management but also makes it easy for us to go in and make changes.

We use the solution across multiple locations and departments.

We use Auvik where we have the most pain points because it's a charge per device brought online model. We use Auvik in a smaller proportion of our infrastructure, around 30% of our architecture.

Auvik provides a simple way to view the current configuration and to view the network monitoring status checks. Auvik allows me to work in a bigger team with a large number of different circumstances happening at once, and share a common source of truth and management platform. It is more of a teamwork tool and a work-from-different-location tool than anything else.

We get more benefits out of Auvik than other solutions depending on specific job roles in the team. The main value of Auvik is the reduction in communication gaps that makes it faster to respond to issues. Our incident response no longer relies on someone logging into a SolarWinds platform or getting a Syslog agent on our system to collect our logs. We no longer rely on someone having to configure a pipeline alert or the SMTP email relay working in order to get an email that wasn't checked. Auvik doesn't do anything that I can't get from a variety of other tools or modified solutions but it does it all in one website that works well.

In terms of instant response, we get alerted about issues faster and with fewer spam alerts. Previously, we didn't configure our alerts as well as we could have. When there is an issue, Auvik identifies it for us and that saves us time. We have proof of network performance, in any case. The ability to quickly run tests and show logging allows us to see if an issue is because of something on our network or from external causes beyond our control.

We purchase other companies or partner with them at different times and work with them in various ways which require us to onboard or allow people to access certain areas on our network and Auvik makes it easier to manage. The solution allows us to have a visual network representation and streamlined demo space of some network features, and we can let people play in a sandbox.

The solution reduces the amount of time we spend on onsite visits, eliminating the travel time and setup time for inspecting the network. Auvik allows us to manage the network remotely in a matter of seconds without the need to leave the building which correlates to more time for other tasks.

Auvik's UI design helps visualize the network mapping and topology of our organization because it provides a nice modern experience, in terms of usability and can be used with any modern browser. Unlike some other solutions with outdated interfaces, Auvik utilizes an appealing dashboard to show us our network and lets us drill down deep.

Our IT team's visibility into our remote and distributed networks globally has been good to date using the solution, but we are not a large company and we have a limited number of sites.

The solution's ability to access our networks remotely has correlated with time for our IT teams to focus on other tasks. Our engineers can save over three hours of their day compared to having to deal with an issue on-site.

The remote console administration stands out as a valued feature. I haven't found another relatively easy and versatile product that is all-encompassing. 

Using Auvik's monitoring and management functions is easy because it is a web-based app. The charge models are based on the number of core network devices we have. We have virtual machines and various items that our charges are based on such as adding a switch or a firewall. We are not charged simply because we have a virtual machine running. We get more visibility into what we're running compared to other solutions. 

The solution's ease of use is the reason we bought it.

The solution can provide a single integrated platform depending on what we want the platform to do. Auvik provides more of an integrated teamwork network management platform than anything I've previously seen. The solution does nearly everything and it does it in a convenient, easy, and accessible way compared to my past experiences with other solutions. Auvik's user experience is very nice.

The solution's intuitiveness of the network visualization is strong and we don't need to spend much time to find it useful.

Auvik's ability to keep our device inventory up to date is a convenient feature.

Auvik can improve by increasing the tech file management capability.

In the past we had a Git server where we made changes to configurations, allowing us to push the changes, and depending on the system, we had the ability to convert the information down to a text file but if there was a problem, we could quickly revert it back. I would like the ability to version control Auvik configurations and potentially automate them by having a type of Gitflow system.

I have been using the solution for a year and a half.

The solution is fairly stable but at times can drop off, or we have collector issues, or there's various service-related downtime. Auvik has a status page where we can check for uptime issues.

I don't worry about the scalability of the solution because it is quite a broad, scalable, and modern platform. 

I previously used open-source solutions that were built at home. I don't know of another solution that is a strong competitive, multivendor, that plays in this space, which is why we ended up using Auvik.

Until July 2021, our organization had a SolarWinds contract, but when the global hack happened, we had to reevaluate what we were using for monitoring and management.

The initial setup was not complex. All we needed to install were collectors and we were able to start network mapping the same day. The deployment was handled by a small team. We have different offices and sites but it does not require a significant amount of time to implement Auvik and get it running on the equipment we need. We need someone that has the ability to use computers for the deployment.

The implementation was completed in-house.

We have found Auvik improves our ability to complete tasks more quickly and improve responses internally. We're not planning on canceling the solution. We find that Auvik is improving our ability to manage remote sites, and we like using the tool.

Auvik charges based on the number of network devices being used. The pricing is fair as long as we are getting use out of the solution.

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

We still use multiple applications, but Auvik has taken over a lot more of them and has also taken over areas that we just did not have applications to manage before. There is a nice network flow and analytics information. What we found the most interesting is, if we onboard or offboard a team member, our ability to manage switch configs, check in on issues quickly, and do some Syslog searches, can all be done in one place, behind one login, one permission set making it a lot easier to manage tasks on a daily basis.

I'm not sure how much of Auvik's automation capability we've really leveraged or how much the solution specifically has. We have some existing systems in place and we use Auvik more as a network monitoring and remote management tool. I don't believe the solution has fully supplanted some of our existing practices. We use Auvik as an additive layer that's super helpful in terms of incident response, client engagement, and making our lives easier.

Auvik provides discovery capabilities based on Mac addresses that can help keep device inventories up to date. We don't use the solution for device discovery and I am not sure how accurate it is. I find the solution very helpful in terms of getting visibility into what the network is doing and what's on it.

We selected Auvik based on a number of factors that made sense at the time including, their charge model which is based on network devices and COVID affecting our locations. We didn't go through a full vendor review process the same way that we usually would and looked for a number of competitors. We saw that Auvik was affordable and fulfilled a business need.

To anyone that is comparing network monitor solutions, but is concerned about pricing, I would advise the amount of time we saved with the solution was worth the money spent. 

I am a big open-source proponent. I've contributed to open-source solutions and used a lot of them. Most of the time open-source solutions are some of the best solutions that we can have. In some cases, there is a clear deficiency versus a commercial solution. Sometimes it's worth paying for a service, a product X because it saves the company money or it meets a compliance or insurance requirement. 

Business reasons can overrule other reasons. One business reason could be that we need a network monitoring, management, and remote administration capability platform so our engineers spend less time traveling between data centers to complete tasks and debug logging systems. Engineers are fairly expensive employees at the end of the day, between health insurance, salary, and vacation time. The business would be more profitable if those engineers were more efficient at their job. 

Auvik can benefit the organization through the reduction of staff required by minimizing the time it takes to complete each task or allowing those engineers to spend time on more useful tasks. Auvik is a helpful product that assists a company that is trying to remotely manage sites across different areas with a team. The solution adds an orchestration layer to that. Auvik adds an application on a modern platform for the management of the devices that we're controlling and makes it less taxing and easier for us to benefit from that.

Auvik's cloud-based solution is convenient compared to on-prem network monitoring solutions.

We sometimes perform trivial maintenance on Auvik for user management in the portal.

I recommend the solution to others. Auvik is a useful platform. 

It provides comprehensive visibility into your network infrastructure, automates network mapping, sends timely alerts for potential issues, and facilitates configuration management. With Auvik, you can receive notifications directly, ensuring you stay informed about the health and performance of your network.

When I integrated Auvik, the primary goal was to uncover issues that might be occurring without my awareness. Essentially, I wanted to identify potential problems before they escalated to a point where I became aware of them, often when it was already too late. I sought early warnings for network issues to proactively address and mitigate them.

It provides an intuitive interface, supporting ease of use, and I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I grasped it. The installation process was swift, and their team proved exceptionally helpful in offering expert guidance on setup and addressing any specific product configurations. Most elements were pre-configured, requiring minimal adjustments. Auvik efficiently scanned and identified network components, generating a comprehensive map crucial for my PCI compliance needs—all accomplished within a day.

The network map and the dashboard provide a near real-time snapshot of my network—about as real-time as I could expect. The system regularly pulls device information, the frequency of which is customizable based on alert settings. This flexibility is advantageous, especially when it comes to specific devices like credit card readers. If immediate notification of issues is crucial, Auvik ensures it is delivered.

The user-friendliness of the network map is contingent on the size of your network. A larger screen is advisable for extensive networks as it encompasses a comprehensive view. Managing a complex network might require some manual manipulation of the map to focus on specific areas. Alternatively, you can utilize the search feature, which proves efficient. Whether you prefer a manual approach or a quick search, both options are available. The search function allows you to easily select a category and device, promptly highlighting the desired item on the map.

It significantly reduced my meantime to resolution. Initially, I was unaware of certain issues within the network, and upon discovering them, I felt a sense of urgency to address multiple problems. However, once these issues were resolved, I gained confidence in the system's ability to alert me promptly to any future issues, providing a proactive approach to network management.

The most valuable aspect, primarily for a solo IT practitioner like myself, is its simplicity in setup. This was a significant factor that led me to choose it. The appeal lies in the unified dashboard, providing a single view encompassing all aspects of my network. The decision was driven by the ease of use—setting up reporting and alerts was straightforward without the need for complex coding or intricate configurations. It served its purpose precisely as designed, meeting my requirements effortlessly.

A notable feature is the ability to filter out static elements, allowing me to focus solely on what matters. Initially, I appreciated the panoramic view as my network unfolded on the map. From there, I could selectively identify areas of interest and importance. Auvik facilitated this process by enabling me to set up alerts for specific aspects, promptly notifying me of any relevant occurrences.

One enhancement I'd appreciate is the ability to configure the network map based on specific criteria. It would be valuable if Auvik allowed users to customize their view, defining what elements they want to see consistently. For example, configuring the map to display only printers in a retail store upon launching Auvik would streamline the process, eliminating the need to filter down the entire network map each time. Implementing a configurable dashboard for the network map would enhance user experience in this regard.

I have been using it for approximately two years.

When it comes to stability, there was an initial issue where one of my servers, set up to handle scanning and reporting, experienced a service interruption. The service would stop, requiring manual restarts. However, upon investigation, it was identified as a configuration problem, which was promptly addressed and resolved. Since then, the system has been stable without any further disruptions.

In terms of scalability, Auvik conducts a network scan. If you expand your network size, the system automatically identifies new devices and seamlessly integrates them into its operations.

Accessing tech support and raising an issue through the ticketing system was a seamless process. The challenges I encountered were device-specific, particularly with some Cisco devices that weren't configured correctly for Auvik utilization. Their tech support team was well-versed in addressing such issues. Initiating a ticket involved a simple phone call, and the response time, although not immediately critical, was reasonable. The overall process was straightforward and relatively easy to navigate. I would rate it ten out of ten.

Positive

We utilized a different solution before transitioning to Auvik. However, this shift occurred concurrently with a network upgrade. In my initial role, I developed an access application to generate a map and reports based on raw data, which was suitable for a simpler network. As our network evolved and became more intricate, the initial application became impractical, leading me to experiment with less robust solutions. While these alternatives provided some features, they fell short of the comprehensive functionality Auvik offers. Throughout this exploration, it became evident that Auvik encompassed all the essential aspects I was seeking, consolidating them into a unified platform.

Regarding issue resolution, it heavily relies on the specific device, but the crucial aspect of becoming aware of the issue is indeed present. The setup process was straightforward, and maintaining the system was equally uncomplicated. The programming is well-executed.

The deployment process was completed within a day, and I utilized the assistance provided. Although I believe I could have easily handled it on my own, their proactive help was voluntary—I hadn't requested it. Throughout the process, they were readily available and seemed invested in seeing it come together smoothly within the day. The primary task in setting it up involved opening a port and sharing the necessary network information for them to initiate network scanning.

I recognized its value on the very same day when I witnessed the network map coming to life, devices being detected, and a wealth of information being captured by the system.

While having an all-encompassing network monitoring solution may come at a cost, my initial approach was to seek cost-effective modules and integrate them seamlessly. While it was feasible to assemble and make various modules work together, the maintenance and usage of multiple modules would have been more cumbersome compared to the convenience of accessing a unified dashboard for all monitoring needs.

The pricing is reasonable, neither exceptionally cheap nor excessively expensive—it aligns well with what I anticipated.

Auvik's pricing structure is primarily based on servers, and the monitoring of actual endpoint devices is either included in the server license price or provided at no extra cost. While I'm not certain of the specific details, I have observed that the billing is influenced by new network nodes.

As a product, it is robust, and it's easy to generate comprehensive information. The key learning curve involves understanding how to refine and customize the data it provides, essentially eliminating unnecessary static. For me, the primary task was configuring it to align with my environment and specific use case, tailoring the information to my needs. The ongoing training they offer, with the flexibility to attend sessions at any time, is invaluable. Overall, I would rate it ten out of ten.