1.What was life like before using SolarWinds?(Include what you were using and why you decided it was time for a change)
Remember the good old days when network doesn’t need to be 24/7 365, a simple ntop, mrtg is sufficient for many networks. Until your network grows to hundreds of routers and switches with few thousand ports, these free tools are no longer sufficient.
2.Which SolarWinds product(s) saved your bacon?
My favorites are NPM and NTA. I use NPM to notify my network team anything from a dead power supply, an interface in the bundle went down, high temperature… just to name a few features that we easily ignore until it is too late. If you just ping the switch or router to see if it is up or down, it is no longer good enough for today network.
3.Did you consider other options, and why did you choose SolarWinds?
Yes, a few “cost saving” network monitors, but none can have capable to monitor a complex network with easy installation and configuration
4.How has life been since you've rolled out SolarWinds in your environment?
A simple view of network map to see what device is down, the errors and discards, high utilization the accurate notification, the network hogging monitor… and more features I probably have not discovered yet!