| Product |
Extended Technologies 8.0A |
NetMRI Enterprise Network Analysis Appliance 2.0 and NetMRI Operations Center |
Netmon Professional Edition 4.5 |
| Vendor |
Argent Software |
Netcordia |
Netmon |
| Price |
$15,000 for 10 monitored servers. |
NetMRI appliance starts at $9,500. Operations Center starts at $15,000 for 1,000 devices. |
$6,800 per appliance. |
| Pros |
Monitors a wide range of network elements; can tell when Exchange is running but not accepting mail. |
Excellent expert-system problem analysis; accurate discovery. |
Good wire-level problem detection. |
| Cons |
No printed documentation.
|
No printed documentation. |
Lacks application layer perspective. |
| Score |
4.2 |
3.6 |
2.9 |
|
| Product |
Mercury SiteScope 8.5 |
OpenView Network Node Manager 7.51, OpenView Operations Manager 7.5 and OpenView Internet Services 6.0 |
NetVigil Enterprise 4.2 SP1 |
| Vendor |
HP |
HP |
Network General |
| Price |
$2,000 for 25 monitored servers or devices. |
Network Node Manager starts at $6,650 (250 nodes), Operations Manager starts at $18,450 (20 servers) and Internet Services is $12,500. |
$55,000 for 100 devices. |
| Pros |
Comprehensively monitors virtually every kind of network device or server. |
Handles large, diverse networks with ease. |
Relates business functions to network elements. |
| Cons |
Indicated some devices were offline when they were not. |
No printed documentation. |
Lacks root-cause analysis. |
| Score |
2.8 |
4.1 |
3.7 |
|
 |
| |
Price between $2,000 and $30,000 |
Price between $30,000 and $60,000 |
| The breakdown |
Argent Software |
Netcordia |
Netmon | HP Mercury SiteScope |
HP OpenView Network Node Manager |
Network General |
| Monitoring 20% |
5 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
4 |
| Reporting 20% |
5 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
| Ease of use 20% |
3 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
| Notifications 20% |
4 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
| Corrective actions 10% |
5 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
| Installation and documentation 10% |
3 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
| TOTAL SCORE |
4.2 |
3.6 |
2.9 |
2.8 |
4.1 |
3.7 |
Scoring Key: 5: Exceptional; 4: Very good; 3: Average; 2: Below average; 1: Subpar or not available |
|
|
|
Return to main test page: Mid-level network management tools 
