Spiceworks' main competitors, effective alternatives are available

Network management tools and IT solutions are essential for IT departments of all sizes. Spiceworks offers a range of powerful IT management tools that are a great free solution. These different tools can provide other functions such as help desk team management, multi-site support, inventory management, etc. However, the free Spiceworks package has some limitations; sometimes, businesses will look for Spiceworks competitors. One of the biggest challenges is that many independent tools must be coordinated to manage the IT industry successfully. When considering alternatives to the Spiceworks data migration services suite of tools, you should look for the following features that should be built into a single product:

• - Inventory of hardware and software licenses;
• - Automatic detection of network components;
• - Notification and monitoring during downtime;
• - Network and hardware reports;
• - Analysis of bandwidth of critical network components;
• - Network topology illustration.

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is the first alternative to Spiceworks tools. NPM provides advanced infrastructure monitoring and network troubleshooting and supports cloud, on-premises, and hybrid services. NPM uses techniques based on the Simple Network Monitoring Protocol (SNMP) industry standard. With SNMP, agent programs are installed on devices on your network, with NPM acting as a central controller. NPM supports IT resource and inventory management with automatic device discovery, eliminating the need to configure systems manually. Instead, the tool can automatically identify devices using SNMP messages, similar to SNMP discovery in the Spiceworks inventory tool. In addition to detection, NPM performs network monitoring for device health. If there is a problem, you will be notified and can view the information on your dashboard. Similarly, Spiceworks Connectivity Dashboard offers in-app notifications and emails, but its metrics are more limited and only include monitoring the availability/health of specific devices.

The NPM notification system has advanced features. Legal notifications are included, but you can create intelligent notifications to notify you of events relevant to your business needs. Controlling when and how notices are sent and providing enough information in reports gives you more flexibility and instant action. Another essential feature of NPM is the network atlas, a network mapping tool. It's similar to the free Spiceworks network mapping tool. Network Atlas creates custom network maps on the SolarWinds Orion platform that provide a geographic representation of your network. Physical location and connectivity between different networked devices make tracking easier. It also supports wireless connectivity, so it's not limited to local area networks (LANs). The unique feature of the NetPath tool provides a visual representation of your network inside and outside the firewall. This feature offers complete network performance analysis to spot errors or areas of poor performance and fix them faster. NPM has many other features, such as:

• - Integration with help desk software (as opposed to Spiceworks network monitoring and help desk tools, which are not integrated);
• - Hardware, VMware, and Hyper-V monitoring capabilities (unlike the currently available Spiceworks tools);
• - Ability to diagnose network problems (Spiceworks tools do not diagnose network problems).

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is installed internally and can be tested with a 30-day free trial.

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SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor

The closest alternative to using Spiceworks' suite of IT management tools, including dashboards, is SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM), a comprehensive monitoring solution that includes IT asset management. This solution provides server monitoring, and the SAM monitoring part is used to monitor server resources. SAM provides information on the following:

• - General information to explain expected and typical use of resources;
• - Capacity utilization over time, both peak and average, to determine when more resources need to be invested;
• - Memory capacity;
• - Physical and virtual memory;
• - High CPU load.

Armed with this information, you can plan whether to stay within resource constraints or scale as needed. Unlike SAM, Spiceworks Connectivity Dashboard is not based on baselines. Instead, it is intended to provide information about whether the device is available and whether it is online. Monitoring covers Windows performance and correlates performance issues with the underlying physical and virtual infrastructure. Monitoring models offer best practices for identifying problems and viewing results in real-time so your team can resolve issues faster. SAM can monitor third-party applications such as Oracle and Linux, unlike the Spiceworks tools. It also includes Microsoft applications such as SharePoint and Skype. A unified view of all your applications is a powerful network security tool. Like the Spiceworks Connectivity Dashboard, customizable notifications notify you when something goes wrong, allowing you to troubleshoot many issues remotely.

• - Monitor and, if necessary, stop expensive processes;
• - View event log;
• - Stop or restart interrupted services;
• - Restart the server.

SAM can do more than just monitor, it also includes an asset inventory tool that automatically discovers the systems and applications on your network. In addition, when scanning the environment, SAM collects software and hardware information from all devices, as well as information about installed software, drivers, network interfaces, and more. You also receive a message about server downtime. This is a local solution, the cost of which depends on the number of nodes. You can start with a 30-day free trial.

Datadog

Datadog is a cloud service with built-in integrations that provide infrastructure management and network monitoring. It can serve many purposes, including support for popular web services such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Datadog can monitor Linux and Windows virtual machines as well as standalone servers.

This solution offers several ways to customize notifications to suit your needs. You can configure alerts based on thresholds for individual devices or groups. Datadog supports integration with third-party tools such as Slack and PagerDuty to deliver notifications.

Datadog doesn't offer traditional reports, but you can access them using the notebook feature. You can also access other analytics and search by criteria such as event priority, status, and tags. Queries can be saved for later use.

Dashboards show more than real-time status and graphs. Both types of Datadog cards provide monitoring flexibility. Timelines are designed to solve problems by delivering synchronized metrics that show the correlation of events from different systems. Dashboards display current status and performance metrics that can be shared via a public URL. Two of Datadog's biggest strengths are its integration and customization capabilities. With more than 200 built-in integrations, you can monitor and interact with other services.

ManageEngine OpManager

This network management solution provides a complete overview of network devices, from printers to routers and LAN controllers. When it comes to monitoring, you have several options. You can test the performance of your physical Windows or Linux server using memory, CPU, and disk. But it's not just about physical devices. OpManager also provides information about virtual servers and platforms such as VMware, Hyper-V, and Xen. In addition to monitoring storage devices and capacity utilization, OpManager also provides forecasting capabilities. This will give you valuable information about when to increase the power. One of the main advantages of using OpManager is its support for deep packet inspection. It allows you to monitor all application traffic, detect delivery issues, and manage traffic flow to improve performance significantly.

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor

Paessler PRTG is a monitoring solution that allows you to view real-time information and manage your devices on the network. Like Spiceworks, this feature has an easy-to-use interface. PRTG offers many benefits for businesses with distributed teams. The host version allows you to monitor your local network with remote probes. These remote probes can also be used to distribute the monitoring payload. A PRTG license gives you unlimited views, so you don't have to worry about the size of your network. Another critical feature is fault-tolerant cluster monitoring. This ensures that if the master fails, you have a cluster where another node takes over until the master becomes available again. There are also many options when it comes to notifications. PRTGs can use emails, HTTP requests, audio files, etc. It offers built-in options for various technologies. Reports are customizable, allowing you to set when you want to receive notifications with different priorities (for example, you only receive high-priority notifications at night). If the provided messages need to be more flexible, you can create your reports using the PRTG application interface.

Nagios Network Analyzer

Another network monitoring tool is Nagios Network Analyzer, which displays all network traffic, bandwidth issues, and potential security threats. Network Analyzer has a user-friendly and intuitive interface that simplifies network traffic monitoring. It lets you set up alerts for bandwidth issues and other related actions so your IT department can fix issues as they arise. You can also easily add new sources to watch. Network Analyzer performs a comprehensive analysis of your network, displays the status of your network, and presents information in a comprehensive dashboard: view key server metrics, network flow data, and more. To view detailed information about a specific resource, port, or single IP address, you can expand them. This includes access to detailed data down to the package that can be saved and used for further analysis and monitoring.

Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold

Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold is another effective tool for the fastest network discovery, display, and monitoring. Offers a wide range of monitors to avoid performance issues. They include:

• - An active monitor prompts the device for yes/no or high/low responses;
• - Passive monitors that identify information about network devices and servers, such as SNMP traces, syslogs, and Windows event logs;
• - A performance monitor that tracks CPU, memory, disk, and network usage via SNMP, WMI, or SSH.

In addition, cloud monitoring dashboards provide information on resource usage and billing, helping to unify cost analysis and justification. This includes mapping and monitoring cloud environments such as AWS and Azure servers.

During monitoring, you can flexibly set up notifications of detected problems, which you will receive via email, SMS, Slack, web alarms, and IFTTT messages. You have the option to view the network map in context. As part of monitoring, the tool maps your network, including servers, virtual machines, and other devices in the cloud and wireless environments. You can view relevant network parameters and reports.

Microsoft System Center

Microsoft System Center is a cloud-based solution for the unified management of client environments and the entire platform. This solution also supports the monitoring of non-Windows servers. It can be viewed on various Unix, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, and IBM AIX platforms. A unified view of information significantly simplifies data center management. It improves the performance of all critical data processing functions at the enterprise level while maintaining high performance. A central control panel provides an intuitive overview of your network. The solution has a data protection manager, so users can back up files and restore lost data. It also features endpoint protection that minimizes threats from external agents trying to gain access to your network. Microsoft System Center increases efficiency with automated workflows and offers extensive capabilities.

LogicMonitor

LogicMonitor is a cloud-based monitoring solution that provides clarity and analysis for hybrid infrastructures. Over 1,000 predefined monitoring templates support various detection, monitoring, and alerting tools. During monitoring, the key measures the performance and usability of your website and provides an overview of all components of your hybrid environment. This includes cloud availability, performance, and insight into on-premises details. This information ensures that users can access the websites and applications they need wherever they are. As part of performance monitoring, LogicMonitor looks for patterns to detect anomalies. Catching these performance issues early can prevent them from becoming severe enough to cause downtime. The solution comes with pre-configured alerts based on best practices, but you can easily customize the alerts to suit your business needs. The signs you create can be configured to be sent to different teams based on various parameters such as severity, technology, and time of day. IT professionals can receive these alerts in multiple ways, including communication tools like Slack and service management tools like Autotask.

The best competitors of Spiceworks

Many of the tools included in Spiceworks' IT management product have their uses, but if you're looking for more than what's included in the free toolset, consider one of Spiceworks' competitors. When deciding, consider the type of your network, the kind of monitoring and alerts you need, and how you want to display the data. These and other alternatives in this guide are viable options depending on your business needs and offer additional benefits that provide a more comprehensive solution than Spiceworks.