TechValidate Research on SolarWinds


SolarWinds Government Case Study

DOD Case Study

Introduction

This case study of a federal government agency is based on a September 2017 survey of SolarWinds Government customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled organization asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.

These are products we use on a daily / weekly basis. Their interface is rather simple to use and the historical metering allows us to track changes on our systems over time.

Challenges

The business challenges that led the profiled organization to evaluate and ultimately select SolarWinds Government:

  • IT challenges their agency faced prior to implementing SolarWinds products:
    • Lack of visibility into the problems leading to network performance or capacity issues
    • Not having the tools to troubleshoot network problems or outages
    • Lack of visibility into system / server health
    • The difficulty of determining whether a security incident occurred and what happened during the breach
    • The difficulty of providing end-user and systems support from a central location

Use Case

The key features and functionalities of SolarWinds Government that the surveyed organization uses:

  • Regular user in the following SolarWinds product areas:
    • Network Management
    • Systems, Application, Server, and Storage Monitoring
    • Security and Compliance
    • Remote Support and IT Help Desk
  • Uses SolarWinds products combination / varies by product
  • Agency use cases for leveraging SolarWinds products:
    • To monitor network performance
    • To troubleshoot network problems or outages
    • To resolve configuration issues
    • To monitor system / server health
    • To monitor security incidents and vulnerabilities and improve compliance
    • To support end-users and systems from a central location

Results

The surveyed organization achieved the following results with SolarWinds Government:

  • Results they were able to produce using SolarWinds products:
    • Correlate network, server, and application issues to resolve performance problems
    • Improve resolution rates for networking performance and capacity issues
    • Improve configuration management
    • Improve system and application monitoring and troubleshooting
    • Provide better service levels to the agency
    • Improve log tracking and management
    • Improve log tracking and management
    • Improve NIST FISMA / RMF / DISA STIGS compliance
  • Favorite SolarWinds products:
    • Network Performance Monitor
    • Network Configuration Manager
    • Server & Application Monitor
    • Patch Manager
    • NetFlow Traffic Analyzer
    • Log & Event Manager
    • Dameware Remote Support
  • Realized a return on investment payback period of 4-6 months with SolarWinds products
  • Purchased their SolarWinds products because of:
    • Ease of use
    • Cost effectiveness
    • Best value
    • Scalability / ability to support our growth




About This Data

This data was sourced directly from verified users of SolarWinds by TechValidate.

TechValidate verifies the identity and organizational affiliation of all participants that contribute to published research data. When research participants so desire, we also guarantee their anonymity so that they may share information honestly and freely.


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