Has improved cross-team collaboration with unified performance insights and faster issue resolution
What is our primary use case?
We used SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability for monitoring purposes. I was into server monitoring earlier. In that team, we had airline accounts and banking accounts. For server monitoring purposes, we used the HCO of SolarWinds for network performance monitoring and other tasks.
This was primarily a monitoring job. When I was in the monitoring team, we had different sets of teams working in shifts. Everything was installed, and we were the operators. At that time, we handled network performance monitoring, server application monitoring, database observability, log management analysis, cloud infrastructure visibility, and other insights.
What is most valuable?
SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability offers excellent features. It has end-to-end visibility, flexible deployment, and hybrid support from the support team. AI ops, scalability, and enterprise features for distributed environments, such as more polling engines, web servers, and high availability are very good in the HCO.
Before HCO, many organizations used multiple SolarWinds modules such as NPM, SAM, and WMAN. With SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability, they gained a unified, single pane of glass view for the network, server, databases, and cloud resources. It reduced monitoring silos and enabled fast root cause analysis to easily identify what occurred during incidents. This improved collaboration between network, infrastructure, and application teams.
Reduced downtime and faster issue resolution are significant benefits of SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability. Features such as PerfStack, NetPath, and intelligent maps allow organizations to visualize dependencies and pinpoint problems quickly. Mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to resolve (MTTR) have dropped significantly. Fewer war room calls and blame games occurred as teams now act on collaborated data instead of guesswork. One enterprise user reported an average incident resolution time improvement of 40% after consolidating their tools into HCO.
What needs improvement?
Currently, SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability monitors AWS, Azure, and virtual environments, but it is primarily built on the traditional Orion platform. I think deeper integration into Kubernetes, serverless functions, and cloud-native tracing can be implemented as these matter to many organizations. Additionally, the user interface and modernization of the UX can be developed.
For how long have I used the solution?
I used SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability for approximately two to three years when I was in a different project.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not experienced any stability issues with SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability. It performs well.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
For SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability's scalability, SolarWinds publishes scalability engine guidelines for large deployments. A single polling engine with enterprise supports up to 100 additional polling engines, monitoring up to 100,000 elements per instance. For large users, web servers and polling engines can be scaled. There are case studies of real customers showing growth and their ROI. The enterprise scale edition helps with scaling.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability is excellent.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Other tools from SolarWinds were used before SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability. Netcool and other solutions were also utilized.
What was our ROI?
SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability helped save time, money, and resources.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I do not have information about pricing, setup cost, and licensing for SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability because those aspects were handled by a different team in the organization.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability, we evaluated IBM's solutions. Kyndryl, being a spin-off from IBM, provided other options. The product is made up of IBM, so they were explored.
What other advice do I have?
Start with clear visibility goals, size your environment properly, start small and then expand, and invest in the database layer. I would recommend all these things to anybody who is trying to implement SolarWinds HCO.
On a scale of 1-10, I rate SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability a 9.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Smart alerts have reduced downtime and improved proactive monitoring across environments
What is our primary use case?
After joining Accenture company, I have been directly using SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability for monitoring purposes for all network devices.
We are using SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability for network purposes to monitor network devices such as Cisco and firewall equipment.
We use SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability to monitor our network devices such as routers, switches, and firewalls. For example, if a router CPU or interface utilization goes above the threshold, SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability sends an alert. We then check the device's status, review performance graphs, and identify what's causing the spike, such as high traffic or a faulty interface. This helps us to take quick action before it impacts the user or they lose some connectivity on the interface.
Apart from monitoring network devices, we also use SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability to track our performance, check application health, and review traffic trends. It helps us quickly find the root cause of issues by showing details, metrics, and logs in one place. We also use it to generate reports and share updates with the team.
SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability has helped our organization stay on top of network and system performance. It allows us to spot and fix issues quickly, reducing downtime and keeping us happy. The clear dashboard, alerts, and reports make monitoring easier and save our team a lot of time. Overall, it has improved efficiency and given us better visibility across both cloud and on-premise environments.
What is most valuable?
All-in-one visibility in SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability is one feature that stands out. It lets you monitor every server, application, cloud, and on-premises from a single dashboard. This is the main benefit. Smart Alert is also a valuable feature. We get a notification whenever any utilization goes high, an interface is down, a circuit is down, or BGP is down.
Smart Alerts in SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability has been really helpful for our team. For instance, one day, a switch interface started hitting high utilization, which would have caused slowness in network traffic. SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability sent an alert immediately, so we could check the devices and fix the issue before users noticed any problem. Without Smart Alerts, we might have found out much later, causing downtime or performance issues.
The dependency mapping feature is another notable aspect. It shows how devices and applications are connected, which helps us quickly find the root cause of a problem instead of guessing. We also find the reporting and historical data very useful. It helps track our trends over time and plan for capabilities or upgrades.
With SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability, our team has been able to respond to issues much faster. Alerts let us fix problems before users are notified, which has significantly reduced downtime by around 30 to 40%. The dashboard and reports also save our team approximately two or three hours per day that we can now spend on other tasks. Overall, it has made our network management more efficient and proactive.
What needs improvement?
SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability could be improved in several ways. It feels slow sometimes, especially when handling large amounts of data. The initial setup and configuration can also be complex for new users. If it were faster and easier to set up with simple dashboards for quick insights, it would be even better.
Customer support could be quicker and more responsive with urgent issues. Integration with third-party tools could be smoother, making it easier to connect with other systems we use. The dashboard could also be simpler for quick insights. More guidance or templates for new users would be helpful during onboarding.
Report customization is another area that could be improved. While the built-in reports are useful, being able to create more flexible and tailored reports would enhance our experience.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability for two years at Accenture, where I joined as a fresher in the networking field.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability eight out of 10 due to issues with speed and setup.
In our organization, SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability is deployed in a hybrid cloud setup. It monitors both our on-premises systems and our cloud environments, such as AWS and Azure.
We use both AWS and Azure with SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability. Currently, we use Azure slightly more for our main workload, but AWS is also monitored for specific applications and servers. This allows us to keep track of performance and issues across both cloud environments.
We acquired SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability directly from SolarWinds, and it's connected to our cloud and on-premises system. Our company does not have any other business relationship with SolarWinds besides being a customer. We are not a partner or reseller.
It's easy and quite simple, but SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability could improve the interface to make it more useful. We should have an option for speed also. Overall, it's good.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Longtime SolarWinds user & Thwack member.
What do you like best about the product?
Ease of use and vendor agnostic useability.
What do you dislike about the product?
Setup can sometimes be confusing but, for the most part, is rather straightforward setting up.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I like being able see view my environment easily within a single pane of glass.
Effective Network Visibility and Web Performance Insights with SolarWinds
What do you like best about the product?
We've been using SolarWinds NPM and WPM extensively, and the experience has been genuinely positive. The visibility that NPM provides into our network infrastructure has helped us proactively address performance bottlenecks before they impact users. Real-time monitoring, intuitive dashboards, and intelligent alerts make day-to-day operations much more manageable.
WPM, on the other hand, has been incredibly valuable for monitoring our critical internal and external web applications. Being able to simulate user interactions and catch slow load times or page failures before end users report them has improved our service reliability and user satisfaction.
Overall, SolarWinds has helped us move from reactive to proactive monitoring. The integration between modules, ease of customization, and the depth of insights we get have made a noticeable difference in how we manage our environment.
What do you dislike about the product?
The user interface, while functional, could use a more modern and responsive design. Some views feel cluttered and less intuitive compared to newer platforms.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Web URL responses and performance monitoring is effective and we are planning to move web monitoring from other tools
SolarWinds Observability is a good product.
What do you like best about the product?
It is a great cloud monitoring platform.
What do you dislike about the product?
SolarWinds needs to add more modules to their platform.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Monitor and alert when things are not working the way they should.
Robust Observability for Traditional IT Infrastructures
What do you like best about the product?
SolarWinds Observability stands out for its comprehensive visibility into on-prem environments, making it ideal for organizations that haven’t moved to the cloud. The customizable dashboards are intuitive, and the wide array of integrations with servers, databases, and network devices helps me stay on top of performance and availability issues. It’s especially strong when it comes to infrastructure monitoring, with deep insights into metrics, logs, and traces—all in one platform
What do you dislike about the product?
The setup and configuration process can feel a bit overwhelming, especially for teams without dedicated monitoring specialists. Documentation is helpful, but some features require trial-and-error to optimize. Also, while the platform offers powerful tools, the user interface could be more streamlined to improve navigation.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
SolarWinds Observability helps solve the challenge of managing performance across a complex, on-prem IT environment. Before using it, I often had to juggle multiple tools to monitor servers, databases, and network devices, which made it difficult to pinpoint the root cause of issues quickly. Now, with everything centralized in one platform, I can correlate metrics, logs, and traces to get a clearer picture of what’s happening across the stack.
This has significantly reduced the time it takes to detect and resolve problems, which means less downtime and fewer disruptions for end users. The real-time alerting and customizable dashboards also help me stay proactive rather than reactive, which is a huge benefit for maintaining system health and performance.
Great monitoring product!
What do you like best about the product?
SolarWinds Observability has been a game changer for our infrastructure monitoring. The most helpful aspect is the unified view it provides across metrics, logs, and traces, which makes troubleshooting and root cause analysis much faster. The customizable dashboards and real-time alerts are easy to configure and keep our teams proactive. Upsides include its scalability, ease of deployment, and clear visibility into both cloud and on-prem environments. It’s helped us reduce downtime and improve performance monitoring significantly.
What do you dislike about the product?
The user interface can feel a bit cluttered at times, especially for new users who are still learning their way around. Some of the more advanced features require a steeper learning curve or deeper customization. Integration with certain third-party tools isn't as seamless as we'd like, and pricing can get high as more features and nodes are added. Occasional delays in data sync or alerting have also been noticed during peak usage.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
SolarWinds Observability helps us tackle the challenge of managing complex, hybrid IT environments by consolidating monitoring for infrastructure, applications, networks, and cloud services into a single platform. Before, we had to use multiple tools, which made it harder to correlate issues across systems. Now, with unified visibility and cross-domain insights, we can identify performance bottlenecks, spot anomalies quickly, and reduce downtime. It’s improved collaboration across teams, accelerated root cause analysis, and helped us be more proactive rather than reactive in maintaining service health.
A must have tool
What do you like best about the product?
Very quick to setup and easily view useful statistics on my website. The email alerts are a very useful feature.
What do you dislike about the product?
The new interface takes a while to get used to where everything is.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Down time and performance monitoring
SolarWinds Observability for Business
What do you like best about the product?
The customization ability is phenomenal. There is great compatibility between a lot of different vendors and brands, and this is updated constantly. While there is a learning curve involved in SolarWinds monitoring, once you have everything set up the way you want it, monitoring is a breeze.
What do you dislike about the product?
As I said in the other box, the learning curve for setting SolarWinds Observability up can be quite great. That would be the biggest hurdle to efficient usage.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
SolarWinds Observability allows us to monitor our traffic and connections, and has enough data and logging capabilities that it helps us determine where an issue is present so we can contact the right individuals to solve it.
Proactive monitoring and alerting improve efficiency across network management
What is our primary use case?
I work day-to-day on
SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability. It covers network, server, storage, and networking.
What is most valuable?
The most helpful feature is the
NPM module, which provides many protocols for proactive monitoring. Additionally, it has an alerting engine where I can define thresholds and configure custom alerts, which can also be integrated with
ITSM or a ticketing system to auto-create tickets. The network video monitoring and coverage area are also valuable features.
What needs improvement?
Event management features can be added as it has limited capability to ingest events from external sources.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with
SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability for more than five years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Given that I have all the prerequisites in place, it takes a couple of days to deploy and bring up the platform.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There are very rare downtimes, but overall, it is very good in terms of stability.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support is good. I get an instant response and on-call support as well.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and quick if prerequisites are met, taking only a couple of days.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is fairly priced compared to competitors.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have experience with
ScienceLogic and Micro Focus's OMI tool. SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud
Observability is better in terms of design and ease of deployment.
What other advice do I have?
I would give SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud
Observability an eight out of ten. It is a wonderful tool overall.
