IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation vs. Cisco Crosswork Network Automation

Since its inception in 2004, NetBrain has revolutionized network management through its no-code automation platform, enabling teams to effectively streamline complex tasks into efficient workflows. By integrating artificial intelligence with automation, NetBrain offers comprehensive hybrid network observability, simplifies troubleshooting, and facilitates safe change management, which enhances operational efficiency, decreases mean time to repair (MTTR), and limits potential risks, thereby empowering IT departments to foster innovation proactively. Gain insights into your entire network with contextual analyses across diverse vendors and cloud environments. Utilize dynamic network maps and end-to-end pathways to visualize and document your complete hybrid network effectively. Streamline network discovery processes and maintain data accuracy to establish a reliable single source of truth. Automatically identify and interpret your network's critical configurations, uncover initial issues, and prevent configuration drift through automation. Facilitate pre- and post-change validations while considering application performance contexts for a comprehensive approach to network modifications. Enhance collaborative troubleshooting efforts by automating interactions between human operators and machine systems. This holistic approach not only optimizes network performance but also ensures that teams can focus on strategic initiatives rather than getting bogged down by manual processes.

TotalView provides comprehensive network monitoring and straightforward root-cause analysis of issues, using clear, accessible language. This solution tracks every device and all interfaces associated with those devices, ensuring nothing is overlooked. Furthermore, TotalView delves deep by gathering 19 different error counters, along with performance metrics, configuration details, and connectivity data, allowing for a holistic view of the network. An integrated heuristics engine processes this wealth of information to deliver clear, easily understandable insights into problems. With this system, even junior engineers can tackle complex issues, freeing up senior engineers to concentrate on higher-level strategic initiatives. The main product encompasses all essential tools required for maintaining an optimally functioning network, including configuration management, server and cloud service monitoring, IP address management (IPAM), NetFlow analysis, path mapping, and diagramming capabilities. By utilizing TotalView, you can achieve complete visibility of your network, enabling you to resolve issues more swiftly and efficiently, ultimately enhancing overall network performance.

Unimus stands out as a robust solution for network automation, configuration backup, and change management, aimed at streamlining network operations for organizations of varying sizes. With compatibility for over 400 types of devices from more than 150 vendors, Unimus operates as a network-agnostic tool that reduces the need for manual intervention while bolstering both security and reliability. By automating configuration backups, Unimus facilitates efficient disaster recovery, enabling IT teams to swiftly retrieve historical configurations and monitor real-time changes. Its auditing capabilities grant immediate insight into configuration uniformity, regulatory compliance, and potential security vulnerabilities. The process of change management becomes more straightforward with automated change detection, comprehensive version tracking, and tailored notifications. The user-friendly, web-based interface of Unimus allows for effective network management without necessitating extensive technical knowledge, and the integrated CLI access provides opportunities for immediate troubleshooting and command execution. Whether your goals include automating large-scale configuration updates, executing firmware upgrades, or enhancing overall network transparency, Unimus offers a flexible and economically viable solution for contemporary network environments. Additionally, its ongoing updates and customer support ensure that users can maximize their network efficiency and security over time.

FirstWave’s NMIS acts as a robust network management system, encompassing fault detection, performance monitoring, configuration oversight, performance visualizations, and alerts based on specific thresholds. It employs business rules that facilitate tailored notification policies, compatible with various notification methods. Additionally, FirstWave empowers its partners, which include some of the largest telecommunications companies and managed service providers worldwide, to safeguard their clientele against cyber threats, all while swiftly expanding their cybersecurity service revenues on a significant scale. Overall, FirstWave delivers a thorough and integrated solution for network discovery, management, and cybersecurity, catering to its global partners. This holistic approach ensures that partners can effectively combat evolving cyber threats while managing their networks efficiently.

Auvik Network Management offers a sophisticated software solution for network oversight that enables IT experts to gain comprehensive insight, automate processes, and manage their network infrastructure effectively. Organizations, regardless of their scale, rely on this cutting-edge platform to improve operational efficiency, bolster security measures, and enhance performance metrics. A key highlight of Auvik is its ability to provide real-time network mapping and discovery, which automatically creates interactive visual representations of your network’s layout. This feature simplifies the identification of devices, connections, and possible bottlenecks within the network. Such critical insights facilitate better planning and optimization of network architecture, ensuring peak efficiency and reliability. By leveraging Auvik’s capabilities, organizations can proactively address issues and adapt to changing network demands.

netTerrain offers a dynamic and automated platform for visual diagramming and reporting, providing comprehensive representations of your IT infrastructure, including data centers, networks, fiber, and cloud systems. By substituting disjointed documentation with coherent, interactive maps and reports, netTerrain aids in cutting expenses, accelerating troubleshooting processes, preventing system downtime, and reducing the need for field visits. Users can access both broad overviews and detailed analytics on various aspects such as capacity, power management, security updates, work orders, and beyond. Moreover, netTerrain empowers organizations to visualize their IT landscape effectively, facilitating informed decision-making for every business scenario encountered. This level of insight ensures that teams are well-equipped to address challenges and optimize their operations continuously.

More than 15,000 companies around the globe rely on OpenVPN's Access Server for a self-hosted VPN solution that securely connects their remote workforce to the company's private network via the internet. This ensures that employees working remotely or in hybrid setups can easily and securely access essential business resources without overwhelming you with extensive setup and maintenance tasks. OpenVPN Access Server provides a comprehensive SSL self-hosted VPN software solution, combining robust OpenVPN server functionalities with enterprise management features, a user-friendly OpenVPN Connect interface, and client software packages that are compatible with Windows, macOS, Linux, and mobile operating systems like Android and iOS. Furthermore, OpenVPN Access Server allows for a variety of configurations, enabling secure and precise remote access to internal networks and private cloud resources, all while offering meticulous access control measures for enhanced security. Additionally, its flexibility and scalability make it an ideal choice for businesses of all sizes looking to maintain high security while managing remote access effectively.

NetCrunch is a modern, scalable network monitoring and observability platform designed to simplify infrastructure and traffic management across physical, virtual, and cloud environments. It monitors everything from servers, switches, and firewalls to operating systems, cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP, including IoT, virtualization (VMware, Hyper-V), applications, logs, and custom data via REST, SNMP, WMI, or scripts-all without agents. NetCrunch offers over 670 built-in monitoring packs and policies that automatically apply based on device role, enabling fast setup and consistent configuration across thousands of nodes. Its dynamic maps, real-time dashboards, and Layer 2/3 topology views provide instant visibility into the health and performance of the entire infrastructure. Unlike legacy tools like SolarWinds, PRTG, or WhatsUp Gold, NetCrunch uses simple node-based licensing with no hidden costs, eliminating sensor limits and pricing traps. It includes intelligent alert correlation, alert automation & suppression, and proactive triggers to minimize noise and maximize clarity, along with 40+ built-in alert actions including script execution, email, SMS, webhooks, and seamless integrations with tools like Jira, PagerDuty, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. Out-of-the -box AI-enhanced root cause analysis and recommendation for every alert. NetCrunch also features full hardware and software inventory, device configuration backup and change tracking, bandwidth analysis, flow monitoring (NetFlow, sFlow, IPFIX), and flexible REST-based data ingestion. Designed for speed, automation, and scale, NetCrunch enables IT teams to monitor thousands of devices from a single server, reducing manual work while delivering actionable insights instantly. Designed for on-prem (including air-gapped), cloud self-hosted or hybrid networks, it is the ideal future-ready monitoring platform for businesses that demand simplicity, power, and total infrastructure awareness.

The leading edge cloud platform available today empowers developers, fosters customer connections, and facilitates business growth. Our innovative solution is crafted to enhance both your existing technology and your teams' capabilities. By moving data and applications closer to users at the network's edge, our platform significantly boosts the performance of your websites and applications. Fastly's highly customizable CDN enables you to tailor content delivery right where it's needed most. Users will appreciate having immediate access to the information they seek. Our robust Points of Presence (POPs), equipped with solid-state drives (SSDs), are strategically positioned in well-connected areas across the globe. This setup allows for extended caching periods, minimizing the need to retrieve data from the original source. Instant Purge and batch purging through surrogate keys enable rapid caching and invalidation of dynamic content, ensuring that you can always deliver up-to-date news, inventory levels, and weather updates. With such capabilities, your platform is not only efficient but also adaptable to ever-evolving user demands.

Device42 is a powerful software solution designed for managing data centers and networks, crafted by IT professionals to facilitate the discovery, documentation, and oversight of Data Centers and IT systems as a whole. This tool delivers valuable insights into enterprise infrastructure by effectively mapping out hardware, software, services, and network dependencies. It boasts impressive visual representations alongside a user-friendly interface, complemented by webhooks and APIs for seamless integration. With Device42, planning for network modifications becomes easier, and it helps to minimize mean time to recovery (MTTR) during unforeseen outages, ensuring that you have the necessary tools for maintenance, audits, warranty management, license tracking, lifecycle oversight, inventory management, and asset tracking, including detailed room and rack configurations. Additionally, it allows for integration with various IT management platforms, such as Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Configuration Management (CM), and IT Service Management (ITSM), providing comprehensive data mapping and more. As a member of the Freshworks family, we are dedicated to enhancing our offerings, ensuring that our global customers and partners receive exceptional solutions and unwavering support, maintaining our long-standing commitment to excellence.