Systems Management refers to the enterprise-wide administration of IT systems. It includes a wide array of tasks spanning across different operating systems, applications, and infrastructure.
Here’s our list of the top ten systems management tools:
- SolarWinds Systems Management Bundle – EDITOR’S CHOICE This package of several SolarWinds tools provides server monitoring for physical, virtual, and cloud systems and also provides a log analyzer. Get a 30-day free trial.
- SuperOps RMM – FREE TRIAL This cloud-based package implements system monitoring and management for MSPs and IT departments with a companion PSA module. Get a 21-day free trial.
- NinjaOne RMM – FREE TRIAL A SaaS remote monitoring and management package that includes a Help Desk ticketing system and is designed for use by IT departments and MSPs. Get a 14-day free trial.
- Applications Manager from ManageEngine This software package includes an autodiscovery service that generates an application dependency map. Runs on Windows Server, Linux, AWS, and Azure.
- Paessler PRTG A package of tools that offers tools to monitor networks, endpoints, and software. Available as a SaaS platform or for installation on Windows Server.
- Zabbix A free system monitoring package that can be extended by templates to watch over specific hardware and software. Available for Linux, Docker, virtualizations, and cloud platforms.
- WhatsUp Gold A network monitoring package that can be extended by add-ons to monitor other assets, such as servers and applications. Runs on Windows Server.
- Op5 Monitor Full stack monitoring for on-premises and cloud systems that can monitor virtualizations as well as physical devices. Runs on Linux.
- Nagios XI A highly-respected system monitoring package for networks, endpoints, and software that can be extended by free plug-ins. Runs on Linux, Hyper-V, VMware, and Docker.
- FirstWave Network discovery and monitoring plus security monitoring with this package that runs on its own VM.
Some of the tasks that come under Systems Management umbrella include:
- Application life-cycle management
- Help and service desk management
- Data center infrastructure management
- Application performance and service management
- Business system management
- Disaster recovery and backup
- Capacity planning
- Network performance management
- Networking
- System administration
- Logs
- Automation, and more.
Since Systems Management Encompasses all facets of IT administration, it is important to have the right tools to support and manage this process.
In fact, an effective systems management strategy based on the right software gives rich returns to an organization in the form of quicker delivery of IT systems, especially SaaS systems, faster response to changing business requirements, more control over security and data, and better management of day-to-day operations of the data center.
Methodology for selecting the Best Systems Management Software & Tools
You may find various options when looking for the best system management tools in the market. But to choose the best one, we have listed a few methodologies that you must consider:
- Check if it can create an asset inventory
- Does it offer software license management?
- Can you create logs of technician activities?
Here’s the Best Systems Management Software
Now that we have seen the importance of systems management to an organization, let’s take a detailed look at some of the top tools that can give your organization all the above-mentioned benefits.
Here is a detailed list of features, pricing and download links for each of these tools and software solutions for Systems Management.
1. SolarWinds Systems Management Bundle – FREE TRIAL
SolarWinds is one of the leading companies in systems management, and it has more than ten licensed products to handle specific aspects of systems management. Some of these tools include the following.
- Server & Application Monitor
- Virtualization Manager
- Storage Resource Monitor
- Server Configuration Monitor
- Application Performance Monitor
- Web Performance Monitor
- Log Manager for Orion
- Access Rights Manager
- SolarWinds Backup
- ipMonitor
Besides these individual products, SolarWinds also offers three bundled systems management products and they are: Systems Management Bundle, Log and Systems Performance Pack and Application Performance Optimization Pack.
Let’s take a quick look at the features of these systems bundles to give you an idea of what they can offer for your organization.
Features: The features of the SolarWinds Systems Management bundle software package are:
- It includes Server and Application Monitor, Virtualization Manager, Storage Resource Monitor and Web Performance Monitor.
- Easy to install and you can get going within just 30 minutes.
- Monitors infrastructure for both Azure and AWS
- Comes with more than 1200 templates for systems and application performance monitoring
- Maps infrastructure and application dependencies
- Comes with built-in virtualization monitoring
- Monitors server storage volumes, disk usage and capacity metrics. This information is particularly useful for capacity planning.
- You can create custom monitors, edit existing templates and import custom scripts.
- Powered by the scalable SolarWinds Orion platform.
- Offers centralized asset management, so you can remotely manage the software and hardware located across different systems and workstations.
- Allows you to drag, drop and overlay performance metrics to get a detailed look.
- Comes with comprehensive reports to meet all your needs.
- Supports hybrid cloud environments
- Automatically discovers applications and infrastructure.
Pros:
- Helps scan your network for apps and infrastructure automatically
- Uses PerfStack dashboard to track performance
- Offers access to 1,200+ infrastructure monitoring templates
- Simply build your own dashboards and reports using customizable widgets
- Send alerts/notifications via SMS or email
Cons:
- Not a great solution for non-technical users
Pricing: 30 Day Free Trial at the Link Below!
Download: Download a Free Trial for 30 Days from:
https://www.solarwinds.com/systems-management-bundle/registration
2. SuperOps RMM – FREE TRIAL
SuperOps RMM is a cloud platform that offers SaaS packages for remote monitoring and management (RMM) and professional services automation (PSA). The RMM system includes full-stack system monitoring that is controlled from a cloud-based console.
Key Features: The SuperOps RMM system provides the following services:
- Multi-site monitoring and a multi-tenant architecture for MSPs
- Automated monitoring for networks, endpoints, and software
- Alerts for performance problems
- Device discovery and inventory creation
- Software license management
- Patching for Windows, macOS, and software packages
- Software deployment
- Task automation
- Scripting for task automation
- IT documentation service
- Compliance reporting
- Associated PSA with a ticketing system
Pricing: The SuperOps plans that include the RMM package are:
- Standard RMM-only for $79 per technician per month
- Pro for $99 per technician per month
- Super for $129 per technician per month
These rates apply to the annual payment plan.
Download: Sign up online for a 21-day free trial at: https://superops.ai/signup
3. NinjaOne RMM – FREE TRIAL
NinjaOne RMM is a cloud-based SaaS platform of remote monitoring and management (RMM) systems for use by managed service providers (MSPs). This package has a multi-tenanted architecture, which means that the MSP can create a separate sub-account for each client.
Features: The service management functions in NinjaOne RMM provide a high degree of task automation and its features include:
- System discovery that can cover multiple sites per client
- Documentation of all equipment in a hardware inventory that shows the attributes and capacities of each device
- A software scan of each endpoint that creates a software inventory
- Detection of unauthorized devices connected to the network
- A facility to standardize the software profile of all endpoints
- Automated performance monitoring for networks, endpoints, and applications
- Alerts for performance problems
- Consolidated overviews for multiple sites
- Patch management
- A self-service portal for users to access solutions
- A ticketing system that routes and tracks user support tasks
- A link between system monitors and the team management system that converts performance alerts to tickets
- Time tracking for SLA compliance and billing
- Optional backup and recovery service
- Option security features that include antivirus and drive encryption
Pros:
- Easy to setup and delivers faster results
- Discovers unauthorized devices
- Provides automated performance monitoring
- Sends instant alerts on detecting performance issues
- Offers antivirus and drive encryption for security
Cons:
- Filters and search features need to be improved
Pricing: You can find out more about bespoke pricing with a direct quote that matches your requirements. You can start of the process with a 14-day free trial.
Download: NinjaOne is a SaaS platform, so you sign up for the service online. You can assess the system at https://www.ninjaone.com/freetrialform/
4. Applications Manager from ManageEngine
Applications Manager from ManageEngine makes it easy for IT administrators to stay on top of the performance of servers and applications, so problems can be identified quickly and application bottlenecks are reduced.
Features: Applications Manager comes with the following features.
- Provides support for Windows, Linux, Solaris, IBM AIX, Mac OS, HP Unix.Tru64 and FreeBSD.
- Monitors more than 100 key performance indicators of your application
- Allows you to group a few applications as a single unit for easy monitoring.
- Discovers and maps applications and their dependencies to give a comprehensive insight into your IT infrastructure.
- Instantly detects anomalies in performance
- Identifies application faults and helps to resolve them before the end user detects it.
- Comes with powerful reports.
- Helps to manage SLAs by monitoring the availability and performance of mission critical applications.
- Offers different editions for the varying needs of every organization
- Provides REST APIs for getting data from Applications manager.
- You can create custom dashboards and do admin activities through a web browser.
- World Map Business View gives a comprehensive understanding of your distributed network.
- Supports multi-user access.
- Available in the following languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Hungarian, Japanese and Vietnamese.
Pros:
- Identifies issues and reduces application bottlenecks
- Watch over 100+ KPIs for your application
- Instantly detects and remediates server issues
- Generates insightful reports
- REST APIs help obtain data from the Applications Manager
Cons:
- Exploring all functions can be time taking
- Limited agents are available
Pricing: There are two editions – Professional and Enterprise. The cost depends on the capabilities/tools you wish to add to your bundle. You can take a detailed look at the price of different components at https://store.manageengine.com/applications_manager/
Download: You can download a demo version at https://www.manageengine.com/products/applications_manager/download.html?btmMenu
5. Paessler PRTG
Systems Management Software from Paessler is a great choice to monitor, maintain and provision computer networks. It helps to monitor a whole range of different parameters such as bandwidth, availability and performance.
Features: The features of Network Management Software are:
- Monitors how much traffic is generated by each computer/application. Knowing this traffic congestion will help you plan better.
- Continuously checks the availability of devices
- Monitors performance and load using many parameters such as network speed, CPU usage, RAM load and more.
- Generates comprehensive reports
- Comes with more than 200 sensor types, using which, you can monitor anything in your network.
- Supports SNMP, WMI, packet sniffing, FTP, HTTP and other protocols.
- Keeps downtime to a bare minimum, detects malware attacks and evenly distributes loads
Pros:
- Allows tracking performance, bandwidth as well as availability
- Measure the volume of traffic generated by each device
- You can track CPU usage, RAM load as well as network speed
- Provides access to 200+ sensor types
- Identifies threats in real-time
Cons:
- Integrating sensors requires technological expertise.
- Designed keeping only IP professionals in mind
Pricing: Pricing depends on the number of sensors you use. The first 100 sensors are free. The remaining are priced as follows.
- 500 sensors – $1600
- 1000 sensors – $2850
- 2500 sensors – $5950
- 5000 sensors – $10500
There are two other plans that allow you to use unlimited sensors. The first plan allows only one installation and is priced at $14500 while the second allows five installations and is priced at $60000.
Download: You can download the software from https://www.paessler.com/download/prtg-download?download=2. You get to use the first 100 sensors for free!
6. Zabbix
Zabbix is a comprehensive tool that monitors anything in your network such as servers, clouds, applications, services, databases, storage devices, virtual machines and more. The best part – Zabbix is a free and open source software, so there are no hidden costs or fees associated with it.
Features: The features of Zabbix are:
- Collects and analyzes metrics from any device.
- Supports SNMP, IPMI agents and other custom methods
- Offers agentless monitoring of user services.
- Detects problem states from the incoming metric flow automatically
- Offers highly flexible definition options
- Comes with a native web interface that gives you the option to present information in many formats to suit your needs and preferences.
- Provides a visual overview through drill-down reports, slideshows, graphs and network maps.
- Scans a network periodically, discovers devices and maps them automatically.
- Automatically creates triggers, items and graphs for different elements.
- Scales well and at the same time, gives centralized control.
- Allows to remotely run custom scripts on monitored hosts.
- Integrates well with most devices and environments, thanks to a flexible API.
Pros:
- Allows tracking servers, databases, applications, and even storage devices
- Automatically identifies issues from the incoming metric flow
- Generates drill-down reports and network maps to provide a visual summary
- You can run custom reports remotely on monitored hosts
- Periodically runs network scans and maps devices automatically
Cons:
- Depends on the community for bug solutions
- Tracking multiple devices can make the interface feel crowded.
Pricing: It is 100% FREE,
Download: You can download Zabbix from https://www.zabbix.com/download
7. WhatsUp Gold
WhatsUp Gold from Progress helps to proactively monitor your infrastructure and the many devices and applications that are a part of it.
Features: The features of WhatsUp Gold are as follows.
- Automatically discovers and maps devices.
- Comes with a top-notch alerting system
- Custom reports and dashboards give you an in-depth peek into the performance of your devices at any time.
- Monitors cloud-based devices as well
- Has a flexible email scheduling and distribution system. Supports SMTP authentication.
- Offers customizable device roles.
- Supports over 200 Cisco MIBs for monitoring Cisco equipment
Pros:
- Monitors applications, devices, and infrastructure proactively
- You can also watch over cloud-based devices
- To track Cisco equipment, you can access 200+ Cisco MIBs
- Manages networks, traffic, and VMs using the customizable dashboard
- Reducing MTTRs is made easier with intuitive processes
Cons:
- Bulk editing is time-consuming
- Java’s ability to retrieve data from a database and create pages takes a long time.
Pricing: You can get a quote from https://www.whatsupgold.com/quote/
Download: You can download a free trial version from https://www.whatsupgold.com/trial/
8. Op5 Monitor
Op5 Monitor is an enterprise-level monitoring solution from Op5. It monitors applications, networks, servers and storage, regardless of whether it is on-premise or in a private/public cloud. Supports hybrid environments too.
Features: The features of Op5 Monitor are:
- Has the capability to handle large volumes of devices.
- User-friendly interface
- Robust solution that works well in large environments too.
- Dashboards are fully customizable and interactive.
- Highly scalable for distributed environments
- Offer many automation options to meet the needs and preferences of your organization
- Comes with a developer-friendly API for extension.
Pros:
- Manages large volumes of devices
- Control the entire IT estate from a single console
- Rest API support enables automation and system integration.
- Generates service level reports and visually displays all the data for monitoring
- Offers a distributed architecture that can manage any environment, regardless of size or type
Cons:
- More compliance-based reporting features may be great
- You need to send requests to the platform for quotes
Pricing: Visit https://www.op5.com/pricing-tool/ to get a custom price.
Download: You can download a free version from https://www.op5.com/download/
9. Nagios XI
Nagios XI is a comprehensive application, network and service monitoring solution for today’s complex IT environments.
Features: The features of Nagios XI are as follows.
- Monitors bandwidth usage to give you a list of the most bandwidth consumers.
- Provides real-time analytics
- Monitors servers, SLAs, IP address, Internet usage and uptime
- Reports the performance and availability of different devices
- Provides high levels of efficiency and scalability
- Dashboards can be customized to meet individual preferences
- Works well for distributed environments too.
- Custom scripts can be added its use
Pros:
- Watches over all mission-critical infrastructure elements
- Sends alerts on discovering issues and outages
- Gives a centralized view of business processes and IT operations
- Allows generating capacity planning graphs
- Users can save and archive recent configurations
Cons:
- Installation may be technically challenging.
- More integrations with extra ticketing systems would be nice
Pricing: Starts from $1,995.
Download: You can download a trial version from https://www.nagios.com/downloads/nagios-xi/
10. FirstWave
FirstWave is an intelligent network management system that helps with the configuration, compliance, auditing and discovery of all networks, both big and small. Since it is built on top of open source cores of Open Audit and NMIS, it can be tailored to meet any business environment.
Features: The features of FirstWave are:
- Monitors and manages your complete IT infrastructure, including hybrid infrastructure and emerging architectures such as containers and micro-services.
- Supports standards-based compliance management
- It can be up and running within just a few minutes.
- The open-source cores can be extended through plug-in modules, so you can have a custom solution that works great for your organization.
- Operates in diverse environments.
- Automatically detects, audits and manages any network connected device.
Pros:
- Hardly takes any time to configure and run operations
- Supports limitless integrations
- Automation helps in managing repetitive operations
- Runs audits and manages network-connected devices and applications
- Uses plug-in modules to extend open-source cores
Cons:
- Only the pricey edition offers access to advanced features.
- Technical knowledge is essential for proper configuration
Pricing: It is 100% FREE
Download: You can download FirstWave from https://firstwave.com/network-tools-download/
Conclusion
To conclude, systems management is a fundamental part of every IT system as it ensures that your devices are up and running, there are no security breaches, your operations are in compliance with existing industry standards, and more. It is essential for the success, security and growth of your organization.
We hope the above-mentioned tools give you an idea of what they can do for your organization, so you can make informed choices when it comes to choosing the right systems management tool that is ideal for your business environment.
Related Posts:
Best VM Manager & Monitoring Software
Storage Management Software – What is it and How to Implement it
