Enterprise networks are only getting more complex with growth in devices, applications, locations and users. Even small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) today have hundreds if not thousands of devices on their corporate networks. Manual tracking and managing this scale of infrastructure is near impossible, leading to major visibility and security risks.
This is where automated network discovery and mapping solutions come into picture. These tools continually scan and update the inventory of all devices connected to your on-premise, cloud and hybrid networks. Leading solutions create detailed topology mapping, monitor performance and configurations, and provide holistic dashboards – relieving IT teams from tedious manual efforts.
However, with dozens of offerings in the market, selecting the right network discovery product can get overwhelming. In this comprehensive guide, we analyze the top 7 robust tools suitable for SMB environments along with recommendations based on business size and specific requirements.
Overwhelming Scale and Risks of Tracking Networks Manually
Gartner estimates that an average SMB office with about 100 employees currently has over 1000 IP connected devices on premise – including servers, routers, access points, printers, laptops, IPs phones, security cameras and so on. Cloud adoption and trends like BYOD (bring your own device) are further accelerating this device explosion.
Manually tracking every single device on such large networks can take up thousands of invaluable man-hours. Some major challenges include:
❌ Time Consuming: IT admins need to continuously go from device to device noting down attributes like make, model, IP address, MAC address, configurations, patch status etc. New additions or changes easily slip through the gaps.
❌ Error Prone: Collecting and updating inventory in spreadsheet leads to frequent human errors or duplication. Critical details like warranty status often get missed.
❌ Security Risks: Rogue devices, unauthorized changes to firewall policies or open ports can go undetected without continuous monitoring.
❌ Lack of Insights: No centralized dashboard showing health status, connections and activity patterns across entire infrastructure. Issues keep recurring due to lack of visibility.
Above limitations can seriously impede business agility and growth for SMBs by draining IT resources as well as exposing networks to outages or breaches.
This is where network discovery and topology mapping solutions can alleviate a majority of challenges. Let‘s look at how they work before diving into leading options.
Automated Network Discovery and Mapping: Key Capabilities
Modern network discovery tools have robust scanning engines that automatically probe enterprise networks using protocols like SNMP, SSH and ICMP against specified IP address ranges.
They create and continuously update a detailed inventory of all devices discovered – right from physical servers, routers and switches to laptops, smartphones and other wireless equipment along with granular configurations and metrics.
Advanced solutions provide intelligent topology mapping illustrating device interconnections and network traffic flow. This is enriched with contextual data like geo-locations, virtual infrastructure hierarchy and more.
Core capabilities offered by leading discovery and mapping platforms:
🔎 Asset Inventory – Centralized, searchable database of all devices, components, configurations etc.
🗺️ Topology Visualization – Interactive maps showing communication patterns and dependencies
📈 Health Monitoring – Performance metrics, availability metrics, alerting etc.
📑 Change Logs – Configuration changes, new device detection etc.
📊 Built-in Reporting – Custom reports around assets, utilization, traffic, firmware etc.
🕹️ Flexible Views – Group devices as per locations, teams, environments etc.
Such 360 degree network-wide visibility and business context enables technology leaders to take informed decisions around expansion planning, connectivity issues, capacity upgrades, vulnerability management and more.
Now let‘s evaluate some leading network discovery and mapping platforms against key criteria before providing recommendations.
Critical Capabilities To Compare Discovery Solutions
While all network discovery tools follow the same basic principles, there is wide variation when it comes to aspects like scale, interfaces, integrations, analytics capabilities and ease of use.
Here are the most crucial evaluation parameters for SMBs:
Discovery Methodology: Support for diverse discovery protocols, credential-based scanning options etc.
Asset Discovery: Depth of device profiling, customization of data collected etc.
Mapping and Visualization: Flexibility around building hierarchy and context based maps.
Monitoring and Alerting: Health metrics tracked, anomaly detection and notifications etc.
Reporting and Insights: Out-of-the-box vs customized reporting around assets, events, traffic etc.
Scalability and Growth: Maximum devices and locations supported under pricing tiers.
Integrations and API: Options to connect with existing IT systems like service desk, CMDB, monitoring etc.
Interfaces and Visualization: Responsiveness of console and topology views for large networks.
Learning Curve: Discovery configuration complexity, administrator ramp up time etc.
Deployment and Support: On-premise vs SaaS delivery, implementation help, training resources etc.
Licensing and Pricing: Upfront costs, tiers based on metrics like device counts, pricing models etc.
We have done an exhaustive analysis of top solutions against the above aspects in the next section. You can use the criteria relevant to your needs while selecting the right platform.
Comparing Leading Discovery Platforms for SMBs
Here are 7 highly-rated automated network discovery and topology mapping platforms well-suited for growing SMB environments:
| Solution | Methods | Assets | Mapping | Monitoring | Reports | Scalability | Integrations | Interface | Onboarding | Support | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ManageEngine OpManager | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ |
| Paessler PRTG | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ |
| SolarWinds NPM | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★☆☆☆ |
| Paessler PRTG | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ |
| WhatsUp Gold | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ |
| Nagios XI | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ |
| Cacti | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★☆☆☆☆ | Community | Open Source |
| Open-AudIT | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★☆☆☆☆ | Community | Open Source |
Let‘s look at some salient points of differentiation among the leading tools:
★ ManageEngine OpManager
OpManager emerges as one of the most well-rounded solutions in this category – bringing simplicity and scale with 1000s of production customers globally across SMBs as well as large enterprises. Salient aspects:
- Combines discovery, mapping, monitoring, config management and reporting in a single unified view
- Flexible dashboard with hundreds of pre-defined and custom widgets
- Powerful alerting engine with intelligent correlation and noise reduction
- Easy-to-use workflow integrations with ServiceDesk Plus and other ITSM tools
- Broad ecosystem of third party integrations via API and SNMP traps
- Strong focus on community-driven enablement programs
★ Paessler PRTG
Pioneer of the network discovery space, PRTG comes with a powerful mapping engine and customizable asset inventory capabilities. Key plus points:
- Wide variety of sensors for statistics collection and analysis
- User-friendly web interface with status-based topology maps
- Customizable hierarchical groupings and dynamic dashboard filters
- Broad device and application coverage via native as well as custom sensors
- Packaged IT service dashboards aligned with metrics like SLA compliance
★ SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
Part of the marquee Orion suite, NPM stands out for its elegant web console, modern visualizations and role-based access:
- Dynamic topology and dependency views powered by NetPath
- Custom polling intervals, threshold indicators and seasonal reporting
- Intuitive workflow integrations like network tools launcher and SNMP batch manager
- Powerful log analytics platform now included across all licensing tiers
- Growing ecosystem of certified professional services partners for deployment
★ WhatsUp Gold
Network mapping and analytics are the prime focus areas of this solution:
- Auto-generated Layer 2/3 topology maps with drill-down neighborhoods
- Interactive dependencies with traffic load data over links
- Custom layouts with filtering and coloring on variety of attributes
- Inventory integrations with tools like ServiceNow CMDB
- Packaged active maps aligned to needs like cloud monitoring, config audit etc.
And this is a condensed overview of the other tools evaluated:
★ Nagios XI – Long-standing open source system and network monitoring solution with visual topology maps, infrastructure overview pages and extensive community integrations.
★ Cacti – Web-based network graphing platform built on RRDtool data store which excels in interface flexibility – with plugins extending capabilities.
★ Open-AudIT – Lightweight discovery scanner focusing on agent-less device interrogation via SSH, SNMP etc. May have scalability constraints for mid-sized networks.
We have provided a representative but not exhaustive comparison here. You can choose to take up free trials and evaluate suites not covered.
Finding the Right Fit for Your Growing Organization
With network complexity only accelerating, discovery and visibility demands will get more sophisticated requiring increased granularity of data, flexibility of controls and proactive scanning capabilities. Here are some recommendations depending on where you are in the growth curve:
Expanding company with limited dedicated IT personnel – Solutions like OpManager and PRTG balance ease of use with customization providing unified views for troubleshooting. Relying on the vendor for extensive support services allows you to punch above your weight.
Mid-sized business with increasing cloud utilization – Options like SolarWinds NPM allow seamless visibility into hybrid environments. Advanced NetFlow and log analytics can be leveraged for diagnostic insights into traffic patterns and application performance issues even as cloud adoption picks up pace. Vendor provides deployment guidance and training to administrator team which will continue to build expertise.
Mature IT organization with specialized server and network admin roles – In this scenario you have the skills and scale to leverage open-source and community driven offerings to customize discovery capabilities and integrations with other enterprise management frameworks like service desk, config management database (CMDB), identity systems etc. Platforms like Nagios and Open-Audit provide a base to build upon through your development teams.
Irrespective of product selected do invest in upfront planning – defining current visibility gaps, key device counts and locations to track allowing for projected growth over next 3-5 years, integration requirements with other IT systems, data collection policies and user access roles etc. This will ensure licensing costs are optimized and value generated for the long term.
Bringing It All Together
With ever expanding digital footprint across devices, apps, networks and clouds; technology teams need robust control planes more than ever providing complete topology visualization, centralized inventory, smart alerts and automated workflows. This guide aimed to simplify the complex area of automated network discovery and mapping with recommendations tailored to needs of different SMB environments.
Hope this gives you a firm launching pad for your evaluation journey. Share your feedback or any specific tool capabilities I should additionally cover via comments below!
