What sflow software - Manage Engine Net flow analyzer or Plixer Scrutinizer with Analyzer

Sat Jan 1 10:56:53 UTC 2011

Hi everyone, we currently are looking at sflow options for a commercial collector and analyzer. The core use is for visibility on our network, for quickly detecting source / destination IP addresses, ie where the traffic is going and where is it coming from, the type of traffic would be interesting also but to be honest all which really matters is source / destination.

The requirement of the sflow software is to give us options and data very quickly in the event of a DDOS attack so mitigation can occur quickly once we understand what’s happening on the network. The last thing we want is for the software not to work under a DDOS (too much data) thus leaving us blind upon an attack. The quicker the software can report on issues, the quicker we can do something about it. 
Our current routers are fully sflow capable and both export nicely to both packages.

Our findings so far

Manage Engine Net flow analyzer has both a Linux and windows version, the software is very light and seems to perform very fast, although light on additional features such as custom reporting, and alerting / in depth packet information.  The concern is this software too simple, will it work under heavy load?
Based on our needs Manage Engine Net flow costs $2000.00

Plixer Scrutinizer – based on windows the software seems resource intensive but has a MASSIVE amount of extra visibility built into the software including automatic alerts, that being said the software does seem extremely more complex to configure and understand, reports seem to take longer to produce and the information doesn’t seem to be reported as quickly. (ie lags by minutes or so compared to Manage Engine)  
Based on our needs Plixer Scrutinizer Costs $4000.00

Does anyone have any real life experience on either package the cost different between the two packages doesn’t worry us, it’s all about selecting the correct package knowing the one time we need to access the flow information and get it quick that the package we choose preforms quickly and works.

I’d also like to hear from anyone else using another commercial solution, which they would recommend.

Thanks in advance

Alex 		 	   		  