Though large enterprises manage their IT infrastructure and business services with the help of experts or outsourcing companies, small businesses are under tremendous pressure to deliver top-quality services and network performance. To keep up with the challenging and ever-changing IT landscape, small businesses must utilize a set of advanced tools to help streamline various business processes and enable them to deliver quick services.
Why Choose SolarWinds Tools for Small Businesses?
SolarWinds provides IT tools built to help small businesses do the following:
- Simplify tasks right from ticket request to resolution
- Accelerate delivery of services by addressing end-user issues
- Manage support tickets remotely for faster troubleshooting
- Improve customer satisfaction by responding to end-user queries quickly with remote support capabilities
In this guide, I explore the best SolarWinds® solutions for small business needs and the features of each to help you better understand which products may be right for your organization, whether your small business IT team is a team of many, one, or none.
Kiwi Syslog Server
SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog® Server is a powerful solution built to help you view, manage, and archive syslog messages, SNMP traps, and Windows event logs. The tool helps collect logs, syslog messages, and SNMP traps from the IT infrastructure and can monitor them in real time on a web-intuitive interface.
Using this tool, you can centralize logs from devices and systems, respond to messages, send emails, and forward data to troubleshoot issues faster. The log retention capabilities can also help you maintain compliance with FISMA, SOX, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and more.
The key features of the tool include the following:
- Real-time alerts based on logs collected
- Centralization of syslog messages
- Storing logs and important messages for maintaining compliance and regulations
- Scheduled notifications and syslog reports
- Secure web access
Kiwi CatTools
SolarWinds Kiwi CatTools® is a network automation and configuration management software designed to schedule automatic backups, support multi-vendor devices, allow you to compare and analyze config changes, and generate reports automatically. Using this tool, you can gain more control over which device configuration changes are updated and when. Kiwi CatTools gives you the ability to preschedule config changes for specific devices to gain more control over network device configuration changes and updates.
ipMonitor
SolarWinds ipMonitor® is an essential tool for monitoring the performance of servers, networks, VMware hosts, and applications from a single console. Besides monitoring, the tool can also send and receive alerts for errors, performance issues, network outages, server unavailability issues, and more. With its automated remediation actions, the tool is also designed to help you minimize downtime.
The tool’s built-in reports and dashboards can help enhance the monitoring process, as you can utilize it to identify critical issues before they affect end-user experience. Running this software is designed to be simple and requires no separate database to maintain. The tool can also collect crucial performance metrics from the infrastructure without installing an agent.
Serv-U Managed File Transfer (MFT) Server
SolarWinds Serv-U® Managed File Transfer (MFT) Server is a file-sharing tool designed to allow you to more quickly share files from an intuitive central console. The tool is designed to give you more control over file transfers and make the sharing process easier and more secure.
The tool also enables ad-hoc file sharing and uploading and allows you to quickly download large files so you can maintain regulatory compliance with PCI DSS, HIPAA, FISMA, SOX, and more. Serv-U MFT Server easily integrates with existing AD/LDAP servers, syncs with user accounts, and simplifies authentication.
Serv-U File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Server
SolarWinds Serv-U File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Server is specifically designed for Linux and Windows operating systems. It’s a reliable, fast, and secure file transfer software using FTP and FTPS over IPv4 and IPv6 networks to transfer files securely. It can transfer multiple files using its drag-and-drop feature in a web browser. Users can not only transfer files from the web but can share files over mobile devices.
Network Topology Mapper
SolarWinds Network Topology Mapper helps you plot networks automatically by discovering devices in a network. It can then use this information to create comprehensive and detailed network topology maps. This network mapping software is built to perform scheduled network scanning, detect devices automatically, and create topology maps to maintain up-to-date information about the network.
Using this tool, you can also create segmentation diagrams to save valuable resources, bandwidth, and time. Network Topology Mapper leverages multiple network discovery methods—such as CDP, SNMP, and ICMP—to scan networks through various layers and generates integrated OSI layer network maps with elaborate device information. The tool can also help you more easily demonstrate HIPAA, PCI, and SOX compliance with its up-to-date network diagrams. In addition to mapping, you can use this tool to maintain hardware assets, manage network inventories, and create automatic reports.
Engineer’s Toolset
SolarWinds Engineer’s Toolset™ is an essential network software pack capable of helping small businesses with discovering networks automatically, real-time monitoring, diagnosing networks and devices, and sending instant alerts after detecting errors, outages, or performance issues. Engineer’s Toolset includes more than 60 tools built to deliver solutions for important IT pain points, including the following:
- Network stress testing
- Configuration and log management
- IP address and DHCP scope monitoring
- Automated network discovery
- Monitoring and alerting
Help Desk Essentials Pack
The SolarWinds Help Desk Essentials Pack is a bundle of two key SolarWinds products built to integrate and deliver a comprehensive remote desktop support and ticketing solution. The following products are included in the Help Desk Essentials Pack:
Web Help Desk
SolarWinds Web Help Desk® is a ticketing and asset management solution designed for affordability, as it doesn’t require additional costs to support unlimited end users. In addition to ticketing and IT asset management, Web Help Desk can help simplify your ability to provide many service management solutions, including knowledge management, in a central tool. By combining the ticketing and IT service management (ITSM) features of Web Help Desk with SolarWinds Dameware® Remote Support, you can respond to and resolve issues faster by leveraging the remote access and diagnostic capabilities to launch support sessions directly from help desk tickets.
Dameware Remote Support
Dameware Remote Support is a remote control and system management tool built to provide remote assistance from anywhere with an internet connection to computers both in and outside the corporate network. Dameware Remote Support also allows technicians to use their mobile devices to provide remote support, with access to the same tools available on the web app. This means IT support technicians are better able to help, no matter where they are. By integrating Dameware Remote Support with Web Help Desk, you gain the ability to more easily track key data like remote session duration, chats, and screenshots by saving it to help desk tickets for further troubleshooting or analysis.
What Are the Best IT Tools for Small Businesses?
Investing in IT solutions can help small businesses automate trivial and repetitive tasks. This allows you to concentrate on other business-critical tasks and be more productive by helping you gain real-time network insights, map devices, analyze trends, generate reports to help you demonstrate compliance, and ensure performance. You can learn more about all the SolarWinds small business IT solutions here.