SolarWinds Orion vs Hybrid Cloud Observability (HCO)

SolarWinds Orion and Hybrid Cloud Observability (HCO) are network monitoring and management platforms developed by SolarWinds. The Orion Platform has been SolarWinds’ core offering for over 20 years, which has recently been renamed to ‘SolarWinds Platform’, while HCO is a newer subscription-based evolution of that platform.

In the simplest terms, HCO is repackaging of the Orion Platform’s different independently licensed software modules into one install that is feature activated through a node based annual subscription model. The software itself is essentially the same (for now). This new licensing model brings with it a lot of benefits that I’ll cover below.

Although both leverage a shared codebase, HCO aims to modernize Orion with simplified licensing, expanded cloud and analytical capabilities, and a redesigned architecture. Both will coexist for the foreseeable future but the focus is definitely on HCO going forward. Any new features will most certainly come to HCO before they do Orion.

For the sake of discussion, when I use the term Orion below, I’m referring to the independent module-based licensing of the ‘SolarWinds Platform’.

Licensing Models

Orion (SolarWinds Platform Modules)

Orion utilizes modular licensing that requires purchasing separate perpetual or annual subscription licenses for each monitoring module like network (NPM), server (SAM), virtualization (VMAN), etc. These licenses are sold in buckets of “elements” (previously referred to as nodes but that was changed to eliminate confusion with HCO licensing) that are consumed by every interface, socket, etc… (1 interface = 1 element) that you choose to monitor. So:

1 License = 1 Module (Product) = 1 bucket of licensed elements 

At the time of writing, the cost of a perpetual license of just NPM for 100 elements is $3265. Inevitably, you choose to ignore some things, because it costs too much to monitor it all (you could consume that whole 100 element license on one stack of two 52 port switches for example so you just monitor the uplinks instead), costing you visibility. This complex model demands significant upfront investment in both time and money and ongoing license management.

It’s painful. I speak with first hand experience on this one as the admin of our SolarWinds Platform install at my org. Let me explain…

Orion shines when you have multiple modules installed and working in concert. NPM (Network Performance Monitor), UDT (User Device Tracker), and NTA (Netflow Traffic Monitor), for example, paint a beautiful picture of the network when used together but they all rely on certain devices and interfaces being licensed to work together which eats up licenses fast.

You then spend hours trying to audit and reconfigure your licenses, deciding what to keep and let go, so you can monitor the more important things to take advantage of your new modules. If you run out of licenses, now you’re running to Finance for approval to purchase a bigger bucket. That could mean going out for bids, waiting for new budget quarters, etc… Your licenses are now all wacky and not co-termed. And so on.

It just sucks. Plain and simple.

And what if you have multiple networks (air-gapped, secure, different branches, etc…)? You have to license a new Orion server with each of those modules for each network. That’s more buckets of licenses. More purchasing pain. More renewal pain. Did I mention more pain? Okay…

And you still have to pay for yearly support if you want access to updates on the perpetual plans. So while the base licensing is perpetual, that overall expense isn’t. Enter Hybrid Cloud Observability.

Hybrid Cloud Observability

HCO introduces streamlined node-based (where one device is a node rather than one interface or socket or whatnot) licensing bundled into two main tiers, Essentials and Advanced. Essentials is basically the activation of the main SolarWinds Platform Modules (NPM, SAM, etc..) and Advanced is all of the remaining modules (Essentials plus  NTA, VMAN, NCM, etc…) So:

1 License = All Products (or most with Essentials) = 1 bucket of licensed nodes with 1 SKU

There is also an ‘Enterprise Scale’ tier which can be added onto either Essentials or Advanced for additional scalability features like multiple polling engines, free lab licenses, high availability clustering, and so on (see my screenshot below).

Ultimately, HCO enables flexible monitoring with a single procurement and activation process. By consolidating previously disparate Orion modules, HCO minimizes licensing overhead while expanding the functionality available to you from the very start.

Yes please!

With HCO’s simplified node licensing, a node is a node is a node. Therefore, if you have an ESXi host to add, that is one node license consumed. No worry about sockets anymore. Same goes for NPM, 1 node with 1 interface monitored or 1 node with 52 interfaces is still only going to consume 1 node license under HCO. Each node consumes one license regardless of complexity. This shift focuses licensing on unified visibility rather than nickel-and-diming device variables. 

I personally prefer this as now I can see everything for one price instead of worrying about just monitoring my uplinks to pinch pennies, as I portrayed in my previous example with Orion.

Flexible Licensing

Also, with Hybrid Cloud Observability 2022.3, a new feature called Flexible Licensing was introduced. With flexible licensing, you can think of your HCO license as a pool of nodes that you can activate wholly on one server or partially on multiple servers, all with a single HCO license and SKU (Finance and Purchasing love this one simple trick…). So:

1 License = All Products (or most with Essentials) = 1 bucket of licensed nodes to spread across all HCO servers

So if you have two separate instances of SolarWinds that you manage, you just need to tally up the nodes between them. (Let’s say 250 as an example.) You get one SKU for HCO A250 and can split that up in the License Manager GUI at activation time to say “I want to have 200 nodes activated here for my corporate network instance, and my second SCADA instance can have the remaining 50 activated there.”

If you need to rebalance, you just deactivate the licenses and re-activate with the appropriate number of nodes. Now you don’t have to juggle and pay for and renew all these disparate licenses.

The customer portal will then show you where all of your nodes are licensed and activated.

Win.

Hybrid Cloud Observability Advanced vs Essentials vs Enterprise Scale

If you’re running, or are at least familiar with the traditional Orion modules available on Solarwinds Platform, here is a nice little matrix I screen-grabbed from a slide deck when talking with a SolarWinds Rep that breaks down what modules correlate with which HCO tier.

As you can see, HCO Essentials gets you NPM (Network Performance Monitor), SAM (Server & App Monitor), LA (Log Analyzer), IPAM (IP Address Manager), UDT (User Device Tracker), VNQM (VOIP), ORCs (remote collectors), and some bits of NetPath, PerfStack, and AppStack plus the mapping and event correlation for the above modules. As of this writing Essentials was $5.50 per node per month (billed annually).

HCO Advanced adds in NTA (Netflow Traffic Analyzer), VMAN (Virtualization Manager), NCM (Network Config Manager), and SCM (Server Config Monitor) and the missing bits of NetPath, PerfStack, AppStack, and completes the mapping and event correlation capabilities. As of this writing Essentials was $9.50 per node per month (billed annually).

If you’re a particularly large organization, you can bolt on the Enterprise Scale option to either Essentials or Advanced and unlock additional polling engines (APEs), High availability (HA), additional web servers, EOC, free lab licenses, and access to premier support. You’ll have to reach out to SolarWinds for a quote on this addition.

I also want to point out that SRM (storage resource monitor) and WPM (Web Performance Monitor) remain independent modules even with HCO so you’ll activate those licenses after you activate the HCO license. This isn’t portrayed in the above image so it’s easy to miss.

Cloud Monitoring Features

As an on-premises-first platform, Orion offers robust support for on-premises and internal network monitoring. While possible to monitor cloud resources with Orion through SAM, it is originally architected for non-cloud environments. If you’re not paying for SAM, your cloud options dwindle.

HCO aims to enhance cloud visibility through uncorking the cloud visibility features from the start and supporting new cloud integrations (like Platform Connect) and roadmap prioritizations. 

Here is another screen grab from a slide deck I sat through that shows the direction SolarWinds is going with HCO:

What we see in this slide  is that orgs that opt for HCO will have the ability to use integrations like Platform Connect which will connect their on-prem HCO infrastructure to on-cloud SolarWinds Observability (SWO, their SaaS offering for cloud-native apps). This will not be available to companies still on the module based SolarWinds Platform licensing as they would/could be missing important bits for the interoperability.

Architecture

As I discussed previously, Orion is actually named SolarWinds Platform now (as of the 2022.3 update) and Hybrid Cloud Observability uses this platform. This change reflects SolarWinds’ shift to a unified codebase and platform architecture for both efficiency and security in development.

The modernized SolarWinds Platform provides an integrated experience across products, leveraging shared components like the web console, alerting engine, and reporting. It also enables easier interoperability between the 12-14 different monitoring products running on top. The Orion name is being phased out, though still visible in some areas during the transition. 

HCO runs on this platform with a tweaked licensing structure and a slightly different cloud interoperability roadmap for hybrid-environments as I alluded earlier. Both SolarWinds Platform and HCO depend on on-premises polling engines and databases for data collection. All processing occurs internally.

HCO has the added ability of shipping off that data to the cloud for processing (AIOPS, their machine learning based anomaly detection and alerting) and/or collection and integration with SWO. This provides a migration path to those who are still on Orion as they migrate more to the cloud on the road to database-as-a-service or function-as-a-service type solutions.

Cost and Value (Orion vs HCO pricing)

Due to bundled licensing, HCO can have a higher initial price tag than Orion’s modular model depending on how many SolarWinds products you use (or plan to use). However, HCO requires less spending on incremental add-on modules over time. Organizations leveraging multiple Orion modules may find pricing and licensing consolidation with HCO.

As mentioned above, each SolarWinds Platform (Orion) module will come with its own expense under traditional licensing. You can view some sample prices here. HCO starts at $5.50 per node for Essentials and $9.50 for Advanced. You have to call for Enterprise Scale.

Let’s just look at the Essentials license of HCO and see how it would compare to the annual subscription option for individual module licensing in a hypothetical scenario in this table:

Module	Cost Per Module	HCO E250 (250 Nodes)
NPM (100 elements)	$1,785
SAM (100 elements)	$12,100
LA (100 nodes)	$4,660
IPAM (1024 IPs)	$1,288
UDT (2500 ports)	$1,200
VNQM (5 IP SLA, 300 IP phones)	$1,050
Cost per year	$22,083	$11,053

Remember elements under the module licensing are consumed one per interface/socket so you’re probably not monitoring 100 switches and/or 100 servers in this example with the old Orion module based licensing. However, if you had HCO, you absolutely could and it would cost less than just SAM by itself.

Now obviously this scenario can swing to the favor of either licensing scheme depending on your environment and how you have your elements spread out and which modules you actually use (or want to use). But this should give you a good start on how to compare things and come to your own conclusion.

It may be more expensive depending on how you are licensed today, so don’t be surprised by that. You likely get a lot more stuff for that investment, though. Just be prepared to implement the features to make it worth the investment if that’s the case.

Wrapping Up

While Orion (SolarWinds Platform) and Hybrid Cloud Observability share a codebase, and are essentially the same product with a different licensing scheme, HCO delivers evolutionary enhancements in licensing flexibility, cloud support, and bundled capabilities. It refactors Orion for the realities of hybrid monitoring that most organizations have been moving toward.