Yes, thanks I read that when I looked for premier support. We only have a few products from SolarWinds and I've used them for over ten years. I'm just comparing the support I get now vs the support we used to get. They still fix stuff it's just not the same level of customer service I became accustomed to.
What I've noticed: In the past year or two, SolarWinds has done internal restructuring. That restructuring has caused a bunch of divides in the company which is affecting the customers directly. Management personnel at SolarWinds may or may not see the divide, but as a customer, it can clearly be seen.
My organization has premium support. The SolarWinds technicians are polite and hard working. The work ethic of the SolarWinds technicians is good. Sadly...our issues aren't being resolved. We have been working with their techs almost every day since October regarding failed software upgrades. At least 4 hours a day is spent on the phone with a tech. As of today, we still haven't successfully completed a single upgrade.
It boils down to a product that is flawed for how our network is built. The SolarWinds techs are working hard, but the SolarWinds techs and SolarWinds engineers aren't on the same page. Our servers don't use the internet. SolarWinds has to send us licensing. We've been sent the wrong or corrupted licensing multiple times. Techs have us look for folders on the server and those folders don't exist. Techs have us look for 100's of logs and the logs don't have the information they want, then the next day they have us go to a new file and find logs or information, or coding. As a technician, I'm learning A LOT about the product (which is great) but should that be the case? You learn from problems, but should you still have issues without resolution for 7 months? It's to the point that we are exploring other options/products. Based on the fact that my section is working with the SolarWinds techs daily, there is a clear picture that there is a disconnect in documentation, techs, & engineers.
There is a similar disconnect between the instructor's curriculum and test writers. Have you taken any SCP exams? SolarWinds Boot Camps are supposed to help prepare you for the test. The key word is "prepare" (not to be construde as spoon feed test information). Since COVID, I do not know a signal individual that has taken a bootcamp and passed an exam administered by PSI right after the bootcamp. Not everyone should be able to take a bootcamp and pass a SolarWinds exam; however, if you talked with 7 others that took an exam after the bootcamp and they all failed...maybe training and tests aren't in alignment. If techs have experience, 2 or 3 out of 7 passing would seem a more reasonable ratio than 0 of 7.
