What you runRunning SolarWinds?
Every node pays the license, whatever it tells you.
SolarWinds earned its place: broad coverage across servers and network gear, SNMP depth that took years to build, and a console generations of ops teams know cold. The pressure is the per-node license: every node is counted, whatever it produces.
Free. No system access. No obligation. You keep the drawing.
SolarWinds APM and monitoring
$16 per host a month
To monitor one host for a month, at list price.
SolarWinds Observability pricing, checked 2026-09-24
01The four problems
Which of these hits your SolarWinds estate?
Budget, renewals, the order to bring in AI, and collection that runs on someone else’s agents. Each one is about where the data lives, and with SolarWinds it lives in SolarWinds’s ecosystem. Pick yours.
“We pay per node for checks an open collector runs with no license at all.”
Take the ordinary tier off the per-node license. Each alert proven first.
- Why it happens
SolarWinds licenses every node it watches. CPU, disk, process and interface checks pay the same per-node price as everything else.
- What changes
The same checks run on OpenTelemetry collectors and an open source time series database you own, rebuilt and proven tier by tier before anything is turned off.
- How sure you can be
Nothing is lost. The full copy stays in your Lake and replays on demand, and every routing rule is readable code. The reduction is measured on your own noisiest sources, before and after, in writing.
- How soon
With the first source. We start where the most volume sits, prove it, then continue.
- What it takes from you
Your diagrams and one call to start. We build it as code in your repositories and teach your team to run it.
What shrinks
- GB indexed by your SIEMOnly what detection reads is indexed. Duplicates, debug output and unread fields stay out.
- Tokens per AI investigationEvery query to the Lake returns only the fields the agent needs.
- Hosts on per-node licensesOrdinary hosts move to monitoring you own. The APM keeps the apps that earn it.
- Vendor licenses and modulesYou keep the features that earn their price, not the whole platform.
Shapes, not figures. Yours are measured on your own sources in the review.
“Every renewal costs more, and our alerts only exist inside SolarWinds.”
Your alerts, as code you own. The renewal ends because there is none.
- Why it happens
The alert rules, the thresholds and the dashboards live in the console. Leaving means rebuilding them, so each renewal prices that difficulty.
- What changes
Each alert is exported, rebuilt as a plain file in your repository and proven to behave as it does today, in writing, before a node moves.
- How sure you can be
The detections, dashboards and alerts your team relies on keep firing where they do today. A move becomes a parallel run on the same routed feed, proven before anything is retired.
- How soon
Before your next renewal, if we start with the sources that drive it.
- What it takes from you
Your diagrams, your renewal date, and one call.
Your way out
- MigrationToday: Quarters of overlapping licensesWith you in control: Weeks: a parallel run, then a routing change
- Your dataToday: Their format, in their storeWith you in control: Open schemas, OCSF and OpenTelemetry, in your Lake
- HistoryToday: Stays behind when you leaveWith you in control: Replays into any tool you choose
- Collection and fleetToday: Their agents, their consoleWith you in control: A control layer and fleet plane you own
“Our alerts just fire. We want something that investigates them.”
Your agents, on your data, following your runbooks. Not one more module on their price list.
- Why it happens
A polling console fires on thresholds and stops there, and any AI added to it reads only what the console holds. It is their AI, on their rules and their runbooks, never yours.
- What changes
The alerts that used to just fire now also reach an agent you own. It reads the history in your Lake, trimmed in flight to only the fields an agent needs, and follows your runbooks.
- How sure you can be
Agents reason well on clean, trimmed data and badly on noise. Knowing which fields matter takes understanding machine data, source by source, and that is the work we do.
- How soon
As soon as the first sources land clean in your Lake, your agent has something worth reading.
- What it takes from you
Your runbooks, or we write them with you. The agents, prompts and runbooks are code you own.
What you get running
- Agents you control, in your accountThey run where your data is, under your access rules.
- Models you choose, and swapSmall or open-weight models for routine alerts, larger ones for investigations. Changing one is a config change, not a renewal.
- Your runbooks, as codeVersioned in your repositories. The agent follows them step by step.
- Token controlFields trimmed in flight to what the agent needs, so every query reads less and costs less.
- Fixes as pull requestsThe agent writes the fix, a person approves it, and remediation moves at the speed of a review.
- A Lake anyone can queryDevelopers and stakeholders ask the clean Lake directly, at object-storage prices.
“We want one open collector on every host, not a polling engine we rent.”
LaterA later step, sold only after step one is proved on your data.
One open collector. A fleet you control.
- Why it happens
A polling engine reaches out to every node from the vendor’s side, so collection belongs to the console.
- What changes
OpenTelemetry collectors on every host, controlled over OpAMP from a plane in your account, with the console in your repository.
- How sure you can be
OpenTelemetry is the open standard the major APM vendors already accept. Nothing about your destinations has to change on day one.
- How soon
Later. We start with the logs in front of your SIEM, because that is where the money is. Open collection follows once that is proved, host group by host group.
- What it takes from you
Your diagrams and one call. We plan the order with you.
Your control plane
- OpenTelemetry collectorsOpenOne open collector on every host, built for your estate.
- A fleet plane you ownYoursConfiguration and rollout from a console in your account, under OpAMP.
- Changes as pull requestsAs codeAI native: an assistant drafts the change, your team reviews and merges it.
- No vendor agentsRemovedNothing on a host reports to someone else’s console.
- Monitoring, only what earns itYour callStep away from a vendor’s full architecture and keep only the features you value.
02Today, and after
Today, and with the Blueprint
A SolarWinds estate is polled from outside and licensed per node, whatever each node produces, and what per-node pricing prices now is the difficulty of leaving.
Scroll the drawing sideways to see all of it.
What SolarWinds does best
SolarWinds earned its place: broad coverage across servers and network gear, SNMP depth that took years to accumulate, and a console generations of ops teams know cold. For a long time, renting that breadth was the only realistic way to have it.
That changed. Basic checks on ordinary infrastructure, CPU, disk, process, interface state, collect just as well on the OpenTelemetry Collector, which carries no per-node license. What per-node renewals actually price now is the difficulty of leaving. This is the one page on this site where replacement is the honest story, because for SIEMs and APMs it is not.
How it works, and where we sit
SolarWinds is the classic center-out monitor: a polling engine reaches out to every node over SNMP, WMI, and SSH on a schedule, discovers the topology, and raises alerts from thresholds and dynamic baselines in its console. It is licensed per node, so the renewal is where the bill moves. This is the one tier where replacement is honest: an open fleet and an open source time series database you own, with each alert rebuilt and proven in writing before anything is turned off.
03The five verbs
What we keep, and what changes
Keep it and govern what flows in, shrink its footprint, cut what it costs, extend it with an agent, and replace only where replacement is honest.
- Keep
Everything, until parity is proven. Nothing gets turned off before each alert is rebuilt and shown to behave as it does today, in writing.
- Shrink
The licensed footprint shrinks tier by tier as parity lands, on your schedule, not on a cutover weekend.
- Cut
The per-node license line goes to zero on the ordinary tier, and the stack that replaces it carries no per-node meter at all.
- Extend
The alerts that used to just fire now also reach an agent that investigates them, reading history from the Lake.
- Replace
Yes. This is the honest replacement case: OpenTelemetry collection, OpAMP fleet control, an open source time series database and dashboards you own, all as code in your repositories.
The letters mark where each verb acts in the drawing with the Blueprint.
How the replacement actually runs
The replacement is a parallel build with a written parity bar, so the risk sits with the method instead of with your coverage.
We export the monitors and alert rules through the platform's own interfaces so the parity bar is written down, then rebuild them on the open stack while the existing monitoring keeps running. Hosts move tier by tier as their alerts prove out. The fleet is controlled over OpAMP from a control plane in your account, and the console you watch it from is yours, in your repository.
What you own after: the collectors, the fleet plane, the open source time series database, each alert and dashboard, as code. The renewal conversation ends because there is no renewal.
04The free architecture review
We draw your SolarWinds estate, free.
Telemetry engineers look at your whole environment and show you exactly where the cost, the waste and the hurdles are, and what your architecture could look like. No strings attached.
What you get
- Your SolarWinds architecture today, drawnEvery source, pipeline and destination, as it actually flows.
- The waste mapWhere you pay for data nobody reads, and what it costs you each year.
- Costs before and after, with estimatesWhat you spend now, and what the same coverage would cost.
- Your target architectureWhat your SolarWinds estate could look like, drawn on your own sources.
- Options for your business problemNot one product. The choices, with what each one costs and changes.
Who does it
A lead architect with 26 years in monitoring and observability, leading a team of senior engineers in telemetry engineering and pipeline design. The team that reviews it is the team that would build it.
What it takes from you
Your diagrams and one call. No system access.
What comes next
If it pays, a two-week proof of value on your noisiest source, free unless you go ahead. At least 20% less into your SIEM, every alert kept, proved on your data.
What it costs
Nothing
No strings attached. You keep the drawing, whatever you decide.
05Questions
What SolarWinds teams ask before they book
Is this riskier than renewing?
The parity bar is what makes it honest: each alert is rebuilt and proven to behave exactly as it does today, tier by tier and in writing, before anything comes off the old platform. Until that bar is met, both systems run. The risk of renewal is certain and compounding.
What about the network gear SolarWinds watches?
SNMP-heavy network monitoring is scoped honestly in the review. Much of it collects cleanly on the open stack, and where something genuinely does not, we say so and scope it out rather than pretend. The ordinary server tier alone usually carries the economics.
Who runs the new stack afterwards?
Your administrators, and the handoff is designed in. The alerts are plain files, changing one means describing the change to a coding agent, and we train your team on it while we build. Day two is run by your own team, or by Logmetry if you want that.
Why is the review free?
Because the drawing is how you judge us. You see your own architecture, your waste and your options before you spend anything, and you keep the drawing whatever you decide. No system access, no obligation.
Are you a reseller for a vendor?
Yes, for certain vendors’ software. We are also the delivery partner and integrator on custom projects, directly or alongside your systems integrator. The pipeline subscription is in your name, bought from the vendor, its channel or through Logmetry where we resell it, and priced on its own line. We recommend what fits your business problem, even when that means changing nothing, and no SIEM or APM vendor pays us to recommend it.
What if the savings don’t hold on our data?
You see it measured before you commit. The two-week proof of value runs on your noisiest source, with success criteria signed before it starts, measured in your SIEM’s own license usage view. At least 20% less into your SIEM, every alert kept, proved on your data.
See your SolarWinds estate drawn, with the costs, before you spend anything
Run by a lead architect with 26 years in monitoring and observability. No system access, no charge, no obligation.
Free. No system access. No obligation. You keep the drawing.
What you get
- Your architecture today, drawn
- The waste map
- Costs before and after, with estimates
- Your target architecture
- Options for your business problem
What it costsNothing