What is our primary use case?
We use Skylight to monitor the performance of our network on different sites. We also use it to troubleshoot if there is an issue on the network/standard and the end user experience is good.
Recently, we used Skylight to monitor the amount of external user VPNs. With COVID-19, we have many people who work at home. We used Skylight to count the number of users and monitor the Internet line to see if there was a point of saturation.
It is mostly deployed on-premise with some services in the cloud.
How has it helped my organization?
It has sort of improved capacity planning by helping to size the network bandwidth or performance for the infrastructure.
Skylight is on our data center. Only our network teams have access to it. However, the network team does speak about the diagram of the dashboard to the application team, who doesn't have access to Skylight. Thus, the solution has helped to improve the interaction between our network and application teams as we work together.
What is most valuable?
We use it for troubleshooting, e.g., when we are currently in an IT territory migration, we can check if there is a computer or server using the old domain controller to analyze the network traffic. We can find it faster than the computer using the old domain group. It's more efficient to change it for the network migration this way, and Skylight accelerates this.
The solution’s UI and single pane of glass is good. The new dashboard is modern with its new design. The look of it is not pretty, but it is efficient, which is good. It is user-friendly; you can find what you need on the interface quickly.
What needs improvement?
It needs the possibility to export data because it is not easy to see larger data sets, e.g., for one month. It would be interesting to export data into a PDF or dashboard to keep a history of the situation.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution since September last year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable. We have had no issues when it comes to downtime. It has reduced downtime because we have no solution for migrating the DNS. With Skylight, we never forget anything. It has also reduced our migration time.
We have two people who do maintenance: a network manager and a network administrator.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good. With this license, we can deploy 25 probes. Therefore, it is possible to add new probes for scalability.
We don't have a big team. Less than 10 people in the networking team use the solution. Many people can see the data, but less than 10 can use it.
We collect the data for only 10 sites. In the future (maybe next year), we can deploy Skylight onto other sites.
How are customer service and technical support?
I don't use the technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were not using anything before this solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy and simple. It took three hours to deploy with the network configuration because it is important to configure the network to collect data for the probe.
What about the implementation team?
One person did the setup.
What was our ROI?
The solution is for quality, not to reduce money.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is cheaper than other competing products, which is better for our budgets.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We tried out Dynatrace and Riverbed. It is simpler to deploy Skylight. There is no need for an agent on the server or network to collect data. Also, Skylight had the cheaper price.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution as an eight (out of 10). If they add exporting data to PDF, I could made the rating a 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
