it_user257253 - PeerSpot reviewer
Spanish Language Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Provides an overview of the performance bottlenecks at different layers of the application landscape.

What is most valuable?

Once all the metrics are collated during the analysis phase, the troubleshooting section is very important to me. It provides the entire overview of the performance bottlenecks at different layers of the application landscape.

It helps me to prioritize my activities in solving or fine-tuning the application. It helps me in my interactions with the development, infrastructure, and operations teams.

This solution helps us conduct Root Cause Analysis (RCA) of critical performance issues. We can communicate clearly with detailed insights. This saves time and prevents ambiguities.

How has it helped my organization?

As a performance engineering architect and a practice evangelist for performance engineering practice, this has enabled our performance tester to provide more engineering value-based solutions/deep dives. These showed how the applications fared during the load conditions and linked the performance bottleneck to the exact line of code.

This practice has transitioned our testers to “engineers”. AppDynamics solutions complement performance testing.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see the following:

  • A better way to export data to reports.
  • A better way of distributing the AppDynamics reports with deep dive details.
  • Better integration with load testing tools such as NeoLoad and JMeter. The current integration is very cumbersome.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using APM tools since 2004. I have been implementing this solution across different industries for the past year and a half.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have not had any issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have not had any issues with scalability.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is very good. We have a good team working with Wipro and AppDynamics.

How was the initial setup?

The auto-discovery was good. It was a straightforward configuration of agents on web and app servers.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I truly appreciated the SaaS license mode that provides the AppDynamics controller on the cloud. There are bits and pieces of licenses that need to be procured in order to have a complete APM. This includes application, server health, browser-level monitoring, UEM, and DB monitoring.

When you add this all up, the price is not appealing. The procurement of AppDynamics licenses is a bit tricky. You need to be careful with it.

What other advice do I have?

AppDynamics has come a long way in terms of user friendliness with day-to-day use. This solution has an edge over others in terms of adaptability between team members with different roles and responsibilities.

You should start off with application monitoring licenses which provide very user-friendly functionality. You need to spend more time to generate the reports with deeper insights.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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it_user560364 - PeerSpot reviewer
Production Support Analyst III/ Enterprise Monitoring at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
We needed application interrogation. Technical support is top notch.

What is most valuable?

The application interrogation and business transaction mapping are the most valuable features.

How has it helped my organization?

It allows us to quickly get to a mean time to repair by identifying the problem a lot faster.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see better dashboarding and an easier way to redefine transaction names.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability’s fine; it’s pretty stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It definitely is scalable over many different applications.

How are customer service and technical support?

AppDynamics technical support is top notch.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were not previously using any solution. We knew that we needed to find some way to do some application interrogation.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I'm not sure what my current company looked at before they brought it in.

At previous companies, I've looked at AppDynamics competitors including New Relic, Dynatrace and BMC APM.

The most important criteria for me when selecting a vendor like AppDynamics is functionality and ease of implementation.

What other advice do I have?

Do your homework and make sure that AppDynamics is right for you. I'm pretty sure it would be.

It works really well. It does its job, as far as digging into the Java and finding out what the problems are when they occur in real time.

We are not using APM with other AppDynamics products.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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it_user112185 - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
We investigated New Relic & dynaTrace before choosing AppDynamics to easily identify & rectify application slowdown

How has it helped my organization?

We've used AppDynamics to easily identify application slowdowns and rectify them on several occasions. It has also helped in our QA environment to analyze new releases and ensure they are not harming performance.

What is most valuable?

Stack trace of PHP calls through the application and timings of those calls.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

None.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Just that we've run out of agents in our license :P :(

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: 10 out of 10, all our questions and issues have been addressed and resolved quickly.Technical Support: 10 out of 10, as above, all questions and issues have been addressed and resolved quickly.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No, AppDynamics was our first.

How was the initial setup?

Very simple- install controller, install agents, configure agents, done.

What about the implementation team?

In-house

What was our ROI?

Quicker turnaround on finding/resolving issues or improving performance, which leads to improved client experiences.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We investigated several other APM solutions prior to going with AppDynamics, specifically New Relic and dynaTrace.

What other advice do I have?

Read up on documentation, and play around with the config settings, there is a vast wealth of information that can be retrieved if you know how to look for it.

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.
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it_user191439 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user191439Sales Director at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant

I recently start to investigate the solutions from both network perspective and application angel, offering the end user the holistic information for both operation team and customer-facing team.

The features are almost the same. But the business model differs a lot.

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it_user112596 - PeerSpot reviewer
Application Support Engineer with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Useful metrics and amazing snapshots of transactions are two reason why we chose AppDynamics over CA and Compuware.

How has it helped my organization?

We have been able to proactively correct issues from newly launched applications without even receiving complaints from the end users, and the amazement of users when you notify them personally that an error they never reported has been corrected is priceless.

What is most valuable?

The detailed metrics that are collected about the JVM and the transaction snapshots, those have been most valuable to us to correct complex bugs.

What needs improvement?

The granularity of historic data could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The Java agent never was the cause of any application crash since we've used them.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

So far we have never reached the limits of AppDynamics Pro, it scales at our pace.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: AppDynamics is one of those rare companies that put the customer experience first. Once you become a customer you are appointed a technical account manager that helps you get the most out of your investment. I have a conference call with mine every other week and it really improves our understanding and use of the solution.Technical Support: Very good, we never had any major issue and we have always been helped promptly.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not use a comparable solution before, we choose AppDynamics when we initially compared the different Application Performance Management solutions.

How was the initial setup?

Setting up AppDynamics is a breeze. We never encountered any installation issue nor with the Java agents, machine agents or the controller. We always installed the components ourselves without any help other than the documentation.

What about the implementation team?

As mentioned before we implemented it ourselves without any external help.

What was our ROI?

Our ROI is very good, the areas that profited the most were productivity, customer experience, software quality and bug fixing time.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

AppDynamics was chosen over several competitors which we evaluated: CA Wiley and Compuware dynaTrace.

What other advice do I have?

I rate the AppDynamics Pro usability, stability and customer experience as the best. This solution is very advanced and they keep on improving the features that make it great. Once you use AppDynamics it feels like you were standing in the dark before. Implementing it is a breeze even if you never used it before, and out of the box it gives you so much useful information that you only need to fine-tune it. I never heard of any other product that is up and running this fast.

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.
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it_user99882 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user99882Engineer with 201-500 employees
Real User

I would say the clear title of AppDynamcs vs. other major competitors would be a clear indication that this is a gamed review. It makes it is searchable and easily shared in multiple channels. There are other such reviews that have a very similar structure. If this is a typical review I would expect to see very similar posts from other competitors in the space. I just don't see that. Do you see posts with titles like "We picked New Relic over AppDymamics, CA, and Compuware"? or We love CA APM better than AppDynamics and New Relic. No. Only in cases of AppD do you see this. I would discount most of these types of reviews as they are not an accurate portrayal.

See all 7 comments
Associate Principal Consultant at BRavura
Real User
Data Flow and memory monitoring help troubleshoot and improve Java applications
Pros and Cons
  • "It helped to find quick solutions for specific business transactions."
  • "As per my experience, the drill-down feature can be improved at the class level."

What is our primary use case?

I am using AppDynamics in order to monitor Java applications.

How has it helped my organization?

It helped to find quick solutions for specific business transactions. For example, in the case of slowness or a job being stuck at some stage.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are Data Flow and memory monitoring.

What needs improvement?

As per my experience, the drill-down feature can be improved at the class level.

It should generate a report similar to what Oracle provides.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using AppDynamics for two years.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Software Development Consultant at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
It shows how all the components in the infrastructure work together to run an application.

What is most valuable?

AppDynamics monitors the ICT environment by just installing a Java or .NET agent and machine agent on the server. It shows how all the components in the infrastructure work together to run an application. You can pinpoint easily where the performance issues for your application are.

How has it helped my organization?

We once installed an agent on an IIS server and then noticed that there was a memory issue on this server. Also, we once had performance issues on a Websphere application server, which was caused by memory leaks in the JVM. The IBM tooling did not warn for this, but AppDynamics showed it was a problem, because you can look at the data over a longer period.

We solved one issue with performance on our online application, which was caused by a slow batch application running on the same server/database.

What needs improvement?

One thing that can be improved is the license structure. It is not easy to see which agent is included in the license and which is not.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using AppDynamics for about four years now.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

The controller and the agents are easy to deploy; 30 minutes at the most.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In the years that we have used AppDynamics, we never encountered stability problems.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We only encountered scalability issues when switching agents over servers related to the license structure.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

The level of customer service is very good.

Technical Support:

Questions are answered within 24 hours. When there is an issue, real effort is made to help.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, we used the hardware monitoring and logging tools of the hardware vendors. This meant several different views on our environment.

We used IBM tooling and Oracle monitoring tools. For Java applications, we used the monitoring tools of the JVM.

How was the initial setup?

It was very easy to install and setup. If the environment is complex, AppDynamics will help to make the best suitable setup.

What about the implementation team?

We made an in-house implementation and configuration with help of technical support.

What other advice do I have?

Configuration in the IT environment is very important. It has to be done with the vendor, our development teams, our infra support teams and the business.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Solutions Architect and Community Leader at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
We find application bottlenecks with the standard agent for Java and .NET.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the standard APM agent for Java and .NET. We always find bottlenecks in applications with these agents.

How has it helped my organization?

We've seen tasks the end users have to do on a daily basis that used to take 30-60 seconds been improved to take under two seconds, based on reports and recommendations we have written based on AppDynamics. The developers had been troubleshooting this specific issue for months before we installed AppDynamics. We installed AppDynamics, found the bottleneck, wrote the report and gave our recommendation within four hours.

What needs improvement?

In general, AppDynamics is by far the easiest APM tool to use. The biggest room for improvement is related to maintenance of the solution. A centralized upgrade of agents is sorely missed.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been delivering services around AppDynamics for two years now.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

We have not encountered any issues with deployment, stability or scalability. However, it can be confusing deploying the analytics agents; this had to be planned carefully.

How is customer service and technical support?

AppDynamics has hands-down the best technical support I've experienced, and I've worked with all the major APM vendors.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup, if you choose the SaaS solution, is very straightforward and well documented. Choosing the on-premise solution is more complex, but not any worse than its competitors.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I cannot discuss our customers’ ROI. I would advise to get as many APM agents as you have application servers, to start easy with EUM, and grow the EUM as your website/app grows. Don't do analytics at first, if you don't have a clear business case for it.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have delivered, and deliver, services related to Dynatrace and HPE. AppDynamics is, today, the solution that is easiest to deploy and gives the quickest ROI.

What other advice do I have?

Just try it. AppDynamics has a free, 14-day trial. If you don't have the needed staff or knowledge, talk to one of AppDynamics’ partners.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: My company is a certified partner of AppDynamics. It is also a partner with their competitors Dynatrace and HPE. Personally, I'm a certified AppDynamics Expert.
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PeerSpot user
IT FrontOffice & QA Manager at VENCA
Real User
Used to test customer behavior on a website. The QA and test environment need improvement.
Pros and Cons
  • "It is used to test customer behavior on a website."
  • "The QA and test environment need improvement."

What is our primary use case?

Testing the customer behavior to learn their problems on a website, the heatmap flow, and other information.

What needs improvement?

  • IT department
  • Software production
  • Test environment
  • QA testing
  • KPIs of the business
  • Heatmap
  • An APM

For how long have I used the solution?

Trial/evaluations only.

What other advice do I have?

This tool is so good to work with.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free AppDynamics Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free AppDynamics Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.