AWS Systems Manager Reviews

What is our primary use case?

AWS Services Manager is used to upload the image. And if there's something wrong, we use it to look at the logs and diagnose problems. We sometimes use Services Manager to redeploy and deal with scaling issues and configuration—like for example, what kind of memory needs to be allocated. Things like that.

How has it helped my organization?

We need this service to publish our API. Different partners of the company use the API to get information. My company is a publisher, and they just had all their books in a hard copy. Then they went digital to compete with the rest of the world. Once they digitized everything, my company had to provide that information to the partners so they could consume that information and use it in different ways. So this solution does put the rest of the API on the cloud so the partners can access it.

What is most valuable?

Systems Manager has a feature where it analyzes the logs and gives us a performance overview in the form of a graph. We know when it's taking up more resources and when there are spikes, so we can predict the usability. If there are unexpected spikes, then we can do a root cause analysis to see what's going wrong at this bottleneck.

What needs improvement?

The automation functions of Systems Manager need improvement. For example, we formerly used third-party products to analyze the log, give us information, and find bottlenecks. Systems Manager could provide more tools that conduct this analysis, so we don't have to do it ourselves. The other thing it needs is better integration with different solutions to make the whole deployment process a little easier.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used AWS Systems Manager for around three years or so. Before that, I'd used it a few years on and off. When I was at my previous job, I used it for around three years. For the past six months, I've been working for Target. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Services Manager is quite reliable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is one of Services Manager's most valuable aspects. It scales up along with demand.  

How are customer service and support?

Support is one of the weak areas. Sometimes, they weren't as responsive as I would like. This only happened occasionally, not all of the time.

How was the initial setup?

As far as the basic setup goes, it's relatively simple. We read the documents, and then everything was straightforward. The documentation is good.

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

Price is one of the biggest pain points with Services Manager. The pricing shoots up if there's a surge in demand. There needs to be a better alert system for the pricing that sends notifications with suggestions about what we should do to avoid these surges

What other advice do I have?

I would rate AWS Services Manager an eight. I say eight because I'm not sure if there's anything better now that there are so many solutions. If you're considering adopting AWS Services Manager, you should consider all the alternatives before deciding on one. Deploy a simple application on all the leading solutions and see which works the best. In addition to looking at performance, you have to evaluate all solutions based on essential features like log analysis and notifications. It would help if you had a table rating every provider according to these criteria and then made that call. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)