Broadcom DX Application Performance Management Reviews

My users are satisfied with this solution, most are financial institutions such as banks or card processors and telecom companies.

The primary use case is for the monitoring of business applications in production. Banks use it for monitoring Internet banking solutions, internal back-office applications that have high number of users distributed on many locations, monitoring back-office applications for card transaction processing, and also for front office applications monitoring. DX APM is also used in a test phase of apps life cycle especially during a performance testing. 

Business-wise very much. We have the best solution in the local market because we are the most experienced APM vendor in our region and have very satisfied customers. They said that UX is much improved and MTTR is significantly decreased.

The most valuable features are the low overhead, the ability to monitor production on 24/7 principle, the ability to decrease time to discover the point of failure in the IT infrastructure or the application environment in a short period of time, reporting for analyzing the performance of the application for improving the code optimizing process.

DX APM has a space for improvement in covering more technologies. I.e. monitoring of PHP should be solved in a more quality way. 

I have been familiar with this solution for 18 years.

This solution is stable. In the 15 years, we have not had any major issues. It's an excellent product.

We have a good approach and implementation. If we have any problems, we solve it in the testing phase before it's in production. I can't say that we have had serious problems in the last 10 to 12 years.

This solution is very scalable but we have not had the need to scale because our implementations not need more than one EM server. The new version of DX APM rely on microservices technology and scalability is automatized.

The technical support is good, we are satisfied. The transition period was a little bit problematic, but it only took a short time.

When Broadcom purchased CA they changed the support and the portal. We noticed but we had no real issues. They are responsible and responsive.

We are the first line of support the second line of support is done by Broadcom Support.

They have improved by making the documentation available publically, so it's not only available to partners anymore. The software documentation is really nice, approachable, readable, and searchable.

Positive

The installation is absolutely simple. The installation is quick.

You can install the system quickly and get results in monitoring.

The initial installation is not expensive for the customers.

Our company does the implementation for the customers. We have experts in our team to implement the solutions and for consulting the usage in the future.

We are there to support our clients, not only for the installation but also in exploring the solution.

Our customers are satisfied and there is no complaining about the price. All discounts are given case by case to accommodate the client's budgets. Setup is not expensive because projects are relatively short in man/days.

One of our customers has been using this solution for the last ten years since it was called Wily Introscope. They are really satisfied and they are buying more licenses, using the solution for the whole infrastructure.

All of my clients are using on-premises installation licenses. Most of our clients are at the enterprise level and they are some of the largest banks in the region. Broadcom DX APM is not only a tool, it's a solution. We have experts who are there to offer assistance in exploring the solution to give the customers the maximum value. In my opinion, it's the best product on the market.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

We are using the on-premise and cloud versions of Broadcom DX Application Performance Management.

Broadcom DX Application Performance Management could improve its supportability to the current technologies and the end-to-end correlation feature should be done automatically without custom configurations. Additionally, there should not be any configuration changes to the client-side when deploying the solution.

I have been using Broadcom DX Application Performance Management for approximately two years.

The scalability is very poor. When you expand your application, you have to do it manually on the deployment.

The support could improve because most of the support has no commitment to their SLAs.

The deployment could improve because it is complicated and not user-friendly on how to deploy the agents. You have to do many changes on the client-side. There are a lot of improvements needed.

The deployment for one client-server or one client target can take approximately 30 to 60 minutes. However, it does depend on the client.

We are implementors of Broadcom DX Application Performance Management. We do the implementation of this solution for clients.

When maintenance is required it can take one to two people up to two days to complete.

The license for Broadcom DX Application Performance Management is annual. The licensing model could improve because there is not any limit to deploying the agent, there should be some limits on it.

My advice to those wanting to implement this solution is to do many sanity tests before doing the deployment. It's very hard to find the issue and a high possibility of issues when doing the deployment.

I rate Broadcom DX Application Performance Management a six out of ten.

We use Broadcom DX Application Performance Management to monitor applications.

It is necessary to update the front-end application of Broadcom DX Application Performance Management, there are some performance issues. However, it has been working quite well.

I have used Broadcom DX Application Performance Management within the last 12 months.

This is a stable solution.

I have found Broadcom DX Application Performance Management to be scalable.

We have over 100 applications with multiple customers using this solution.

The technical support is very poor.

The initial implementation is very fast, it takes one or two days per application.

We have four people for the implementation and maintenance of the solution.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Broadcom DX Application Performance Management an eight out of ten.

Our primary use cases are for IT monitoring, alarms, and tracking the behavior of the IT system. We are customers of Broadcom.

The configuration and the manager tool are good features. It's very easy to deploy the parameters of the tool.

I'd like to see more integration between all the tools. You have APM, you have different management and other tools. Each tool works well by itself, but if we are talking about a suite, maybe those tools need to work well together.

I've been using this solution for a long time. 

I rate the solution eight out of 10. 

The solution is primarily used for monitoring such as network monitoring, application performance monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, et cetera. We also use it for the AI/ML to understand the kinds of effects that are coming from their different monitoring solutions. It can give a root cause analysis using multiple data points. It can monitor for and explain downtime and reduce the work of the ID operations team as it provides them with a root cause analysis for downtime events.

The different layers of monitoring helped to optimise the resource and reduce MTTR.If I found the issue in Infrastructure then team only focus in the infrastructure layer 

The solution has very good capacity and performance analytics. That is one section, which actually provides a lot of insights. I can see, for example, how my system is performing, and what kind of load is there in the systems. 

The dashboard is excellent and allows me to get quite granular, which I find quite helpful.

The initial setup is straightforward.

Technical support is good and the solution does offer pretty good documentation.

The AI/ML is still not quite giving the right results, the right root cause analysis. That needs to be improved. They claim that they give the root cause analysis in the exact right percentage, however, we find that usually whatever the root cause analysis it shows actually isn't the actual root cause. Therefore we've found that the AI/ML is actually not working properly. That needs to be improved a lot.

If I'm getting not the right root cause analysis, then definitively I have to go back and verify the different monitoring solutions to look for the root cause, which takes time.

The stability could be more reliable.

It would be ideal if correlations had their own dashboard. It would help to minimize the time gaps we create when we have to individually go back to check all the monitoring data points.

The pricing is high. We aren't getting the value we imagined out of the product.

I've used the solution for at least the last 12 months or so.

I don't find the reliability to be so good on the solution. The stability could be better. 

We have 50 users on the solution currently.

In terms of scalability, I would say it's good, however, it's definitely not perfect. If you aren't yet getting the right results, it doesn't make sense to scale it.

As of right now, we have no plans to increase usage.

We have found that both the documentation on offer and the technical support is quite good. there are no complaints in that regard. They are helpful and responsive and we're quite happy with the level of service we receive when we need it.

The real setup was straightforward, as all the monitoring solutions we were using were CA only. Due to that, there is a no-hassle login figure thing for the DX setup. Therefore, I wouldn't describe the process as overly complex or difficult. 

The solution uses a subscription-based model.

The pricing could be better. From the perspective of a value proposition, what I'm expecting from products that I'm not getting. That makes us assume that the pricing is high.

There aren't additional costs beyond the main licensing fee.

We are a customer and an end-users.

This solution does not have an on-premises deployment option. It is only available on the cloud.

I would advise a company looking for a solution such as this first start do a POC, and really look for the results on the raw data, your own broad data, rather than just going with a company that hasn't been tested. You should place your data into the system and see how the AI/ML is working. If the result is you can get 60, 70, 80% accuracy, you should go with it. 

I'd rate the solution at a four out of ten. There are many aspects of the solution that still need improvement.

We primarily use this product for monitoring our IBM WebSphere environment. It more generally monitors all of our JVMs for our web environments, used for all of our websites.

JVM memory monitoring and connection pool monitoring are valuable features.

It provides visibility into the performance of SQL statements, allowing for the identification of those that are performing poorly.

With respect to SQL monitoring, it would be nice to have a little more information because it doesn't provide the full statement all of the time. If it's really long then it only provides part of it.

It would be nice if the parameters that were used could be reported, as currently, it doesn't.

Having it monitor more of the environment would be helpful because we use applications such as Mule and Informatica, aside from the JVMs.

We began using this product between five and ten years ago when it was known as Wily Introscope.

This is a stable product.

In terms of stability, with our current setup, it is not so much. Unlike a situation where it was on the cloud, we'd have to be involved and it would be difficult to scale it up.

We have about a dozen people in the organization who use it.

We have had to call them and I find that they are not very supportive now.

The initial setup is complex.

We had assistance from either the vendor or somebody that they directed us to and are affiliated with.

The licensing costs are expensive.

We did not implement the latest release because they made some big changes to the framework. They probably have some of the stuff in their newest release that we would like. However, we didn't do that because they went to Kubernetes and some other technology that we weren't ready to adopt because it isn't in our environment yet.

Since Broadcom bought it, I would no longer recommend this product to other users. I think that they increased the price and the support isn't very good anymore.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

The feature that I have found the most valuable is its user interface.

They can make it easier to configure. 

I have been using this solution for about four months. We're doing a proof of concept. We've currently deployed it on-premises, but we've also been looking at a SaaS model.

I didn't contact their technical support.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. It took a couple of days to deploy.

We have our own team for maintaining this solution.

Broadcom is a better and cheaper option from a financial perspective. It also depends on the DLP plug.

You should look at the Broadcom DX version 11, which will be available from early 2021. It is a lot better than version 10.7. There are a lot of big upgrades in version 11.

There are not a lot of differences between AppDynamics and Broadcom DX Application Performance Management version 11. The user interface of AppDynamics is better, and the configuration for AppDynamics is a little bit more straightforward.

Broadcom offers a wider range and a bigger suite of applications. The APM module is just a part of it, whereas AppDynamics is a specialist at APM. AppDynamics is a better solution at the moment. You need to weigh the extra functionality you might get with AppDynamics and see if it is worth it. Dynatrace is also a better solution.

I would rate Broadcom DX Application Performance Management a seven out of ten.

A new concept (APM) to be introduced in our workplace which was never there before. Never had visibility into application (layer) performance. Prior to this our main focus was on server and network hardware monitoring. Having visibility into app performance and backend layer has been quite an eye opener in putting together the entire picture for management. We've put together a complete portrait from an ESM (Enterprise Systems Management) perspective with Broadcom/CA Tools.

We are introducing 10.1 in our dev environment and then prod down the road. APM is a new culture here so we are working with customers in getting them introduced to the product. Want to show them how deep dive provided by APM can help them with DevOps lifecycle as well as proactive monitoring. The previous version v9.5.3. we've had for about a year since we introduced a the product in our environment has been a good hands on experience for our users. Now looking forward to getting hands dirty with 10.1 and utilizing the additional capabilities. Will continue to show customers the usefulness of this tool and how they can use it to generate reports on performance of their app as well as the service it provides. There has also been reactionary situations where we have used APM and pin point the issue or able to narrow down the focus.

Updated - 08/29/2018

We now have v10.5.2 SP2 running in our Dev & Prod environment since June 2018. So, far we've had a really good reception for APM by our internal app owners. The key is now for ESM Tools to be adapted by app owners (physical, network and app layer).

Updated - 2/3/2020

We now have upgraded to v10.7.0_SP3 which has provided yet another set up stability and more capabilities for our app environment. APM Command Center (ACC) has a more features and stability from a admin and maintenance perspective.

The next upgrade (v11) changes a lot of things as Broadcom has decided to go to Kubernetes platform as for as APM upgrade and/or rollout of v11 is concerned. It will be interesting to see how customers react to this and whether it pushes them to take a look at SaaS model.

Deep Dive and Transaction Analysis Triage capability. The AppMap feature is very very helpful in visualizing. Also ACC is a huge help with agent maintenance/management (life cycle).

User Experience is a BIG one. Integration of all of APM components into one swift deployment. Can't emphasis the above two more.

About 10 years.

On Windows Platform, it’s not great and/or stable (from previous experience). We had lots of challenges on that platform back then. But with the current employer we start things off the right foot with RHEL platform :)

Agent metric containment is a VERY BIG challenge for us. Constantly have to normalize the agents to reduce the number of metrics and/or metric explosion.

Customer Service:

4 out of 5

Technical Support:

4 out of 5

There was no application performance management solution prior to the introduction of CA APM. Thus, we are still in infancy from a culture perspective. Customers are still learning as they use it often as possible.

It was complex due to our network architecture. It tool much longer than anticipate with all the firewall hurdles and design iterations.

Implemented through CA (the vendor) with their Services Group.

not yet determined

If you can get a SME to architect and install then definitely go that route vs the vendor itself. There are upside to having the vendor due to the fact that they have access to unlimited resources for assistance.

N/A

It’s a great product and provides a lot of in-depth data. Focus and leverage this product as a deep dive one and have another layer above it (another high-level view product etc..)