No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

CA Datacom vs Spotlight comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

CA Datacom
Ranking in Database Development and Management
25th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.6
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Spotlight
Ranking in Database Development and Management
8th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Database Development and Management category, the mindshare of CA Datacom is 1.2%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Spotlight is 3.3%, down from 6.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Development and Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Spotlight3.3%
CA Datacom1.2%
Other95.5%
Database Development and Management
 

Featured Reviews

it_user489183 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Admin at a logistics company with 10,001+ employees
Scalability and the online maintainability of definitions are definite advantages for us
We've had it for so long, so it's status quo. But we've added all sorts of functionality to our applications and there are no issues with databases. Anything developers request, we're able to accomplish. Also, we deal a lot with government regulation - and not to talk about what the company does - but anything that they require of us, because we transmit data back and forth with them, we're able to do that with no problems. And there have been a lot of changes over the past five years that our government dictated regarding what we actually end up doing. So, we're able to be extremely flexible with that.
BC
Sr. Database Administrator at Comcast Business
Facilitating on-the-spot troubleshooting with detailed root cause analysis
Spotlight provides valuable features such as the ability to get alerted and drill down to a very granular level to find out where actual problems are coming from. The drill-down feature helps with isolation, root cause analysis, and determining next steps. It aids in preventing potential issues by allowing us to make correctable changes internally within SQL Server. When needed, it also helps address external influences affecting system design. Additionally, the historical data analysis is helpful for long-term capacity planning.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"They are very responsive; they are always ready to meet any questions that we have or any needs that we have, and we get very personal one-on-one support when we need it with just top-notch service."
"It is a solid product."
"They provide the best support compared to other providers I have used previously."
"It has cut down on our support, especially after hours, and it is a solid product that just works most of the time."
"Nowadays, CA is doing a lot of improving as far as online maintainability of definitions, which is a huge improvement over the past. I'm able to do a lot of changes without any outage."
"It definitely ​cuts down on our support costs. I do not get woken up in the middle of the night very often for a problem with Datacom."
"This product is very stable, compared to a lot of other DBMSs that run in our shop."
"The technical support staff with whom I have dealt are truly top notch; they understand whatever issue or question we might have and are able to supply quick and valid answers much of the time, or they fully engage in developing solutions when that is required."
"Spotlight provides valuable features such as the ability to get alerted and drill down to a very granular level to find out where actual problems are coming from."
"The new version has all of the enhancements that we were hoping for."
"Its dashboards are most valuable, and the drill-down of the dashboards is useful."
"The tool is a SaaS product where I just need to type a URL and start with the design process. I can integrate all elements of source control like GitHub, GitLab, etc. The tool also supports authentication-related provisions like SSH."
"The time monitoring is a very useful feature."
"I consider the solution very scalable."
 

Cons

"There are still some things - and I know they are working on some of them - but for the "no-outage maintainability" of things, they are making improvements as we speak, but there is definitely still room for more of that."
"The only minor issue that we have had with Datacom is in the installation guide: Some of the sizings for the databases have not really worked out for us, so we had to go in and resize them."
"I had trouble with an upgrade once but, when I have trouble with the upgrade there's always someone there to support me and get me through it really quickly."
"There are a lot of features that come out with each upgrade, but our application that runs on it has been around for a long time; they sort of decommissioned this application."
"Something that we would like to see is for them to develop integration with open distribution systems."
"The application was extremely stable and we had experienced no issues whatsoever, until we had to upgrade from version 9 to support Server 2012-R2."
"The pricing is too expensive."
"One improvement could be the inclusion of suggestions for missing indexes or better analysis of how indexes are utilized and how execution plans are used, similar to what other products offer."
"There's no reporting with this tool, and there really should be. They should add that into future releases."
"The software does not support webhooks. It doesn't support advanced versions of APIs. The tool also doesn't support advanced versions of specifications. The change that we do in one part of the model is not reflected throughout the specification. There are also some mutations in the clones. I am not able to do a local source control with the product as well."
"Some customizations of the dashboard, such as having backup reports, would be useful."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Its cost was somewhere in the middle."
"The tool is cloud-based. It is priced well."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Database Development and Management solutions are best for your needs.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
16%
Healthcare Company
12%
Construction Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with Quest Spotlight?
One improvement could be the inclusion of suggestions for missing indexes or better analysis of how indexes are utilized and how execution plans are used, similar to what other products offer.
What is your primary use case for Quest Spotlight?
I primarily use Spotlight for on-the-spot troubleshooting and alerting to see if there are any issues. The drill-down features allow me to pinpoint problems, whether they are indexing, long-running...
What advice do you have for others considering Quest Spotlight?
I would rate Spotlight probably an nine out of ten. My advice would be to consider its cost-effectiveness and ease of use in smaller environments.
 

Also Known As

DATACOM
Dell Spotlight
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Blue Hill Data Services Inc.
Jenkon
Find out what your peers are saying about CA Datacom vs. Spotlight and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.