IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications comparison

IBM and VMware are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. IBM is ranked #60, while VMware is ranked #18 with an average rating of 8.8. IBM holds a 0.2% mindshare in APM, compared to VMware’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 50% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of VMware users who would recommend it.

IBM Tivoli Composite Applic...

Read 2 IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager reviews

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515 Comparison Views

50% willing to recommend

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Read 14 VMware Aria Operations for Applications reviews

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1,422 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

IBM Tivoli Composite Applic...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager and VMware Aria Operations for Applications are both prominent application management platforms with distinct attributes. VMware Aria Operations for Applications seems to have the upper hand due to its superior integration capabilities.

What features are offered by IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager in comparison to VMware Aria Operations for Applications?

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager is praised for its performance monitoring, root cause analysis capabilities, and diagnostic tools, which are valuable for managing complex application environments. VMware Aria Operations for Applications offers advanced analytic features, extensive integration options with other VMware products, and robust analytics, making it favored for integration and comprehensive data analysis.

What areas of improvement can be found in IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager in comparison to VMware Aria Operations for Applications?

Users of IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager often mention the need for a more intuitive interface, better scalability, and usability enhancements. VMware Aria Operations for Applications users highlight the necessity for improvements in cost efficiency, more extensive training resources, and support and educational content. IBM focuses on usability and scalability improvements, while VMware works on cost management and training enhancements.

How is the ease of deployment and customer service of IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager in comparison to VMware Aria Operations for Applications?

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager has a relatively straightforward deployment process with adequate customer support. VMware Aria Operations for Applications deployment is more complex but highly manageable due to detailed documentation and responsive customer service. IBM offers a simpler setup, whereas VMware provides comprehensive support and documentation to facilitate its more complex deployment.

What setup costs and ROI can be seen with IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager in comparison to VMware Aria Operations for Applications?

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager users appreciate its competitive pricing, providing substantial ROI for smaller enterprises. VMware Aria Operations for Applications, while more expensive, is considered worth the investment due to its extensive features and integration capabilities, delivering higher ROI for larger or more complex operations. IBM is cost-effective for smaller setups, whereas VMware offers a strong value proposition for larger-scale deployments despite the higher cost.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

July 2025

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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

IBM Tivoli Composite Applic...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

60th

Average Rating

6.6

Reviews Sentiment

4.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

18th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Infrastructure Monitoring (17th), Container Monitoring (5th), Cloud Monitoring Software (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager is 0.2%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Operations for Applications is 0.9%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Christian Campos

Sales manager at Prodeo Innovation

Integrates well with IBM technologies, but it's outdated and lacks essential features

Implementing synthetic monitoring for our Internet banking site has been challenging. The installation process is difficult, requiring continuous support and specialist expertise due to our limited knowledge of managing it effectively. I have concerns about the complexity of the tool and the challenges in managing it effectively. The support provided is not satisfactory, and the specialists available lack sufficient training and expertise in using the tool.

Read full review

ToniLindberg

senior consultant at Virtual Consultants Sverige AB

Troubleshooting capabilities have improved application monitoring and support engagement

I can see what happens end to end, which is pretty beneficial. The solution has troubleshooting capabilities, providing a direct connection to knowledge base articles from VMware Broadcom. When I encounter an error, I can search directly within the system to see what solutions have been employed by others. It has a familiar interface, which makes it easy to get started.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is very stable. We never had any issues with stability."

"IBM's main value lies in its integration with its own technologies, which can be seen as a benefit in environments where IBM products are extensively used."

"For us, the ease of deployment in combination with TMZ was the most important part because we don't have to manually deploy a complex monitoring solution. We can more or less do that with the click of a button, and we are not dependent on the developers to provide us with all the necessary features and functions to make that work. We can just deploy it on a workload cluster and monitor at least a good part of the workload. If we want to go into detail, we clearly need to make changes, but for a good part of application monitoring, it gives us good insights."

"The solution is great for virtualization and preparing the infrastructure in Tanzu to test products. It's very fast and has good visibility."

"I find VMware Aria Operations for Applications to be very stable, and I would rate it a ten out of ten."

"VMware comes with a support team, and if you have trouble, you can easily create a ticket, and VMware will help you. Therefore, the best aspect is the support."

"I gladly recommend VMware Aria Operations for Applications because it is cost effective and has commendable AI response capabilities."

"This solution allows me to have true visibility for any metrics when it comes to my cloud, and private."

"It significantly improves application performance management by offering recommendations for resource allocation to avoid wastage or overcommitment."

"The solution provides single-console management for multiple VMware environments and cloud integrations, whether hybrid, private, or public cloud."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications pros

Cons

"The installation process is difficult, requiring continuous support and specialist expertise due to our limited knowledge of managing it effectively."

"The user interface was not good."

"The documentation and integration with Kubernetes could be improved."

"The return on investment is best suited for organizations that do not have the resources for a dedicated VM environment team. However, the cost of the product doesn't show significant benefits."

"In the new version, I would love to see more prediction capabilities. It would be great if one could see the alerts get a little more enriched with information and become more human-friendly instead of the technical stuff that they put in there. I think those would be really awesome outcomes to get."

"An area for improvement would be more in-depth reporting, such as analyzing disk IO during business hours compared to after hours."

"They could make it more easy to plug-in data so that a nontechnical person will be able to use it, like accountants or finance people. That way they don't have to ask us."

"Its billing model is consumption-based. I understand the consumption-based model, but it is not necessarily easy to estimate and guess how many points or how much we are going to consume on a specific application up until we get to that point. So, for us, it would be helpful to have more insights or predictability into what we can expect from a cost perspective if we are starting to use specific features. This can potentially also drive our consumption a bit more."

"The solution could be expensive, which might be a limiting factor."

"The main problem I have is that the license cost is very high."

More VMware Aria Operations for Applications cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the pricing a nine to ten. It is very expensive."

"Different locations require different setups. In your terms, around 300 to around 400K USD."

"The licensing costs are very high, particularly when you consider that we have to purchase a level 1 license for every integration, such as the load balancer, HAProxy, and the MSSP. And if you want to use vSAN, that's another license. Then, of course, Tanzu Observability has its own separate license."

"I would rate the pricing as three out of five."

"I don't have the details. In our case, there is a mixture in place. We have production usage, and we are also doing training for VMware. So, we also have a training instance. It is worth the money you would spend on it. That's because if you were to build all of this yourself by using some of the open source tools, then you would need a lot of time."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

30%

Government

11%

Healthcare Company

Non Profit

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

The solution includes cost drivers that can be configured according to your environment. You can input server-wise, CPU-wise, storage, and memory costs per hour or day. Once cost drivers are provid...

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What needs improvement with VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

The new version 8.18 has brought significant improvements. The main purpose of using this tool is having a single console to manage all entities. The cloud integration capabilities, including priva...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront?

I have been involved in several projects where I had to implement automation and monitoring alerting. I performed automation using VMware Aria Operations for Applications. There is an automation ta...

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Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

Datadog vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

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Veeam Data Platform vs VMware Aria Operations for Applications

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

August 2025

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager report

Download IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Operations for Applications

July 2025

VMware Aria Operations for Applications report

Download VMware Aria Operations for Applications product report

Also Known As

Tivoli Composite Application Manager

Tanzu Observability, Wavefront, Wavefront by VMware, VMware Tanzu Observability

Overview

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Application Diagnostics on z/OS manages real-time problem detection, analysis, and repair to help maintain the availability, performance and general health of on-demand composite applications. it can gain in-depth diagnostic information for specific application requests to identify the root cause of problems. This software provides a consistent way to manage composite applications throughout Java EE application environments. Set alerts to help detect and fix potentially troublesome situations before they affect users. It can resolve performance issues faster and reduce downtime costs.

IBM

VMware Tanzu Observability by Wavefront is a powerful tool for monitoring and analyzing the performance and availability of applications and infrastructure in real-time.

With its comprehensive monitoring capabilities, visualizing and analyzing data becomes effortless. The real-time alerting system ensures timely issue resolution, while scalability and a user-friendly interface provide a seamless experience for smooth operations.

VMware

Sample Customers

Michelin Tire Corp

1. Atlassian 2. Cisco 3. Databricks 4. DigitalOcean 5. Equinix 6. Fidelity Investments 7. Google 8. Hewlett Packard Enterprise 9. Honeywell 10. IBM 11. Intel 12. JetBlue Airways 13. LinkedIn 14. Lyft 15. Mastercard 16. Microsoft 17. MongoDB 18. Netflix 19. Nvidia 20. Oracle 21. PayPal 22. Pinterest 23. Qualcomm 24. Red Hat 25. Salesforce 26. SAP 27. Spotify 28. Square 29. TMobile 30. Twitter 31. Uber 32. VMware

Buyer's Guide

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

July 2025

Free Report: IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager vs. VMware Aria Operations for Applications

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