The application side of the solution is its most valuable aspect. We are using it on the logs that were captured on the application side.
As an Administrator, before we bought this AppInternals, I didn't have visibility on why items were slow or why an application was not running. This gives us the ability to see what's going on. The application is load balancing. We can now see if its own server has issues or just one specific server has issues.
Right now, our challenge is that we don't have the support we need, and based on the requirements we have, there are some audits and it turns out that the AppInternals agent is causing false trafficking issues.
We could not update the server requirements on the version we have right now, due to the support.
It would be great if the solution could offer fixed bundles and more features.
We have been working with the solution for three or four years now.
It's not updated to the latest version, due to the fact that if we do that it will crash or cause some issues. Because we don't have a new AP version, we have just direct production. If our management accepts the risk, then we might do the upgrade of the server as well as its application version. Currently, we are using a two-year-old version of the solution. It is not up to date.
The server-based scalability is a challenge, however, we cannot change anything, including the scale, unless the management decides to take the risk and update the solution.
We're running it in a Linux bot. I'm not sure if I would describe the process as complex. On our side is basically in-house, so it's a pretty standard installation process. Whatever servers that we have provide talks to the app servers which talk to the database servers. The setup is intranet-based and not internet-based. That makes our setups rather simple and straightforward.
We handle everything in house using our own team.
I don't know the exact pricing, however, my understanding is that it's quite expensive. Dynatrace has competitive pricing in comparison. I believe Cisco pricing is also okay.
We recently increased to another license. That said, for other teams to be involved in what we do, including network and infrastructure, we've decided to look into Dynatrace, which is a more complete system.
We are looking at Dynatrace based on some information that we've gotten from websites as well as some other experiences from our colleagues. Our manager also has previous experience on the solution. We're now in the POC stage and are awaiting the arrival of the hardware to get started.
Before this product, I recommended the Sophos Manage Engine. Management did not consider it because it's from India.
We're customers. We don't have a special relationship with the company. I am the operation's application administrator.
At the moment, the solution is monitoring the applications that we want it to monitor. We're not looking at it on a daily basis. We just use it here and there. The challenge we have is that we believe that Dynatrace can address some tasks we'd like done that are not possible to execute on this solution. Dynatrace includes monitoring of not just the logs, but the applications as well.
Dynatrace also makes us include firewalls, etc. We could have it so there are end to end solutions or identifications within the process. What we have right now is only the app server as well as the database server and its connectivity.
The solution does save time that's caused when creating SQL coding. However, there are some issues around AppInternals changing the code and giving us issues.
From the point of view of the top management, we want a more permanent solution. We want to identify what causes issues and we are looking for a more end-to-end solution. That is why we are looking at Dynatrace.
I don't know if I have any advice for other organizations. The experience I have is only based on my own limited experience. However, I believe that the application has the potential to be really good if it identifies what is really important to an organization. It's still sort of half-baked without AppResponse. Without the other key features in infrastructure, like the network, firewalls, and proxies, it's lacking. It's not fully complete.
I'd rate the solution six out of ten. It addresses some of our needs, but there's a lot lacking that could be added to make it a fuller, more interesting product.
We primarily use the solution for Microsoft Exchange. We use it as a monitoring tool to query and monitor databases. Using the solution we are able to see what service is running or what services are not. It allows us to get a complete picture of the SIEM.
We find that the most valuable aspect of the solution is its configuration capabilities. It's quite simple. Users can configure Linux or Windows very easily.
The solution is great for monitoring. If something is going wrong, we can immediately find the root cause.
The templates could use improvement. Currently, they are quite complex. They should have drag-and-drop functionality instead. It would make it easier to use.
The technical support is slow to respond. They need to act on tickets faster.
We have been using the solution for approximately three or four months. It hasn't been that long.
We've found the solution to be very stable. We haven't had issues with bugs, glitches or crashes. It's been very good.
We've found the solution to be scalable.
We don't have users per se on the solution, as it's only meant to monitor. We have seven people on our team, and any one of us can use the solution to check and monitor everything as needed.
We use it on a daily basis.
We've been in touch with technical support in the past to help us deal with the customization of reports, which is quite difficult on the platform.
Their support is, at times, difficult because of the time zone. For example, if we raise a ticket now, we won't get a response for seven hours. The delay isn't great for us.
We previously used ManageEngine. It was not giving us what we needed, which is why we switched. With SolarWinds, we can even get great performance and good monitoring from MongoDB through SQL.
The initial setup was pretty straightforward. We found it rather easy.
In terms of setup, traditionally, to configure any single node, it takes about five to ten minutes.
In order to maintain the solution, a company would need at least two people: one to monitor performance and another to monitor the application itself.
I was able to handle the entire implementation myself after going through and reading the documentation. I didn't need the outside assistance of an integrator or consultant.
I don't have any information on pricing, as that is handled by our procurement team.
We are using the latest version of the solution. I believe it is version 12.5.
If a company would really like insight into its database utilization or performance and why their servers are slow or why the database is not giving a proper response, this solution will help. It's perfect for revealing bottlenecks. You will have more visibility once you will install it in your environment. The solution will no doubt help other companies resolve issues very quickly.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
