Splunk AppDynamics Reviews

The solution effectively detects anomalies in the system.

The solution's most valuable features are its end-user monitoring and AI functionalities.

The solution's pricing could be improved and made more competitive.

I have been using AppDynamics Server Monitoring for four years.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

The solution is more suitable for enterprise businesses. Around 2,000 users use the solution in our organization.

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

The solution provides good and helpful technical support.

Positive

The solution's initial setup depends on the environment. Our deployment was challenging and took a while because our environment is a bit complex.

AppDynamics Server Monitoring is an expensive solution. The solution costs 5,000 per user.

Dynatrace is the solution's main competitor. We chose AppDynamics Server Monitoring because of its flexibility and ease of deployment.

The solution was deployed on the cloud for our organization. We use the solution's alerting system for server management, and it works fine. I would recommend the solution to other users.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

The most valuable feature of AppDynamics is that you can easily determine the load on the application. You can find out how many users are using it, whether there are any response time issues, whether any errors are going high for your application's transactions, etc.

The solution's user interface should be improved. Since it's a GUI tool, traversing from the error to the root cause can sometimes be difficult if you are not thorough with AppDynamics. This could slow down the tool, thereby causing you trouble.

I have been using AppDynamics since 2016.

Most financial services sectors, such as banking and insurance sectors, use AppDynamics. The solution's user base is very high.

The solution's initial setup is moderately easy. Installing the tool on old applications like Unix and Linux should be much easier. However, there could be some issues installing the solution on the cloud. The regular pre-defined agents might not work, and you will have to customize and then use them.

AppDynamics was initially a startup. Later, it was sold to Cisco, which has been quite aggressive in its pricing. I would say the solution is affordable because it is widely used across financial service sectors.

Currently, the solution is on the cloud as well. You can have your cloud applications onboarded to AppDynamics without any issues. AppDynamics has its own SaaS environment and SaaS controller on which you can onboard your application. You will need to install some of the AppDynamics agents.

I used to contact the tools team, and they used to answer our queries mostly. If not, they used to take it to the support and then come back with their solution. Users need to list all the servers related to their application on which they want the AppDynamics agents installed. Depending on whether your application is cloud-based or non-cloud, you need to list all your servers. Then, a further installation process would be recommended.

To use AppDynamics, you need to understand the different flows. If an issue is currently ongoing, you need to check which GUI flow is being used. If you want previous data, it will be in the history, and that's a different flow. Working with the tool is tricky, but two to three weeks of continuous work on it should bring you up to date.

Suppose you are working in a bank. For your application, you can configure everything regarding the business transaction. For balance transfers, you can have one business transaction that will monitor balance transfers. There can be another business transaction that can monitor credit cards. You can configure different flows and transactions within the flows in terms of business transactions. Wherever there is an issue, that exact business transaction will start developing.

The integration of AppDynamics within our CI/CD pipeline has positively affected our deployment frequency and application quality. Whenever there is a deployment or release, we see some hiccups in AppDynamics. There will be some things going on on that server, which we can easily identify in AppDynamics. Only after we validate that do we give the next go.

Overall, I rate the solution eight and a half out of ten.

We analyze data for performance and availability, which is produced by servers, infrastructure and cloud. However, it's not sufficient to only use Dynatrace because it makes a lot of data. This data is interpreted by AppDynamics automatically with technical data to understand the business impact, thus improving productivity. In Europe, enterprises widely use SAP, and AppDynamics effectively supports this by monitoring the core IT environment and the services around SAP, like CRM, Salesforce, and logistics systems.

The alert mechanism in AppDynamics enhances server management tasks by using agents installed on each server. These agents capture numerous metrics, collaborate to describe specific transactions, and allow us to monitor each transaction based on user interactions. We can see where any transaction might falter in the SAP server, application server, or presentation database, helping us identify the exact point of failure or degradation in transaction time, extract anomaly detection, or pinpoint real failures in SAP or other applications. This mechanism is very similar to Dynatrace, but AppDynamics is currently the best option for SAP.

AppDynamics Server Monitoring lacks investment in new technologies like Kubernetes and cloud solutions. Dynatrace has received significant investment in these areas and is better suited for cloud-native applications. However, AppDynamics still holds value for traditional applications used in banks or larger companies.

I've worked with AppDynamics Server Monitoring for five to six years. My experience in monitoring systems started around 2020-2022, focusing on serviceability for SAP ERP environments.

Regarding stability, I would also rate it at nine out of ten as it is highly stable.

I'd rate the scalability of AppDynamics Server Monitoring at nine out of ten, indicating it's highly scalable.

AppDynamics Server Monitoring is deployed based on the organization's needs. For instance, installing it on a single server is better for a few clients for on-premises deployment. On the other hand, different solutions are available for cloud monitoring applications. The trend is shifting towards new paradigms like DevOps. AppDynamics adheres to these standards and can be used for both on-premises and cloud environments, depending on the specific requirements and business model of the organization. Maintenance requires a dedicated team, which can be extensive, especially in large organizations like banks.

I would rate my experience with the initial setup of AppDynamics as seven out of ten.

The return on investment with AppDynamics Server Monitoring has been significant in certain areas, especially for SAP environments. However, there hasn't been as much focus on the broader market due to their emphasis on cloud messaging applications. It ultimately depends on the customer's specific needs and how well the solution aligns with them.

The pricing for AppDynamics is expensive, but it is possible to negotiate special pricing through bids.

AppDynamics Server Monitoring is integrated into the infrastructure through agents installed on the servers, and it utilizes REST APIs for process control and integration with other solutions. In terms of AI usage, AppDynamics uses AI for anomaly detection and resource forecasting.

AppDynamics Server Monitoring is recommended, especially for SAP environments or cloud-native applications. However, the recommendation depends on the specific needs of the organization.

Overall, I would rate AppDynamics Server Monitoring as seven out of ten.

There are certain limitations with the agents in the solution. For some applications, AppDynamics Server Monitoring provides agents only for Linux-based machines.

When our organization deals with environments where only Windows-based applications are running, we face challenges using AppDynamics Server Monitoring. Some community-based agents are available with a solution that utilizes the CPU and memory of the hardware devices in excess. 

The vendor should make changes to support Windows-based applications or develop single agents to support all applications. Recently, a single agent feature was announced; if it's easy to use, then the solution will have an edge over others and simplify the deployment process. 

I have been using AppDynamics Server Monitoring for one or two years. 

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten. 

There are about 15 users of AppDynamics Server Monitoring in our organization. At our company, we try to avoid frequent or regular maintenance of the solution as it can disturb daily operations. I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten. If the deployed environment grows, there are no challenges in increasing the resources in the solution, hence the solution can be easily scaled. 

The tech support from the vendor is satisfying. I would rate the tech support an eight out of ten. 

Positive

There are some complexities in the initial deployment process of AppDynamics Server Monitoring. It's an agent-based solution, so there are different agents for varying apps, the compatibility of the agent with the app is not straightforward. When our company's team is installing the agents, they are facing some challenges related to agent compatibility and product performance. The main controller setup of the solution is comprehensible. 

The installation of AppDynamics Server Monitoring takes more than a week in total. The main controller can be installed within a day, but the agent installation for different applications takes around a week.  

The licensing cost is fairly high. I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten. There are no additional costs to the standard licensing fees for AppDynamics Server Monitoring. 

Customers of our company use the solution to monitor servers in digital banking, online banking applications and other financial entities. AppDynamics Server Monitoring is a user-friendly solution. The dashboard, flow providing maps of varying applications and the back-end calls are easy to understand in the solution. 

The alerting mechanism works satisfactorily and efficiently as other solutions. Notifications are provided in the dashboard, or they can also be sent to users via email or SMS by AppDynamics Server Monitoring, other solution don't have multiple alerting options. 

After implementing the solution, we haven't witnessed any operational cost reduction, but performance improvements have been identified. The solution has provided exceptional root cause analysis and technical solutions for problem identification and resolution. 

The correlation feature available with AppDynamics Server Monitoring is absent in other competitive solutions. The aforementioned feature helps evaluate the impact of one application's issues on the other, pinpoint the error location, and check the dependency between applications. Compared to the NMS, the APM can provide more information on user monitoring. 

Some security features and threat loophole identification features can be included in AppDynamics Server Monitoring by the vendor. As the solution also maintains baselining, it can take a proactive approach based on historical data to gain AI capabilities. If AI features are included, then AppDynamics Server Monitoring will probably be able to predict upcoming application failure by analyzing some metrics that have gone down. 

I would recommend AppDynamics Server Monitoring to other users due to its user-friendliness. A Competitor solution from Dynatrace provides almost the same features as AppDynamics Server Monitoring, but their dashboards and overall usability are quite complex. Many financial sector companies and government organizations often prefer an on-prem version, which is provided by AppDynamics Server Monitoring, but other solutions like Datadog are available as SaaS. I would rate AppDynamics Server Monitoring as nine out of ten. 

The use case involves evaluating a mobile application's performance and user experience. We seek insights into peak usage hours, the application's status, and that of secondary services, such as databases and APIs, to gauge the mobile user experience.

We also want to identify potential bottlenecks and mobile degradation. We aim to ensure that mobile user monitoring is effective, similar to other forms of user monitoring. Although mobile devices present a different medium, they aim to detect errors, service degradations, slowdowns, and other issues. 

In the case of a mobile banking application, AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring successfully reduced the response time from eight seconds to just one second. In another example, the tool identified an issue within the mobile app, causing lost transactions in the billing system.

The product offers end-to-end visibility. This means seeing a user's actions, such as which mobile version they're using, their operating system, location, and the specific services they're accessing. This visibility allows for effective troubleshooting of their session. Additionally, end-to-end visibility provides insights into how the application performs across different layers, such as the backend infrastructure, including application servers, integrations, and databases.

The tool offers many entry points to observe issues from the backend, for example, through dashboards or tracking business transactions for degradation. You can then drill down to specific user sessions to identify slow ones and trace them back to the backend to understand the issue. That's the product's most useful technical feature. 

The user session tracking feature is embedded in the infrastructure and correlates all lines, including API and database calls. It also correlates with other metrics from the infrastructure and database.

The only improvement I see is intercepting calls in a mobile application without injecting additional code. Currently, when instrumenting or monitoring a mobile application, it's necessary to release updates, prompt users to upgrade, and inject code into the backend. It would be beneficial if there were a method to intercept these calls without requiring users to download and upgrade the application. However, I'm unsure about the feasibility of such an approach. 

Additionally, there's potential for enhancing the pricing structure, particularly as scaling up can become expensive. Given the continual growth of the mobile landscape, revisiting the pricing model could be beneficial. 

I have been working with the product for four years. 

I rate AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring's stability as nine out of ten. 

I rate the tool's scalability a nine out of ten. 

AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring's support tickets are tricky. We are a major partner, and we get instant support. 

Positive

I rate the tool's deployment a nine out of ten. It is easy. The deployment time for this solution is typically quite fast. Most typical technologies, such as Java or .NET applications, can take days. However, for more complex scenarios, it might take a few weeks. Overall, the deployment process is generally swift.

The usual deployment process starts with a technical assessment. Following this, the appropriate technology is acquired. Next, access to the client's systems is obtained, enabling the deployment of the agent onto their systems.

I rate AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring's pricing as seven out of ten. Mobile monitoring is paid based on the number of instances utilizing the mobile monitoring service, which increases as the scale grows. Consequently, your mobile user count can proportionally surpass all other applications.

Our customers for AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring are enterprises. If they have a critical mobile application, I think it's necessary to consider a monitoring tool. When your business relies on it, you need visibility into what's happening—peak hours, virtual access, performance, user experience, drop-off rates, conversion rate, and other relevant metrics.

Integrating AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring with existing mobile application infrastructure is generally straightforward, although there's room for improvement to make it even easier. I would rate it at nine out of ten in terms of ease of integration. However, sometimes, clients hesitate to interfere with their CI/CD pipelines. 

I rate the overall product a nine out of ten. 

The solution offers a real-time view of the things happening in a database. 

You have a live view of what happens when something goes wrong on the production or support side. You don't have to scramble and do guesswork. We can identify the query that creates the bottleneck or slows the performance of the database system. It can give you points on how to debug and fix the system. 

The solution needs to support IBM products. 

I have been using the solution for seven to eight years. 

AppDynamics Database Monitoring is stable. 

The solution's deployment is easy. 

AppDynamics Database Monitoring is expensive. I rate it a seven to eight out of ten. 

I rate AppDynamics Database Monitoring a nine out of ten. 

My company uses AppDynamics Server Monitoring for end-to-end application performance monitoring. The solution is integrated with the database managed by back-end and end-user teams.

The most valuable feature of the solution is that it automatically gets connected with all the entities. The solution discovers your transactions automatically without any customized configuration class or classes or method declaration, like some of the previous solutions we used in our company. Even for databases and end users, you can connect all the entities without much customization and user intervention, which are a few things I like about AppDynamics.

The analytics portion of AppDynamics Server Monitoring could have been better. In the analytics portion, I could not find a user-friendly interface for querying, and analytics sometimes gives the wrong results, so it is not well connected in the back-end. I feel that analytics could have been better in searching and running the analytical queries.

I have been using AppDynamics Server Monitoring for five years. My company is a customer of the solution.

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I don't see any problems in the solution.

Scalability is a problem for my company since we have deployed the solution on an on-premises model. Scalability would not have been a problem if the solution had been deployed on a SaaS model.

My company has around 3,000 to 4,000 users of the solution.

The solution's technical support was good. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.

Positive

Though I have experience with Splunk, I would not be in a position to compare AppDynamics Server Monitoring with Splunk since I currently don't use Splunk.

I was also working with a solution named CA Wily. Dynatrace is better than AppDynamics since it offers more features and granularity. Dynatrace is something where I could find that it is better than AppDynamics. With all other solutions in the market, I feel AppDynamics is good.

With synthetic monitoring, Dynatrace is good at giving the data and granularity. Dynatrace OneAgent can be used on any stack irrespective of the platform, which I think is a feature AppDynamics introduced recently. Dynatrace performs better than AppDynamics in the aforementioned areas.

The installation phase of AppDynamics Server Monitoring is pretty easy, and it depends on how we automate the process. The solution integrates with your environment. If you have the pipelines, you can integrate them into your pipeline, the steps for which are well documented by AppDynamics, and since it goes with the application, I don't see there is any downside with the installation. Operation-wise, the product is all okay.

The solution's deployment depends on a variety of factors since, in our company, we don't do manual deployments, so it doesn't take any time for us to deploy it. In our company, we just declare the arguments before the application installation. Whenever there is a new release, the AppDynamics agents will work on the deployment without any issues, so we don't feel a lot of time is taken during the installation phase. When the users are installing the solution manually, it may take quite a lot of time. Our company did not have any dependencies during the product's installation phase, so we didn't deploy it as a central team. A team to whom an application has been assigned is given the steps. My team just helps other teams integrate the playbooks into their environment, and they deploy it themselves, so we don't track the time taken for deployment.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model, so it is a bit difficult because we have to maintain the platform. It would have been easy to maintain if my company had opted for a SaaS platform.

Whether a person would view the solution as a cheap or expensive product depends on how that person negotiates with AppDynamics. In some other organizations, I have seen a different price for AppDynamics Server Monitoring. Though the product may come across as an expensive solution, I have worked with organizations that have negotiated very well on the pricing part with AppDynamics and secured the solution at a very competitive price. In short, the price of the solution is something that depends on how you negotiate with AppDynamics. AppDynamics Server Monitoring is a very expensive product, but if you negotiate well, you get value for money. If you can't negotiate with AppDynamics over the price, you won't get value for money. My company used to make early payments toward the licensing costs of the solution, but now my company has opted for a different licensing model. I am unsure if my company makes additional payments apart from the licensing costs of the solution.

My company is a bank, so we can't we could not go with the SaaS model of deployment, because of which we have some dependencies on maintenance. As a product, it requires a lot of maintenance.

Around six to seven employees do the solution's maintenance.

I would tell those planning to use the solution that when it comes to AppDynamics, the adoption phase has always been a big challenge since people from AppDynamics only install AppDynamics Server Monitoring, and then they forget it. I would tell others to work on the right adoption method and metrics, like VictoriaMetrics or Golden Signals while keeping an eye on optimizing those configurations so that you always get to see the right picture.

I rate the overall product a nine out of ten.

Our customers typically leverage Browser Real-User Monitoring for a variety of purposes. Primarily, they seek to gain insight into end-to-end user experiences. This entails tracking user interactions comprehensively, from frontend actions to backend system responses. They desire seamless correlation between user-triggered actions and the subsequent journey through various backend components such as servers, databases, and APIs. Additionally, they aim to contextualize this data within the broader environment, encompassing infrastructure status, network health, and application performance. Ultimately, they prioritize the ability to view these interactions as cohesive transactions, facilitating efficient troubleshooting and optimization efforts.

Our customers often rely on browser real-user monitoring primarily for troubleshooting slow web application performance. This process is streamlined, often dubbed as 'three clicks to your root cause'. Initially, they identify slow transactions or those exhibiting dependency issues. Subsequently, they employ a drill-down approach to pinpoint problematic areas. This can be executed from either the user's perspective, known as the Browser perspective, or from a session viewpoint. Moreover, they have the flexibility to delve into backend processes, identifying slow or stalled processes. This comprehensive approach enables them to correlate performance issues across all layers, spanning from business processes to infrastructure, network, database, and even security considerations.

Monitoring AJAX requests and understanding user interactions are crucial components of web application performance management. While AJAX requests may seem like standard requests, their monitoring is essential for gaining insights into how users interact with the application in real time. This functionality is a fundamental aspect of modern web development and is vital for ensuring optimal user experience and application performance.

The most valuable feature is the capability to automatically detect and identify encounter rates and problematic sections within transactions. This encompasses all systems, code, APIs, analyses, metrics, and baselines. While this feature remains unchanged, envisioning the ability to effortlessly identify slow transactions and potential causes stands out as an invaluable option. Essentially, it streamlines the management of end-to-end transactions, facilitating seamless troubleshooting and optimization.

The standout feature for real-time performance monitoring in this tool is its ability to seamlessly correlate frontend and backend functions. It provides a comprehensive view across all layers and systems, enabling users to swiftly identify the root cause of any issues. This primary function is particularly valuable, offering precise insights into problem areas and bottlenecks. Additionally, the tool facilitates the identification of peak times and other performance patterns.

The page load time traffic analysis feature has been instrumental in assisting our customers with optimizing the web experience for their users. It enables the identification of slow sessions and offers insights into the factors influencing page load times.

One noteworthy feature is user journey analysis, which enables tracking user interactions and conversion paths on a website. This capability provides insights into where users encounter obstacles or drop off, allowing for targeted optimization efforts. For instance, in an e-commerce setting, it's possible to pinpoint precisely where users abandon their purchases or encounter difficulties, facilitating improvements in those specific areas of the user journey.

I have been working with it for four years.

The stability of the system is exceptionally robust, with no reported downtime. I would rate it nine out of ten.

Scalability is a straightforward process that involves simply adding more licenses to the existing setup. There are no additional tasks or complex actions required; it's a simple and seamless adjustment. Our customer base consists of enterprises. I would rate it nine out of ten.

The technical support provided is highly professional, swift, and knowledgeable. I would rate it nine out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward. I would rate it nine out of ten.

The deployment approach varies depending on client preferences. Some clients prefer a conservative approach and opt for on-premises deployment, while others are more open to cloud-based solutions. Regardless of the chosen deployment method, the process is relatively simple and straightforward. Typically, it can be completed within a short timeframe, such as half a day to a full day.

The pricing falls within the mid-range category. I would rate it between three to five because considering the features provided, it offers value for money. If utilized effectively, the investment is justified. However, for certain businesses, the price may be perceived as slightly high.

I would recommend it, especially if you have critical web applications or internal systems, particularly in finance or the public sector. In today's environment, troubleshooting without such a solution can be extremely challenging. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.