Splunk AppDynamics Reviews

We use the product to monitor some of our critical systems. We started using the solution for application performance monitoring.

The product has the ability to drill down to the errors whenever we have issues.

The solution has performance issues after we deploy the agent.

I have been using the solution for about three years.

The product is stable.

The initial setup was easy.

The tool is expensive.

I recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.

I use AppDynamics since all of our company's servers, applications, and services are configured with AppDynamics. In case of unavailability or when the servers go down, we log into AppDynamics in our company to check our CPU memory and file system utilization. AppDynamics helps our company understand the availability status of the servers and figure out when the server went down or came up while trying to find any HTTP errors.

The most valuable feature of the solution is the fact that it is very easy to use, making it easy to implement while configuring it with any server. The product also offers a role-based login, providing role-based access, including operator- or admin-level access. It is very easy to assign roles in AppDynamics.

The integration part in AppDynamics with other systems is an area with a little difficulty, especially when it comes to the configuration area. The integration of AppDynamics with other products takes a lot of time. The aforementioned area can be considered for improvement.

AppDynamics needs to focus on its integration capabilities with cloud-based solutions. Some new features are being introduced in AppDynamics, including some DevOps tools, allowing a person to integrate AppDynamics with DevOps tools, like Docker Kubernetes and other cloud-based tools.

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

It is a very stable solution.

Currently, we are using AppDynamics on VMs and not on the cloud, so scalability is a bit tough because there will be a need for licenses, and we will have to get into the installation phase again in our company. The agents must be installed in all the servers for the product's installation, making it a bit complex.

AppDynamics has around 1,000 users in my company.

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

Positive

In my company, I have worked with Datadog. AppDynamics is better than the other solutions I have worked with in the past since AppDynamics can be easily installed, configurations are easy, scalability is easy, and most users use it very smoothly owing to its stability. The only area where AppDynamics lacks is its ability to integrate with other tools.

The installation phase of AppDynamics is very easy.

The installation of AppDynamics took a week.

A team of 20 people is required to manage the deployment phase of AppDynamics.

Price-wise, AppDynamics is a cheap product compared to other tools in the market, like Splunk and Datadog.

Yearly payments have to be made toward the licensing costs of the solution. The solution has no additional costs apart from the licensing costs.

The maintenance of AppDynamics is very easy since you can easily implement the patches and upgrade the solution. Around 20 people in my company are involved in the maintenance of AppDynamics.

AppDynamics is an excellent tool for any data center operations or services to monitor while providing good features like alerting capabilities. I recommend the solution to those planning to use it.

I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten.

I work with a global bank that operates across Asia, the United States, and Europe. It's a few thousand people. We primarily use AppDynamics for Kubernetes, web applications, middleware APIs, Java, etc. In terms of technology, it's either Java Spring Boot or some of the API calls, and some of the use cases include continuously checking API availability. 

Some use cases are related to front-end tuning or the user experience across the globe. The applications are used across America, Europe, and some parts of Asia. It's a global system, and user experience is what we wanted to measure. AppDynamics is SaaS. I've never used an on-prem version. The controllers are mostly on AWS, while the agents are deployed on-premises.

Transition tracing is the most valuable is pretty easy and useful, but the user experience piece is also good. 

The Kubernetes cluster agent has not yet matured. That's one area that requires a lot of improvement. You have two options for implementing the Kubernetes agent. One is deployed in DocCloud, but you can't download those images from DocCloud for security reasons at most organizations, so this option isn't that useful.

The installation for the second option isn't that user-friendly. Transition tracing for the Kubernetes application is challenging. You have to navigate to a new set of user interfaces in AppDynamics, so that's the pain point. There is an icon you need to click on to get a newer user interface.

I've been using AppDynamics for almost five years. 

AppDynamics scaled well up to around 3,000 agents. The performance deteriorated after that, while Dynatrace could support more than 10,000 agents. We were surprised that AppDynamics' scalability is not so good.

I had a good experience with tech support. When we raised a ticket with AppDynamics, we usually got a response within a few hours. If we set up a call, their engineers will get on the phone with us. That was also reasonably good. 

Setting up AppDynamics is relatively straightforward except for the Kubernetes part. It was all easy for the Kubernetes cluster agent part. We implemented thousands of agents using Ansible, so it was automated. It was about 15 to 20 minutes in terms of pipeline and restarting because a lot of the scripting and automation were already done. 

The AppDynamics license is divided. It isn't one all-inclusive license. Dynatrace has one agent, but AppDynamics has different sets of licenses. You need to define your use case and what you want to monitor. That is something you need to be clear about. Once you know your use case clearly, take time to figure out your target state metric, and go for AppDynamics. 

I rate AppDynamics seven out of 10. In the modern world, Dynatrace is moving toward helping the companies in the current landscape, but AppDynamics is a second-generation company. It needs to adopt more of a lifecycle perspective rather than limiting itself to triage, tracing, etc.

We are monitoring lots of different databases with AppDynamics Database Monitoring, such as Couchbase, SAP HANA, DB2, Oracle, MySQL, MongoDB, and Postgres. 

In Turkey, most companies push their workers to work with the on-prem side because the government regulation is very strict. So 97% of my customers are working on the on-prem side, although we have three accounts working with the SaaS solution.

The most profitable benefit of this solution is that it reduces the mean time to resolution, which is very important for solving extraordinary problems. With AppDynamics Database Monitoring, problems are easy to understand and pinpoint, significantly reducing operational costs.

The most beneficial feature is the ability to correlate different metrics from the core APM to the database. You can fully see lots of different views of the pages. You can also measure each database query historically and see the reaction of your business transactions on the database side. 

AppDynamics Database Monitoring provides a single view of the problem and helps identify the guilty database query, which is unique compared to other solutions.

Based on my experience, some databases like Couchbase, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB require a little bit of enhancement as they are newer and not as widely used as other databases. The limitations are often due to the vendors not supplying all the profiling features to AppDynamics.

I guess we have been using it for more than 11 years.

I can give the stability of the solution a ten out of ten. It is very stable.

The scalability of the solution is also ten out of ten.

Customer service and support are good. The quality has been affected recently due to the company's acquisition by Splunk, causing some workers to leave and new ones to join. Hence, I would rate it an eight out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup is very straightforward and takes only two or three minutes to install a collector on an independent computer. After installation, you can use the collector on up to a hundred different database instances. No other installation is needed.

With the mean time to resolution reduction provided by AppDynamics Database Monitoring, it greatly reduces operational costs, thus offering a good ROI.

The price is not cheap, however, considering the benefits and the price ratio, I would rate it nine out of ten.

This is really a unique solution. If you want to monitor both the application and database sides, there is no other solution like this in the market. Most products offer only database solutions, yet AppDynamics combines both APM and independent database monitoring.

We use it to monitor the end-user responses of Oracle and Microsoft SQL. We still use OEM for deep dives.

The product provides visibility to the end-users who didn’t have visibility before.

Visibility to the end-users is a valuable feature.

The solution must improve security and setup. It runs off its own box now. The metrics could be standardized. It should add more databases.

I have been using the solution since 2016.

I rate the tool’s stability a seven out of ten.

I rate the tool’s scalability a six out of ten. We run quite a few servers.

I have used a lot of database monitoring products like OEM and SolarWinds SQL Sentry. We chose AppDynamics Database Monitoring because we bought APM.

The tool is deployed on the cloud, but we put an agent on-premise. The initial setup is straightforward. There are some complexities if we want additional features like automatic password rotation. We needed five people to deploy the product. It requires maintenance. There's not a great way to know when it's not reporting. We have to figure it out. It does not have a good alarm system to notify us when it stops.

We have seen a return on investment.

The price is okay.

We’re planning to replace the solution. It is a good tool. Overall, I rate the solution a six out of ten.

When compared to its major competitor, Dynatrace, AppDynamics stands out by providing dynamic learning capabilities for infrastructure and server metrics. Unlike Dynatrace, AppDynamics enables dynamic baselining for all server metrics, such as CPU and memory. This allows customers to establish patterns, like CPU trends every Wednesday from 9 to 11 AM, and set dynamic baselines accordingly. With this feature, alerts can be triggered based on deviations from the dynamic baseline rules. This capability is distinctive, as other APM solutions and monitoring tools lack dynamic baselining options for infrastructure visibility.    

If we consider the implementation of alternative solutions, such as Dynatrace, there is a notable difference in the approach to agent-based service monitoring. For instance, Dynatrace employs a single-agent solution, which can pose security concerns. When installing Dynatrace, granting the agent ld pro payload rights is a requirement. In contrast, our solution ensures a more secure approach by not requiring root and administration access. While we currently utilize an agent-based solution, there may be a shift in the next one or two years, possibly with the adoption of Open Telemetry. It's anticipated that many APM vendors, including Dynatrace, may alter their structure or strategy for implementation. However, as of now, the trend is towards an increasing number of implementations daily.

I have been using AppDynamics Server Monitoring recently.

It is very stable and I would rate it 9 out of 10. 

It is very scalable and I would rate it 10 out of 10.

It's very easy.It takes couple of minutes only.

It's true; it's not an inexpensive solution. Dynatrace and AppDynamics are consistently on the pricier side. However, when comparing with other solutions like Datadog or New Relic, it becomes apparent that they are significantly more affordable. The pricing may seem high at the list or discounted level, but what truly matters is the business value assessment. After completing this assessment, customers often recognize the value proposition and find the cost justified.

In all honesty, APM solutions, including AppDynamics, tend to be expensive, and they may have fewer features compared to other legacy monitoring solutions. I typically advise against using AppDynamics or similar APM solutions solely for server monitoring due to their cost and potential limitations. To maximize usefulness, it's crucial to complement these solutions with other monitoring tools and features.

I would rate it 9 out of 10.

System monitoring and real user monitoring were the two domains in which the product was used in my company.

AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring was a tool directly used by my company's client. I have no answer if you ask me why my company's client decided to use the tool. My company's client used the tool to monitor servers in their entire business process, including some servers, databases, clusters, mobile users, and for different services.

The most valuable feature of the solution is its GUI. With the product's GUI, one doesn't have to check for details since one can see the entire business flow in one go. At a glance, you can understand where your business flow breaks since the tool's entire GUI is pretty good. Apart from that, the auto-remediation in the tool helps if the CPU or server is getting exhausted by indicating the files that should be deleted. Auto-remediation and GUI are two good features of the product.

Though I haven't explored AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring a lot, considering the way the setup of the product, I did not understand certain concepts. The way the agentless monitoring and agent monitoring get used is to be decided by the user, but there is no clarification on the setup phase or on how and why to use the aforementioned options. When it comes to complex environments, the best thing you would like is that the setup should be fairly easy. The product's setup phase is a bit tricky and needs improvement, especially depending on the server environment since the product has a specific file format and a specific configuration form.

I have been using AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring for six months. I am just an end-user of the solution.

It is a stable solution.

Adding users directly to the solution was okay, and I did not face any issues with it.

For one of my projects, less than 150 employees in the company were using AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring.

The solution's technical support was good. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten. I assume the solution's technical support was expensive. In my company, we were recommended not to reach out to support teams in a very quick or frequent manner.

Positive

The product's setup phase is a bit tricky.

The solution is deployed on-premises.

I believe there was probably an extra charge whenever I wanted to contact the support team.

I would say that if you have a good budget and want a good and interactive tool where you don't have to do a lot of integrations, then you can go ahead with AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring. If you are tight on budget, considering before buying it is important since the number of users who can use it depends on the licenses. It takes quite a lot to exchange the license and all regarding the tool.

I like the product's GUI since you don't have to put in much effort to see where exactly my process is broken, and you can easily see how many users are using it in real time. The product allows you to check the way it works. Providing alerts to users is really fast in the product, and you have multiple options to receive alerts, like email, mobile messages, or automated voice calls. I can't give the product a ten out of ten rating because if you are stuck somewhere, then getting support to assist you with configuration or with other situations can be a little tricky.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We are using this solution because sometimes there is a technical requirement for a correlation between server assets and application assets. The end users are happy to use the solution for some applications related to .NET to get correct information.

We use the solution for business-critical applications as an application and server monitoring agent. The users use the solution to correct their application’s performance and clear hurdles in their applications.

The product provides a nice end-user experience. The users are happy to use the product for .NET applications. The users are happy with the real-time use cases.

I would like to see more information about utilization. The tool should provide information like the number of connections and processes utilized in real time.

I have been using this solution for the last four to five years.

The solution is perfectly stable. I rate the stability a ten out of ten. There is no need to do anything after the installation or configuration.

The product scales perfectly. I would rate the product’s stability a ten out of ten. We have four to five very critical applications related to revenue transactions used by more than 50 to 70 employees, including line management, domain leads, SMEs, L1, L2, and L3 employees. We use the solution once a month, depending on the requirement.

I have not found any issues in the last four to five years. It's a very smooth and easy setup. I have never got any errors or issues from the end user.

Positive

We have multiple solutions related to server monitoring. We have HPE and other tools as well. Compared to other tools, AppDynamics gives correct and good information related to the server. We switched to AppDynamics because we required a correlation between applications. That's why we use the same tool for the application and the server.

The product is very easy to set up. I rate the ease of setup a ten out of ten. The installation and configuration are very easy to learn.

It would take hardly half an hour to deploy the solution. It's a process that revolves around end-user requirements. First, I validate the details of the requirements shared by the end user. Then, I validate and deploy the solution according to their requirements. The deployment is done in-house. One person can handle the deployment.

We have also deployed SCOM. We decided to use AppDynamics because we required a real-time output during peak hours. We used Appdynamics to share the information with the users.

We have a very limited use case related to server monitoring. There is no need to refer to further addition. Every piece of information related to server monitoring is very concrete and crystal clear. We do not get any requests in any division from the end user related to the product. I do not have any issues with the configuration.

I would recommend the product because it provides real-time information. Other tools only provide information when there is a server issue. If the CPU reaches 80% while the threshold is set at 70%, they receive an alert. However, Appdynamics offers real-time monitoring and allows users to check their server utilization instantly. Other tools do not provide a consolidated UI to the end users.

Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.