2021-01-12T10:07:00Z
Rony_Sklar - PeerSpot reviewer
Community Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
  • 6
  • 167

What cloud monitoring software did you choose and why?

Popular cloud monitoring solutions on the market include Datadog, AppDynamics, Dynatrace, SolarWinds and New Relic. 

If you recently researched and chose a cloud monitoring solution for your company, what solutions did you evaluate? What did you ultimately choose and why? What were the pros and cons of the different options you considered?

6
PeerSpot user
6 Answers
Shibu Babuchandran - PeerSpot reviewer
Regional Manager/ Service Delivery Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
ExpertModerator
2021-10-20T01:45:59Z
Oct 20, 2021

Hi @Rony_Sklar ​,


I would recommend Zabbix as it is a free and open-source tool.


Zabbix is an open-source monitoring software tool for diverse IT components, including networks, servers, virtual machines (VMs) and cloud services. Zabbix provides monitoring metrics, among others network utilization, CPU load and disk space consumption. Zabbix monitoring configuration can be done using XML-based templates which contain elements to monitor. The software monitors operations on Linux, Hewlett Packard Unix (HP-UX), Mac OS X, Solaris and other operating systems (OSes); however, Windows monitoring is only possible through agents. Zabbix can use MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle or IBM DB2 to store data. Its backend is written in C and the web frontend is written in PHP. Zabbix offers several monitoring options:


  • Simple checks can verify the availability and responsiveness of standard services such as SMTP or HTTP without installing any software on the monitored host.

  • A Zabbix agent can also be installed on UNIX and Windows hosts to monitor statistics such as CPU load, network utilization, disk space, etc.

  • As an alternative to installing an agent on hosts, Zabbix includes support for monitoring via SNMP, TCP and ICMP checks, as well as over IPMI, JMX, SSH, Telnet and using custom parameters. Zabbix supports a variety of near-real-time notification mechanisms, including XMPP.

It comes with a lot of integrations with cloud solutions and is very efficient and easy to use. On the cloud, it presently supports AWS, Cloudstack, Google Cloud, Azure, open stack, and many more to name

Search for a product comparison in Cloud Monitoring Software
MK
Senior Director IT at BARBRI Inc.
Real User
2021-01-13T18:11:11Z
Jan 13, 2021

While the environment does matter in the selection of an APM tool, I prefer to use Dynatrace to manage the entire stack. Both production and Dev/Test. I find it to be quite superior to anything else on the market today.

DV
Sales Engineer | Technical Sales | Pre-Sales at SUSE
Vendor
Top 10
Jan 18, 2021

@Mark Kaplan I don't know when you had a look, but if it was a while ago it might be worth it just to check out their site. So many solutions to so many challenges out there.

PeerSpot user
TS
CEO at Rufusforyou
Reseller
Top 5Leaderboard
2021-01-12T14:47:37Z
Jan 12, 2021

It depends on your requirements. For example, do you need to monitor the complete infrastructure, applications, network devices and security including, for example, Amazon or Azure or any other cloud vendor, and what kind of applications? I run IBM cloud monitoring but I've also worked with BMC, Dynatrace and AppDynamics. IBM has a total solution for enterprise environments, the other ones are more focussed on the application site. Also it depends on your knowledge of performance. Most tools are pointing to what is happening but you need to come up with the solution. 


Regards Tjeerd

TS
CEO at Rufusforyou
Reseller
Top 5Leaderboard
Jan 15, 2021

@Dawid Van Der Merwe I have read the documentation from New Relic but no working experience or tested New Relic I have worked and certified with a lot of monitoring tools for our customers. What I see is always missing parts for example the microcode is responsible for a lot of performance issues specially for SAN's, NAS, Power Systems and storage devices. However nobody is monitoring if this is causing delays. Also everybody is pointing in the direction where a problem can be but no advice what is exactly wrong and how to resolve it.

PeerSpot user
DV
Sales Engineer | Technical Sales | Pre-Sales at SUSE
Vendor
Top 10
2021-01-13T15:31:13Z
Jan 13, 2021

The first question is - what type of cloud service are you making use of? IaaS, PaaS, SaaS (Storage and/or Software)? Do you have specific business requirements, applications, etc. that will determine the type of data you require? What kind of metrics are you looking for; fault, configuration, security, assurance/accounting, performance? On top of that, do you require identity management e.g. CIEM solutions? And finally, on which cloud platform are you; GCP, AWS, Azure? All of those questions should drive your decision making. Once you have that buttoned down, you can start asking the next set of questions; do you want it as a service, do you require on-prem solutions, agent vs agentless, polling vs event, vs passive (tap/packet broker/netflow), etc.

Sorry for all the questions, but I think the more questions you ask right from the beginning, the better the solution will fit.

BH
CEO with 1-10 employees
Real User
2021-01-13T13:48:03Z
Jan 13, 2021

The answer to this question depends upon what you mean by Cloud Monitoring "Software".


Do you mean the applications software that you built or bought and that implements your business functionality? In that case look at Dynatrace, New Relic, and Instana. 


There is also a drill down on this question that focuses upon the current and future architecture of your applications. If your applications are comprised of highly dynamic microservices orchestrated by Kubernetes you need to pay very careful attention to the problem of selecting tools that can keep up with the pace of change in your environment.


If you mean the infrastructure software that comprises the cloud and the services on the cloud that your applications rely upon, then Datadog is the clear leader in this space. But there are also very strong offerings from Dynatrace, New Relic, and Instana.

RM
IT Technical Architect at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Top 10
2021-02-23T13:28:48Z
Feb 23, 2021

I'll answer based on my requirements.... Cloud for me is just another platform.  PaaS, SaaS, IaaS, on-premise hosts, VMWare, mainframe, multiple clouds are all part of my problem.  With an APM solution a key capability is transaction trace so I need a common solution across my problem set or I just start bouncing between tools. I also have infrastructure monitoring requirements and historically we used multiple tools to cover individual technologies and fill gaps.  We selected Dynatrace as it had the most extensive coverage, with event correlation across transaction traces and the topology (host -> app relationships).  The event correlation is easily a differentiating feature.  It has an additional benefit as a highly automated deployment/maintenance.  I can upgrade my entire environment with a push of a button.  Prior to our decision we had the other 3 magic quadrant solutions (BMC, AppD & New Relic) in house.  We are migrating away from all of them.  We still have a need for a separate tool for network/appliances in full transparency (solarwinds) and use ELK for logs (we have a highly customized logging solution that will be difficult to migrate away from).  I'm looking forward to Dynatrace maturing their log analytics offering to open up that opportunity.


If I was cloud only, I would consider Dynatrace or New Relic.  If I'm heavy non-cloud, easily Dynatrace.  If I didn't care about real user monitoring I would consider DataDog.

Learn what your peers think about IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2023.
690,226 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Related Questions
HB
Senior Software Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Sep 29, 2022
Dear community members,  I've been exploring Datadog vs ELK and I need your opinion about both of them in terms of performance, cost, and efficiency? Which one would you recommend?
2 out of 7 answers
TA
Cyber Security Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Jun 21, 2021
Dear, Unfortunately, I can't say much about Datadog but I have used ELK for a short period.  And I can tell you not everything works the way it should. For example, I noticed heavy CPU usage for a Windows client on MS AD servers. I advise you to consider this if it's important to you. Good luck!
Shibu Babuchandran - PeerSpot reviewer
Regional Manager/ Service Delivery Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Jun 22, 2021
Datadog: Unify logs, metrics, and traces from across your distributed infrastructure. Datadog is the leading service for cloud-scale monitoring. It is used by IT, operations, and development teams who build and operate applications that run on dynamic or hybrid cloud infrastructure. Start monitoring in minutes with Datadog! Datadog features offered are:200+ turn-key integrations for data aggregationClean graphs of StatsD and other integrations Elasticsearch: Open Source, Distributed, RESTful Search Engine. Elasticsearch is a distributed, RESTful search and analytics engine capable of storing data and searching it in near real time. Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats and Logstash are the Elastic Stack (sometimes called the ELK Stack). Elasticsearch provides the following key features:Distributed and Highly Available Search Engine.Multi Tenant with Multi Types.Various set of APIs including RESTful
VK
User at Karadi
Aug 7, 2021
Hello,  I'm looking for alternatives to SolarWinds NPM as it is expensive for my budget and has poor performance. Please share your suggestions and why you recommend choosing another solution.
2 out of 4 answers
AS
Director, Middle East, East India & SAARC at DMX Technologies
Mar 31, 2021
Hi Vijay,You can check out InfraonIMS (https://www.everestims.com/inf...) Also, can you share some details on your IT Infra & current challenges being faced ?  Thanks,Abhirup Sarkar. 
TS
CEO at Rufusforyou
Apr 3, 2021
You can check riverbed or our Saas solution (https://rufusforyou.com).  You have several alternatives but it depends if you need network monitoring, infra, a solution like APM.  Also if you are low on budget and depending on your platform and other things (for example SQL Server or Oracle) you can find alternatives.  You have oppmanager, you can use Wireshark, etc. If you use Linux most of the OS have built-in monitors and if you know scripting you can take the data from the Linux OS monitors.  Regards,  Tjeerd 
Related Articles
DB
Content Strategist at PeerSpot
Dec 11, 2022
Buying a cloud monitoring software solution can be a daunting process. You will need software that can be automated for any cloud infrastructure, provide visibility within critical business applications, and meet your organization’s budgetary restrictions. What is cloud monitoring software exactly? Cloud monitoring software is a network management platform that monitors cloud security proced...
NC
Content Manager at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)
May 2, 2022
PeerSpot’s crowdsourced user review platform helps technology decision-makers around the world to better connect with peers and other independent experts who provide advice without vendor bias. Our users have ranked these solutions according to their valuable features, and discuss which features they like most and why. You can read user reviews for the Top 8 Cloud Monitoring Software Tools to...
Related Categories
Related Articles
DB
Content Strategist at PeerSpot
Dec 11, 2022
5 Reasons to Buy Cloud Monitoring Software
Buying a cloud monitoring software solution can be a daunting process. You will need software tha...
NC
Content Manager at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)
May 2, 2022
Top 8 Cloud Monitoring Software Tools 2022
PeerSpot’s crowdsourced user review platform helps technology decision-makers around the world to...
Download Free Report
Download our free IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2023.
DOWNLOAD NOW
690,226 professionals have used our research since 2012.