We use the product to monitor some of our critical systems. We started using the solution for application performance monitoring.
AppDynamics Serverless APM for AWS Lambda
AppDynamicsExternal reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
The product can drill down to the errors, but it is expensive and has performance issues
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The product has the ability to drill down to the errors whenever we have issues.
What needs improvement?
The solution has performance issues after we deploy the agent.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for about three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is stable.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The tool is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.
Amazing tool to monitor application performance over an extended period of time.
Offers a real-time view of the things happening in a database
What is our primary use case?
The solution offers a real-time view of the things happening in a database.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
The solution needs to support IBM products.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for seven to eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
AppDynamics Database Monitoring is stable.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's deployment is easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
AppDynamics Database Monitoring is expensive. I rate it a seven to eight out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I rate AppDynamics Database Monitoring a nine out of ten.
The best advanced monitoring and APM tool available.
Efficiently monitors database performance, CPU usage, and generates alerts on different nodes based on CPU utilization
What is our primary use case?
It's mainly used to monitor both applications and databases. That's primarily how I use it.
Essentially, I use it for monitoring. I perform performance testing and use it to monitor database performance, CPU usage, and generate alerts on different nodes based on CPU utilization and other factors. It's mainly used to check the performance of the nodes.
What is most valuable?
I find it helpful, especially in terms of self-learning.
What needs improvement?
The major concern lies with reports, specifically their configurability. It's like, if I want to combine multiple reports and generate them all at once, that's not possible. Even though there's a setup for generating 25 reports, I wanted to group them all and generate them in one go, which isn't currently feasible. I have to manually run each report and set the time for it. There should be an option to schedule them collectively, like selecting 10 reports, setting a particular time, and having them scheduled.
The ability to schedule multiple reports at once, which is currently lacking. This is a challenge I face in my day-to-day work with AppDynamics.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for more than a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's definitely scalable. The number of environments in our implementation has been increasing, so it's adaptable. It's a large enterprise, definitely not medium or small.
Maintenance is handled by the maintenance team.
What other advice do I have?
In my experience, it's easy to use. There's nothing complex to learn or fear. You can quickly adapt to it without the need for extensive training. That's my advice.
Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.
An application performance monitoring that is stable and needs an easy installation phase
What is our primary use case?
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.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using AppDynamics Server Monitoring for five years. My company is a customer of the solution.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I don't see any problems in the solution.
What do I think about the scalability of 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.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support was good. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
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.
How was the initial setup?
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.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
What other advice do I have?
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.
A very easy-to-use and easy-to-implement that provides great stability along with good technical support
What is our primary use case?
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.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using AppDynamics for three years. My company is a customer of the solution.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a very stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the 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.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support is good. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
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.
How was the initial setup?
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.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
What other advice do I have?
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.
A highly scalable solution that can be used to monitor the application performance
What is our primary use case?
We use AppDynamics mainly to monitor the application performance.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of AppDynamics is its ability to track the transactions between different applications.
What needs improvement?
AppDynamics should improve its ability to track all the transactions.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using AppDynamics for approximately three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
AppDynamics is a stable product. We rarely had any issues with the solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate AppDynamics ten out of ten for scalability.
How are customer service and support?
Getting a response from the solution's technical support team is harder and takes longer. Since the solution has a structural support model, it requires some layers of escalation to get the correct response.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The solution's initial setup is easy. However, it is harder than Checkmk because it needs to install the agent.
What about the implementation team?
The solution's initial deployment takes about three to four months. However, it's a work in progress because new applications are added every time.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
AppDynamics is an expensive solution.
What other advice do I have?
AppDynamics is deployed on-cloud in our organization.
Overall, I rate AppDynamics a nine out of ten.
A scalable solution that provides an excellent user experience and has a well-defined dashboard
What is our primary use case?
The solution is used for observability, AIOps, monitoring microservices, SAP monitoring, and application performance monitoring.
What is most valuable?
AppDynamics is predominantly marketed and sold as an APM solution. Customers use it for both database and application monitoring. I have not seen a customer buying AppDynamics only for database monitoring. The product is good at database monitoring, availability and performance monitoring. I have always used it as a holistic product.
What needs improvement?
The product requires high maintenance. We need a dedicated resource to manage it because the solution manages a complex environment.
For how long have I used the solution?
I’ve been using the solution as a system integrator for eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The tool is stable, but our clients are not using its features to the fullest due to a lack of knowledge of APM. The customers are not very clear on what features an APM product offers. Customers have a limited understanding of APM and its use cases.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The tool’s scalability is good. Our customers are enterprise-level businesses such as large hospitals, manufacturers, and banks.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is good. Support must provide faster responses for production-related issues.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have used ManageEngine before. AppDynamics is better than the other products we have used. The tool provides a pretty good user experience. The dashboards are very well-defined. Business-related data is very well projected on the dashboards. The technical team also gets good information on their dashboards.
AppDynamics monitors pretty much all the applications, though the applications are built on various technologies. ManageEngine has a limitation. It cannot monitor various technologies. The most important factor is security. Security is very well defined in AppDynamics, whereas ManageEngine's security is not up to the mark.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is neither easy nor very difficult. It requires specific knowledge of the infrastructure. When installing the product, we must be aware of how it will be configured at the database, application, and infrastructure levels. Earlier, the tool was deployed on-premises. Nowadays, customers are willing to deploy it on the cloud.
What about the implementation team?
Typically, to install the product, we take help from infrastructure experts. We need to be aware of the infrastructure before installing the product. The deployment takes seven to ten days. We need one architect and two engineers to deploy the product. The number of resources required to maintain the solution depends on the environment. We need two resources for medium-sized environments, but we may need four to five resources for larger environments.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
One of the main downsides to the solution is its cost. We pay a yearly licensing fee for the product. AppDynamics and Dynatrace have almost the same pricing. Compared to ManageEngine, AppDynamics is relatively higher in cost. For cloud-based solutions, users only pay for licenses if they opt for a subscription. However, for on-premises solutions, they must buy support separately.
What other advice do I have?
The application layer in AppDynamics performs fairly well. However, network monitoring is not at an advanced level. It is mediocre.
People wanting to use the solution must not use it only for database monitoring. It should be used for end-to-end application performance monitoring. If someone has requirements involving applications, observability, and AIOps, they must consider the product. If they need only database monitoring, several other tools are available in the market that are lower in cost and offer a lot of capabilities.
When it comes to end-to-end monitoring, network monitoring also plays a crucial role. It is an area of improvement for AppDynamics. Network monitoring could be better. AppDynamics has acquired a product called ThousandEyes. How well the product grows in the network monitoring space is yet to be seen.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
A stable and interactive monitoring tool that doesn't require too much efforts from its users on the integration front
What is our primary use case?
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.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using AppDynamics Mobile Real-User Monitoring for six months. I am just an end-user of the solution.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the 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.
How are customer service and support?
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.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The product's setup phase is a bit tricky.
The solution is deployed on-premises.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I believe there was probably an extra charge whenever I wanted to contact the support team.
What other advice do I have?
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.