What is our primary use case?
We deploy agents on-premise to collect data on on-premise VM instances. We don't use Datadog in our cloud network. We do have some Cloud apps that we have it on and we also have Containers. We have it on their headquarters, the main software for them is on their own Cloud.
Eventually, we're building out the process now and using it better. We plan to use Datadog for root cause analysis relating to any kinds of issues we have with software, with applications going down, latency issues, connection issues, etc. Eventually, we're going to use Datadog for application performance, monitoring, and management. To be proactive around thresholds, alerts, bottlenecks, etc.
Our developers and QA teams use this solution. They use it to analyze network traffic, load, CPU load, CPU usage, and then Tracey NPM, API calls for their application. There are roughly 100 users right now. Maybe there's 200 total, but on a given day, maybe 13 people using this solution.
How has it helped my organization?
It hasn't improved the way our organization functions yet, because there's a lot of red tape to cut through with cultural challenges and changes. I don't think it's changed the way we do things yet, but I think it will — absolutely it will. It's just going to take some time.
What is most valuable?
I like that you can build out a dashboard pretty quickly. There are some things that come out of the box that you don't really need to do, which is great because they're default settings. Once you install the agent on the machine, they pick up a lot of metrics for you that are going to be 70 or more percent of what you need. Out of the box, it's pretty good.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Datadog every day since September 2020. I also used it at a previous company that I worked for.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, it's great.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It seems like it'll scale well. We're automating it with Ansible scripts and service now so that when we build a new virtual machine it will automatically install Datadog on that box.
How are customer service and support?
The tool itself is pretty good and the customer service is good, but I think they're a growing company. I think better access to their engineers when we have a problem could be better. For example, if I asked the question, "Hey, how do I install it on this type of component?" We'll try to get an engineer on the phone with us to step us through everything, but that's a challenge because they're so busy.
Technically-wise, everything's fine. We don't need any support, everything that I need to do, I can do right out of the box. But as far as, in the knowledge of their engineers on how to configure it on given systems that we have, that's maybe at six because they're just not as available as I would've hoped.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using AppDynamics. Technically, we still have it in-house because it's tightly wound into certain systems, but we'll probably pull that off slowly over time. The reason we added Datadog and eventually we'll fully switch over is due to cost. It's more cost-friendly to do it with Datadog.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Yes, we looked at Dynatrace, AppDynamics, and New Relic. Personally, I wouldn't have chosen Datadog for the POC if it were up to me. Datadog was a leader, but New Relic was looking really good. In the end, the people above me decided to go with Datadog — it's a big company, so they wanted to move fast, which makes sense.
What other advice do I have?
If you're interested in using Datadog, just do your homework, as we did. We're happy so far I think; time will tell as we are still rolling things out. It's a very good company. It's going to be a year before we really can tell anything. If you do your homework, you'll find that if you're really concerned with cost, it's good.
There are some strengths that AppDynamics and Dynatrace have that Datadog I don't think will have down the road, but they're not things we necessarily need — they're outliers. It would be nice to have them, but we can manage without them.
Know what you want. There is no need to pay for solutions like Dynatrace or AppDynamics that are more expensive or things that are just nice to have if you don't absolutely need to have them. That's something people need to understand. You just have to make sure you understand what it is that you need out of the tool — they are all a little different, those three. I would say to anybody that's going with Datadog: you just have to be patient at the beginning. It's a very busy company right now. They're very hot in the market.
Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give Datadog a rating of eight. It does what we need it to do, and it seems to be pretty user-friendly in terms of setting things up.
Features-wise, I'd give them a rating of ten out of ten. The better access we get to assistance from the engineers on how to configure dashboards and pulling metrics that we need, that would bring it up a little bit. So overall it would be harder and it would have to be perfect for it. I would say maybe they could bring it to a nine.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.