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it_user815244 - PeerSpot reviewer
Application Monitoring Specialist at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
We have been able to avoid issues before they actually happen
Pros and Cons
  • "It is very stable. The improvements that they keep making just make the tool more useful.​"
  • "The proactive monitoring that we can do with Dynatrace where it is 24/7 on with all the user experience indexed and everything coming into us."
  • "Support was very quick to help us identify a problem and fix it immediately"
  • "There are a lot of features that could be added that would make this a very useful solution, but it is getting there.​"

What is our primary use case?

We have multiple applications at our company and the user experience is really important to us. We started getting Dynatrace products in to see how we can improve user experience and find some of the performance issues that we were unaware of. Some applications were practically black boxes for us, and we could not get an in-depth view into them. 

Therefore, we started with DC RUM and AppMon to get more details for such applications and this helped us immensely. We have really improved in customer satisfaction and also we found out a few performance issues that we were not aware of earlier. DC RUM, especially, was able to identify faulty tiers very quickly and Apmon gets the root cause quickly. Later on, we started getting into synthetic monitoring to identify problems from any offshore users, so this was really helpful. 

The problem we had with Apmon was the instrumentation was difficult. It is really time consuming and you need to get into every process and tie it up. Therefore, we are moving to Dynatrace and their latest solution as managed. This has completely reduced time for us. It is an agent at the operating system level and the process gets tagged automatically, so that is very useful.

We are very happy with the way Dynatrace has worked out for us and we are slowly moving into Dynatrace Managed, but we hope to get our complete monitoring solution into Dynatrace Managed.

How has it helped my organization?

Dynatrace is almost a single pane of glass solution.

What is most valuable?

Root cause analysis is definitely very valuable for us. Also, the proactive monitoring that we can do with Dynatrace where it is 24/7 on with all the user experience indexed and everything coming into us. With this information, we have been able to avoid issues before they actually happen, which is fantastic. Each minute that we are down costs the company money. If we can avoid that, and we can stop things from going there, it has been the greatest use for us. Being proactive about issues and avoiding downtime.

What needs improvement?

We would like to see data from different monitoring tools. We do have some network monitoring tools and some infrastructure monitoring tools that were already there before Dynatrace came in, and we would like to see if we can send that data into Dynatrace.

Maybe it could send the data from load balancers, firewalls, and everything to Dynatrace. It is my understanding that they are developing on it. Once we get that working, that would be very useful.

There are a lot of features that could be added that would make this a very useful solution, but it is getting there.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable. The improvements that they keep making just make the tool more useful.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are on a managed solution, so everything is on-premise. Even their cloud systems are very scalable. We have never had any problems with it.

We do not really work with cloud that much. Definitely, AI would help us in scaling because even though we are not in the cloud on our physical server, we have seen some instances where an application either has way more CPU than it needs or way more memory than it needs. Just by analyzing its resource consumption, we can scale it properly, then add more servers or reduce the number of servers accurately rather than throw resources at it as a solution for any performance problem.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is very knowledgeable.

There were a few cases where we were having trouble with something and the solution gets back to us within hours. So, that is really useful.

Initially, the complexities were due to lack of knowledge about the tool and it was our fault. Eventually, we even got into problems where we had an issue with Dynatrace servers not functioning as expected, but the support was very quick to help us identify the problem and fix it immediately.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were using multiple tools, but they were not really a single pane of glass for everything. It was one tool for the network, one tool for the infrastructure, etc. and the people had to manually stitch everything together. It is not really reliable at times when you are stitching together all the data.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was very straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

Initially, we had technical support. As we started scaling, I did it by myself.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We just started getting into APM. We did a review of a few monitoring tools, but Dynatrace seemed to be on the top. 

What other advice do I have?

If you are looking to implement something right now, look for any technology like Dynatrace OneAgent, which basically removes all the manual work like tagging each process. Therefore, if you have any technology that can just sit on an operating system level and view all the processes running in that operating system, that would be fantastic.

If I had just one solution which could provide real answers, not just data, the immediate benefit to my team would be quick resolution. This way we would know what exactly the problem is and we could later find out how it went wrong, but the best thing would be the quick resolution.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: They have quick support and how willing are they to accommodate any of our requirements or needs. Also, can they get either PoCs or sale orders quickly to us. So, just have action in time.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
it_user815250 - PeerSpot reviewer
Performance Engineer at NAIC
Real User
We can now proactively alert customers of an issue and that we are working on it
Pros and Cons
  • "It scales well. We are going to be able to use it for everything we need. ​"
  • "Dynatrace has great training available. It is easy for everybody to use. Anybody can go out to YouTube, watch a video, and figure out how to use the piece ​that they need."
  • "​I would like to see single pane monitoring."

What is our primary use case?

We use it primarily for performance. We bought it so we could be more proactive versus reactive with our customers. We are using it for anything from database monitoring, performance monitoring, end user experience monitoring, etc.

It is performing great. No issues so far. It is fast, and there is no overhead.

We are not in the cloud yet. We are moving to the cloud. This is one of the reasons why we bought Dynatrace. We know Dynatrace is going to OneAgent with the its product. That was a big part of our decision of buying Dynatrace, so when we move to the cloud we will have something to monitor.

How has it helped my organization?

I am getting emails every day about how great this application is. We are rolling it out to a few teams. They are using it. They love it, and it is easy for them. They can just get right in, look at things, and say, "Oh yeah, there's an issue right here." I got an email today from another team saying, "Hey, this helped a customer with their slowness issue," So, it is good. 

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is being more proactive versus reactive, because before customers would call us with issues and we had no clue what they were. Now, we can call or alert them that there is an issue and we are working on it. That is the most valuable part.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see single pane monitoring.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have had no problems with stability. Though, we did have a couple issues in our production environment getting the UEM working. It would crash some of our applications. Agents were injecting the JavaScript twice so it was bringing down our apps, but we worked with support, and they fixed it pretty quickly.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It scales well. We are going to be able to use it for everything we need.

How are customer service and technical support?

They have a very active community.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used CA Wiley. It was slow and cumbersome to use. It was good, but it just did not have anything like Dynatrace has.

I have been a performance engineer for about 10 years. Using Wiley, you could look into the system. I moved to this company and went to SEP Con in San Diego where I met with some of the guys from Dynatrace, then I knew the company needed this tool. 

When I moved to this company, they did not have any production monitoring or QA monitoring, so that is where we have started Dynatrace. This is what we have needed.

How was the initial setup?

I was involved from the PoC to the setup, then roll out. I am not an admin, but I was part of all it.

It was pretty easy. Our middleware architect, he had no problems with it. We rolled out all our environments (QA and prod) in about three months.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

New Relic and AppDynamics were on our shortlist. We picked Dynatrace because of the training and ease of use.

Dynatrace has great training available. It is easy for everybody to use. Anybody can go out to YouTube, watch a video, and figure out how to use the piece that they need. All these other application monitoring tools, they are all basically the same. They are going to give you the same data and just present it a little bit differently, but Dynatrace goes above it with their training.

What other advice do I have?

If you had just one solution that could provide real answers, not just data, the immediate benefit would be time. Everybody would have more time to do something; get things done a lot faster and go out on the golf course and play golf.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: With this vendor, the most important piece was the amount of training which is available. There are so many YouTube videos. The website has so much to offer. None of the other APM tools had anything close to it, so that was our number one criteria.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Dynatrace
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Dynatrace. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Analyst APM at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
The technical support has always been responsive
Pros and Cons
  • "For cloud, AI has been pretty useful so far when it comes to IT's ability to scale."
  • "I can get everything on a single page."
  • "The technical support has always been responsive."
  • "There is still a bit of redundancy in Dynatrace."
  • "I would like to see AppMon also integrated in the Dynatrace portal. There are certain features, which I am not saying are not there in Dynatrace, but I am used to in AppMon."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case is to monitor and make sure all the crown jewel applications are up and running. If there is an error, then I will pinpoint what the error is, take it to the application team and developers, and ask them to fix it.

It is performing well, so far. So well that we actually had a company program wherein we wanted to promote Dynatrace for as many applications as we can. We have our hands on all the tools of Dynatrace, and whichever is the best fit based on the application, we go ahead. 

How has it helped my organization?

I can get everything on a single page. 

What is most valuable?

That varies from product to product. Every product has its charms. I like AppMon a lot. The new solution that they have, the Dynatrace solution, which is integrated with the browser plugin and agentless monitoring. That is pretty exciting. 

What needs improvement?

I would like to see AppMon also integrated in the Dynatrace portal. There are certain features, which I am not saying are not there in Dynatrace, but I am used to in AppMon. I would like to see something a bit familiar in terms of UI. It could be five to six clicks away (I don't mind), but something familiar would be helpful. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability is pretty good. Comparatively, I do not see too many downtimes, and the response time is good. The communications for any downtime is also pretty much on time.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No scalability issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have used technical support a lot of times, mostly for technical stuff. For example, on challenges that I am facing for configurations based on technical tools. 

They have been pretty helpful and very responsive, Compared to other tools that I have used in the past, Dynatrace's support has always been responsive. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

They were all scattered, because we were getting a lot of information from different tools, but no integration. Also, there were a lot of redundancies, so that is why Dynatrace is good, but there is still a bit of redundancy in Dynatrace as well. A little bit of it across platforms, but overall, it has been better than the other tools that I have used in past. 

How was the initial setup?

Dynatrace has so many different tools, so some of them are a bit complex, like AppMon. However, your OneAgent, your browser plugin, and so on are pretty simple setups. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We get access to the early access programs. So, we evaluate. We do PoCs, and based on our customer feedback, then we proceed. 

We were working with Catchpoint, because for the synthetic device management, it is simpler for Catchpoint. However, the setup and the configuration were so much easier than Dynatrace that we are still in a bit of debate on what to do. 

What other advice do I have?

If you are looking to implement it, just go for it.

For cloud, AI has been pretty useful so far when it comes to IT's ability to scale. To manage performance problems, we have not actually used it.

If I had just one solution which could provide real answers, not just data, the immediate benefit would be continuous checks for a lot of hardware. There are a lot of applications, so if Dynatrace could provide this, that would be awesome. 

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor:  

  • Performance
  • Availability
  • Scalability.

The company that I work for is huge, growing every day. So, I think availability and scalability were the primary parameters.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
it_user810705 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Systems Admin at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Transformational, the speed and problem resolution capabilities make it invaluable for us
Pros and Cons
  • "The speed and problem resolution."
  • "One thing that would help it tighter integration with DCRUM. It's somewhat difficult to drill down and see everything, but I think that's in the future versions. We just haven't seen that yet."

What is our primary use case?

We have multiple use cases for it. We use it for performance testing; it performs very well for that. We also use it for production monitoring. We use both AppMon and Dynatrace Managed in that situation. And it's an invaluable tool.

How has it helped my organization?

It has been transformational. We started out with DCRUM, it's ingrained in our business and we've got executives that look at that. Now, the same thing is happening with tools like AppMon and Dynatrace.

What is most valuable?

The speed and problem resolution.

What needs improvement?

We're still on 6.5, so we've haven't upgraded completely to 7, 7.1. I think most of the things that we're looking for are already addressed in the new product.

One thing that would help would be tighter integration with DCRUM. It's somewhat difficult to drill down and see everything, but I think that's in the future versions. We just haven't seen that yet.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There have been stability issues but they were not really frequent or too significant.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The system as a whole scales fairly well. It's intensive, but it's not such a big footprint that it can't be handled. I think with Managed, or the SaaS product, things become a little easier. With AppMon you need a pretty good amount of inputting of data, but I think things get easier when you move over to Managed.

How are customer service and technical support?

Tech support is great. You're able to get through the levels pretty fast, so it has been pretty good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We had a previous solution, but nothing that's around any more.

How was the initial setup?

It's a pretty straightforward setup. Once you've got your build out, you don't have to move things around too much, it's pretty straightforward. We did it on our own and then, for our first upgrades, we had support in there.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated all the different tools, and this is the best of the best.

What other advice do I have?

With siloed monitoring, which we have used, you don't get a holistic picture of what's going on, so analysis is very intensive.

If there was just one tool, obviously there would be a lot of benefit there. We would only need to learn one thing, everybody would be looking at the same data. Everything becomes more streamlined.

The most important criterion when selecting a vendor is that their product does what it says it's going to do. Gives us visibility.

If I were to advise a colleague at another company who is researching this or a similar solution, I would tell them to do their due diligence, look at the product hard, and make sure they size the product.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user793110 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Efficient, automated application monitoring saves manual effort
Pros and Cons
  • "By using Dynatrace, we can set up the agents to provide alerts at the JVM level."
  • "​Configuring nodes and agents should be more like plug and play."

What is our primary use case?

Application needs to send alerts to the production team whenever there is an issue in any of the applications which are running in production.

How has it helped my organization?

Application monitoring is automated. Previously it was manual monitoring and having to check production servers, but using this solution we can configure the agents and look for alerts. It is very efficient and saves lot of manual effort.

What is most valuable?

By using Dynatrace, we can set up the agents to provide alerts at the JVM level.

Saves time, effort. It shows minute level errors. Node level configurations, application level configurations, JVM alerts are very flexible; you can drill down for specific errors.

What needs improvement?

  • Configuring nodes and agents should be more like plug and play. 
  • Transaction statistics should be more flexible to export and share with tje business side.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Senior Software Developer, Technology Development Program at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
We use the error log management where we define the rules that constitute as an system error and/or failure
Pros and Cons
  • "Gives systems back-end visibility, allows for proactive monitoring, and improves the user's experience."
  • "Data streaming and dashboard loading can be improved to reduce dashboard latency."

What is our primary use case?

  • End-to-end application monitoring and user experience management. 
  • We use the error log management where we define the rules that constitute as an system error and/or failure. 
  • The ability to monitor users' browser data.

How has it helped my organization?

Gives systems back-end visibility, allows for proactive monitoring, and improves the user's experience.

What is most valuable?

The level of dashboard granularity through the calendar features. This allows for a granular view of the data. 

What needs improvement?

Data streaming and dashboard loading can be improved to reduce dashboard latency. For example, it takes a significant amount of time to display aggregated data from the back-end to the dashboard. 

For how long have I used the solution?

Still implementing.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user793113 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Alert mechanism enables us to monitor complex and sensitive applications
Pros and Cons
  • "Metrics for CPU, memory, network, and disk. It provides extensive end-user, application, and infrastructure platform and technology support, including mobile, web browser, Java, .NET, PHP, servers, networks, and mainframe."

    What is our primary use case?

    We have a lot of very complex and very sensitive applications to monitor. Dynatrace's alert mechanism is helpful.

    How has it helped my organization?

    The alert mechanism has reduced hours of manual work.

    What is most valuable?

    Metrics for CPU, memory, network, and disk. Since it provides extensive end-user, application, and infrastructure platform and technology support that includes mobile, web browser, Java, .NET, PHP, servers, networks, and the mainframe

    What needs improvement?

    It's too early to comment on the features to be added/tuned.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    Less than one year.
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    DermotCasey - PeerSpot reviewer
    Principal Technology Consultant at Vodafone
    Real User
    Top 5
    Feature-rich, stable, and straightforward to set up
    Pros and Cons
    • "The visibility that it provides is most valuable."
    • "There should be more visibility for network performance monitoring. There should be more metrics for things like 5G and IoT. That would be the main thing because they've moved more to mobile performance rather than fixed networks."

    What is most valuable?

    The visibility that it provides is most valuable.

    What needs improvement?

    There should be more visibility for network performance monitoring. There should be more metrics for things like 5G and IoT. That would be the main thing because they've moved more to mobile performance rather than fixed networks.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using this solution for over 10 years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Its stability is very good. There are no complaints.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    It is pretty scalable.

    How are customer service and support?

    I haven't had to deal with them too much. I would rate it as average. It has been good enough, but I haven't had too many moments where I had to reach out. I would rate their support a four out of five.

    How was the initial setup?

    It is straightforward. The agents are pretty straightforward to set up. I would rate it a four out of five in terms of ease.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    As compared to New Relic and other providers, it is more expensive, which is its biggest disadvantage. Its biggest advantage is its capability. It is more feature-rich.

    What other advice do I have?

    My advice would be to try it before you buy it. I would rate it a strong eight out of 10.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
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    Updated: November 2024
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