What is our primary use case?
Our major use case for Dynatrace is end-to-end performance monitoring and other types of monitoring for business transactions, commerce transactions, websites, and so on. We have about five to twenty users, though their usage depends on a few different factors. Some users make intense use of Dynatrace while others use it on a less frequent basis.
I use the managed version of Dynatrace, which means that it is deployed like a cloud solution but our data is stored on-premises.
How has it helped my organization?
Dynatrace monitoring is highly automated, enabling us to focus on more interesting things than having to maintain and configure everything all the time.
What is most valuable?
Dynatrace is heavily automated which is a big advantage. You don't have to configure a lot, it installs and it runs straight away. There's direct return on investment and you can focus on more interesting stuff than always have to configure and change the configurations. Issues or problems in detection is also fully automated, which is great.
What needs improvement?
I think they're working on even more integration from external third-party input, but that is ongoing. So the faster it's there the better. Clock monitoring is one of these areas where improvements can be made.
Another thing is that, although the cost for Dynatrace has great return on investment, it could be cheaper.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dynatrace for almost two years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I think it's a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Dynatrace is very scalable. With our recent experience in terms of scaling, I believe the limit goes up to 100,000 agents in total that can be deployed.
How are customer service and technical support?
Support is great. You can go by email and things, but also by chat. There's a chat functionality inside of the product, where you can open tickets for support problems and things like that.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Today, for me, Dynatrace is a winner over IBM ITCAM. For ITCAM, within IBM, I don't believe that they make a lot of investments anymore in that area as they're focusing on other areas. They're going with Cloud Paks now. Cloud Paks for this and Cloud Paks for that. So the Tivoli brand within IBM is in a censored mode, I would call it. It was a really good product years ago, but today it's not up to date anymore.
How was the initial setup?
Setup is super easy. The SaaS version is, of course, the easiest to deploy. You don't have to do anything except install the agents. And that's quite simple, you just go to a webpage, you download and you click and it automatically connects. And it does everything for you.
If you go for the managed version, then you have to first see about hardware, by doing your homework for hardware requirements and things like that. But even then, it's quite straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
You can easily implement Dynatrace by yourself. For us, it took about half a day to a day to do the whole installation and set it all up.
What was our ROI?
Because Dynatrace is so heavily automated, there is very little that you have to do to install and maintain it. With this fact, there's a lot of return on investment because we can now focus on more interesting activities rather than having to constantly change configurations.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a license cost, which is obviously more expensive than an open-source solution, but for the return on investment from what you get from it, it's a great investment. Of course, it could always be cheaper.
What other advice do I have?
I will continue using Dynatrace and I can confidently recommend it to others.
I would rate Dynatrace a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
"Analysis engine improves the process of measurements so the end user is not bothered with the time consuming PurePaths calculations."
Fair statement. PurePaths as leveraged from the local/fat client are not needed by many audiences, especially on the business side. If the Analysis engine results can be presented in Web UI, it would save even more time for end users.