IBM Turbonomic Reviews

We implemented this solution in our company and we also implement it for our clients. We use it because it connects to monitoring tools over APIs and if you have a monitoring solution, it removes data intelligently. Our aim is to optimize our customers' systems. The solution also offers insight into the financial impact of an event. We are partners with IBM which purchased Turbonomic earlier this year, and we are resellers of Turbonomic. I'm the company CEO/CIO. 

The help desk analyzes metrics events and Turbonomic tells you exactly what is wrong and how to resolve it. The solution improves the function of the help desk and saves time by making repairs quickly.

Optimization is a valuable feature. For example, if I have eASICs running and several VMwares running, it shows me how to optimize the system and get the best out of it. It reduces the cost of the two systems. I like that the solution integrates almost automatically with other products.

The solution could be improved by having all interfaces together and I'd really like to see more interfaces. 

I've been using this solution for two months. 

We haven't had any stability issues, the solution is running well.

Scalability is fine. We're using the product extensively with deployment of almost 54,000 systems. We receive a lot of alerts from those systems and do a lot of monitoring, so it's used constantly. 

The technical support is now done by IBM.

The initial setup is very straightforward. You execute an application or a script, depending on whether you're running it in Linux or Windows, and then you deploy the containers. It's pretty much one command and then everything is automatic. It took us about 20 minutes. 

We already had a good return in the first couple of weeks. 

Licensing costs are middle of the road; you need to take into account what the solution delivers to the customer. If it's running automatic remediation then it saves a lot of money for an organization. 

This tool is excellent for a CFO, while other tools are geared more towards a CIO. This tool has a different market. We're currently working in Europe, carrying out implementations in both Italy and Portugal, and we're starting on a new deployment project in Dubai next week. 

I rate this solution nine out of 10. 

Turbonomic is hyper-visor agnostic, so we use it to monitor both our VMware and XenServer environments. It helps identify when a virtual machine needs additional resources or to be migrated to another host. The migration we allow to happen automatically. However, changing resources we look at the recommendation and may or may not take the suggestion for various reasons. 

Due to the loss of our primary VMware administrator, my colleagues had to take over managing the virtual environment. There were settings for various reservations set at one of our locations. Although memory/CPU may have been increased at some point on these systems, it was not until Turbonomic recommended increasing the reservations that we realized these settings were in place.

More recently, we have used it in planning data center upgrades. It allowed us to determine how many additional blades we may need due to upcoming projects. We built a template on the new model of blades we were considering, and of the new SAP HANA VM's we were going to be needing. It provided a plan of how many blades we would need to add to the environment to accommodate this expansion, which allowed for more accurate budget planning. 

When you log in to Turbonomic, I find the Assure Service Performance that appears on the dashboard the most useful item. This option shows virtual machines that may need additional memory, CPU, or to be migrated to other storage to ensure performance. The product can be configured to do all of this automatically, but I like have more control of the changes. Plus, the way we have our storage configured, it is best that one of the admins selects which data store a machine is migrated to. I also like the reporting feature and have several of them set to automatically generate and email to me at the end of the month. One in particular shows snapshots that are still on the virtual machines. This prevents forgotten snapshots from existing for weeks, months, or even years.

Based on the way we currently use the product I do not have any recommended improvements. However, we do not have may of the automated features configured at this time.

Three to five years.

No issues with stability.

There have been no issues with scalability. Currently, it is used to monitor several hypervisor environments including XenServer, VMware, VXRail, etc.

Customer Service:

The customer service has always been very responsive and friendly.

Technical Support:

Technical support responds quickly and always keeps you updated on any issues that may require some research. One of the processes is uploading or exporting a copy of your current environment. This gives support a copy of your environment to try to replicate a problem, if needed.

We previously had vCOPS, but that was charged per VM and could not monitor and report on our XenServer environment.

Setup is relatively straightforward. There is a template to deploy and configure the initial IP address. After that, the rest of the configuration is performed through the web GUI. This includes adding various environments, setting up reports, configuring actions, etc.

Since we were an early adopter, the deployment was performed with in-house staff on a WebEx with Turbonomiocs, although it is simple enough that you do not really need assistance with it.

The ROI would mainly be less time troubleshooting performance issues within the various virtual environments. Since we have a mixed environment, any issues that may impact performance appear on one dashboard, regardless of the environment. This saves the team a lot of time.

The pricing is fairly straightforward. It is based on the number of physical CPUs. There is now an option for per VM pricing. This can be valuable if you are monitoring VM's in a Cloud environment. 

No, but as mentioned before we did have vCOPS and chose this as a replacement.

I highly recommend this product, particularly if you have a heterogeneous virtual environment.

Resource Optimization: The system automatically sizes and moves resources based on the needs of the applications. This optimization results in better performance and less resources needed.

It has allowed our IT organization to keep investments in hardware flat for a projected three year period. In addition, we have seen a 30% performance improvement overall.

Automation: The ability to make changes, up or down, and move resources in order to ensure performance, making our investments last longer.

Enhanced executive reporting standard with the tool beyond the reports that can be created today. Something that can easily be used with upper management on a monthly or quarterly basis to show the impact to our environment.

• Moving VMs
• Storage moves in conjunction with DRS
• The planning function
• Rightsizing VMs

We used Turbonomic to plan our hardware refresh, and it was right on the money. Now, we are using it to plan VM moves to the cloud.

This is more of a feature request than a need for improvement. I would like to be a able to track growth over time by cluster and be able to define the clusters to use for enterprise summary. I would also like to be able to get an enterprise summary from the aggregator appliance.

Six years.

If you can download a Virtual Desk Machine (VMDK) file and assign it an IP, you can deploy Turbonomic in minutes.

Turbonomic has been very stabile.

None.

Customer Service:

Turbonomic provides excellent customer service. They are very responsive.

Technical Support:

One of the best technical support groups out of all of our vendors. They are very responsive.

Download OVF file, then configure the IP, enter your VC credentials, and boom, you are done. Just one virtual appliance.

In-house.

12 months.

vROPs.

You should at least try this out. The install is simple and the product is intuitive. What other solution is capable of showing you an issue, recommending a solution, and making the necessary changes to resolve the issue?

We really take advantage of the PLAN feature, as forecasting and planning resources is imperative for effective and efficient operations management. Our fiscal responsibility considerations are key and important.

As we project growth and expansion, we have to consider high availability and redundancy. We also have to consider business continuity and keeping track of current and future assets. Those items are really key to this program.

We would like additional insight into our virtual environment, which increases the credibility and integrity of the systems we manage and administer.

We've been using the product for three years.

Our deployment was seamless.

We haven't experienced any stability issues.

We have been able to scale and use the product without any interruptions.

In our experience, we've had excellent Account Managers. Our questions have been researched and responded to in a timely fashion.

I would give technical support a rating of 9/10. They have been very responsive.

We did not use a solution before this.

We pretty much set up the product from the documentation provided. This was originally one of the few products we researched that was a single virtual appliance.

We implemented in-house

I couldn't give a dollar amount, but this has increased the credibility of our virtual environment.

If you compare other solutions, you'll witness the value of the product.

We evaluated VFoglight.

It's been a great fit for our organization.

The most important feature to us is an objective measurement of VM headroom per cluster. In addition, the ability to check for the right-sizing of VMs.

We have been able to recover significant headroom by utilizing Turbonomic's measurements. Moreover, there is no need for any in-house reporting to check capacity.

Turbonomic's product is the best I have seen at calculating headroom when compared with our original in-house calculations. However, the current versions do not split out headroom by component nor do they indicate where the capacity bottleneck lies (e.g. CPU, memory, or storage).

We have been using this product for close to a year now.

Deployment was very smooth and we are not even using the appliance. We are using the application on RHEL 7.

I have yet to encounter any problems with stability.

We have multiple vCenters so we did have to break out our initial Turbonomic implementation into multiple Turbonomic instances.

Their customer service is very responsive and they have been following up with us since we bought the product.

I get accurate answers quickly. I would have to rate it higher than most support organizations.

We were using an in-house toolset. There were primarily two reasons for the change:

1. Remove the need for special in-house knowledge and development.
2. Use a product that is recognized in the industry to increase transparency and confidence in our capacity calculations.

Very simple. If you can run "yum" and follow a one-page document you can install this product.

We implemented with an in-house team after a week of onsite training at Turbonomic's office.

The break-even point is probably after less than a year. We calculate we will continue to save money year over year by using this product; even more so as we start implementing more features.

You should understand the cost of your physical servers and how much time and money you are spending year over year on expanding your virtual farm.

I have used and tried other products before. Turbonomic is the best for two main reasons: Simplicity and accuracy.

Many products provide tons of information. It's impressive, but superfluous. Turbonomic provides you the information you need - and can provide more - but the dashboards are simple and easy to understand.

There are three main areas that that we find priceless. The automation, planning/forecasting and reporting.

The reporting has allowed us to quickly evaluate our VM infrastructure and where we stand on a day to day basis. The planning/forcasting feature has allowed us to plan for additional hardware. At times, it has saved us lots of money when we did not need to purchase additional hardware even though we thought we would.

The new HTML5 version is not as user friendly as I had hoped.

We've had Turbonomic deployed for about 12 months now - plus the initial trial period.

Deployment was very straightforward. Transition from trial to fully licensed was just as simple

Turbonomic has been very stable. Honestly, we forget it's even running, until we need to look at a report or have growth/expansion plans for our infrastructure.

No, we have not. Initially we used it for our Production Cluster but have recently expanded it to our SQL Cluster without issue.

They are fast, polite and knowledgable.

They are on par with customer service; fast, polite and knowledgable.

No, we did not use anything beforehand.

Straightforward with no issues.

implemented in-house.

It has saved us from buying lots of hardware that we would have bought if it weren't for Turbonomic. The planning/forcasting tool is the most valuable feature. This feature alone will pay for itself because it saves you from purchasing unneeded hardware in the first year alone.

The pricing is very competitive and much cheaper than VMware.

VMware Operations Manager.

Any company with a virtual infrastructure should have Turbonomic.

VM automation to keep clusters' performance at its best.

Keeps clusters aligned, compute wise. We also use the planning and forecasting tools to determine needs.

Planning tools could be easier to use. Depending on your needs, it can be time consuming to get what you want.

A few years now.

No.

Every so often, and it usually needs a reboot to recover.

Not yet.

Customer success team is awesome. Sometimes the support team can take a long time to respond.

Good, but slow at times. If it's a really hot issue we can usually get a quick response though, after escalation.

Native VMware tools.

Easy.

In-house.

More of a cost avoidance for us, meaning that it saves us from over-provisioning and allows more density.

Yes.

The Turbonomics team is always looking for ways to improve their product. They are also willing to engage the customer success team to help us find new ways or easier ways to get more from the product. This is refreshing in a world where, after purchase, you are usually on your own after installing, other than support. That is not the case with this team.