The main purpose of using Splunk APM is to optimize our application. We use Splunk APM primarily to understand how the application works, how it uses resources, and its response time in connection with different infra services. It is mainly used for application optimization and reviewing third-party application dependency response times.
Splunk APM helps us to identify long-running queries and long-running functions or methods, as well as third-party dependencies that are not responding on time. We are easily able to see the error or trace it. A developer can easily find out the issue without having to dig into the application.
We normally do not use the Tag Spotlight functionality, but our developers use this functionality when we are trying to dig into the logs. It helps to search the data that we want to see. It helps to troubleshoot the actual problem and visualize the data. We can see how the error is coming and how many reports are coming.
Splunk APM has helped us to optimize the application performance, find out when third-party services go down, and monitor our application within our SLA. It allows us to minimize our downtime. We can send timely notifications to our users. It mainly helps us to optimize application performance, and secondly, we are able to generate alerts based on the data that we receive from Splunk.
Splunk APM helps us to find errors immediately and resolve them. We are able to find some of the errors within five minutes. It minimizes the time to identify errors. There are about 30% to 40% time savings.
The best feature is the service map that they have. I have used multiple APM solutions such as Datadog and Elastic. They have a service map, but it does not work like Splunk APM. Splunk APM provides a holistic view of the application. Unlike other APMs, Splunk's service map is quite effective.
We suggested they provide an alert based on insert services. We told them that they have all the data, so why not have an alert on the insert service? They took feedback from us and added that feature. That feature helps us identify if any third-party dependent is down.
There is room for improvement in the alerting system, which is complicated and has less documentation available. We sometimes encountered issues in setting up alerts. The custom detector could be more simplified to assist system engineers in setting up alerts with ease.
We tested Splunk APM last year and officially started using it this year. It has been about a year.
Splunk APM is stable. I would rate its stability a nine out of ten, as it delivers on its promises.
We have not had to scale it. Our clients are medium enterprises.
The support is responsive, though it could use some improvement. In the past, we contacted their support about a feature. They did respond to us, but they did not explicitly inform us about the feature's absence. Instead, they directed us to try various resources or articles. They did not have a clear answer. I would rate them a five out of ten for customer service.
Neutral
Before using Splunk APM, I used Elastic APM and Datadog. Splunk APM is better than them. Splunk's service map and support for our existing libraries were significant reasons for the switch. The previous vendor required library updates that we could not accommodate, but Splunk supported our existing setups.
The initial setup of Splunk APM was easy and straightforward. It took around a week.
It appears to be expensive compared to competitors.
Splunk APM is suitable for enterprise solutions, particularly for those deeply involved in technical business. The service map and overall stability make it a robust choice for such needs.
I would rate Splunk APM a nine out of ten.
