it_user126369 - PeerSpot reviewer
Gateway Systems Administrator with 51-200 employees
Vendor
It's been helping us to quickly pinpoint specific application problems, especially related to memory and slow queries.

What is most valuable?

Viewing JVM performance and the business transactions for latency and SLA.

How has it helped my organization?

It helps us to quickly pinpoint specific application problems related to memory and slow queries.

What needs improvement?

Yes, the custom dashboard. Making custom dashboards is really tedious. I wish there was just a drag and drop to slap things together quickly.

For how long have I used the solution?

1 year
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What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No. I've had some bugs where machines stop behaving correctly with the agents but a lot of it had to do with the fact that I had them joined under one product name and then I had changed the machine or put in a different one. A lot of these issues were probably self inflicted and not due to AppDynamics. Deployment has been pretty smooth.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

None at all.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

For what I'm doing it's been perfectly scalable to what I need.

How are customer service and support?

Customer Service: Good. Initially with the sales engineer, we spoke about training but what ended up happened was that I needed to negotiate the price (which was fine) but what I missed was some of the hands on training. It's a complex product, and I could benefit from an online video, etc. because I didn't going through the formal training to learn the app. Some scenario driven walk thru's would be very helpful.Technical Support: It's been good. What I've needed to do is send them a whole pile of logs. It can be a pain digging them up but I understand why they need them to troubleshoot. You can't troubleshoot without them. I gather the logs, send them all on the ticket and I haven't had a problem with their response.

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

We weren't previously using another APM solution. We were only using a very basic Java profiler beforehand.

How was the initial setup?

I was on my own, but it was fine. AppDynamics walked me through a few things because I had the free version installed on a different system and then we upgraded. They walked me through to make sure I had it set up correctly the first time. Deployment was easy.

What was our ROI?

With AppDynamics I'm really barely scratching surface with what it can do. I don't have any SLA metric configured or alerting. What I'm trying to do with AppDynamics is use it in such as way that it's a pulse on my app.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

AppDynamics was the only product I evaluated in a production setting. All my previous APM use was in a development environment.

What other advice do I have?

AppDynamics does exactly what it says it can do. It's well readable and easy to navigate. Configuration and changing things around is easy enough.
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.
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it_user2652 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user2652Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
PopularVendor

Nice article!! AppDynamics has been used a lot these days in monitoring JVM performance and still there are lot of improvements needed like custom dashboard.

it_user112605 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer with 51-200 employees
Vendor
AppDynamics provides a lot of data. It has allowed us to find critical memory flaws in our application.

What is most valuable?

JVM memory monitoring, hardware monitoring, response time monitoring and proactive alerting.

How has it helped my organization?

AppDynamics has allowed us to find critical memory flaws in our application. We were able to find a root cause to a JVM permgen issue by using AppDynamics’ memory monitoring tools.

What needs improvement?

Remove all Flash from the product. Also make drilling down in the response time call stacks easier.

For how long have I used the solution?

1 year

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

None.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: 8 out of 10. They have answered everything I have asked.Technical Support: 7 out of 10. Sometimes not as specific as I would like but overall I am happy with them.

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

Our previous solution only allowed us to see hardware and response time latency, we were unable to drill into call stacks to find the root cause.

How was the initial setup?

Pretty straight forward. Followed the setup guide and was in business within an hour or so.

What about the implementation team?

In-house

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

Setup cost was about 2-3 days of a developers time to install / configure. Day to day cost is we have an extra server that needs to be on to run AppDynamics.

What other advice do I have?

AppDynamics has a lot of information it can give you. Be sure to take the time and understand all the data. There may be critical information that can help improve your application performance.
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.
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it_user112605 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user112605Senior Software Engineer with 51-200 employees
Vendor

Yes it avoids alert storms. There are cool downs etc.... Yes AppDynamics is doing their best to go full HTML5 in their newest version.

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it_user112179 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Software Developer with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Since it emails us alerts when certain things happen, we can start working on a problem before our customer notices.

Valuable Features:

I like that I can see the stack trace when problems are detected. This points me to the area in the code that needs to be fixed.

Improvements to My Organization:

We have AppDynamics set up to email us alerts when certain things happen. We can start working on a problem before our customer notices.

Room for Improvement:

I did not find it easy to understand at first. It just looked like this sea of information, and I couldn’t see the logical breakdown of things, and the names for things didn’t immediately help me figure out what they were really for – what it could help me see and do.

Use of Solution:

About a year.

Stability Issues:

None that I am aware of.

ROI:

I don’t know what we spent on it, but whatever we spent, it was a good investment. This tool is helping us get our application free of bugs and performance issues.

Other Advice:

Learn as much as you can about it. It can do more than you think. Make use of the enthusiasm of the AppDynamics employees to help you learn.
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.
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it_user2652 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user2652Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
PopularVendor

Since you were not involved in implementation, have you found it interesting starting as a new user of AppDynamics? or did you face any issues in understanding it?

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Regional Director (CEER) at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Reseller
Easy to gain visibility, effective root cause discovery, and highly scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "It is easy to gain visibility into complex environments with AppDynamics. It has the ability to combine operation information of the environment and business information with strong business IQ support."
  • "The solution could improve by covering more technologies. For example, it does support .NET Core applications. However, it could be a bit better."

What is our primary use case?

We are using AppDynamics for application management.

What is most valuable?

It is easy to gain visibility into complex environments with AppDynamics. It has the ability to combine operation information of the environment and business information with strong business IQ support. 

The solution makes it easy to find the root cause of the problems and provided the visualization of data. It is really simple, useful, and intuitive. 

It enables integration with other systems very easily. It can monitor applications of different technologies as well as manage log files. 

It has a lot of capabilities and the solution features function well overall.

What needs improvement?

The solution could improve by covering more technologies. For example, it does support .NET Core applications. However, it could be a bit better. Additionally, there are some outdated technologies which are not covered out of the box with this solution, such as C++ which is old technology. They can be monitored but it takes a bit more effort. They have done a decent job but they could improve.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used AppDynamics for approximately seven years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is highly scalable. You can go from a small deployment into tens of thousands of nodes to monitor an application.

How are customer service and technical support?

We provide support for this solution. We are the biggest AppDynamics partner in Europe, we have approximately 60 experts.

We work closely with research and development. They are quite quick and flexible when it comes to helping and supporting. We are quite satisfied. When we come from the field directly, we do not need months or weeks to fix issues that we have found or to implement new features. They have been excellent.

How was the initial setup?

I am more in the pre-sales department, I am not that technical, but I do understand and know the basics. The installation difficulty depends on a variety of factors. it can be simple. Out of the box, it is already quite simple. However, there are tons of specifics that you need to know, but it is not overly difficult for typical environments. The software can add another layer of difficulty. Overall the difficulty is dependant on the environment.

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

For those who appreciate the value and had issues with the visibility of the performance of their applications, then the pricing is good. For somebody who does not need it, it can be pricey, but overall, it is worth the money which it costs.

What other advice do I have?

I rate AppDynamics a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: reseller
PeerSpot user
DevOps Engineer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
We can monitor our applications with better accuracy
Pros and Cons
  • "We have been able to monitor our applications more accurately."
  • "We have had downtime, which has been the result of config, application, or cord issues."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it for monitoring.

Our applications are in AWS, and the monitoring system is part of AppDynamics.

How has it helped my organization?

We have been able to monitor our applications more accurately.

What is most valuable?

It has better dashboards and more control over everything.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is fine. We have had downtime. However, we do receive alerts when we have downtime. Downtime has been the result of config, application, or cord issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good.

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

We were previously using Dynatrace, then we shifted to AppDynamics because it was more convenient. For example, it was fast and easily accessible for all our data.

How was the initial setup?

We had no issues with the integration.

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

Purchasing the product through the AWS Marketplace was good.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I was just looking into Datadog, and it seemed like it might be a better solution that AppDynamics.

What other advice do I have?

I would definitely recommend AppDynamics.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Principal Engineer at Wyndham Hotel Group
Real User
It provides all the monitoring that we need in one place
Pros and Cons
  • "It provides everything into one view, so we can track information from one place to another."
  • "The integration with cloud services is still pending with AppDynamics. We would like the product to be serverless."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case is everything related to monitoring.

How has it helped my organization?

It provides everything into one view, so we can track information from one place to another. This allows us to be able to track information all day.

What is most valuable?

It provides all the monitoring that we need in one place.

What needs improvement?

The integration with cloud services is still pending with AppDynamics. We would like the product to be serverless. 

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.

What was our ROI?

We have seen ROI, because we are able to view whatever issues there are in the application, then resolve them faster.

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

We are looking forward to purchasing the solution on the AWS Marketplace.

We are comfortable with the pricing.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also evaluated Splunk. However, AppDynamics provided more features, agents, and monitoring capabilities.

What other advice do I have?

It provides all the features that we need for on-premise applications.

The product integrates with all of our applications, because it has be deployed on all the servers so it can collect data.

AWS has not provided us the code. They will be moving it to their AWS services later. Right now, it is providing us a framework, like with Java. The AWS agents are able to capture all the information related at the code label, which is a benefit for us.

Right now, this tool is very good for on-premise applications, but there might be an issue with cloud applications.

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
Technical Director at SoftPro
Reseller
Helps to quickly triage problems. Its cost can be improved.

What is our primary use case?

For monitoring application performance: I worked for a company which concentrates on application performance consulting service. Cisco AppDynamics was one of the tools used.

How has it helped my organization?

  • Quickly triaging problems: Before using the APM tool, I had no adequate information about the application's detail. 
  • APM tool provides comprehensive information about several elements like performance, errors, and resources.

What is most valuable?

Stack information: I use this function to explain the problem to customers most of the time.

What needs improvement?

Its cost: Most of the customers do not have enough budget to deploy the APM agent to their whole applications.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user560535 - PeerSpot reviewer
Programmer at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Gives the devs more visibility and ownership but Power User training was unhelpful

What is most valuable?

I'd say BTs, and being able to set health goals. Those probably would be the best. Second to that would be being able to monitor what's going on in real-time, this is going to make a big difference.

I think that previously we were more reactionary than proactive. I hope that this is what we can really get out of AppDynamics, the switch to a more proactive stance. Before anybody else knows what is going on, we will know, and we will be able to cut down our meantime to fixes going out, and to identifying them.

How has it helped my organization?

Looking at it from the standpoint of a developer, I see the biggest improvement being that it gives the developers more visibility and ownership, it really lets them see what is going on. I feel that this will lead the devs to make better code and better decisions. It will help them be more cognizant of resources, and other things.

What needs improvement?

I went through the Power User training, and it was kind of like drinking from a fire hose. As a dev, I would like to see something that is more tailored towards us, instead of having just a general quick Power User session. 

I haven't been able to get the full benefit of AppDynamics yet because I haven't had any time to sit down and actually go through production.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not seen any problems with the stability. It seems to be very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have not heard of any problems with the scalability. 

How are customer service and technical support?

We have used the technical support and it was very good. We had a good response.

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

We were not previously using a different solution. We decided to invest in AppDynamics because we wanted to move from being reactionary to being proactive, that's really what it comes down to. Instead of our customers calling us up and saying, "There is something going on," now we will know it before they do, and hopefully we will be resolving it before they even notice.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We are looking into also utilizing Database Monitoring. We're still checking that out.

What other advice do I have?

My criteria when choosing a vendor would be the reputation behind them, the product they bring to the table, and of course the pricing. I wasn't involved in selecting AppDynamics but I know that these criteria always play a role in everything.

I would recommend AppDynamics to my colleagues, because the solution works. It really comes down to whether or not the price point works for them.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free AppDynamics Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free AppDynamics Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.