AppDynamics Serverless APM for AWS Lambda

We are currently using Splunk AppDynamics  for AI automation enhancement in the agriculture ecosystem. In our ecosystem, there is a significant role in monitoring, optimizing, and securing the digital platforms used for agriculture scaling, especially for our large-scale programs including government programs and private programs. In this context, there are many digitized learning modules and learning management system portals, evaluation systems, training portals, and candidate registration portals. All these different clientele applications and software are being used for conducting various activities. Unifying all of them at one place and extracting data insights from them is very critical. That is why we are using Splunk AppDynamics .

Splunk AppDynamics is definitely used for our real-time monitoring because earlier there was a lag in terms of the monitoring and real-time monitoring of the data and platform. Now we are able to monitor the performance of candidate registration portals, our learning management system platforms, assessment applications, evaluation systems, and certification systems. Because we are digesting a large amount of data on cloud-native applications, there is often a problem of slow response time, lag, or application crashes, with the majority of candidate reports showing login failures and server outages. Post-deployment of Splunk AppDynamics, all these detections are done in a very proactive manner and any kind of system anomalies are flagged proactively. Splunk AppDynamics is ensuring uninterrupted access for all of us.

There is a huge and tremendous amount of data being digested and used in the system. For every software, application performance is one of the critical factors through which we generate realistic outcomes, and that was not possible earlier because it is not humanly possible to do this manually, and performance ratings were very difficult for us. We needed visibility as we moved from processing high amounts of data to individual mapping of functionalities, which is being done through this solution. Performance monitoring, taking all the data and monitoring it in real-time and trying to match whether the organizational KPIs are aligning or not, was really important. We are doing real-time monitoring, digitization of our monitoring systems, and using Splunk AppDynamics for analyzing the user journeys because it is a very important experience. We have candidate experience monitoring systems in place, which are being monitored very well by Splunk AppDynamics. Infrastructure and cloud visibility is another critical point. We are absolutely delighted because the deployment of this monitoring of cloud-hosted applications and servers is supporting and supplementing the agriculture skilling programs, which became very easy. Now we can track our memory consumption and network latency, monitor our database performance, and the usage of storage. All these infrastructure monitoring and the security and compliance monitoring are done in a great way.

In the last six months, we are using Splunk AppDynamics for a very strong compliance and security monitoring aspect, where we can detect unusual activities such as unauthorized logins or multiple login attempts, any kind of data manipulation, or tampering with our training and assessment data. These compliance requirements are very critical, and all these things are happening. Additionally, we are using data analytics for program management, monitoring how many active candidates there are, what the assessment completion rate is, training completion rate, and everything. We can now use these things additionally for the last six months, and because of that, a lot of good habits have developed in the system where AI-powered anomaly detection is helping us auto-remediate systems or predictively resolve issues instead of reactively. Things are done in a very proactive way, which is really promising for our clients and internal team.

After the deployment of Splunk AppDynamics, we had very good customer experience. Our clientele experience has improved multifold, and we are not facing any kind of latency or lag time. Downtime performance issues have reduced to a great extent. The performance of various applications has improved multifold, and there is faster issue resolution with a twenty-four-seven resolution system in place through chatbots and tracking systems, which help us a lot. Improved user experience and satisfaction are definitely critical for us because ultimately these last-mile beneficiaries share their experiences, helping us to scale up. Now with compliance and security monitoring in place, we are better audit-ready, and all kinds of anomaly detection or threat detection are happening in a very advanced manner. There is reduced manpower-driven manual monitoring, and now the system does automatic red flags and alerts us of any incoming threat. Real-time dashboard visibility gives us real-time data insights. All these things are great features of Splunk AppDynamics.

The strategic use cases and value proposition were the main advanced features which have helped us multifold. There is increasing reliance on digital platforms for training, assessment, certification, apprenticeship, and candidate lifecycle management, and Splunk AppDynamics has acted as a comprehensive application performance monitoring solution for us. This has brought a lot of business intelligence. The business intelligence for supporting and scaling it was earlier lacking, and we were unable to finalize action plans for our future. Now it has changed the way we work and think. It has definitely helped in terms of visibility because we have end-to-end visibility across any kind of skilling journey, monitoring every stage. There are approximately ten critical stages including candidate registration, training phase, assessment phase, and certification phase, all of which are being monitored critically, and we have been able to improve compliance and reduce processing days. Now we can monitor real-time status of the batches and improved evidence upload success rate, and certification pending cases have reduced. Visibility has improved so much that we track login patterns, starting time of programs, validation across various stages, training and assessment completion rates and timelines; everything is monitored critically. The system is also embedded with early warning systems for alerts wherever delays happen or mismatches in processes. Earlier, these things were hidden, causing a lack of transparency in the entire process, but after this implementation, it is amazing to monitor APIs and their response times, functioning, failure rates, synchronization delays, or data integrity issues. These critical areas were highlighted by clients, impacting our success and failure significantly. Now, they are the foundation of the entire monitoring, and it has become possible after the deployment of Splunk AppDynamics, with these parameters providing confidence and credibility in the market.

The foundational pillars of Splunk AppDynamics are very strong, and we do not have any issues. However, there are standardization challenges with limited visibility on some parameters when the system is integrated with multiple platforms because of differing technology stacks. Many applications function on different technologies, making fetching data difficult. We have discussed this with the business team, and they have said that they will offer a standardized application architecture through which APIs can be made more stable and accommodating. We have also requested a centralized monitoring framework and network, as many clients operate out of India and have requested centralized systems for real-time performance monitoring with just one click. Improvements and enhancements are happening weekly, and there are requests for regular training and orientation. I believe those things can be incorporated, but otherwise, everything is fantastic.

For the agriculture ecosystem, there are many areas in remote or rural areas where connectivity constraints are huge. Limited internet bandwidth makes real-time monitoring difficult. We have requested the team to develop a hybrid model for real-time monitoring on lower bandwidth as well. Deploying offline-first or low-bandwidth solutions would strengthen synchronization. Additionally, mobile applications for rural environments would be beneficial. In data quality and governance, sometimes the system gives duplicate records, and there is inconsistency when checking data fields. It is not frequent, but we believe a complete solution can be developed here.

Almost two years

Splunk AppDynamics is very much stable. We have faced no server lag or data capture issues. I can confidently say it is stable and scalable for our large-scale government operations. We are using it for two years without facing any downtime or outages.

Improved platform availability and reliability highlights improved performance management. Our operational efficiency increases multifold, and service delivery has contributed to revenue growth and business expansion. Earlier, we worked across thirteen to fourteen states, but now we have expanded to twenty-nine states due to improved scheme execution and fund utilization. There is increased candidate confidence, and real-time monitoring ensures timely completion of our project milestones. Previously, I was able to complete only one or two projects in a year, but now I manage three to four similar projects simultaneously without hassle. Reduced delays have boosted our people's confidence, leading to more productivity enhancements and better resource planning.

Customer support is excellent, and I would give it ten out of ten. The twenty-four-seven customer support is very good, resolving tickets in twenty-four to forty-eight hours. It could improve to twenty-four hours maximum since many applications offer swift responses. The chatbot system is well-structured and does not provide shallow answers. It dives deep into questions, leading to effective solutions, often making it feel that a human is resolving issues at the back end. I give them ten out of ten for these reasons.

We used another solution, one of the most comprehensive APMs, back in twenty twenty-one. We were trying out multiple platforms. We used New Relic  and Grafana , which were affordable and also good. We stopped due to compliance objections and found New Relic  great for budget-conscious organizations.

There are unique cases where we are attracting high-performance centers to our sector, which was not the case earlier as the transparency has increased so much in the system. People see our strong processes and are attracted to us, becoming clients and users. Because of a focus on our quality system, we are recognized in the market for our quality delivery. Many people are coming to us and participating in programs, leading to increased revenue. Our organization revenue has doubled after the introduction of Splunk AppDynamics and other features. We have been able to do a lot of justice to the entire systems. Additionally, our costs and expenses have reduced multifold because earlier we had four to five applications for monitoring and reporting. Now everything is done in a unified way through Splunk AppDynamics, providing a lot of benefits and reducing burdens. Our leadership position has improved in the ecosystem, and because of increased business observability beyond technical monitoring, improvements in business outcomes have resulted in people depending on our system to get their main tasks done. All in all, it is a great time and a win-win solution for anyone becoming part of our system.

We studied a few platforms to check their application monitoring, observability, analytics, and business intelligence capabilities against our requirements. We evaluated New Relic and Grafana  and also considered Dynatrace , an AI-powered solution widely used in large government and enterprise ecosystems. However, our governing board did not approve it. We also looked into Datadog , recommended for cloud-native monitoring analytics, which was useful as we had multi-cloud systems. There was another solution called Site 24/7, which was also good for large-scale deployments, but we were not looking into that at the time. After evaluating these options, we decided to switch to Cisco's Splunk AppDynamics.

Splunk AppDynamics is a powerful and reliable solution for application performance monitoring and strengthening compliance requirements. Every organization has different priorities; for us, strong APM  was the priority. This solution was outstanding, and even during the trial, we were sure we would choose it. It is slightly higher on the pricing front, but it is very reliable. If you go for it, have your trial, discuss customization with your team, and if it meets your business needs, you should definitely proceed with it.

Cybersecurity and compliance monitoring features are highly rated because we deal with large volumes of personal data under data protection and policy acts. We are advised that the personal data of millions of Indians should not be leaked. That is why cybersecurity and compliance are critical for our system. Through security monitoring, we can detect unauthorized accesses including credential misuse, data leakage attempts, suspicious activity, or data leaks occurring in the ecosystem. All these are monitored critically, and we receive alerts and red flags. Additional compliance requirements improve data governance processes. We use AI-powered operational intelligence embedded with predictive analytics for forecasting priorities, identifying system failures, overloads, and bottlenecks. Root cause analysis is performed, leading to the removal of server issues, application issues, and database bottlenecks, greatly helping us. I give this solution a rating of nine out of ten.

I have been using Splunk AppDynamics  for almost four to five years now.

My main use case for Splunk AppDynamics  was initially a very limited requirement for monitoring the performance of different applications we have, aiming to achieve real-time full stack observability of all platforms and their impact on our business productivity and client requirements. Currently, we are using it widely for innovating agricultural use cases, actively automating our supply chain in agriculture, utilizing IoT sensor networks, and securing our precision farming platforms. These tools handle massive amounts of machine-generated data within the Indian agricultural ecosystem, and Splunk AppDynamics has proven its worth every year.

A specific example of using Splunk AppDynamics in one of our agriculture projects relates to optimizing crop yields and preventing equipment downtime in farm mechanization. Through Splunk Apps, we streamline our extensive sensor networks, which are crucial for precision agriculture. Soil moisture, temperature, and humidity must be regulated, as failure to do so can lead to disastrous outcomes, and Splunk AppDynamics monitors these conditions twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It aggregates data, tracks environmental conditions, and provides customized insights tailored to specific soil and states, achieving prediction accuracy of approximately ninety-five to ninety-nine percent.

Furthermore, we monitor our digital dashboards and mobile apps for controlling irrigation systems and tracking crop health, which helps ensure compliance with food control environmental regulations mandated by the CAG audit in India, making Splunk AppDynamics truly a savior for our organization.

I have additional insights into our main use cases with Splunk AppDynamics. Previously, we lagged in real-time data insights and observability of farmers' applications. Earlier, we experienced reporting and log analytics issues, especially regarding security. However, since implementing Splunk AppDynamics, we are effectively managing farm-level execution with end-to-end operational visibility. There is no lag in data information travel, ensuring seamless data logs from farm to lab. This transparency has fostered client confidence and satisfaction, creating a win-win situation for both users and implementers.

In terms of features, Splunk AppDynamics excels in application performance monitoring, competing favorably with platforms like Datadog  and New Relic . It stands out for tracking end-to-end user requests across various environments, which previously posed challenges in mapping and fetching data. The usability and navigability are also noteworthy; business users provide positive feedback about the platform's accessibility without needing extensive training. The automated security features have helped protect our significant cloud investment from threats, identifying potential risks and providing remediation options, making it a reliable choice for our organization's needs.

All the features I highlighted are vital, but performance metrics particularly stand out as they aid in troubleshooting processes by allowing us to identify root causes effectively. This capability ensures recurring issues are addressed at their source. Additionally, we now correlate performance metrics with business outcomes, providing clear visualizations. The deployment of Splunk AppDynamics was smooth and quick, successfully integrating into our business processes and standard operating procedures within a fifteen-day period, which we appreciate.

Splunk AppDynamics positively impacts our organization by allowing real-time performance monitoring, enabling us to optimize various business applications and visibly enhance their performance. We realized the extensive market demand for compliance and governance, especially given potential IoT threats we encountered. Splunk AppDynamics helps monitor performance, diagnose root causes, and streamline the use of complex software applications, improving the experience for users who manage different applications. Client satisfaction has also significantly increased as the application functions seamlessly on both web and mobile platforms, mapping the complete user journey. This streamlined approach in our precision farming sector has resulted in substantial cost savings—approximately one to two crore this year—through effective monitoring.

Regarding areas for improvement, I have not encountered any significant issues with the features we have tested from Splunk AppDynamics; however, we do believe their twenty-four hour, seven days a week chat support could be enhanced and integrated with phone and email options. The automated chat system often fails to resolve issues promptly in a single interaction, which could improve customer experience and support.

To ensure continued improvement, real-time data insights and performance-related dashboard reporting must strengthen decision-making processes. We have requested an anomaly detection dashboard for identifying potential threats, which is vital but has yet to materialize. Increasing dashboard visibility and analytics would significantly benefit our operations.

Splunk AppDynamics proves stable; we have not experienced any outages or significant issues. While minor downtimes may occur, particularly at night, the app remains reliable and effective, even on weekends.

Its scalability has been impressive, accommodating our organization's growth as we expand digital applications and leverage IoT for supply chain management. Our integration of Splunk AppDynamics aids in generating valuable data insights and allows proactive troubleshooting on a larger scale, enhancing operational effectiveness in agriculture.

Customer support from Splunk AppDynamics is fair but requires enhancements in ticket resolution times. We often encounter long wait times for issue resolution, highlighting a need for improved service efficiency as our business volume grows.

Before adopting Splunk AppDynamics, we used Datadog  for several years, initially seen as a strong market player. However, the high costs prompted us to search for more affordable solutions, leading us to switch.

The deployment of Splunk AppDynamics was smooth and quick, successfully integrating into our business processes and standard operating procedures within a fifteen-day period, which we appreciate.

In evaluating options before choosing Splunk AppDynamics, we considered New Relic  and tested Datadog. The performance consistency and favorable peer feedback heavily influenced our decision in favor of Splunk AppDynamics.

My advice for those considering Splunk AppDynamics is to actively explore its capabilities. It stands out from other platforms, providing real-time monitoring and significant data insights. I urge organizations, particularly in agriculture, to leverage the potential of Splunk AppDynamics to empower their operations further. I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

I work for a supply chain SaaS organization, and Blue Yonder is a global supply chain SaaS company that provides supply chain management solutions for global enterprise customers. For handling enterprise-class customers, we definitely need an enterprise-class product rather than an open-source observability or log management solution. That is why we picked Splunk AppDynamics  as our strategic observability and log management solution, and the deployment was completed in a couple of weeks with the help of a third-party vendor.

Log management is the primary purpose for which Splunk AppDynamics  is used.

We use Splunk AppDynamics' data collection feature, and using the OpenTelemetry  standards, we were able to integrate with our existing set of systems for log management, metrics, traces, and everything that is part of the observability solution offering.

We sell our application management solutions, and the application's digital user experience in Splunk AppDynamics is really good for our global customers. When an external customer is impacted due to application slowness, my support team or my SRE team can go to Splunk AppDynamics portal where we can drill down into the problems, the SLAs, and the response times using this digital experience feature.

For infrastructure monitoring, we are not using Splunk AppDynamics, but for application monitoring, we are using it. The performance is really good and the product features are really good. We have more than 100-plus applications being monitored using Splunk AppDynamics, and for application performance monitoring, the product features are really good.

The team is still evaluating AI-related functionalities in Splunk AppDynamics, but from what I understand from the application owners, they are able to drill down into the application performance impacts during the incidents and they are able to proactively fix the incidents before application portal performance bottlenecks happen.

Splunk AppDynamics did assist me with detecting and protecting against vulnerabilities. It detects the critical vulnerabilities and the legacy things in the larger infrastructure, and it is able to address the critical vulnerabilities in the legacy systems. In that, the product was really useful.

Splunk AppDynamics did help improve my organization's business resilience by reducing the vulnerabilities and the attack surface.

For Splunk AppDynamics, the major headache is cost, and the pricing options are not very flexible. The contract negotiations or the pricing options for a multi-year commitment, along with the renewal cost options, are not very flexible.

In the long run, it is definitely beneficial for an organization like Blue Yonder, because as a supply chain SaaS organization, we are onboarding many customers every quarter, so the infrastructure grows at the backend for the SaaS infrastructure. If the pricing is flexible, we are going to buy more licenses or more quantity.

Internal solutions were developed, but not third-party products prior to adopting Splunk AppDynamics.

The deployment process of Splunk AppDynamics was done by the third-party consulting firm called HCL.

The deployment was completed in a couple of weeks with the help of a third-party vendor. The deployment process of Splunk AppDynamics was done by the third-party consulting firm called HCL.

I rate eight out of ten for the support for Splunk, and for Splunk AppDynamics, I would rate approximately nine for the support our team is getting. I would rate Splunk AppDynamics eight out of ten overall.

We have been using Splunk AppDynamics  for around one year and one month and started with just APM  pieces for our back-end services and, over time, expanded it to cover business transaction and database monitoring.

The most valuable feature is the end-to-end transaction tracing, which provides genuine insights by allowing users to follow a single transaction across multiple microservices to pinpoint delays or errors, thereby saving hours during major incidents.

The auto-discovery and application mapping feature automatically maps out our entire application technology, showing service dependencies accurately, saving considerable manual configuration time.

The baseline and anomaly detection feature learns what normal looks like for your app, alerting on deviations beyond static thresholds.

A few things genuinely frustrate me about Splunk AppDynamics . First, the UI, while powerful, is dense and not modern compared to products like DataDog or New Relic , requiring a learning curve for new team members. Navigating feels unnecessarily deep, often requiring additional clicks.

Second, the alerting configuration is overly complex. Setting up health roles and policies isn't intuitive, leading to potential alert storms or missed incidents if configured incorrectly.

Lastly, the CPU-based licensing model complicates understanding costs with scaling, necessitating more straightforward processes.

We have been using Splunk AppDynamics for around one year and one month.

My experience with the application performance monitoring capabilities of Splunk AppDynamics has been largely stable. Issues with Splunk AppDynamics performance itself have been minimal. The agents are very reliable once deployed, running automatically without the need for manual intervention.

We contact technical support when we do the implementation and onboarding of Splunk AppDynamics, as it is part of our enterprise contract. Sessions with the solution engineer helped us in defining the initial architecture and sizing, which was fundamental.

We used DataDog previously, which offered a more extensive collection of frameworks, about seven or so. However, we've switched to Splunk AppDynamics for its straightforwardness, simplifying our processes.

The initial deployment is very straightforward if one reads the documentation correctly. All steps are clearly outlined in the documentation, making the setup hassle-free.

Technical support, part of our enterprise contract, assisted us during the implementation and onboarding of Splunk AppDynamics. We had sessions with a solution engineer for initial architecture and sizing, which was beneficial.

Pricing for Splunk AppDynamics is higher, attributed to the additional features it offers over other tools. While the cost is significant given we have around 120 services, it remains manageable and offers the value we're seeking.

Regarding the effectiveness of the features like auto-discovery and mapping, they visualize your application ecosystem. This feature is very useful to us because we don't have to do the manual effort. Using this feature has saved us around 20 to 30% of time. We don't need many people in the environment. If you have four to five people to handle that feature for 400 or 500 products, then we need only one to two people. Thus, it is resource-efficient and saves time.

We use AI-powered features in Splunk AppDynamics such as anomaly detection and root cause analysis. We have Splunk AppDynamics plus Splunk integration apps which eliminate the need for manual checks.

Using the APM , there are features in Splunk AppDynamics which allow for easy troubleshooting of code-level issues, removing the need for manual interventions.

Regarding the downsides of Splunk AppDynamics, we did not have major dislikes; most features are well-appreciated.

Splunk AppDynamics is a solution we recommend to our customers and vendors if they're within Splunk ecosystem, as it saves time and leverages the ecosystem's features.

Our overall review rating for Splunk AppDynamics is 9 out of 10.