Our main use case for Datadog is that we heavily rely on it for our infrastructure monitoring and application monitoring, including some of the browser-based application monitoring, which is RUM.

A specific example of how we use Datadog for monitoring is that we monitor our infrastructure CPU and memory utilization. Sometimes we see slowness and figure out CPU utilization was near the threshold, around 90-95%, which helped us to resolve the issue, underlying SQL problem, and that helped us to troubleshoot the issue.

In addition to our main use case, we also use RUM monitoring and synthetic monitoring, which really help us to look at our end-user sessions and proactively solve any slowness or errors spiking up.

The best feature that Datadog offers is infrastructure monitoring, where it can look at the CPU utilization, different process utilization, all the processes which are running, and alert us in advance if things are going beyond normal threshold.

I think everything about the features of Datadog is amazing. Datadog provides details up to the transactions. We can look at the transaction log too for the application, which is really helpful.

Datadog has impacted our organization positively since we were previously using AppDynamics and then we switched to Datadog. It has improved a lot in our alerting and monitoring in the infrastructure space and application space. We can monitor business transactions and take proactive action. It is really great to take actions on the issues before an end user reports it, which is a great advantage for us.

The world is moving toward artificial intelligence, so maybe we can have an inbuilt AI agent within Datadog, or maybe it exists and I have not used it.

The AI aspect would be great where we would not need to go and look at different transactions or different modules of Datadog, as AI can actually provide the data to us on Datadog UI. If we need more details, it could have a link to go to that specific module to look at more details for the application and infrastructure monitoring and alerts.

I have been using Datadog for three years now.

Datadog is stable for our organization, and we have not seen any downtime or issues so far.

Datadog's scalability has been great as it has been able to grow with our needs. As per our need, we are able to utilize different modules and there was never any need where we needed to scale anything else. We have limited our transition recording to 45 days, which helps. That is what our need is. It is really helpful and nothing additional is needed.

We reached out to Datadog only once to find out our AMI images, which we needed for our infrastructure as a code component, and it was a great experience. We got the required information and that helped us.

Neutral

Before Datadog, we previously used OpsRamp and also AppDynamics, and both of the tools we retired and moved to Datadog due to our enterprise approach to consolidate overall monitoring to Datadog.

I gave Datadog a nine out of ten because it is amazing. All the features and functionalities are amazing. The ease of implementation was a bit difficult for us for the database servers where we have different kinds of databases. We needed different kinds of agents to be installed, and that was a bit tricky for us. I think it is not on Datadog but it is about our complex infrastructure where we have a different set of infrastructure in place, so that created a bit of trouble during the implementation.

Since using Datadog, we have seen a return on investment with a lot of savings around infrastructure monitoring, and also on the people needed to monitor overall application and infrastructure on both sides. Previously we had thirteen contractors doing the monitoring for us, which is now reduced to only five. That is a huge saving.

We did not evaluate other options before choosing Datadog, we went with Datadog directly.

My advice for others looking into using Datadog is to keep exploring the tool and utilize the different modules and the different functionalities of features Datadog offers. There are multiple features and functionalities available with the Datadog agents which are really helpful and powerful to troubleshoot, alert, and monitor both applications and infrastructure.

So far, all the features I have used in Datadog are amazing. It captures all the logging information which I have, and I can include the links of Datadog transactions on my Splunk logs. It is integrated with Splunk and other platforms, which is great.

On a scale of one to ten, I rate Datadog a nine.

My main use case for Datadog is dashboards and monitoring.

We use dashboards and monitoring with Datadog to monitor the performance of our Nexus Artifactory system and make sure the services are running.

The best features Datadog offers are the dashboarding tools as well as the monitoring tools.

What I find most valuable about the dashboarding and monitoring tools in Datadog is the ease of use and simplicity of the interface.

Datadog has positively impacted our organization by allowing us to look at things such as Cloud Spend and make sure our services are running at an optimal performance level.

We have seen specific outcomes such as cost savings by utilizing the cost utilization dashboards to identify areas where we could trim our spend.

To improve Datadog, I suggest they keep doing what they're doing.

Newer features using AI to create monitors and dashboards would be helpful.

I have been using Datadog for six years.

Datadog is stable.

I am not sure about Datadog's scalability.

Customer support with Datadog has been great when we needed it.

I rate the customer support a nine on a scale of 1 to 10.

Positive

We did not previously use a different solution.

In terms of return on investment, there is a lot of time saved from using the platform.

I was not directly involved in the pricing, setup cost, and licensing details.

Before choosing Datadog, we evaluated other options such as Splunk and Grafana.

I rate Datadog an eight out of ten because the expense of using it keeps it from being a nine or ten.

My advice to others looking into using Datadog is to brush up on their API programming skills.

My overall rating for Datadog is eight out of ten.

My main use case for Datadog is performance monitoring, SLOs, and SLIs.

For performance monitoring, SLOs, and SLIs, we create objectives and indicators around user feedback and stakeholder feedback. We have weekly meetings to create backlog items to work on if things have elapsed and gone into the red based on our SLO definitions.

The best features Datadog offers are the analytics that are all associated with each other. RUM data associated with APM, trace data, and all of that, including information around inferred requests, has been super useful. Machine health data gives a complete picture of performance, which has been extremely useful for troubleshooting difficult problems.

Having all that associated analytics helps me in troubleshooting by not having to bounce around to other tools, which saves me a lot of time. I know that the quality of Datadog metrics gathered is enough to where I can rule things in and out. This basically goes for any web app; when asking why a web app is slow, first you look at the code. If the code looks good, then you look at the hardware or the database. Being able to rule all of those out with one tool with one set of requests is useful.

Datadog has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to gather complete data instead of looking all over the place at incomplete data and actually make pointed determinations for fixing issues. It has helped increase efficiency and saved time.

I don't know how Datadog can be improved as they are doing a pretty good job.

I have been using Datadog for three years.

Datadog is stable.

Datadog's scalability is good.

The customer support is good.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is really expensive.

I have not seen a return on investment.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is really expensive.

My advice to others looking into using Datadog is that it is good and they should use it.

I don't know if my company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate Datadog a 9.

My main use case for Datadog is application and portal monitoring.

For application or portal monitoring, we have several monitors set up that give us a heads up early when we believe there's a problem with end users getting to the applications that are available to them on the portal. Just yesterday, we were able to identify an error in code that was throwing thousands of errors a day, and it was very simple for us to actually find it using Datadog analytics on the error and the Watchdog alerts.

I don't have anything else to add about my main use case, other than the ease with which we were able to identify an issue that we previously, when we didn't have Datadog, might not even be aware of, but was consuming resources that it didn't need to.

In my opinion, the best features Datadog offers are flexibility and extensive support. It can be a little overwhelming since there are so many features that come with Datadog, and I'm just scratching the surface of that. I also appreciate the support that our representative has provided to us, coming on-prem, providing training, being available to answer questions, and the extensive knowledge base documentation that I have been referred to, which has been extremely helpful also.

The flexibility I mentioned shows up in my day-to-day work because traditionally, I was using SolarWinds to monitor infrastructure health, but the polling period is lengthier than we would like to see. Datadog specifically has real-time monitoring, and the alerts that we have configured are coming to us much quicker. We're able to address an issue sooner rather than later, and when it comes to reviewing .NET code or application configuration, I only had limited visibility, but with Datadog doing the analysis of the IIS logs and any other application logs, it's also opened up visibility to me so that I can assist a developer in identifying the area of concern or where a code could be more efficiently written.

Datadog has positively impacted my organization by helping us make our web portals more efficient. Our portals and integrations are extremely complex, and as we get the agent installed on more devices, it's really provided us visibility that we haven't had in my entire career with Ace Hardware.

I cannot provide specific numbers for the improved performance, but Datadog has identified issues that we have in our data source area. We have implemented additional indexes and have plans for breaking out complex queries that are pulling data across multiple data sources. We're in the crawl, walk, run phase, so right now we're identifying and prioritizing the things that need to be fixed. A few of the things that we've already addressed include adding additional resources to servers, and we have noticed improved performance. I know someone has the statistics; I just don't have them available to me at the moment.

At this point, I'm not sure how Datadog can be improved, but maybe some initial intense training from the vendor before setting us loose with the application is the only thing I can think of.

I think it would be helpful to have an administrative page right from the portal that gives us links to the application documentation. I have separate URLs to get to the various locations that I need to go to, but unless I'm just not seeing them, I have to go to separate URLs. I cannot get to some of the documentation and various other components from my company-specific portal.

Other than being restricted by cost, Datadog's scalability has been a little bit of a challenge to do the initial installation of the agent. We have upgraded all of our agents so that we can do the upgrades remotely, but the initial install is still a little time-consuming and a little clunky.

I think the customer support is great. I love the ability to send flares directly from the machine or device that's having an issue, and my tickets are always opened promptly. I usually get links to documentation about the specific feature or function that I'm trying to implement, and when I have additional questions, the ticket is updated with actual recommendations or suggestions pointing me in the correct direction.

Positive

We continue to use SolarWinds, although I can see the infrastructure monitoring component of SolarWinds being replaced with Datadog. We also used Catchpoint to run synthetic scripts from various locations throughout the country, and we use Pingdom for our e-commerce solution. We're trying to phase out Pingdom at this time with the help of Datadog engineers, and we have ceased using Catchpoint because we have created those synthetic scripts within Datadog.

At this point, I'm leaving the return on investment metrics to my manager and director. I'm just focused on getting it up and running, installed, upgraded, and helping to train other folks to use it. I know they're trying to keep metrics on all of those questions, but I'm just not focusing on that at this time.

I was not included in the pricing, setup cost, and licensing decisions, but I have needed to gain more information about licensing and individual feature cost projections. Everybody wants the agent installed, but we only have so many dollars to spread across, so it's been difficult for me to prioritize who will benefit from Datadog at this time.

I'm excited to learn more about the application and can't wait as my knowledge expands, all the exciting things that we might be able to do with the tool.

I rate Datadog an 8 out of 10, only because I haven't had the ability to explore everything that I intend to explore, and some of the more complex monitors that I want to create I'm just not able to intuitively do. But that might be on me and not the product. The complexity and my lack of knowledge related to all the features and how I can use them keep it from being a 10 for me.

I would advise others looking into using Datadog to do more training and become much more familiar with the product before going live with it. There are so many wonderful things that can be done with it that it's a little overwhelming to only attempt to configure those or investigate them when the product's already live.

I'm excited to continue to learn and explore the tool. It's giving me some insight into systems that I have not had for the past 17 years, so it's exciting to be able to see that and put it to use almost immediately.