AppDynamics vs Solarwinds Database Performance Analyzer for SQL Server

AppDynamics

We had slowness, but didn't know where. We quickly would find out if it was the network, database, app server, webserver, or otherwise. They don't like me saying this, but it's a great "finger-pointer".

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Non-Profit Organization Management Company, 501-1000 employees

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Solarwinds Database Performance Analyzer for SQL Server

This gives very detailed insight into your database performance. You do, however, need to augment this product and monitor your surrounding environment to get a complete picture of what is happening.

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Mike Miller

Manager of Information Technology

Impact - Power to ConnectMarketing and Advertising, 201-500 employees

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Feature Rating Comparison

AppDynamics

8.2

Solarwinds Database Performance Analyzer for SQL Server

—

Application monitoring

9.3

—

Database monitoring

7.2

—

Threshold alerts

8.9

—

Predictive capabilities

7.4

—

Application performance management console

8.3

—

Collaboration tools

8.4

—

AppDynamics

—

Solarwinds Database Performance Analyzer for SQL Server

9.0

Performance dashboard

—

9.9

Intelligent alerting

—

8.0

Top SQL

—

9.3

Historical trend data

—

9.2

Virtualization support

—

8.8

Pros

Integration with multiple frameworks (Java, NodeJS, .NET, etc). Good database monitoring tool as well as end-user and synthetic user monitoring tool.
Works great for on-premise and is always maturing and keeping up with industry trends.
It's been in Garter's Leader Quad for years now.
Very intuitive web UI and IT, Mgmt, QA, Devs, and Ops could easily use it.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Non-Profit Organization Management Company, 501-1000 employees

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Being able to analyze a query performance over time is a great asset. It helps us to identify certain bottlenecks or issues that occur during certain points in time and compare it to a baseline that tells us if there is an issue.
The alerts that you are able to generate are also a huge help. they have a lot of great predefined alerts for general issues, but the ability to create your own alerts is a huge benefit.
DPA allows you to drill directly to poor performing queries that the tool has identified and allows you to see all the important metrics in one screen. Being able to see the number of executions, memory and CPU consumed along with blocking allows you to identify and correct poor performing queries much more efficiently and reduces research time.

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Johnny Garcia

Sr. Database Administrator

CyberCodersStaffing and Recruiting, 201-500 employees

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Cons

Search function. As of now we need to drill down through the tiers in order to get to a specific section. A search function via keyword would make drilling down much faster.
A historical view function where you can overlay a WoW (week over Week) view. This would provide value when creating custom graphs. An overlay of WoW can give a comprehensive view of performance and allow for comparison and validation of issues.

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Verified User

Manager in Information Technology

Financial Services Company, 1001-5000 employees

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It would be nice to have a separate dashboard that allows to see job performances over time (trends and summary)
It would be nice to have a separate dashboard that allows us to create traces on the fly based on findings from DPA
It would be nice to have a way capture parameter values passed to procs during a time period or that failed or returned an error.

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Johnny Garcia

Sr. Database Administrator

CyberCodersStaffing and Recruiting, 201-500 employees

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Likelihood to Renew

No score

No answers yet

We are a reseller of appdynamics

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Verified User

Account Manager in Sales

Computer Networking Company, 11-50 employees

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Solarwinds Database Performance Analyzer for SQL Server10.0

Based on 1 answer

It allows us to have peace of mind that the servers are constatnly being monitored around the clock and that we can always go bcak in time and research if we missed something.

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Johnny Garcia

Sr. Database Administrator

CyberCodersStaffing and Recruiting, 201-500 employees

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Usability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

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Solarwinds Database Performance Analyzer for SQL Server9.0

Based on 1 answer

For a seasoned DBA, the tool is very helpful and intuitive.

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Johnny Garcia

Sr. Database Administrator

CyberCodersStaffing and Recruiting, 201-500 employees

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Alternatives Considered

Better capability set / there are more 3rd party integrations / appdynamics has a bigger profile

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Verified User

Account Manager in Sales

Computer Networking Company, 11-50 employees

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I have done my comparison against SQL Sentry and I feel like Solarwinds Database Performance Analyzer for SQL Server is more of a graphical tool, so it lets you see wait time for a database instance. That's really nice when you're dealing with similar instances. We haven't really had any issues with it. Again, we're a pretty small shop. We have about twenty database instances. Scalability is more of just a licensing factor. As you want to monitor more instances, you go out and you just purchase more licensing.

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Samir Patel, PMP

SQL Development Team Lead

Allianz Asset ManagementInvestment Management, 1001-5000 employees

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Return on Investment

Automate and remediate app issues
Clients visibility of business transactions
Visibility of server health

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Verified User

Account Manager in Sales

Computer Networking Company, 11-50 employees

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Allowed us to scale our SQL Servers to best fit the current load
Helps plan for growth and business impacts of adding additional clients
Allows for real time review of resources so we can adjust to any issues that are occuring

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Verified User

Director in Information Technology

Information Technology and Services Company, 11-50 employees

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