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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Instana

    Score7.8 out of 10
    N/AInstana, an IBM company since the December 2020 acquisition, provides APM services for SOA, microservices, containerized applications and Kubernetes, and cloud native applications, as well as discovery and monitoring for IT assets.

    $75

    per month per Managed Virtual Server (MVS)

    Splunk Observability Cloud

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/ASplunk Observability Cloud aims to enable operational agility and better customer experience through real-time AI-driven streaming analytics allowing accurate alerts in seconds. It is designed to shorten MTTD and MTTR by providing real-time visibility into cloud infrastructure and services.

    $180

    per year per host

    Pricing
    IBM InstanaSplunk Observability Cloud
    Editions & Modules
    Essentials
    $20
    per month per Managed Virtual Server (MVS)
    Standard
    $75
    per month per Managed Virtual Server (MVS)
    Self-Hosted
    $93.80
    per month per Managed Virtual Server (MVS)
    Infrastructure
    $15
    per month (billed annually) per host
    App & Infra
    $60
    per month (billed annually) per host
    End-to-End
    $75
    per month (billed annually) per host
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM InstanaSplunk Observability Cloud
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM InstanaSplunk Observability Cloud
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    61 Answers
    95%
    Would buy again
    55 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    53 Answers
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    48 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    61 Answers
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    57 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    40 Answers
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    47 Answers
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    45 Answers
    Features
    IBM InstanaSplunk Observability Cloud
    Monitoring Tasks
    Comparison of Monitoring Tasks features of IBM Instana and Splunk Observability Cloud
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    7.6
    3 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Splunk Observability Cloud
    -
    Ratings
    Remote monitoring9.14 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network device monitoring5.54 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple Server Monitoring8.94 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-device monitoring5.54 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated alerts and notifications9.14 Ratings00 Ratings
    Management Tasks
    Comparison of Management Tasks features of IBM Instana and Splunk Observability Cloud
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    5.5
    1 Ratings
    23% below category average
    Splunk Observability Cloud
    -
    Ratings
    Software and hardware inventory6.42 Ratings00 Ratings
    Policy-based automation4.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting
    Comparison of Reporting features of IBM Instana and Splunk Observability Cloud
    Feature
    IBM Instana
    6.5
    3 Ratings
    20% below category average
    Splunk Observability Cloud
    -
    Ratings
    Performance data reports8.34 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable reporting4.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data visualization8.83 Ratings00 Ratings
    Risk analysis4.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM InstanaSplunk Observability Cloud
    Small Businesses
    Amazon CloudWatch
    Score7.6 out of 10
    Amazon CloudWatch
    Score7.6 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    LogicMonitor
    Score8.9 out of 10
    LogicMonitor
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ManageEngine Site24x7
    Score10 out of 10
    ManageEngine Site24x7
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM InstanaSplunk Observability Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.8
    (60 ratings)
    7.9
    (59 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    8.3
    (3 ratings)
    7.6
    (18 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM InstanaSplunk Observability Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    Well-suited for an org with a large application base, where many microservices are created and destroyed daily. IBM Instana doesn't require any manual configuration, so deploying the Instana agents takes very little time. Data capture from IBM Instana is highly granular and can detect even short spikes lasting a few seconds. Not suitable for legacy applications where there will be rarely any changes. They can use a simpler monitoring mechanism. Also, highly dense data capturing can sometimes overload the information.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Its great if you need real-time visibility across complex or regulated environments. Also strong for hybrid or multi-cloud setups where uptime, observability and fast IR are required. It’s probably overkill for smaller teams or environments that don’t have constant changes or compliance reporting needs. It's expensive and has a steep learning curve. Also, in my opinion, do not get yourself into a consumption based model. Costs can certainly get out of control quickly.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    IBM
    • Can monitor application(s) and system(s) with very large throughput of transactions by the second ( it gets everything !!!)
    • Provide strong drill down for your applications and will tell you where the points of failure of an application's is ( servers , network , Databases , etc you name it )
    • Very easy to set up and have it up and running when using the SaaS solution. There's an on premise solution which works just as well but requires more effort and preparation from an infrastructure point of view for your teams to implement.
    • Continuously improve their features and their agents auto-update and keep up. All while not interfering with your applications.
    • Let's you create your own dashboards and visualizations that can be tailored for different kind of users with the data collected.
    • Create your own events and smart alerts so you can know on the spot if something is happening or is likely to happen that needs addressing on your applications / systems
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    • The first one is its Kubernetes container monitoring.
    • I really like this features because as we know how much K8s is vast and to manually monitor each part of the Kubernetes it takes so much time but Splunk Observability Cloud makes it easier. And even once we integrate K8s with Splunk Observability Cloud it gives us some prebuilt dashboards which gives holistic view of our Cluster and its nodes, pods, etc.
    • The dashbaord feature of Splunk Observability Cloud, it gives us full flexibility to customize our dashboard with a wide range of predefined chart types.
    • Now it also supports OTEL, which is a plus point for observability. As now everyone is moving towards Otel and in current market there are only few tools who supports OTEL based integrations, Splunk Observability Cloud is one out of them.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    IBM
    • It's very difficult to create custom dashboards, only a handful of scenarios can be visualized to dashboards.
    • Extracting information from Instana to further analysis into excel for example is something that can be improved. Using an API to get data is very limiting.
    • Open telemetry features which allow to send application data to Instana is not working as documented.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    • You can use table-like functionality to generate dashboards, but these queries are heavy on the system.
    • It could be easier to give insight into what type of line parsing is used for specific documents in a company-managed environment and/or show ways to gain the insights needed.
    • I would like to see ways to anonymize specific data for shared reports without pre-formatting this in a dashboard on which reports could be based.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    Instana has been able to fulfill our all requirement and provide out of box solution for multiple component like AWS RDS Monitoring and real time alerting setup on basis of that. it is also easy to integrate with other open-source alerting and monitoring tools which makes it easier to incorporate into our solutions
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Good: Stable system with low error rate Easy to use for simple use cases Bad: UI is not very clear for complex usage Mobile view (when logged in from phone) is bad No library for .net
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    IBM
    IBM Instana totally alters our monitoring approach since it increases the stability of the system and simplifies the process of problem solving. And since it helps to lower the degree of alert exhaustion that we experience, it is a total game changer for us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    When there is an issue, it’s a win if one can easily identify the root cause. To do the same, it should allow the user to dig deep with multiple data points and compare the data and identify the anomaly. In this use case, it’s good to drive from Splunk 011y.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    IBM
    IBM instana support team is good but when we ask them for support, they keep asking same thing again and again and mostly there is no solution
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Splunk support is very quick and efficient. Pre-sale specialists are very skilled and available.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    Follow a training before starting.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    Instana is much more robust and modern compared to our previous product which was AppDynamics. We compared Dynatrace and Datadog and they were very similar in many aspects. The licensing simplicity with Instana and our existing relationship with IBM made it a much more enticing option and accelerated the adoption timeline
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring provides far superior options for anybody using a complex hybrid multi-cloud environment and allows both your SOC and NOC to work together on the same data while driving their own insights. We found other products are still in the old world view of servers and agents residing together within a single data centre, but modern apps are no longer like this.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • Increase up time by early failure identification and performance optimization based on findings in Instana.
    • Enhance user experience by mapping user issues with backend failures
    • Automated actions help fixing known issues without human intervention
    • increase support team efficiency by root cause analysis which decrease the incident solving time
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    • Significantly reduced the MTTR (Mean Time To Recovery), which in turn has improved the end-user experience tremendously.
    • Meets compliance requirements of security policies, audit, regulation, and forensics.
    • Helps us to track/manage the resource usage on our cloud instances which has a direct implication on the recurring cost.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Splunk Observability Cloud Screenshots

    Screenshot of Real-time monitoring for public, private and hybrid cloud