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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Z IntelliMagic Vision

    Score9.8 out of 10
    N/AIBM Z® IntelliMagic Vision is a performance analysis solution that helps organizations monitor and optimize their mainframe environments. It enhances RMF and SMF data with built-in expertise to prevent disruptions, improve performance, and safeguard service availability.N/A

    Retrace (legacy)

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AStackify Retrace provides application performance management across the entire stack. Coupled with aggregated logs from common logging frameworks, find every exception in code. Retrace code with lightweight code profiling and track and monitor all key application and server metrics. The vendor states that with coverage for full lifecycle development, the Stackify Retrace software offering is tailored to be inclusive for multiple role types, and presents everything your team needs to know about…

    $99

    up to 3 servers, 500,000 traces, and 1,000,000 logs

    Pricing
    IBM Z IntelliMagic VisionRetrace (legacy)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Essentials
    $99
    up to 3 servers, 500,000 traces, and 1,000,000 logs
    Standard
    249+
    2,000,000+ traces and 5,000,000+ logs
    Enterprise
    Custom
    Customer number of traces and logs
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Z IntelliMagic VisionRetrace (legacy)
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Pricing is based on trace and log usage.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM Z IntelliMagic VisionRetrace (legacy)
    Considered Both Products
    IntelliMagic, an IBM Company
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    16 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    12 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    IBM Z IntelliMagic VisionRetrace (legacy)
    Application Performance Management
    Comparison of Application Performance Management features of IBM Z IntelliMagic Vision and Retrace (legacy)
    Feature
    IBM Z IntelliMagic Vision
    -
    Ratings
    Retrace (legacy)
    6.4
    1 Ratings
    20% below category average
    Application monitoring00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Database monitoring00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Out-of-the box templates to monitor applications00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Application dependency mapping and thresholding00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Server availability and performance monitoring00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
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    IBM Z IntelliMagic VisionRetrace (legacy)
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    SolarWinds AppOptics
    Score7.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Splunk AppDynamics
    Score8.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM Z IntelliMagic VisionRetrace (legacy)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.8
    (16 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.8
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.9
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Z IntelliMagic VisionRetrace (legacy)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IntelliMagic, an IBM Company
    IntelliMagic Vision for z/OS is perfect for just about any after-the-fact analysis that I have tried to use it for. Sometimes it doesn't provide support for the latest SMF fields, but that is the nature of SMF data analysis - it is impossible to keep up with the rate at which new SMF fields are added. Combine that with the fact that the description of new fields is often poor, and it is amazing that IntelliMagic Vision for z/OS is as up-to-date as it is. I think that less experienced users might benefit from material that more clearly differentiates products like IntelliMagic Vision for z/OS, which feed off SMF data, and products like Omegamon, which report in real-time contents of various system control blocks.
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    If I need to change a logo design on the invoice, the new logo is slightly larger or smaller so the type below the logo is in a different area than before. In this case, you would need to load the new version of the document into APM Plus and redo the mapping of the field areas to properly grab the information needed to process the document. Without doing this, the document could fail or go to the wrong archive based on the fields.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    IntelliMagic, an IBM Company
    • IntelliMagic Vision for z/OS is easy to use for beginners and experts.
    • Search and drill down helps to find overview and deep dive.
    • IntelliMagic has implemented expert knowledge into Vision and the rating of the report is really helpful.
    • Predefined reports can be modified very easily and individually adapted reports (replacement of old SAS programs) are also possible without any problems
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Integration of performance management with log management so you get the parameters sent
    • In-line log and error data in trace
    • Integration of error and log data, so in one click you can see all the logs recorded when an error was thrown
    • Very reasonably priced
    Read full review
    Cons
    IntelliMagic, an IBM Company
    • The voluminous data is a challenge for all tools. As always, improved response time is always appreciated.
    • I really appreciate reading the descriptions and field descriptions that are provided with the screens. All additional elaborations will be appreciated.
    • Monthly trending and cyclical pattern detection
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • To set up the fields that APM Plus monitors, you need to map each field area on each document.
    • APM Plus could use a way to link the documents back into the finance or business software so you can find the document under the PO, Sales Order, Invoice, etc.
    • APM Plus setup is only for the professionals. There are many areas that need tweaking on setup, having a better default setup would lessen the learning curve to set it up for use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    IntelliMagic, an IBM Company
    In comparison to other products (even on IBM Z), IntelliMagic Vision for z/OS is really RAS (reliability, availability, and serviceability). The GUI is really stable; analyze/reduce jobs with detailed diagnostics; restart functions with Automator
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    IntelliMagic, an IBM Company
    with more than 12 years of experience in Mainframe performance tuning and analysis, it was much easier to translate and understand the tool. New college grads without Mainframe exposure struggled a bit to connect the dots, it might be good to have a recording from IM to go through mainframe basics before the staff start to use the tool covering mainframe concepts than tool itself.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    IntelliMagic, an IBM Company
    Really highly skilled IntelliMagic team:
    • Head of IntelliMagic (Gilbert Houtekamer, Els Das and Jean-Marc van der Kolk)
    • Account manager DACH/Europe local support team ...
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    IntelliMagic, an IBM Company
    These are the legacy products that have been used for capacity/performance/billing and report generation over many years. Some are better suited for solutions using programmatic interfaces ( internal billing ), and processing IMS transactional data in particular. For most tasks, however, Vision can generate charts, provide levels of drill-down, allow a focus on analysis rather than report generation, much faster with greater reliability and less required training than the above products
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    It is a very impressive tool which doesn't overwhelm you with unnecessary data. They have combination of tools that haven't seen by any other company which makes it a very powerful tool
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    IntelliMagic, an IBM Company
    • Based on data from Vision, we have not had to expand the hardware this year.
    • Any expansion of hardware in the coming years can be well supported by figures from Vision.
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • APM Plus has freed up users from having to manually attach documents to each place they are sending it. APM Plus will do it automatically.
    • APM Plus provides a searchable archive to re-visit sent documents with customers and vendors. Having to reprint a document you risk the potential that something has changed since it was last printed.
    • APM Plus does need IT staff for adjustments and to review sending problems. Not for an average user.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    IBM Z IntelliMagic Vision Screenshots

    Screenshot of where IBM Z IntelliMagic Vision for z/OS evaluates CICS metrics against best practices to highlight availability risks. Results are shown in red, yellow, and green, with detailed views by group, region, or time charts.Screenshot of an automated analysis of 80+ metrics for Db2 members and buffer pools, which detects availability and performance risks. The interactive report highlights warnings and exceptions, with drill-down capabilities for root cause analysis.Screenshot of a time chart for metrics. These are used to explore potential relationships during analysis. For example, assess time-of-day correlations between metrics with exceptions (orange/red borders) and overall get-page activity.Screenshot of where to filter network traffic by class or IP range to analyze protocol-specific data, including encryption algorithms, key lengths, and cryptographic attributes.Screenshot of analysis of transaction rates alongside response times to identify issues or track workload trends. Viewers can break down response times into components like System of Record (SOR) time, with adjustable data granularity.Screenshot of visual charts and dashboards, these showing CPU usage and transaction rates of WebSphere application workloads over time, enabling clearer communication and informed planning.

    Retrace (legacy) Screenshots

    Screenshot of Detailed stack trace with inline error and logsScreenshot of Web Apps Dashboard:
The Apps Page gives you a high-level overview of all applications found and monitored across all servers in each environment. Click on any app to take you to the App Dashboard to view more information for a particular app.Screenshot of Apps Dashboard:
The App Dashboard is a powerful monitoring and troubleshooting perspective that gives you a view of application health across one or more environments.Screenshot of Performance (APM+) Dashboard:
The Performance section will give you a report of how well the application is performing overall, as perceived by your users.  A graph will allow you to view all requests by Satisfaction by viewing "Fast", "Sluggish", "Too Slow", or "Failed" types of requests.  Another report includes graphs of HTTP Error%, Satisfaction Score%, and Page Load Time.  Lastly, you will have the ability to sort each page request of your App by different categories: Satisfaction, Slowest page, Failed pages, pages hit, and total load time.  By clicking on an individual page a Performance Details page with further information about that specific page's health, performance, and errors will be displayed.Screenshot of Performance Traces:
One of the ways we strive to deliver relevant insights is to only collect traces around interesting requests. Some examples of these request types that are interesting would be faster than normal, slower than normal, new web requests, requests introducing new SQL, requests introducing new exceptions, or abnormal satisfaction scores. Under performing requests will be profiled more often than fast requests. As long as the app is getting steady traffic Retrace should be saving a trace every 5 to 15 minutes.Screenshot of Errors Dashboard:
From the Errors Dashboard, you can get an overview of all the exceptions of all your applications across different environments. It gives you a central location to view details about your errors.