Redgate Monitor vs. Splunk Enterprise

With mission-critical SQL Server instances at multiple physical locations and in the cloud, it's critical for us to know immediately when there are performance issues or outages. The Redgate SQL Monitor provides an intuitive dashboard that allows for detailed resource monitoring. Perhaps not as useful in a 100% managed SQL environment.

Incentivized

It's well suited for what I do, which is network security operations. And that's for anything from troubleshooting incidents, troubleshooting performance, troubleshooting for the purpose of a compliance and auditing. It's not best suited for users who are new in terms of they're new to the product and they have expectations that probably Splunk cannot meet.

Incentivized

• It is easy to use and provides very good reporting on the SQL servers being monitored. These reports are used in our monthly customer reports.
• Redgate does a very good job at improving the product, fixing bugs and adding new features compared to other products I have researched.
• The insights provided makes it an ideal tool for database administrators and software developers.

Incentivized

• It is very useful in creating custom rules for analyzing system logs and display relevant information. The query language is very easy to learn.
• We can create custom UI to visualize the output of our data. The interface is very flexible. It also allows the sharing of rules among users.
• There is an open online community to help others. Stackoverflow also has a splunk community. These resources make it more convenient to learn.

Incentivized

• Openness - They are too attached to their Intellectual Property to the detriment of usability, stability and reliability. So once its is installed and working leave it alone. Best run it on a VM as that can be restored quickly for when it breaks.
• If they exposed an API/SDK that allowed you to leaver their products life would be far sweeter, it would feel less of a battle.
• Add WebHooks to SQL Monitor to enhance integration to other subsystems.
• Make it easy to install in default mode. So you are not forced to use TomCat Use as ASP.Core Selfl Hosting options.

Incentivized

• Splunk light limits number of users to 5. Wish there was a flexible license, where one could add more users.
• Splunk light does not let you add > few realtime alerts. Wish there was a flexible license, where one could add as many realtime alerts as wanted.
• Better insight into daily ingestion values

Incentivized

We are using Splunk extensively in our projects and we have recently upgraded to Splunk version 6.0 which is quite efficient and giving expected results. We keep track of updates and new features Splunk introduces periodically and try to introduce those features in our day to day activities for improvement in our reporting system and other tasks.

In general, the Redgate dashboard is one of the most thorough yet intuitive products I've had the pleasure of using. Compared to other vendors in different verticals, the Redgate dashboard's deployment, configuration, monitoring, and reporting is second to none

Incentivized

You can literally throw in a single word into Splunk and it will pull back all instances of that word across all of your logs for the time span you select (provided you have permission to see that data). We have several users who have taken a few of the free courses from Splunk that are able to pull data out of it everyday with little help at all.

Incentivized

When properly setup and configured, Splunk is extremely reliable.

Incentivized

Fast support responses from Redgate

Incentivized

Splunk maintains a well resourced support system that has been consistent since we purchased the product. They help out in a timely manner and provide expert level information as needed. We typically open cases online and communicate when possible via e-mail and are able to resolve most issues with that method.

Incentivized

The online course was simple clear and described the main capabilities of the solution. There is also an initial module that can be done for free so anyone can familiarize themselves with the functionality of this solution. On the other hand, however, there could be more free online courses. Maybe even with a certificate, this would broaden the group of people who are familiar with the platform while increasing familiarity with the solution itself.

Smooth without too many major issues.

Incentivized

I personally prefer SQL Sentry due to the flexibility in the custom metrics/monitoring but this is still a great product!!

I didn't get to fully evaluate Logstash as our corporation was already using Logstash, but both seemed like viable solutions to the problem that we were having. I wanted to evaluate Logstash some more, both did seem like they would work for the business needs that we had, we went with splunk as many teams were already using it.

Incentivized

Splunk can scale in to the petabyte per day range which of course is awesome

• Allows us to proactively fix issues before they happen
• Allows us to quickly react to issues without having to wait for someone else to notice
• Cuts down on the amount of time spent doing daily checks

Incentivized

• I don't have any numbers to share but Splunk has positively served as a 24/7 monitoring tool that has saved hours of work by self-detecting, saving statistics and alerting problems in the system or from external interfaces as soon as they happen.
• Splunk dashboards does a solid job in collecting, analyzing data and creating reports that contain an entire day's activity and then automatically sent out to the business.
• Splunk is very easy to learn and very useful to any program or business application.

Incentivized