What is our primary use case?
I usually recommend IBM Instana Observability for companies in the academic environment, as I have been working in a consultancy company for the last three years, where one of our customers built teaching environments with many connections. I cannot remember the name, but it is in the academic space.
Additionally, I have presented the features and characteristics of IBM Instana Observability to many customers here in Spain, including BBVA, Consum, a retail company, and Telefónica. My role involved presentations and proof of concepts rather than installation and operation. With the academic-oriented company, I solved some problems related to installation, configuration, and recommendations.
Using IBM Instana Observability for non-distributed applications does not seem sensible because if an application is housed on a single server, it falls under traditional monitoring systems where you simply check CPU, storage, I/O, and memory. For that, you do not need IBM Instana Observability. The real strength of IBM Instana Observability lies in observing distributed applications, identifying where failures happen across services interconnected on multiple servers.
What is most valuable?
The impact of IBM Instana Observability on collaboration between development and operations teams is essential because it allows operations to identify incidents before they occur. This capability impresses customers greatly because operations have wide visibility and can pinpoint exactly where issues arise in the system.
This aspect creates a little pressure on development teams because operations can now predict system failures. They used to know when the system was failing, but with IBM Instana Observability, they can see potential failures beforehand.
This advantage enables them to swiftly identify breaking points in the system, communicate effectively with the development team, and enhance overall effectiveness rather than waiting until problems arise.
What needs improvement?
From my perspective, IBM Instana Observability is quite technical. Compared to some competitors, it offers an abundance of information about system performance but lacks planning or capacity planning information. You do not receive reports with recommendations; instead, it provides only the technical layer.
Other companies, like Compuware, give more functional information about your environment, while IBM Instana Observability provides only limited functional insights. This means you often must interpret the data independently. Unlike other tools that can offer recommendations to save resources or costs, IBM Instana Observability does not provide that functionality.
On the bright side, it is much more affordable than some other options, but it isn't complete. If you want full functionality with IBM Instana Observability, you also need to acquire other products for additional insights in monitoring areas, such as networking monitoring tools or similar products. For instance, we often recommend Turbonomic, which provides complementary insights.
One potential feature that could improve IBM Instana Observability is the ability to translate KPIs into monetary terms. It would be interesting to have a product that integrates IBM Instana Observability with Turbonomic, as Turbonomic can utilize data from IBM Instana Observability to inform you about unnecessary spending and suggest whether you can consolidate servers or optimize containers for quicker response times. Implementing some level of simulation or capacity planning would greatly enhance the current capabilities of IBM Instana Observability.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been dealing with IBM Instana Observability for the most two years; it is not a new product, but it is a new addition to the IBM portfolio since IBM purchased it three or four years ago.
How are customer service and support?
In general, we did have experiences where a significant issue arose during implementation, often involving compatibility problems with JavaScript libraries used by IBM Instana Observability. When that happens, I report it to IBM, and since I still have contacts there, it is easy for me to follow up on incidents.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not remember that Dynatrace is the tool from Compuware until now. Dynatrace is much more comprehensive, and when I visited some customers, they mentioned that while IBM Instana Observability works adequately, they already have Dynatrace, which provides extensive monitoring and a wealth of information, along with recommendations and various functional parameters. However, Dynatrace is also considerably more expensive.
How was the initial setup?
The installation does not take too much time because it operates on the cloud. However, it depends on what you need to observe or monitor. What I do is provide recommendations to customers and solve problems, most of which relate to the user interface. IBM Instana Observability works quite well, especially for monitoring containers and Kubernetes environments.
What was our ROI?
The most significant metric I track to assess IBM Instana Observability's effectiveness in reducing mean time to resolution is time. You always want your systems to respond promptly. Another critical metric is cost; IBM Instana Observability can highlight when there are too many or too few resources allocated for a task. For example, in a Kubernetes environment with containers, it is important to investigate whether more resources or containers are used than necessary. After adjusting the system for optimal resource allocation, the focus shifts back to measuring time, as I aim for the best response times with the fewest resources.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would evaluate the implementation process of IBM Instana Observability as not complex at all because you pay the license, and IBM takes care of everything. The only problem we occasionally face, due to its nature as a cloud product, is that the monitoring environment or operating system you use can sometimes lead to issues with the user interface or with specific KPIs you want to see.
What other advice do I have?
I know IBM products because I have been working for IBM for 18 years, so I am familiar with them, but obviously, it is very difficult to know each product. In the monitoring area, now called observability, I know IBM Instana Observability and IBM SevOne because they are part of the observability portfolio, but I have not been working with these products intensively. However, I can learn fast because I have been working for such a long time at IBM, learning new products and portfolios every year.
The key is knowing how to interpret the performance metrics and responding accordingly.
To be honest, I have not used IBM Instana Observability's automated discovery feature. That is a functionality that comes by default as I understand it, so when you activate it, you see all the elements in your environment, but as I mentioned earlier, I am not an expert in all the features of IBM Instana Observability.
As for the insights gained from IBM Instana Observability's AI-powered analytics for predicting potential application disruptions, I do not have much to say because the installations I managed have been quite straightforward. We monitored several servers, some containers, and cloud services, but the service portfolio we monitored was relatively simple. From my understanding, the AI is already embedded in IBM Instana Observability, so you do not need to do much more.
I would rate this product an 8.5 overall.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
IBM