F5 extension (v2) vs SolarWinds - battle cards

[Yosi_Neuman]

Hi guys,

Customer F5 is monitored by SolarWinds and the F5 guys are more than happy with it.

We have shown them the metrics, dashboards, and the ability to connect the dots between application and infrastructure and they look like they are interested in testing the extension but insist to stick with their own SolarWinds monitoring for their own needs 🙄.

Does anyone got some good points how and what to show within Dynatrace regarding the F5 that will drop their jaws and cause them to leave SolarWinds and move to Dynatrace 🤔? 

Thanks in advance for your inputs 

Yos 

[Julius_Loman · Accepted solution]

@Yosi_Neuman I see great value when the F5 is used in calls of services monitored by OneAgent where Davis can seamlessly use the data and metrics in the root cause analysis. 

[Krzysztof_Ziemi]

It’s a tall order to expect the F5 admins to drop their jaws while looking at Dynatrace dashboards alone. As Julius summarized, Dynatrace value comes through a combination of app monitoring and correlated insights into the infrastructure that the app depends on. 

Those F5 folks who are bugged by app owners who bring availability and performance complaints - they should be compelled by Dynatrace. It brings common language to the conversation. 

Those who focus on entire infrastructure performance and have only distant notion of the apps it supports, may still prefer infrastructure-focused solutions. 

Long story short: everything hinges on the persona and her use case. “What to show” has to meet the right audience.

[Yosi_Neuman]

Thanks @Julius_Loman & @Krzysztof_Ziemi for your prompt insight that confirmed our thoughts on this question.

All the best and stay safe 

Yos 

[ct_27]

@Yosi_Neuman Please let me know if you every do manage to convince them.  I've been trying for over a year to get my F5, Juniper, and Network teams over to Dynatrace.   They won't budge for two reasons. 1) Dynatrace doesn't present the data as cleanly as other solutions like SolarWinds (the dashboards in Dynatrace aren't as good), making the data difficult for them to consume. 2) Configuration of entities, thresholds, and alerts is easier in other solutions

[Yosi_Neuman]

Hi @ct_27 

The only way we have found to drag those F5 guys to look at dynatrace was after problems where opened and DAVIS added F5 metrics to the anomaly root cause tile and questions started to be asked by NOC and developers guys. Prety much as @Julius_Loman wrote within the first reply.  

For me the turn over is when ever you can show infrastructure metric in applicative view.

HTH

Yos