Datadog versus Nutanix

Why is cloud monitoring important?

Why is cloud monitoring important?

In a time when cloud technology is becoming a leading factor, companies that strive for growth must use monitoring tools to stay ahead of the competition. The cloud has many parts that can be combined to get the perfect infrastructure at any given moment and scale whenever you need. However, to work effectively and guarantee a secure and stable environment, organizations need to apply monitoring strategies.

So, what exactly is cloud monitoring? In brief, this type of monitoring has the same operations as the traditional ones, but with one difference  the entire process of observation and management of the integrated systems happens in a controlled cloud-based environment.

There are a few diverse types of cloud monitoring  website, virtual networks, cloud storage, and virtual machine monitoring. Each of them has its specifics and benefits correlated with the tools used and the needs of the users. The most noteworthy features of these types of monitoring solutions are:

• the relatively easy installation
• cost-effectiveness (users pay only for the features they use)
• easy scalability

One of the most sought-after features of monitoring tools is their ability to present their business users with real-time analytics. This is important in terms of having a more detailed and focused overview of the working states of the applications embedded in the organizations IT ecosystem. Another important quality that makes these systems vital is the fact they point out the organization at infrastructure weaknesses, thus helping IT teams come up with tactics to eliminate any problems.

Cloud monitoring tools play a crucial role in the detection and resolution of arising issues. This particular characteristic saves a lot of time and resources. Of course, after everything is said and with a market full of options it can be hard to make a choice. To help find a solution, let's take a look at two of the most popular monitoring solutions that can be found in organizations IT ecosystems. These are Datadog and Nutanix.

Due to their comprehensive nature, each of them offers a variety of functionalities that enables departments to get a more detailed picture of important processes that run at the core of the organizations IT infrastructure. Important activities like issue tracking and their resolution are easily carried out with either of the two systems. Yet, there are some differences between Datadog and Nutanix that play key roles when it comes to choosing between them.

In the following lines, well try to compare the two monitoring tools and focus on their most notable features as well as some drawbacks.

About Datadog

Datadog is widely used by developers, IT Ops, and security departments. As a SaaS tool, Datadog enables important processes such as implementation and automation of critical business activities like application performance monitoring and log management. Thanks to those two functionalities, Datadog users have the chance to observe each operation and condition of the integrated systems into the IT ecosystem in real-time. Another characteristic of the tool is that it paves the way for more intensive collaboration between the organizations departments. As a result, product roll-out time is cut short and there is a better understanding of user-related behavior patterns.

Datadog main features :

• Infrastructure  Datadog gives an insight on any stack or application embedded in the IT ecosystem of the organization at any scale and from anywhere
• Log Management Datadog analyzes and dissects log data
• APM and Continuous Profiler  end-to-end tracing distribution
• Database monitoring  application performance optimization and tracking of underperforming queries
• Synthetic monitoring  comprehensive API and browser testing for end-to-end visibility
• Serverless  monitoring, tracking and timely resolution of bottlenecks and errors
• Network Monitoring  detailed observation of traffic flows and devices for network visibility

To sum it up, Datadog encompasses vital monitoring and security abilities to help with issue tracking and provide an insight into data in the form of metrics, logs, and analytics. Focused entirely on the monitoring process of the embedded applications, Datadog offers its users the chance to configure its segments so that they match their needs and use cases.

About Nutanix  

Nutanix is an extensive platform that helps you build and manage your cloud environment and hyper-converged infrastructure (or HCI for short). It offers clusters that can freely operate on top of individual servers, which are interconnected. A notable benefit of this type of system is that it helps achieve enhanced performance. Nutanix successfully separates and transfers important data and workloads across interconnected servers. This ensures the full availability of the system and the connected applications whenever a server goes down.

The tool allows for a rapid expansion to fit the needs and requirements of the growing organization.

Just like Datadog, Nutanix has some key features that allow it to stand out in the crowd of monitoring solutions available on the market.

Nutanix key features:

• Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)  contains every functionality needed for better security and faster disaster recovery
• Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM)  allows users to easily automate crucial IT operations and thus shorten the time for service delivery
• Unified Storage Space  saves time and helps ease growth-related tasks
• Database Services  gives its business users the opportunity to utilize multi database management across cloud and server services
• End-user computing  gives access to important segments of the organizations IT ecosystem such as private cloud and on-prem apps

In other words, Nutanix is a flexible monitoring solution comprised of various useful elements that assure the accessibility, stability, and growth of the company's IT segments. With its expanded approach on connected entities observation, Nutanix is a great tool even for small companies.

Similarities and Differences

Datadog and Nutanix are some of the most deployed monitoring platforms and can be found in every organizations IT environment. Both equipped with a lengthy list of features, the two help leverage the overall performance and timely handle issues before they have escalated. However, along with their similarities, the two systems have also a few unique features that set them apart.

Relevantly easy to deploy, Datadog can notify its users about the stage of their problem resolution via alerts. As an open-source platform, Datadog is constantly being improved and upgraded by its users to fit their needs and use case requirements. The presence of artificial intelligence in the tool allows it to freely automate workflows  thus helping the users to focus on other important activities. Another key benefit of this system is that it is entirely focused on monitoring. With a multitude of functionalities, users can choose which one to deploy and which one not. The result is that the IT teams can focus attention and effort on crucial for the organizations segments and pay only for what they use.

Nutanix unique capabilities set it ahead of its competitors in the monitoring solutions niche. The systems complex and multifunctional HCI plays a crucial role in this. The scalability of Nutanix modules and its serviceability are what drives so many company users towards it.

Even though hyper-convergence may sound complicated, Nutanix is easy to use and deploy. The platforms agility and scalability are the two leading features that make it so preferable to other monitoring solutions. An important characteristic of this system is that it gives a broader introspective view of the entire monitoring process that goes in the background of the IT infrastructure. The fact that Nutanix is agentless is also a leading factor when it comes to choosing it before other monitoring systems like Datadog.

As with any software that is constantly developing, both Datadog and Nutanix also have some things to improve which are important to be mentioned.

Datadogs open-source, despite being a unique feature, may sometimes be a huge issue for business users. That's because the speed of its development and enhancement may not always fit with the goals of the organizations. Despite its advanced nature, users may sometime face some limitations when it comes to setting up services on cloud platforms. The systems initial installation can sometimes be a bit time-consuming.

Sometimes due to its sophisticated and multilayered nature, Nutanix may require a little more time to become up to date.

To wrap this up, both systems possess unique monitoring capabilities that are essential for companies. The detailed overview of crucial operations and actions, as well as timely resolution of critical situations, provided by both Datadog and Nutanix, help their users achieve stability and availability.

Here's a small comparison chart that aims to define the most notable pros and cons of the two:

Using both Datadog and Nutanix

Some organizations may use Nutanix as their main platform to manage and monitor their cloud infrastructure, and Datadog to track and capture specific details. Another scenario is when you use Nutanix, but your client uses Datadog.

In such cases an integration between Datadog and Nutanix would be beneficial for reporting all essential monitoring data into one platform. The result is the accumulation and analysis of a vast amount of data, and a greater perspective on crucial internal IT processes. This will give a better granular overview of the Nutanix clusters, VMs, and hosts. Timely tracking down of CPU consumption and latency are crucial for any data-centered performance approach. And with an overly complex monitoring system like Nutanix, this is necessary. Integrating Datadog and Nutanix helps IT teams easily accumulate and analyze important metrics vital for the health status and performance of the entire IT ecosystem of the organization.

In conclusion

Keeping a close eye on the operations that run across the branches of the company's IT ecosystem is critical. It ensures the tracking and resolution of any issue or obstacle that may occur. Important metrics, various accumulated data, and applications health statuses must also be monitored to ensure the stability and availability of the services. That is why choosing the right monitoring tool is crucial.

Solutions like Datadog and Nutanix can help with that. Thanks to their sophisticated nature and a list of features, the two systems can meet the needs of every company, regardless of their size. Connecting the two in a way that ensures the smooth data transfer between them will not only expand the systems capabilities but will also enhance the overall performance of the organization and will help define and solve any issue before it had become a fundamental problem. And the most viable way to do this is by deploying a flexible platform that will establish a fast and secure connection between Datadog and Nutanix. A tool like ZigiOps fits these criteria.