All Spotlight Cloud Reviews
1-19 of 19 Reviews
Sort by
Daniel
Telecommunications, 51-200 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2020
A (not so) hidden gem.
Before we chose Spotlight Cloud, we had researched other options--including Quest's on premise software, Foglight. We quickly realized we needed a solution that could be accessed anywhere--not an on premise option, and Spotlight Cloud offered this in its SaaS design. We've been using Spotlight Cloud for more than two years now and it's become a critical part of our daily survival/business continuity. The time it saves and the ability it offers to be proactive vs. reactive is something I cannot imagine being without.
PROSThe biggest benefit that Spotlight Cloud has given me is time. As a small business I wear many hats and my time is already spread thin. By not having to endlessly watch my SQL Servers for issues, my time has been freed for more important tasks. This is, in a word: priceless.
CONSThere are a few issues with Spotlight Cloud I have experienced, mostly UI and navigation driven. For instance, any time I try to "Acknowledge" an alarm, a comment box opens with another acknowledge button that must be clicked, but this button is obstructed by the UI's "Help" bubble and results in me having to tab through the screen to close the dialog. Though I've mentioned this minor detail several times, it still exists. There are also helpful features that I don't use often so when I do I cannot easily remember/find where they are located. The ability to save a list of favorite features would go a long way toward helping this. And finally, the SQL Tuning Pack (an additional expense), has not been very useful, often slow, stalls the startup of SSMS, and is hard to understand what exactly it has "optimized."
Reason for choosing Spotlight Cloud
In the end we chose Spotlight Cloud due to its SaaS setup and design. This meant minimal setup on our part, instant feature updates without any need of my time, and best of all, easy access from anywhere--including a smartphone app.
Alex
Retail, 201-500 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed March 2020
Spotlight Cloud Review
Pretty good
PROSI use the health check for each of my servers daily to find potential missing indexes and other recommendations. I use the workload analyzer when I notice server performance issues and need to troubleshoot more effectively. One of the best functionalities are the recommendations given when diagnosing an alarm. I've found those to be greatly useful and not really done by other monitoring solutions.
CONSSometimes when using the workload analyzer and trying to find which query is being troublesome... it just tells me the SQL Batch is out of context besides the query. This is not very useful to me but there might not be a way around it on your side..
Reasons for switching to Spotlight Cloud
New Relic is overpriced and less useful (at least for the database side of things)
David
Translation and Localization, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed July 2020
Spotlight overview
If you are going to buy this product your better off buying the on prim version as opposed to the Saas. The on prim version is much more stable and easier to use.
PROSThe ability to find and tune problematic queries.
CONSThe refresh rate is a minute so at best you only know what happened in the last minute. The play back feature is hard to used and restets itself. Alarms are hard to snooze and acknowledge, sometimes after the refresh the alarm comes back.
Reason for choosing Spotlight Cloud
I was hoping the SaaS version would be as good and the on prim enterprise edition. I've had real good experiences with that product.
Daniel
Computer & Network Security, 1 employee
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed March 2020
Great product at an affordable price
O really love this product. I would suggest improving the support experience. I have not had a good result all the times.
PROSCloud synchronization is great. Deployment is straightforward and you have all your instances monitored in a matter of minutes. Push notifications are awesome.
CONSMonitoring Always On availability groups is practically useless. No features at all. This should be reviewed and implemented.
Reason for choosing Spotlight Cloud
Because of the cloud readiness and price. As a consultant, I need to monitor different instances remotely, and this has been the right product.
Tim
Real Estate, 51-200 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed February 2020
Best Monitoring Software Available
I've really enjoyed utilizing spotlight cloud over the last year at multiple sites. The ability to execute various alarm actions and really setup workflows has made life quite a bit easier for a DBA that manages a multitude of servers. Support has been fantastic and they seem to be open to feature recommendations.
PROSCloud Based Customizable Alert Actions Support is great
CONSNo Azure/AWS Capabilities Security could use a bit more attention
Reason for choosing Spotlight Cloud
The web ui and ios interface moved Spotlight Cloud to the top of the list very quickly
Reasons for switching to Spotlight Cloud
RedGate refused after several focus group meetings to implement alarm actions
Ivan
Food Production, 5,001-10,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed May 2020
Feedback already provided
I have been using Spotlight on Premise for years an Spotlight Cloud is not substantially different in functionality. It has been positively enhanced.
PROSHi, Feedback has already been provided to [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] during an hour conference call and few potential enhancement points have been taken by [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN]
CONSExecution Plans are not always easily available to see.
Reason for choosing Spotlight Cloud
Primarily because of my previous experience in another company. Still had to produce a Business Case and two demo's to gain Managers approval.
Paul
Computer Software, 2-10 employees
Used weekly for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2020
Effective monitoring at an affordable price
We've found Spotlight Cloud to be an easy to use and cost effective way to monitor our SQL instance. Spotlight has helped us to identify and fix performance issues, and be proactive dealing with any problems.
PROSClear and easy to understand layout. Easy to deploy. Minimal impact on the monitored server's performance. Lots of different alerts available and with options for customisation. Good value for money vs other non-cloud based monitoring alternatives. No issues syncing to the cloud. Support has been excellent.
CONSSome of the automated alerts were lacking in information. E.g. Deadlock alert does not contain any information about the deadlock. The Availability Group monitoring does not have much detail. Acknowledging alarms requires numerous buttons to be clicked. The SSMS tuning pack slowed down SSMS when it was installed. It is not possible to have a mix of basic and pro subscriptions running through 1 account. Ideally we would only need a pro subscription for our production servers.
Thomas
Non-Profit Organization Management, 51-200 employees
Used less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed February 2020
Great for insight, difficult if you're not a true DBA
I find the software is definitely worth the money you put in to it. It is a great arsenal for monitoring my Databases and the server itself that runs it. Overall it has allowed us to make sure our DBs are running efficiently.
PROSI love the visual aspect of Spotlight Cloud. I like that I can go in and see the good and the bad right up front. The animations are also pretty great.
CONSThere are certain errors that seem to re-occur and while that isn't the fault of the software. I don't seem to know how to get rid of them. I'm not a true DBA with expert knowledge of SQL Server. So, when I get the message(s) about the page "Page Life Expectancy" is 38 seconds. I don't understand what that means or how to fix it. The tutorial tries to explain what it is and how to fix it but when I do those steps, it just happens again. So I don't know what I'm doing. I should open a ticket but I don't so that's my fault.
Nag
Verified reviewer
Telecommunications, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed February 2020
Satisfied with the Product
1. Could based with 1y of data 2. Easy to Install and Monitor 3.Customer Support is great
CONS1. Less features compared to existing software in Market 2. Alarms are little Annoying. 3. SQL Session information is not so great and dynamic
Peter
Computer Software, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed February 2020
Gille
Easy to install and configure and to use
CONSYou cannot configure alerts on sleeping spid:s and no printing functionality on reports
Rajagopal
Information Technology and Services, 51-200 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed May 2020
Invaluable Tool for SQL SERVER DBA's
We have had very many performance issues especially during the month end process and were able to sort out the issues by highlighting the code which was causing the problems. Further the resource utilisation data has helped us fine tune our code to bring about greater perforamnce
PROSThe required data is highlighted clearly ensuring that the DBA does not have to go hunting for the problem areas. Not only does it get highlighted, the background data pertaining to that issue is also made available ensuring that corrective action can be taken immediately. Enough reports are available and data is there over a period to spot trends and handle any spikes in user activity.
CONSThe alerts could have a wizard like setup and or be bunched together in various categories - the need to shutdown or acknowledge each and every alert is very time consuming especially for issues which are very trivial.
Reason for choosing Spotlight Cloud
Got great support while evaluating the product and the pre-sales/technical staff were able to highlight and show us how to solve our issues.
Jae
Education Management, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2021
Spotlight and Spotlight Cloud are a Database Admins Best Friends
I have been using Spotlight and Spotlight Cloud for years and the combination of the 2 has made my job SO MUCH easier!
PROSThe ability to take my Database monitoring with me on my Phone.
CONSNone. I love this product and all the products from Quest Software that we use.
Reason for choosing Spotlight Cloud
Ease of Use and the Easy to Understand Graphics Interface
Xuecai (Lewis)
Glass, Ceramics & Concrete, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed March 2020
Great SQL Server Performance Monitoring Tool
We use it to tune table indexes from its recommendation and use it to see what resource we should add to the server.
PROSI like the summary page and drill down capability and its easy to setup and easy to use.
CONSI have not found something that bothers me.
Reason for choosing Spotlight Cloud
I like the overall features it provides and easy setup and use and good user interface.
Patrick
Computer Software, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
3
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed February 2020
Cloud product still needs work.
I have found the alerts to be buggy. In one case I received over 11000 alerts for one event, and in other cases I never received the alert.
PROSHaving one interface to see all my servers is convenient.
CONSIf I want to customize an alert I have to do it for each database. I can't just make the change once and have it apply to all databases. This is actually one of the reasons we are looking at other products. Alerts don't always send out emails like they should.
Chris
Information Technology and Services, 51-200 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed May 2020
See it all at a glance
Super easy to use. Very easy to see exactly what you want at a glance but also simple to drill into items to get more data so also very handy when researching issues.
CONSConfiguring alerts and thresholds is not a cloud activity. Have to do it via the monitoring app running on a server.
Ryan
Telecommunications, 201-500 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed April 2022
Spotlight Cloud Makes Life Easier
My experience has been awesome. The software is easy to use, transparent and trustworthy. I fell in love with the alert feature, it gives the ability to solve issues fast and efficiently.
PROSI like the server monitoring feature on mobile
CONSI have not found any issues with the software so far.
Gordon
Hospital & Health Care, 201-500 employees
Used weekly for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2020
A great help in managing a SQL Server
Very handy in identifying processes which were causing our SQL server to run slowly.
PROSVery easy to see issue develop and determine the cause. Excellent for a power user who is not a full-on server administrator.
CONSIt can be a little overwhelming to begin with and you do still need to know about the processes which make up the server you are monitoring. That is to be expected.
YEHIA
Information Technology and Services, 51-200 employees
Used weekly for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2020
Good product needs more details
Great to monitor SQL servers from a mobile phone.
CONSIt needs more details to be added to it. Provided information are not enough to understand the issue.
Anne
Information Technology and Services, 501-1,000 employees
Used less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed February 2020
Usage
Ease of use, no problems using it and would recommend.
CONSNo Issues, easy to use, didn't experience any problems.