1. Overview #
A unified SaaS platform.
The products #
| Product | Usage |
|---|---|
| Infrastructure | Metrics for hosts, containers, cloud services; host map |
| Log Management | Log collection, processing, indexing and archiving |
| APM and Continuous Profiler | Distributed traces, service map, profiles |
| RUM and Session Replay | Real user experience |
| Synthetic Monitoring | Scheduled API and browser tests |
| Monitors, SLOs, Incident Management | Alerting and incident management |
| Security (Cloud SIEM, CSPM...) | Detection and security posture |
2. The concepts #
Agent, integrations, tags.
Vocabulary #
| Concept | Definition |
|---|---|
| Agent | Software installed on each host (or as a DaemonSet) that collects metrics, logs, traces and processes |
| Integration | More than 800 connectors: agent checks (Nginx, PostgreSQL...), cloud, SaaS |
| Tag | key:value pair (env:prod, service:checkout) attached to all data |
| Site | Data hosting region: datadoghq.eu (EU), datadoghq.com (US1)... |
| API key / application key | API: send data; application: read and configure |
Common mistake: The site is chosen when the account is created and cannot be changed. For data subject to GDPR, choose the European site (datadoghq.eu) and setDD_SITEaccordingly on all agents.
3. Datadog versus the alternatives #
SaaS or self-hosted.
Comparison #
| Criterion | Datadog | Dynatrace | Open source stack (Grafana, Prometheus...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hosting | SaaS | SaaS or managed | Self-hosted (or managed cloud) |
| Getting started | Very fast | Very fast (OneAgent) | Longer |
| Cost model | Per host, GB, million events, custom metric | Per host and consumption | Infrastructure and staff time |
| Customization | Strong | Strong, built-in AI | Total |
| Main risk | Runaway bill | Cost, lock-in | Operational burden |
Good practice: Datadog accepts OpenTelemetry: instrumenting with OpenTelemetry limits vendor lock-in and eases a possible migration.
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