Definition of Application Performance for Newbies

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Consumers and system users are more impatient than ever before. Consumers, in particular, have high expectations of any system they use and therefore waste little time in moving to a competitor if their needs aren’t being met.

Yet, the IT environment is growing ever more complex. The largest companies rely on hundreds of distinct applications that must work well on their own as well as in tandem with one other. This degree of complexity can make it difficult to identify system problems before they spiral out of control. That’s where application performance monitoring/management (APM) comes in.

APM is the surveillance and oversight of software to ensure its performance and availability adheres to a predefined minimum level of service. As such, APM solutions focus on the identification, diagnosis and correction of system issues before they have a significant impact on the user and consumer experience. System problems could relate to application interdependence, code performance and sluggish transaction times.

Not every tool that claims to be an APM solution is truly one. There are certain principles that a monitoring software should exhibit if it’s to be classified as an APM solution. We discuss these principles below.

Real User Monitoring (RUM) and End-User Experience Monitoring (EUM)

This is about keeping track of response errors and times on end-user devices such as desktops, laptops and smartphones. Monitoring helps clarify whether the issue is caused by geography, compatibility, functions or pages.

Runtime Application Architecture Discovery Display and Modeling

This involves monitoring how the various sub-components of an application communicate with one another. Ideally, APM tools should have the ability to automatically discover component relationships and update these relationships in real time as they evolve.

For example, if the application framework changes from .NET Framework to .NET Core, the APM must detect that and adjust its tracking accordingly (see this article: .NET Core vs .NET Framework: Choosing a Runtime & How to Port).

This dynamism forms the foundation of an easy-to-understand visual dashboard through which system problems become apparent almost immediately they occur.

User-Defined Transaction Profiling

APM software should keep track of each user’s activity trail within the application. A single distinguishable entry must be created for every activity the user performs. The action should also be associated with a unique user session.

For example, during login, a single transaction entry can portray the communication and data that is created in the app’s databases, servers and message queues when authenticating a user’s login credentials.

Deep-Dive Component Monitoring

The average enterprise application is comprised of thousands of components. APM tools must go beyond the software’s complex code and delve into the identification, measurement and recording of the app’s internal components.

For example, the call stack of time and code execution will be stored in the application server while the SQL, procedure, queries and statistics go to the database server.

Analytics

The whole point of APM is to ensure the application is consistently running as it should. Ergo, no APM tool is complete if it doesn’t have robust reporting and analytical capabilities. Not only should they generate basic reports that capture raw data but they should also allow for sophisticated baselining and correlating of data as well as providing recommendations on solutions to any problems identified.

While every APM solution must demonstrate adherence to these pillars, APM tools are not created equal. Features vary widely and these should be taken into consideration when trying to establish which APM solution is best for you. You should choose an APM solution based on

• The complexity of your technology environment (will it oversee a couple or hundreds of applications?)
• How easy it is to understand (some APM tools are meant for developers which can make it hard for ordinary users to interpret them)
• The need for visual representation (graphics are essential if the dashboard will be accessible to C-suite executives who are only interested in seeing a high-level snapshot of performance at any given time)
• Scalability (if your organization’s technology infrastructure and user base is growing rapidly, you need an APM tool that can scale over time accordingly)
• Cost (no organization has a limitless budget so you have to pick APM software that is the right balance of price and functionality)

Initially, APM solutions focused on identifying problems in servers, databases and code then alerting IT teams. Today’s APM tools have gone a step further by analyzing the impact of the problem then detailing a path leading to the problem’s resolution.