Business Service Management: What It Is And How It Benefits Your Business

All types of businesses today are increasingly becoming reliant on their IT infrastructure to deliver their products and services. However, many times, the business owners and IT managers have a tough time in figuring out how the business's IT infrastructure is performing and how it is affecting business at any given point of time. So how can IT managers ensure that they spot the bottlenecks and know exactly how they are affecting business? The answer to that is business service management (BSM). In this post, we discuss what business service management is and how it can benefit a business.

What Business Service Management Is

Business service management is a methodology of monitoring IT services and understanding its impact on business. Through business service management, IT managers can have an idea where the bottlenecks in IT are and how they are affecting business. They can also understand how IT investment, infrastructure and technology are benefiting the business. It is hence an important element of IT service management. IT managers use BSM solutions to ensure that customer deadlines are met and service level agreement conditions are not breached. BSM solutions hence track, monitor, manage and view the investment and operational part of IT to make sure that they are in the interests of business.

What The Benefits Of Business Service Management Are

Business service management is especially useful to businesses which are dependent on their IT department to provide services to their customers. It is also beneficial to larger companies with huge IT departments and a lot of IT infrastructure. A BSM solution is an integral part of effective IT service management for larger companies. With business service management solution in place, if the system fails, a business owner or IT manager will be able to spot where the error has occurred on a real time basis. He/she will also be able to analyze the reason for the failure later on. With such real-time updates, business managers can analyze the financial aspect of downtime and IT managers can ensure that there is no breach in service level agreements.

The many benefits of using business service management are:

• IT service management becomes easier with a BSM solution
• Ensures that business-critical applications remain available
• IT managers can avoid a breach in service level agreement conditions
• Through business service management, business owners can understand the impact of system failure
• A business service management solution can help reduce losses and improve productivity in business
• With business service management, work can be prioritized according to importance
• A BSM solution helps both business owners and IT managers in figuring out what caused system failure and avoiding such occurrences in the future

Tevron Solutions Fully Support All Microsoft 64-bit Operating Systems

CitraTest, CitraTest VU, and CitraTest APM are the only single license, integrated solutions for conducting application performance monitoring, functional, regression and latency testing for every enterprise application that is accessible from a Windows based machine.

Nashua, New Hampshire, December 4, 2009 - Tevron today announced the addition of support for all Microsoft 64-bit operating systems to its suite of APM & Testing solutions. In addition to monitoring and testing any application that is running on the Windows 64-bit platform, now Tevron's APM & Testing solutions can be run directly on any Windows 64-bit platform as well. These operating systems include Windows 7 x64 Edition, Windows XP x64 Edition, Windows 2008 Server x64 Edition, Windows 2003 Server x64 Edition, and Windows Vista x64 Edition. With 64-bit support, IT organizations can take full advantage of the latest powerful PCs and optimize the monitoring and testing experience. With the latest releases of CitraTest, CitraTest APM, and CitraTest VU, Tevron again is taking the lead role in the APM & testing industry in providing support for every 64-bit Windows environment and every application that is accessible from every 64-bit Windows environment. As companies across the world upgrade to the 64-bit editions of the various Windows operating systems, Tevron's APM & testing solutions will continue to offer the industry lead for application monitoring, load testing, and general automation.

To learn more about Tevron’s automated testing solutions or to request additional information, please call +1.702.518.7435 or visit http://www.tevron.com.

ABOUT TEVRON:

Tevron is a global leader in APM and Automated Testing. Through our all encompassing customer-centric vision and advanced technology, our APM & Testing Solutions allow the unique flexibility of supporting every application across the enterprise with one methodology delivering the ability to test, monitor, enforce SLAs, and optimize performance with confidence and ease. Founded in 2001, Tevron is a global organization and is privately held. Our vast and diverse range of customers are global leaders and include companies such as Alcon Labs, Alverno, Northrop Grumman, Xerox, Hewlett Packard, Siemens, and Lucent Technologies, to name a few.
Visit: http://www.tevron.com

TRADEMARKS:

Tevron, the Tevron logo, and CitraTest are registered trademarks of Tevron, LLC. Windows 7 x64 Edition, Windows XP x64 Edition, Windows 2008 Server x64 Edition, Windows 2003 Server x64 Edition, and Windows Vista x64 Edition are registered trademarks of Microsoft. All other product references herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Application Monitoring: 5 Steps to ensure effective monitoring of business-critical applications

Businesses are starting to give due importance to application monitoring of business critical applications, which prevents bottlenecks from affecting end users. Application monitoring also ensures that any glitches in the application can be solved quickly and efficiently before they become bigger problems. In addition to this, monitoring makes sure that application performance is up to the mark so that the business can function efficiently. The following are 5 steps through which you can ensure effective application monitoring for all business applications.

ADVANCED PLANNING

The first step for effective application monitoring is to plan well in advance. Application monitoring cannot be undertaken unless a roadmap is laid out. This is true especially in case of a new application or software. Such monitoring ensures that application performance is also on par with the business standards which are set.

PROACTIVE APPLICATION MONITORING

Many businesses make the mistake of ignoring application monitoring unless there is a problem in it. This is a blunder, as waiting for a problem to occur before solving it may affect end users adversely. Application monitoring should be proactive and constant so that any bottlenecks in the application can be dealt with before they start affecting end users. Constantly monitoring applications also results in optimum application performance. IT managers can undertake proactive monitoring by establishing threshold values of IT infrastructure like bandwidth, CPU, memory etc. In case these parameters are exceeded, they can perform a system health check to prevent a major problem.

SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT

A written contract like a service level agreement (SLA) can serve businesses well and establish the extent to which application monitoring needs to be undertaken. The IT team can determine the requirements and measure application availability according to the standards set in the service level agreement.

FORM A RECOVERY PLAN FOR APPLICATION FAILURE

An important step in ensuring application monitoring is to have a well-prepared recovery plan in case of application failure. Sometimes, despite taking precautions and ensuring application performance of business-critical applications, they fail; in such a scenario, the IT team needs to ensure that the error is rectified as soon as possible so that there is minimum impact to business bottom line.

GET PROFESSIONAL HELP

If your business-critical applications are not being monitored for application performance, your bottom line may get affected in case of a serious problem in any application. You can get the help of a professional for application monitoring. There are many service providers today who offer customized APM solutions which cover all the applications within the organization, and are highly efficient in ensuring optimum application performance. Such APM solutions can help you ensure that applications are available and there is minimum downtime.

Tevron Adds Full Support for Microsoft Windows 7.

CitraTest, CitraTest VU, and CitraTest APM are the only single license, integrated solutions for conducting application performance monitoring, functional, regression and latency testing for every enterprise application that is accessible from a Windows based machine.

Nashua, New Hampshire, October 29, 2009 - Tevron today announced the addition of support for Microsoft Windows 7 to its suite of APM And Testing solutions. Windows 7 is designed for faster and more reliable performance. With 64-bit support, you can take full advantage of the latest powerful PCs. With the latest releases of CitraTest, CitraTest APM, and CitraTest VU, Tevron again is taking the lead role in the APM and testing industry in providing support for every Windows environment including Windows 7 and every application that is accessible from Windows. As companies across the world upgrade to the new Windows 7 operating environment, Tevron's APM and testing solutions will continue to offer the industry lead for application monitoring, load testing, and general automation. To learn more about Tevron's automated testing solutions or to request additional information, please call +1.702.518.7435 or visit http://www.tevron.com.

About Tevron:

Tevron is a global leader in APM and Automated Testing. Through our all encompassing customer-centric vision and advanced technology, our APM and Testing Solutions allow the unique flexibility of supporting every application across the enterprise with one methodology delivering the ability to test, monitor, enforce SLAs, and optimize performance with confidence and ease. Founded in 2001, Tevron is a global organization and is privately held. Our vast and diverse range of customers are global leaders and include companies such as Alcon Labs, Alverno, Northrop Grumman, Xerox, Hewlett Packard, Siemens, and Lucent Technologies, to name a few.

TRADEMARKS:

Tevron, the Tevron logo, and CitraTest are registered trademarks of Tevron, LLC. Windows 7 is a registered trademark of Microsoft. All other product references herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Performance Testing: Importance and Objectives

In the IT service industry, performance testing of applications is undertaken to evaluate the performance of mission critical applications of organizations. Performance testing ensures that the applications being tested are available, reliable and efficient when put under load. Optimum performance of applications can ultimately ensure that the service level agreement conditions are met with.

Importance of Performance Testing

• Application performance has a major impact on the overall quality and popularity, especially in cases where organizations are dependent on IT for major business activities.
• Clients have a clear expectation when it comes to quality and have become more demanding.
• Every client looks for a reliable and fast application; performance testing ensures that all applications are performing optimally and are available and speedy.
• The need for eliminating bottlenecks has become greater in this competitive business world. Performance testing ensures that bottlenecks are identified and eliminated before the application goes into the production stage.
• Breach in service level agreement conditions can be prevented through performance testing of applications.

Performance Testing Objectives

• To analyze the root cause of problems and plan for solving them.
• To ensure that the application meets the performance criteria of clients as well as the company.
• To ensure that applications take the minimum response time possible.
• To eliminate malfunctions in the application before the production stage.
• To make certain that service level agreement conditions will be met by conforming to a certain performance criteria.
• To minimize cost through performance testing.
• To compare two applications for performance.

Most organizations which are dependent on their applications for business activities have realized the importance of performance testing and are using performance testing solutions which help them prevent problems in applications and meet service level agreement conditions. Until recently, multiple solutions were required for each application. But now, many APM vendors offer performance testing solutions which cover all applications within the organization, so that complicated, separate solutions for each application are not required. That means just one performance testing solution supports multiple applications. Eliminating the need for multiple performance testing solutions also saves costs for the organizations concerned.

Business Service Management and its Benefits

Business Service Management (BSM) helps businesses in understanding how IT services can be used, benefited from and improvised. Through Business Service Management, IT managers can monitor applications so that they can foresee and deal with application outages. In large organizations, in case of an outage, it is important to know exactly which department is going to be affected in order to prevent major impact. IT managers also need to ensure that Service Level Agreement conditions are met by ensuring that all business-critical applications are available and error-free. Business Service Management helps IT managers in doing this by tracking, monitoring and managing the investment and operational part of the information technology to make sure that they are in the interests of business. BSM hence intersects the IT processes with the business processes in order to ensure that the IT infrastructure gives maximum benefit to the business.

Business Service Management solutions are not only useful to IT managers, but also business managers. Business managers can quickly analyze the business impact of downtime and deal with clients accordingly. IT managers can then take action to solve that problem and avoid a breach in Service Level Agreements. Using Business Service Management solutions, IT managers can see on a real time basis, where the problem has occurred and which departments will be impacted by it. With this information, IT managers can then plan on how to resolve the problem and which area to target first. This helps them ensure that conditions of Service Level Agreements are not breached.

Business Service Management helps organizations in many ways:

• Business managers can allocate resources efficiently with the help of BSM
• With a Business Service Management solution, business managers can understand the business impact of system failure
• Service Level Agreement conditions can be met successfully
• The root cause of the problem in any application can be pinpointed and a solution can be found quickly
• A Business Service Management solution can help avoid considerable loss in costs
• Businessmen can alert clients in case there is a critical outage
• IT managers can allot work according to priorities to get the problem solved quickly
• Business Service Management solutions give visibility to IT infrastructure, which can help with better management of business resources

Performance Testing: 3 Tips To Effectively Test Application Performance

Application performance testing is undertaken by companies to determine the performance, availability, speed and reliability of applications. IT departments usually undertake performance testing to note how applications perform under different types of workload. Performance testing of applications is used for different purposes: it can be used to identify performance bottlenecks, to ensure that the applications meet set criteria or to compare the performance of two applications. Performance testing of applications hence helps IT managers in IT service management and also to meet terms of service level agreements by ensuring application availability and reliability.

The following are three tips for performance testing that can make the process easier for you:

1. Set Specific Performance Criteria

Application performance criteria need to be set keeping the end users in mind. Without an idea of their expectations, performance testing may be rendered useless. Take inputs from end users regarding the problems they generally face and what they expect from applications. Companies dealing in various industrial verticals are increasingly using performance testing solutions to ensure that their IT service management meets customer expectations. Only if end user expectations are satisfied can the performance testing activities prove successful.



2. Take the Database into Consideration for Performance Testing

Simultaneous user sessions and their response timings are usually taken into consideration while undertaking performance testing. Load testing is also performed on applications to check the effect of multiple simultaneous user sessions. Such steps are essentially important for companies involved in IT service management. However, the database affects the end user experience drastically. For example, a transaction for a user can be very fast in case it is inserted into a table which is empty; however, the response time deteriorates once the table grows. Taking the database into consideration is hence vitally important for performance testing of applications.



3. Don't Overdo it

You need to take some points into consideration in order to optimize application performance. For example, before even getting involved in performance testing, optimum application performance can be ensured through scalable architecture and strong hardware resources. Performance testing of applications is then done by IT managers to double check that all applications are available according to the service level agreement requirements. However, you should not overdo it. Talk to end users about which parts of the application they use most frequently and concentrate on optimizing those parts for performance. Don't spend more time than required on performance testing of rarely-used application features.

Application Monitoring: Types Of Solutions Available

Organizations in literally all industries today undertake application monitoring for knowing the performance of applications which are critical to their functioning. Through application monitoring tools, an IT administrator can not only know application performance, but can also check for unauthorized access or data theft, if any, within the network. IT administrators can also ensure that service level agreement terms are met by ensuring that all applications are performing impeccably. However, with today's businesses becoming more complicated and using multiple applications across various levels, it has become tough to get visibility into all applications and network technologies within the business. Such complex applications can be monitored through a custom-made application monitoring solution which covers the entire organization. But for the monitoring to be accurate and complete, the type of application monitoring needed must be identified. The following are the types of monitoring available for various applications:

1. Monitoring for Security



Business applications now have a global connection, and hence need to be monitored for security. Application monitoring for security ensures that the application, database as well as servers are implemented with security patches. Software products generally include a security warning, which needs to be studied and implemented in order to ensure that security standards are complied with and the application is safe from hackers. Generally, application monitoring tools are equipped to ensure that applications are updated with the latest versions of softwares. Security monitoring helps administrators with IT service management and also helps them avoid ongoing security threats through newsletters and other mediums.

2. Application Monitoring for Errors



An error in any application can result in failure to submit or display the requested information. In such a case, end users are the ones who are severely impacted. Such errors can be resultant to software problems related to the application like its code or the data base or servers. Problems can also arise due to hardware-related issues of CPU processing, network or memory. In such a scenario, application monitoring for errors is undertaken, which can pinpoint the cause for the error. Custom-made application monitoring tools are available today, which take into account the architecture of the application, platform, error messages, documentation etc. Error monitoring in applications is especially important in companies involved in IT service management.

3. Performance Monitoring



Application monitoring is also undertaken to judge performance of application, so that a good end user experience can be ensured. Application performance can be judged by monitoring the code of the application, which determines that a certain number of actual user requests can be handled. Application monitoring for performance is also derived from the supporting hardware, which provides capabilities for handling user requests through memory, processing etc.
Application monitoring can determine the performance of applications by noting the time taken for access and request processing in the logs. One can judge the actual user experience by sending requests to applications for different location and then observing the real response time.

4. Health Monitoring



Application health monitoring helps IT professionals foresee any problems and solve them before they start affecting end users. Application health needs to be constantly monitored so that any issues can be solved before they become major problems. Application monitoring for health consists of comparing snapshots of system and application parameters to the standard benchmarks. Hence, IT professionals may, as part of application health monitoring, set up alerts in case response time for transactions increases more than the normal level.

5. Configuration Monitoring



IT professionals can avoid untested and undocumented configuration elements through configuration monitoring for applications. Releases of new applications and operating system changes can affect hardware as well as software configuration of any machine. In this scenario, IT professionals need to monitor each configuration change for any unauthorized change. The best application monitoring for configuration is a process within which change is implemented only on approval by authorized personnel. Through such application monitoring, the person in charge is always aware of the changes that have taken place in the configuration.

4 Features To Look For In Your Application Performance Management Solution

An application performance management solution is required when a business has critical aspects being handled by applications at the back end. Even a small glitch in important applications can result in a downtime, which can affect bottom lines of a business. Thus an application performance management solution is a must for businesses which use applications for service support. There is a confusing array of APM solutions available in the market today and selecting the appropriate one is a tough task. Mentioned below are 4 features in an APM solution must have in order to effectively undertake application monitoring.

1. Capable of monitoring end user experience

End user monitoring tools help in judging application performance. Such tools do not require any installation and are a simple plug and play solution. In the event of your end user monitoring tool showing any latency, the application performance management tool needs to be able to spot them. Only if your APM solution is able to monitor end user experience effectively, will you be able to solve the problem. Such an application performance management tool should also be affordable for your business.



2. Help in management of the data center

Applications being used by businesses today are complex, interdependent and scattered, which creates a requirement for data center management. Application performance can only be judged through an APM solution which enables data center management. The data center as a whole needs to be taken into consideration if the application performance management solution has to solve the problem. But due to the fact that data center management tools use information of softwares of server management from various tiers, there is a lot of resource consumption metrics which will not make a connection of application performance and what the end user experiences. In such cases, if the end users are not monitored, problems will come to the fore only in case users call up the service desk to complain.



3. Capability in monitoring network performance

Monitoring of network performance is also an integral part of application performance management. This is because if the latencies being shown in the applications do not match with end user experience, the APM solution will not be effective. Effective application monitoring can be done only if the APM solution monitors network performance.



4. Business transaction management

In order to cover all the important issues given above, each business transaction within the organization needs to be monitored. This means that each and every transaction right from the end user to the network to the data center needs to be monitored. This process is called Business Transaction Management.

5 Steps To Developing A Service Level Agreement

An important characteristic of completing a business engagement is the service level agreement entered into by the customer and the service provider. SLAs set forth the service levels expected by the customers and deliverable by the service provider. They are especially of importance in businesses in which mission-critical services are supported by applications/softwares and a single malfunction in the IT operations can damage the bottom line of the business in a major way. A service level agreement determines the terms and conditions of the services and creates a roadmap for achieving the goals of the project. SLAs can provide the network administrator with complete details on application availability and is a great tool to application monitoring and performance testing.

However, the process of determining a service level agreement is lengthy and complicated. Industry experts recommend a step by step process for developing a SLA which is explained below.

1. Basic Information
   

Gathering of basic information on part of both the customer and the service provider is the first step in developing a service level agreement. Before any commitments are made in the SLA, the customer needs to spell out his requirements clearly and the service provider needs to verify whether meeting those service requirements is realistically possible. Without this basic understanding, a service level agreement cannot be successful.



2. Establish the Process of Working Together
   

This is a critical step in establishing a service level agreement. When there are two parties involved, there are bound to be differences in communication style, expectations, working method etc. When these differences are identified upfront, the process of working in tandem with each other is easier to chalk out. Once this process is worked out, the exact steps to be taken will be known and the service level agreement will have greater chances of success.



3. Consensus
   

Many times, customers and service providers have two very different viewpoints regarding what a service level agreement can achieve. Negotiations for SLAs are known to have broken down due to differences in viewpoints. It would help this purpose if both the concerned parties hold an open discussion to ensure that their viewpoints match. Any differences in expectations can then be ironed out at this stage and the service level agreement can be developed further.



4. Develop and Approve the Final Draft
   

This step involves developing the structure and content of the service level agreement. This is a time-consuming process, with customer as well as the service provider discussing, negotiating, and after a time arriving to the conclusion regarding the terms and conditions to be included in the service level agreement. Even after the draft is created, members of both the parties who are responsible for the success of the SLA should be allowed to review it and offer suggestions. After such discussions and revisions, the service level agreement can be finalized.



5. Applying and Managing the Service Level Agreement
   

Even after application of the service level agreement, its management remains an important aspect. There should be a member from both parties who has to be a point of contact in case of problems related to the SLA. In addition to this, constant reviews with regards to services provided, modifications in the existing service level agreement, enhancements to the services provided etc. need to be taken care of through the management of SLAs. Finally the teams at both ends need to be taken into confidence so that they help achieve the goals of the service level agreement.

Developing and entering into a service level agreement is a complex process and requires a lot of attention. Through the above-mentioned steps, a successful service level agreement can be developed and entered into.

4 Major Application Monitoring Challenges Faced by Businesses Organizations

Application monitoring challenges are faced by almost all business organizations which utilize applications for their daily business. Any problem that interrupts performance of business-critical applications affects the bottom line of the business as well. It is hence necessary to identify the major challenges of application monitoring before figuring out how to deal with them. The following are some challenges which are faced by organizations using applications for conducting business:

Monitoring Applications Proactively
In order to prevent and solve application problems from affecting end users, proactive application monitoring needs to be undertaken. But ensuring application availability is only possible if a certain threshold level has been defined. A major challenge in proactive monitoring is studying the performance of applications in order to set a threshold. In case this threshold is surpassed, the monitoring tool generates a real time alert. The IT department thus needs to first figure out how many processes need constant monitoring based on which the threshold can be set.

Monitoring of Multiple & Complex Applications
If an organization has global users then the applications may become very complex. This is due to the fact that applications have to support multiple locations, languages and cultures. For effective application monitoring of such global applications, understanding the interconnectivity of the applications and their flow becomes necessary.

Monitoring Shared Applications
Applications are often shared in order to have optimum utilization of resources. Monitoring a single application is a relatively simple task. But when an application is shared, application monitoring becomes a challenge in which logs, memory, disk resources etc. need to be tracked constantly. For example, one single application sucking up all the resources would affect other applications and thereby pull down their performance. Only a perfect APM solution combined with rigorous monitoring can spot this problem and resolve it.

Clustered Application Monitoring
Applications are many a times hosted in clustered environments with systems located at separate places. This poses a challenge in application monitoring of tracking failure logs, resources like disk, memory etc. Only after monitoring these various components can the IT team determine which application is causing the problem.

To overcome all these challenges of application monitoring, a strong monitoring tool is required. There are many service providers available in the market, which offer APM solutions including application monitoring, which help ensure that service level agreements are met. Hiring only the best APM solution provider can help simplify the monitoring process and also meet all the challenges of application monitoring.

5 Tips for Effective Application Monitoring of your Business Applications

Application monitoring of business applications ensures that any problem can be apprehended before it starts affecting end users. Monitoring also ensures application performance so that business activity keeps running smoothly. In spite of its importance however, many organizations do not take action until a serious problem occurs that impacts business efficiency badly. The following are 5 tips for application monitoring that are recommended by industry experts:

PLAN IN ADVANCE
In case of a new application or software, application monitoring needs to begin right from the initial assessment phase. In many cases, application monitoring alone might not be enough and may require additional time, support and resources to make it effective.

MONITOR PROACTIVELY
As mentioned before, many organizations ignore the monitoring of applications until a serious problem occurs which affects their business output or revenues. Application monitoring should be a proactive, all-time effort, so that the IT team can foresee and deal with problems before they start affecting end users. Proactive monitoring can be done by observing the threshold values of IT infrastructure like CPU memory, bandwidth, application health parameters etc. If it exceeds the threshold value, the IT team may need to perform a system health check to prevent problems.

CREATE A SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT
By having a service level agreement in place, organizations can emphasize the scope of application monitoring. A written agreement provides the IT team with the requirements as well as measurement techniques for monitoring. The IT team can work in advance to create a recovery plan which can help meet the service level agreement.

HAVE A RECOVERY PLAN READY
Ideally, an organization should have a recovery plan handy so that minimum time is wasted in correcting errors. This way, in case of application failure, the steps for recovery are planned well in advance so that if and when an error occurs, it can be swiftly rectified without a major impact on the bottom line.

HIRE A PROFESSIONAL
Application monitoring is a tough task; hiring a professional for the task can make the process simple and easy. There are niche companies in the market today which offer specialized APM solutions including application monitoring which can help businesses avoid downtime and prevent end users getting affected. With the guidance of such experts, organizations can ensure that applications are always available, healthy and performing optimally.

Tevron Announces Full Support for Google Chrome for its flagship End-To-End Monitoring & Testing Solutions

Tevron, a global provider of Testing, APM & business service monitoring solutions, today announced the continued & expanded support for the comprehensive End-To-End Monitoring for all applications accessed via Google Chrome for its flagship monitoring solution, CitraTest APM. Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier (http://www.google.com/chrome). Through the deployment of Tevron’s APM solutions for all environments, every application across the enterprise, including applications accessed via Google Chrome, can be accurately measured and actively monitored. Further, Tevron’s unique technology will deliver the ability to enforce all Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for any application deployed via any browser technology. “Because Tevron’s APM solutions are completely independent of the application they are monitoring and how that application is delivered, for the first time, every application across the enterprise can be monitored with one cost effective solution, including all web browser environments.

Every organization has numerous applications they need to monitor and our APM solutions can monitor them all. No other vendor offers such vast and all encompassing support. The days in which organizations have to pay a licensing fee for each application, each protocol they need to monitor, and each methodology of application delivery are over. This will result in the potential savings of millions of dollars in licensing and maintenance fees. Through the use of Tevron’s APM solutions, organizations now have one all encompassing solution with one licensing fee that can monitor any and every application across the enterprise. This includes all legacy applications, client server applications, all web browsers, Citrix or Terminal Server hosted applications, XenServer, XenApp, XenDesktop, VMware hosted applications, terminal emulation...every application. This flexibility is a must to meet the demanding needs of today’s global enterprises”, explains Jay Labadini, Vice President at Tevron.

To learn how CitraTest APM can assist you with your APM & monitoring requirements, call 1.603.595.9301 or visit www.tevron.com.

ABOUT TEVRON, LLC

Tevron, LLC is a pioneer in a new class of all encompassing APM solutions. Tevron’s mission is to provide automated monitoring solutions that support every application across the enterprise while seamlessly integrating into current management methodologies. Tevron’s technology has completed the complex APM puzzle.

Tevron Announces Full Support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 for its flagship End-To- End Monitoring & Testing Solutions

Tevron, a global provider of Testing, APM & business service monitoring solutions, today announced the continued & expanded support for the comprehensive End-To-End Monitoring for all applications accessed via Microsoft Internet Explore 8 for its flagship monitoring solution, CitraTest APM. Internet Explorer 8 includes the latest protections against a range of security and privacy threats on the Internet, tools and resources to plan a deployment of Internet Explorer 8, new features to help users complete browsing tasks more quickly and easily (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/cc889349.aspx). Through the deployment of Tevron’s APM solutions for all environments, every application across the enterprise, including applications accessed via IE 8, can be accurately measured and actively monitored. Further, Tevron’s unique technology will deliver the ability to enforce all Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for any application deployed via any browser technology. “Because Tevron’s APM solutions are completely independent of the application they are monitoring and how that application is delivered, for the first time, every application across the enterprise can be monitored with one cost effective solution, including all web browser environments.

Every organization has numerous applications they need to monitor and our APM solutions can monitor them all. No other vendor offers such vast and all encompassing support. The days in which organizations have to pay licensing fee for each application, each protocol they need to monitor, and each methodology of application delivery are over. This will result in the potential savings of millions of dollars in licensing and maintenance fees. Through the use of Tevron’s APM solutions, organizations now have one all encompassing solution with one licensing fee that can monitor any and every application across the enterprise. This includes all legacy applications, client server applications, all web browsers, Citrix or Terminal Server hosted applications, XenServer, XenApp, XenDesktop, VMware hosted applications, terminal emulation...every application. This flexibility is a must to meet the demanding needs of today’s global enterprises”, explains Jay Labadini, Vice President at Tevron.

To learn how CitraTest APM can assist you with your APM & monitoring requirements, call 1.603.595.9301 or visit www.tevron.com.

ABOUT TEVRON, LLC

Tevron, LLC is a pioneer in a new class of all encompassing APM solutions. Tevron’s mission is to provide automated monitoring solutions that support every application across the enterprise while seamlessly integrating into current management methodologies. Tevron’s technology has completed the complex APM puzzle.

Manage your Service Level Agreement Easily through Business Transaction Management

Business Transaction Management – An up and Coming Paradigm in Systems and Application Performance Management

Technological environments across businesses are getting more complicated by the day; this is resulting in IT professionals facing a tough time with Service Level Agreements. SLA management is a major part of any IT service management and is required to make sure that applications are available according to the SLA requirements. IT environments are also required to be dynamic and capable of handling the fluctuating demands of business. In such a scenario, it becomes necessary for IT to be aligned with business needs closely. Business Transaction Management (BTM) is a concept which is capable of handling the complexity as well as business requirements of IT. It is hence the first step towards Service Level Management. BTM supports the management of Service Level Agreements in each of the following steps:

Step 1: Reviewing your Existing Services

The first step in effectively managing Service Level Agreement is the review of existing services provided by the business. Business Transaction Management traces all the services provided by the business in the form of business transactions and makes information related to it easily available. Hence, the services provided, resources consumed, users of the services etc. can be accessed through BTM.

Step 2: Negotiations with Clients

Most businesses are unaware of the services levels they provide and most clients are unaware of the service levels they receive. BTM provides in depth data of all service levels and hence makes all metrics available for accurate negotiations.

Step 3: Service Level Management and Monitoring

Service Level Agreements provide the base for the quality and level of IT services. Business Transaction Management assists transaction monitoring in a more efficient way, so that any deviations from the SLA can be monitored before they occur and alerts can be sent out.

Step 4: Implementation of Policies for Service Improvement

Business Transaction Management helps improve the service to be delivered so that the conditions of Service Level Agreements can be met without any omissions or deviations. In addition to SLA reporting, BTM solutions show the breakdown of every business transaction so that service flaws can be identified and improved.

Step 5: Establishment of Priorities

Business Transaction Management helps in establishing priorities by providing valuable metrics like which users are using which specific services and how many times, which services need improvement etc.

Step 6: Service Growth Plans

Business Transaction Management solutions help in making service capacity planning easy by providing resource consumption metrics of services across the servers that are being used. The resources being utilized by each service across all tiers can be seen by IT managers through BTM. According to the data, they can then plan for service growth which can be in line with the Service Level Agreement.

In conclusion, Business Transaction Management makes management of Service Level Agreements easier by:

• Ensuring that Service Level Agreements are achieved within the resources defined by the IT Service Management
• Providing data which helps maintain service catalogs
• Ensuring that IT services are delivered on time and at the right place
• Helping businesses provide cost effective, efficient and timely services

Application Monitoring and the Types of Monitoring Available for Applications

Application monitoring is undertaken by various organizations to know the performance of their applications as well as network. Application monitoring software helps IT professionals to check for any unauthorized access or possible data theft within the business network. Application monitoring helps IT managers in judging application performance and their conformance with service level agreements. A major challenge in monitoring applications is gaining adequate visibility into all applications and network technologies of the business. To manage the increasing complexity and diversity, a business needs a custom-made monitoring solution that covers the entire organization. However, there are different types monitoring for applications and IT professionals need to judge the type of application monitoring applicable for the monitoring to be precise and complete.

Types of Monitoring for Applications

1. Security Monitoring
   Today business applications are connected to each other globally; they hence need to be monitored for security. Application monitoring for security purpose ensures that application, database as well as web servers are implemented with security patches. The security warnings included in software products should be carefully studied and implemented to ensure that they comply with security standards and the application is protected against hackers. Software versions should be monitored in order to understand if they pose any threat to security. Application monitoring should also ensure that applications are updated with secure and latest versions of softwares. Security monitoring is a very important aspect of business service management for business organizations. Security teams of companies, in addition to monitoring hardware and software applications, should keep themselves updated on ongoing security threats through newsletters and other mediums.
   
   
2. Application Monitoring for Errors
   An end user can be impacted adversely in case of an application error. Any error in an application can cause errors like failure to submit or display the requested information. Errors in applications can arise due to a software issues relating to application code or application, database and web servers. They can also arise due to hardware problems of CPU processing, network or memory. Application monitoring for errors is done by understanding the error message and finding the root of the error. For example, if an application has stopped processing new errors, one can find out through the log files whether the errors are due to resource shortage like bandwidth, memory, CPU, database performance etc. One can design application monitoring tools as well as requirements by studying the application architecture, platform, documentation, error messages etc. Error monitoring in applications is especially important in companies involved in IT service management.
   
   
3. Performance Monitoring
   Application performance is vital for a good end user experience. Application monitoring for performance is derived from the code of the application as well as the supporting hardware. The code of the application ensures that its program routines are capable of handling at least the desired number of actual user requests and the hardware provides the necessary capabilities like memory, processing etc. Application monitoring can determine the performance of applications by noting the time taken for access and request processing in the logs. One can judge the actual user experience by sending requests to applications for different location and then observing the real response time.
   
   
4. Health Monitoring
   IT professionals can judge application health by undertaking health monitoring. To address any problem before it becomes a serious issue, application health has to be monitored constantly. Application monitoring for health consists of comparing snapshots of system and application parameters to the standard benchmarks. For example, as part of application monitoring, IT professionals can set up alerts in case response time for transactions increases than the normal level. Application monitoring can be done best when it is automated and checks constantly to ensure application health.
   
   
5. Configuration Monitoring
   Configuration monitoring is a very important factor in application monitoring and avoids undocumented and untested configuration elements. New application releases and operating system changes can have an impact on the software and hardware configuration of a machine; in such a case, each configuration change needs to be monitored for unauthorized change. The best application monitoring for configuration is a change control process in which a change is approved on submission and only then implemented. Such application monitoring allows the people responsible for application to know exactly what changes have taken place in configurations.

Tevron Releases Centralized APM Enterprise Alerting Console

Nashua, New Hampshire, USA, April 3, 2009 – Tevron, the global leader in APM and testing solutions, today announced the release of the Centralized APM Enterprise Alerting Console for its APM solutions. This solution delivers sophisticated, global, centralized real-time alerting when application and system health begin to perform poorly or below acceptable SLA levels. Every environment, every business process, and every application can be monitoring and supported. Compared to the legacy management products available on the market, this solution is more scalable, more flexible, support all environments with a single technology, more cost effective, and easier to maintain and deploy.

“Through the use of Tevron’s APM Solutions, IT Managers can better manage and enhance the overall customer experience in regard to application availability and performance . As a result, Business Managers get an IT environment that is aligned with the business along with increased IT efficiency and profitability,” says Jay Labadini, Vice President.

Tevron offers the ONLY testing and End to End performance monitoring solutions that fully support EVERY enterprise application that is accessible from a Windows based machine. No application is left behind.

ABOUT TEVRON - Tevron® is a global leader in APM and Automated Testing. Through our all encompassing customer-centric vision and advanced technology, our APM and Testing Solutions allow the unique flexibility of supporting every application across the enterprise with one methodology delivering the ability to test, monitor, enforce SLAs, and optimize performance with confidence and ease. Founded in 2001, Tevron® is a global organization and is privately held. Our vast and diverse range of customers are global leaders and include companies such as Citigroup, DaimlerChrysler, Alcon, USPTO, Siemens, DeuBa, Lockheed Martin, and hundreds of others.

Manage Application Performance Holistically

IT professionals across organizations have now established effective application monitoring systems for all IT landscape: servers, network, desktops and storage. Such application performance monitoring tools help IT operations professionals predict breaches in the system and be prepared to handle such problems. However, the management of application performance is more complicated than this and is not yet perfected.

This difficulty in application performance management is due to lack of organization and knowledge. Generally application development teams are separated from IT operations personnel. Also, a cross domain perspective is required to understand application performance completely, but this doesn’t happen because IT operation of any institution is organized by their respective domains.

One of the main problems in application performance analysis is that the IT operations employees know little about the application and every time there is a problem, they need the help of the application development staff. This is often time consuming and not always the optimum solution. So in the end, only the single element in the IT infrastructure is identified and corrected instead of examining the code or the data design of the application for faults. The application as a whole within the context of the infrastructure should be considered so that a holistic approach to APM is taken. Such an approach will help improve the efficiency of the performance testing and will be beneficial in the long run.

A survey conducted on organizations using APM solutions to assess their technologies finds that most respondents meet service level agreements less than 75% of the time. One of the top reasons given for this non performance was “failure to manage application performance issues”. This confirms that users as well as businesses consider application performance more important than any SLA metrics.

There is often a conflict when an end user reports an application problem. It is not always possible to find fault in one infrastructure component that replicated the end user’s complaint. Hence, the classic scenario will be that each component manager will insist that their component is not at fault, whereas the end user will insist that there is something wrong. In this situation, the ideal application monitoring can be done by examining individual application transactions. These interactions with the application will reflect end to end performance as well as the end user’s experience.

Hence, for a holistic approach to application performance management to be integrated into business service management, it is necessary for IT operations and application development teams to work together as well as have a cross domain perspective. Also, when the end user complains of some problem with the application, the IT service management should kick into action and examine the individual application transactions. Only through such an approach can application performance management be useful to businesses and organizations.


Note: The information of this blog is based on a White Paper study commissioned by Compuware Corporation titled "Becoming Proactive in Application Performance Management".

What you Need to Know about Business Service Management

Business Service Management (BSM) is a method for monitoring IT services so that its use, benefits and improvisation can be understood from a business perspective. The technology of BSM hence intersects IT with business. By using Business Service Management solutions, the IT department can understand how its investment, its infrastructure and its technology benefit the business. Business Service Management hence tracks, monitors, manages and views the investment and operational part of the information technology to make sure that they are in the interests of business.

Having a Business Service Management solution active is especially useful to those businesses relying solely on its IT department to cater to its customers or to those companies which have a large IT department with a lot of IT infrastructure and systems in place. In such companies, in case a system failure happens, IT heads or business managers will be able to pin point on a real time basis where an error has occurred. Thus, if a business has a proper Business Service Management solution in place, in case of a system malfunction, executives will be able to know exactly where it is happening, how it happened and they will be able to analyze later on how it happened as well. Business managers can quickly analyze the business impact of downtime and IT managers can avoid a breach in service level agreement.

Companies dealing in various industrial verticals are increasingly using hybrid or customized BSM solutions to ensure that their IT service management is backed up by BSM in order to meet customer commitments and SLA.

Benefits of Business Service Management

There are many advantages of using BSM solutions:

• BSM allows businessmen to understand the business impact of system failure• Resources can be allocated efficiently
• Loss in costs can be reduced considerably through a business service management solution
• Support teams can provide better service through such application monitoring enhancements
• Business owners and IT managers can pin point the root cause of a system failure and hence avoid confrontations or debates
• Work can be prioritized according to priorities after the system failure

Service Level Agreements: A Determinant of the Success of the Vendor-Client Partnership

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are an important aspect in business engagements. A Service Level Agreement sets the parameters for deliverables, priorities, responsibilities and guarantees/warranties. IT Buyers seek vendors who make SLAs with clearly defined terms and conditions and a roadmap to achieve the desired goals of their project. An experienced IT company seeking to outsource any part of its final project deliverables would prefer to enter into a SLA (also known as contracted delivery performance) with the outsourcing company. It includes setting, tracking and managing SLAs which is an important part of Outsourcing Relationship Management (ORM) discipline.

SLAs are especially useful in the IT service industry, in which the clients are worried about softwares providing mission-critical services to their business. A single malfunction in IT operations can severely damage the working structure of the business. It is hence vital that the IT service provider has a defined set of rules and strict regulation to ensure that the promised IT services will be delivered. A Service Level Agreement can provide the network administrator with complete details on application availability and is a great tool to application monitoring and performance testing. This also smoothens the business service management process.

An Ideal Service Level Agreement

SLAs are usually scripted keeping in mind the client’s requirement, and essentially differ for each project. However, an ideal SLA has to cover some important aspects like:

• Definition of the services being promised
• How the services will be delivered
• Measurement criteria of services delivered
• Quality standards of the services promised
• Action to be taken if the provider fails to deliver as promised

Advantages of Having a SLA

A Service Level Agreement is applicable to both the vendor and the client. Some of the important advantages of having a SLA are as follows:

• Documented evidence of the agreement
• Sets a framework for quality expectation and implementation
• Makes the rules clear in case of a disagreement between vendor and client
• Makes goals and methodology crystal clear
• Creates a standard in the level of service
• Becomes a basis for improvisation of services

4 Critical Requisites of Application Performance Management Solution

When a business’s crucial aspects are being handled by applications, they need some sort of application performance management system. There is a huge data bank of the types of performance management tools available on the internet, which can be very confusing. The following are four critical requisites of an application performance management solution:

END USER MONITORING CAPABILITY

End user monitoring tools enable you to judge how your applications are performing. There are many network appliances which aid in web application monitoring and management, giving a plug and play solution with no installation required on the desktop. In case the end user monitoring tools show latencies, your APM solution needs to know how to connect the latencies your users are facing and the problem which is causing the latency in your data center. The performance management tool should also be within your budget.

AID IN DATA CENTER MANAGEMENT

Useful application performance management can be done only through the performance monitoring solutions which provide data center management. Today’s applications are complex, scattered and interdependent, and hence need data center management. The entire data center is to be taken into consideration if the application performance monitoring system has to solve the problem. But as data center management tools utilize information collected from server management softwares installed on various tiers, there is collection of a lot of resource consumption metrics that will not connect your performance to what the end user faces. If you don’t monitor end users, you will not know of problems with the application unless the end user calls up your help desk. End user monitoring and performance testing is hence very important.

NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITORING

An application is useless without the network that is supporting it. Network performance monitoring also plays an important role in application performance management. If the latencies shown within your application server do not match that of the end user, the application performance monitoring tool will not work efficiently. The application performance management tool will be effective by integrating network performance monitoring.

BUSINESS TRANSACTION MANAGEMENT

An APM solution can cover all the important issues mentioned above only if it monitors each transaction from the end user, through the network till the data center. This is called Business Transaction Management or BTM.

What is Capacity Planning?

Capacity planning is a method of identifying how much resource is required to meet service demands now, as well as in the future. In supporting capacity planning and performance monitoring, IT organizations are really evaluating the service levels they provide, which are decided by customer expectations. This discipline is of huge advantage to IT Managers and Business Firms in their respective areas.

IT Managers

• Business unit managers will receive capacity status as well as application performance report in business terms


• Helps in providing the management objective proof of the infrastructure upgrades which are required
  
• Saves energy consumption by virtualizing and consolidating servers
  
• Helps move to latest technology with confidence and efficiency
  
• Helps meet Service Level Agreements (SLA) without the wastage of money or consumption of space associated with over-provisioning
  
• Fixes performance issues and ends firefighting
  
• Helps face IT problems before they become bigger

Business Firms

• Efficient processes, better utilization of capacity as well as better control over costs helps in decreasing costs
  
• The revenue of the company sees an increase due to better productivity, greater responsiveness to market dynamics, higher return on existing investment in IT, decreased downtime, improved response time as well as maximum appication availability

Capacity planning, hence, also has a huge impact in supporting the business alignment with IT in the following ways:

• Showing the business needs for infrastructure upgrades


• Helping in saving energy through optimization of requirement of power


• IT service management within the business


• Minimizing costs and maximizing productivity through optimal purchasing decisions


• In disaster recovery plans, capacity planning helps in handling workloads after a catastrophe at data centers

Tevron gives its website a face-lift to add further user-friendly features

Nashua, USA January 16, 2009 – Tevron®, a global software company (www.tevron.com), that develops and delivers APM and business service monitoring solutions, announced the launch of its revamped website with more user friendly features and easy navigation tools. The site is verified by W3C validator. Customers will notice an immediate ease of use compared to the old site. They can request more information about services and learn about possible solutions. The new site also allows visitors to read more about the company.

Tevron® is a privately owned company that offers a comprehensive suite of end to end performance, Application Monitoring Solutions, SLA and Automated Testing Solutions. They are headquartered in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Tevron’s robust technology prowess makes it possible for every application across the entire enterprise to be actively monitored and tested. This includes web applications, client server applications, legacy applications, Citrix hosted applications, and Terminal Services hosted applications. It products CitraTest APM, CitraTest VU and CitraTest are globally renowned and their clientele include the Forbes 500 companies.

About Tevron - Tevron is a global leader in APM and Automated Testing. Through its all-encompassing customer-centric vision and advanced technology, its APM and Testing Solutions allow the unique flexibility of supporting every application across the enterprise with one methodology, delivering the ability to test, monitor, enforce SLAs and optimize performance with confidence and ease. Tevron has successfully delivered monitoring solutions that support every IT enterprise applications to hundreds of customers worldwide. Founded in 2001, Tevron is a global organization and is privately held. Tevron’s vast and diverse range of customers are global leaders and include companies such as Citigroup, DaimlerChrysler, Alcon, USPTO, Siemens, DeuBa, Lockheed Martin and hundreds of others .