Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Application Monitoring Should Encompass Application Performance Management In Totality

Management or review of application performance can often be incomplete because it tends to concentrate on the process of monitoring alone, and not for errors that may be expected or anticipated to occur in the lifecycle of the application. One of the reasons for this could be that anticipating problems or errors is never an easy task. Further, problems that do not have a precedent are often not easy to predict. Application monitoring is an intrinsic part of performance management, but it cannot prevent issues and application failures by itself, but if it is applied in a thorough manner, it may help raise timely alerts and reveal corrective measures that could be taken.

Elements to take care of, when managing application performance

Performance management needs to focus on whether the application will meet its end-user expectations or not. Outline application expectations, if needed, before going ahead with the monitoring agenda. Application monitoring will work best when it goes hand-in-hand with end-user expectations. Understanding user expectations will also help you outline a monitoring plan that will take precise as well as overall care of all the most important areas within the application. Another advantage to outlining user expectations is to ensure that you have all the monitoring tools in place. This will also ensure optimizing of the application monitoring process itself.

Remember to also measure the impact of application monitoring on the performance of the application, versus the results in case there is no monitoring in place.

How to determine the ideal time for application monitoring?

There is no fixed way by which to determine the right time to begin application monitoring. However, certain elements can become pointers.

Over utilization: If an application is being utilized above its core capabilities, it may utilize more memory and need monitoring to pinpoint the precise problem. Over utilization may occur in terms of usage time or the number of users accessing it at any given time.

> System crash: At times, errors may occur unexpectedly. This can result in sudden breakdown or total stopping of the application's functions. Application monitoring that is thorough and comprehensive can catch a potential error before it brings about a complete system breakdown.

> Software failure: Software failures can be major contributors to application breakdown. However, regular monitoring can help raise timely alerts and allow you to take corrective action before the software fails entirely.

> Regular updates: If your software is not updated regularly, it can remain vulnerable to threats such as virus attacks or even hardware failure and configuration problems. Application monitoring can help determine critical updates needed and raise timely alerts so that appropriate action can be taken.

Critical elements

Application monitoring should cover everything, from server downtime to software, to processes and services, as well as hardware. Application monitoring can also include configuration changes. Application monitoring must be implemented keeping in mind it must be kept in mind that costs incurred in repairs and maintenance could be significantly higher than those incurred in monitoring.

About the Author:

Tevron develops and delivers Application Monitoring Solutions, Service Level Agreement, Automated Testing Solutions, and End to End Performance monitoring solutions available globally. Tevron has also successfully delivered enterprise Application Monitoring Solutions and Testing solutions to support every IT enterprise application to hundreds of customers across the globe. Tevron's solutions designed to support diverse environments, business processes and applications with a service oriented management.

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