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 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.