The Future Looks Bright for Application Performance Management (APM)

In the past, professionals sometimes viewed Application Performance Management (APM) as an expensive luxury. In today’s environment, that perspective is changing. In fact, according to the APM Digest, the market for APM is growing rapidly. It is valued today at $6.3 million, and the global market is predicted to reach $12 million by 2026.

When you see growth like this, you must believe that the technology is doing its job. In the case of APM, more and more IT professionals are seeing the benefits of APM, which is giving them improved monitoring and diagnosing capabilities. The overall result is that they’re improving application performance. And, that’s good for the company, IT professionals, internal users, and customers.

Companies Continue to Move to the Cloud

Before the pandemic, many companies had plans to move to the cloud. When the pandemic forced companies to implement remote or hybrid workforce models, the move to the cloud accelerated significantly. Employees needed a direct way to access company technology, especially to use collaboration tools and other technology that is needed to support remote work.

Today, hybrid workforce models are the future of work. The need for cloud services isn’t going to wind down. Recent studies have found that 80% of businesses report having moved to a multi-cloud strategy or they plan to do so. As a result, about 82% of the workload will end up in the cloud. Globally, predictions are that the total spend on cloud services will top $480 million in 2022. And, the more companies move to the cloud, the more important APM will be.

The Cloud is Getting More Complex

While moving to the cloud is giving companies the ability to support remote or hybrid work, the quick moves took their toll. Companies couldn’t put the same type of careful planning that would normally be used in a change this big. And, some companies started their moves anticipating cost reduction.

What they found was that reducing cost wasn’t the biggest benefit of the cloud. And, in fact, costs sometimes rose for a number of reasons. For example, costs were higher because systems were running in two places during the transition.

The number of applications that companies monitor is also increasing because of the cloud. Monitoring platforms from a cloud provider often don’t have the depth and granularity to manage application performance effectively. Therefore, companies are more likely to evaluate and implement their own APM platform to give them the type of information they need.

What APM Functions Should You Expect?

Gartner has developed a conceptual APM model that many find to be helpful. You need a comprehensive approach to application monitoring to ensure that your users are getting the support they need. Gartner’s model includes:

1. End User Experience. This real-time monitoring of the performance users are seeing provides the key to finding performance issues as your users experience them.
2. Runtime Application Architecture. This helps you define the scope of the problem.
3. User–Defined Transaction Profiling. You can determine which nodes are causing the problem.
4. Deep Dive into Components. With this function you can get more information that can lead to root causes.
5. IT Operations Analytics. Analytics are critical in an APM system. A large amount of data will be gathered, and you’ll need automated assistance to compile the data and evaluate it to identify root causes.

APM Benefits

It’s easy to understand why APM is becoming more and more popular. There is a long list of benefits that you can see when you start using a well-designed APM system. One of the most important has to do with your customers.

Customers are becoming much more sophisticated and demanding in what they expect from their vendors and suppliers. Customers using your website, for example, aren’t going to be patient if your website and its applications are slow or difficult to use. And, if your customers abandon your website, your sales will suffer. Obtaining accurate APM data will result in more conversions and sales.

You can also improve the productivity of your employees when applications are always available and operating well. An APM system can help you not only fix problems, but it can also help you to spot trouble areas that will help you avoid downtime in the future. And, those are just two benefits an APM can provide.

How Can Datavail Help?

Datavail’s APM experts can provide end-to-end assistance, starting with evaluating your needs, through to implementation and management. We provide 24/7/365 teams to monitor the APM tools and take action based on your configuration.

So whether you need assistance with selection and configuration or ongoing monitoring support, Datavail is available to help. We’ve also developed a white paper, “Application Performance Management – Vital to Keeping Businesses Running and Customers Happy,” that takes a deep dive into Application Performance Management. Download it today, or contact our APM experts to discuss how we can help you make the most of your APM platform.