2. Conveyer belt optimisation (application release train)
There has been lots of discussion on the introduction of an APM solution early in the lifecycle of an application (development and testing stage). Quite often, the reference material fails to emphasize on the fact that if you want to reach a stage whereby there are no bugs and problems in production environment, you need to incorporate innovation at the heart of your processes and application lifecycle. Use of modern technologies such as ‘release automation’ (release management & orchestration), service virtualisation (shifting left on the SDLC) and agile development software & services is inevitable. Second, APM provides you with various features specifically targeted for use in different stages in the application lifecycle. For development stage, developers wish to see deep level details on the application critical path via a ‘transaction trace’ or ‘transaction summary view’. In performance test environments, testers want to view the most critical metrics out of their APM solution into their test solution. This is easily achievable by importing metrics out of APM and converting them into native version of the testing solutions you employ. This allows testers to decorate user-defined test scenarios with metrics of their choice directly queried from APM.
Similarly, for operations support analyst and other users in the ops context, it is vital to draw an ‘end-to-end performance story’ of the most critical applications (from mobile-to-mainframe). This can be achieved by deploying a powerful holistic application monitoring solution that tracks end-to-end.
Key Benefits
Applying the techniques listed allows for continuous improvement of the applications and building better quality web and mobile applications that delivers a five-star customer experience and promote user cohesiveness.
3. APM Solution optimisation
The third leg/vertex is ‘Continuous APM solution optimisation’ that relates with the use of best practices and sustainability metrics (‘monitoring the monitor’ or monitoring solution health metrics). It is important to understand that you should refrain from using your existing APM solution if it does not allow self-monitoring capabilities. In addition, for teams who do not have this as a part of their APM strategy should explore with the vendor consultants on how to enable such metrics that report the health of your APM solution. Leading APM solutions embark on such facility ‘OOTB’ in order to curb situations like ‘over instrumentation’, ‘metric explosion’ and ‘failed transactions’ that can happen in rare circumstances where poorly planned deployment cause more bad than good. Traditionally, APM delivery teams have placed core focus on application monitoring and consultants rarely find the time-window to tune the APM solution on an on-going basis. CA’s best practices guide places ‘Continuous optimisation’ as a priority in the must have processes for a successful APM project.
Key Benefits
Monitoring the monitor (or APM solution), itself allow APM Team to ensure expected use of APM solution and keeping APM used valuable system resources in check. This in turn encourages the use and adaptation of APM solution. In conclusion, the continuous optimisation pyramid is the best-kept secret in the APM space and is rather easy to employ with the help of matured APM vendors who have done it repeatedly creating hundreds of successful customer stories.