Unlike standard APM, cloud application performance management, or CAPM, handles instances in a much different manner. If your business has begun implementing cloud-based applications, it’s essential that you understand not only the differences within how these applications operate when compared to their static server counterparts, but also how the monitoring of such applications differs.
Application Performance Monitoring and Resource Monitoring
Traditionally, application performance management solutions monitor the CPU, memory and disk utilization of applications; also referred to as the end-to-end latencies of performances. While this is an essential aspect of application monitoring, cloud application performance management focuses primarily on the user experience for any application. By combining the back-end functionality with the user-experience element, CAPM tools is able to ensure the performance and usability of applications is as effective and streamlined as possible.
Cloud APM Components
CAPM is a complex process as it allows IT organizations to monitor an application from the inside-out. Generally, CAPM tools begin with identifying response times between each request and analyzing latencies that users experience from the beginning of a process to the very end. The most effective tools are those that allow you to not only monitor real-world occurrences, but also virtual simulations to ensure each process functions as it should. At the cloud instance, it’s essential to be able to separate each performance component within a network, which provides a deeper look into the application to determine the root cause for issues and errors altering the performance of each application.
Understanding the Unpredictable Elements of Cloud Applications
When a business utilizes the cloud as part of its communication mechanism, it’s introducing a vast array of unpredictable and unknown performance markers. The only way a business is able to achieve accurate performance measurement is by analyzing a large number of instances, or transactions, and then averaging them. As you utilize the Internet as a primary portion of your application, or network, infrastructure , the pathway of your network can unexpectedly change. It’s this unpredictable nature of cloud applications that many businesses fumble with. Cloud application performance management solutions take into account the non-stable environment the cloud provides, and utilizes advanced and complex monitoring elements to provide the deepest level of performance management and issue identification.
While utilizing the cloud to host applications is becoming a requirement due to the complex and ever-evolving IT industry, monitoring and analyzing cloud application performance is just as complex and demanding. CAPM tools, resolve many of these challenges as they allow IT organizations to focus on not only the end-user experience, which is vital when dealing with cloud based applications, but also back-end processes by assigning specific monitoring agents over each process. When combined with a thoughtful infrastructure and continual management, the performance and dependability of applications are significantly increased.