subject: Why Application Monitoring is a Necessity for your Network [print this page] Why Application Monitoring is a Necessity for your Network
Most mission critical applications are prioritized and monitored to ensure 99.99% uptime. Being able to monitor key applications and be alerted of potential issues is a must for most IT managers. Applications need to either feed or send data to a server, which is beneficial for users but can become problematic when there are issues related to resources being deprived because of a problem with an app.
For instance, an application begins deplete storage space on a server because its logs start receiving a lot of events. Or maybe application-dependent data that is supposed to be coming in from another server suddenly stops. If this information is not properly relayed to you, how are you going to fix the problem quickly?
Enter application performance management. Like network performance management, APM gives your networking team better management capabilities to ensure that application issues can be resolved quickly. This includes deep reporting metrics and customized alerts that will let you know instantly when there is a problem so you can be on top of the issue at hand right away.
For the most part, traditional software packages from companies like Microsoft, Oracle and Cisco are already set up on APM right out of the box. You simple have to select what package you are working with, and you're good to go. Even open source solutions such as the many different flavors of Linux and Apache web server are usually supported in APM.
At the same time, do you have some applications that are - shall we say, a bit quirky? Often times specialized apps simply don't work like more standardize ones. There could be many reasons for this; perhaps the developer created the software in a very specialized way. Or maybe it is because the application needs data collected from several different severs or domains. Whatever the case may be, this type of software can reap substantial benefits from having application performance alerts configured for them. It's possible to configure APM to work with pretty much any type of software with a little bit of effort.
Concerned about application performance? Then start managing it today. There's no reason you shouldn't get started with APM you'll likely be grateful for its ability to gain performance insight into the status and availability of your mission critical applications as well as your network.
