The Three Views of APM

Application performance management (APM) used to be just a buzzword for SysAdmins. Now, with the emergence of cloud services and businesses built around software as a service (SaaS), APM is a necessity at all levels of an organization. In this whitepaper, we look at the need for and benefits of APM from the view of three different roles:

• Application developers need APM to track performance through their code and across the various services upon which the application depends.
• System operators can only make informed decisions about infrastructure if they have a clear picture of all the moving pieces, with log analysis and accurate alerting. APM provides this.
• Application owners ask altogether different questions, ultimately caring most about end-user (customer) experience. APM can provide metrics to inform the owner’s decisions regarding the bottom line.