Today’s average business application typically runs in a virtual machine, with several branches that go off the application server and out to a completely different application for a particular function or piece of data.

In some cases, that branching operation may not even be on premises. As cloud computing takes hold, the scenario of going out of the network to obtain what your application needs will become more commonplace, leading to more headaches for the struggling art of application performance monitoring.

It’s always been difficult to see what’s going on inside the application. At the same time, doing so has become more crucial as applications become one of the main ways that customers interact with companies they wish to do business with.

The modern application performance management (APM) system requires an ability to see an application and its dependencies, compile statistics on normal operations, perform real-time analysis to detect anomalies, and do diagnostics to determine what can be done to correct what’s gone wrong. No systems perform all functions perfectly, despite bringing some new strengths to the process.
Network Computing