Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA) has announced the Application Response Option (ARO) for both its Unicenter TNG enterprise management solution and its NetworkIT Pro stand-alone network monitoring software. ARO monitors the actual end-to-end response time for targeted applications across enterprise infrastructures, precisely reflecting the performance of the application as experienced by end users throughout the organization. By providing this critical performance metric, ARO gives IT managers the ability to create service level agreements that make sense to business users and to track ongoing compliance with these agreements. This metric is also useful for tracking incremental degradations in application performance -- allowing IT staff to address such degradations before they have a noticeable effect on business-critical service and end-user productivity.
"Ultimately, end-to-end application response time is what business users perceive as the level of service they are getting at any given moment," says Andrea Lodolo, technical director for Global Technology Delivery Services at Computer Associates Africa. "By putting that information directly into the hands of IT, ARO empowers IT to be more proactive and responsive to their constituency`s immediate and long-term needs."
Under both Unicenter TNG and NetworkIT Pro, ARO allows network managers to set up response time thresholds and receive automatic notification when those thresholds are exceeded. Using Unicenter TNG`s Business Process Views, managers can also separately evaluate and define service parameters for applications and groups of users according to real-world business requirements.
ARO, which works with Windows NT, Windows 95 and Windows 98 clients, automatically does all necessary baseline performance calculations, applies user-defined thresholds and generates SLA reports in HTML for each user-defined Business Process View. In addition to PeopleSoft, Internet Explorer, Lotus Notes and other applications supported by this option, users can extend the ARO knowledge base to monitor their in-house software without modifying applications or writing new code. This enables organizations to effectively manage applications that are not otherwise engineered for precise performance monitoring.
The ability to track end-to-end performance is particularly vital for revenue-critical applications such as ERP and call centres, where degradations in response time can significantly impede key business processes.
ARO`s architecture features configurable, extensible agents that can measure response times for specifically defined operations such as receiving data following a query or receiving the next screen of an application after the previous one has been completed. By detecting variations between response times for different operations within the same application, ARO enables more granular troubleshooting and diagnostics of business services with multiple interdependencies.
The data generated by ARO also provides an accurate view of application and service availability to the end user, as well as a useful picture of utilization patterns over time. This data can be used to plan and provision additional infrastructure resources as required.
Used in conjunction with the network management capabilities of Unicenter TNG and NetworkIT Pro, the Application Response Option provides the tools to pinpoint the root causes of problems and proactively resolve performance issues before business operations are affected and/or users complain.
Clients can also use the Application Response Option alongside RMON analysis and performance management tools such as the Response Probe Option, application traffic simulation and network troubleshooting tools like the SuperPing Path Doctor Option, and Unicenter TNG System Agents running on application servers. By using these tools in conjunction with each other, they can achieve any level of in-depth management they require. Additionally, organizations using ATM, Frame Relay or switched IP networks can use ARO in conjunction with Unicenter management tools in order to architect the most complete possible end-to-end network management solution.
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