Mercury Interactive adds new diagnostic capabilities to Topaz application performance management solution

To assist enterprise IT and operations in managing and enhancing end-user experience, Mercury Interactive, a globally leading provider of enterprise testing and application performance management solutions, has announced two new diagnostic technologies in the Topaz family of Application Performance Management solutions.

The new patent-pending TwinLook technology allows Topaz users in the data centre to visualise their end-users` experience in real-time, according to Graeme Allcock, sales director at Mercury Interactive South Africa.

Also rolled out were the new Topaz Application Infrastructure Monitors (AIMs), which capture performance metrics from specific components in the Web infrastructure before correlating the data to the end-user experience. These new components enable IT and operations to quickly diagnose Web performance problems and speed resolution.

"TwinLook takes IT and operations managers beyond the metrics of performance graphs and reports into a real-time view of the end-user`s browser," continues Allcock. "With TwinLook, Topaz users can step into their customers` shoes at any time, without installing any client software, independent of where the customer resides. Being able to view a customer`s Web experience lets IT managers better understand and address the frustrations caused by performance problems and failed transactions.

"Once Topaz alerts us to a performance problem, the metrics it provides allows us to quantify and prioritise the problem. The new capabilities in Topaz add the ability to see these problems just as customers view them, taking us beyond technical parameters and into their true experience without ever leaving the data centre.

"In addition to the benefits of these new diagnostic tools, the new support with Topaz AIMs is yet another boost for us to detect specific problems within our infrastructure that we couldn`t necessarily catch before."

Topaz AIMs provide IT and operations the ability to collect select performance metrics from key infrastructure components then correlate these metrics with end-user performance problems -shortening the time for diagnostics and resolution. Topaz AIMs take advantage of custom APIs from leading infrastructure vendors, including Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, BEA Systems, BroadVision, CheckPoint, F5, Cisco, Ariba, ATG, RealNetworks and others. In addition to the Web servers, application servers and databases, Topaz AIMs can now monitor firewalls, load balancers, streaming servers and SNMP-enabled devices.