The defining issue of performance management

Due to the growing maturity of IT, organisations today are increasingly demanding performance metrics that not only monitor the infrastructure, but also drive a management process that evaluates the entire solution deployment.

According to Caroline Wyly, account manager at Compuware SA, the historical focus has always been on infrastructure monitoring. "When performance is defined only by availability metrics or low level data throughput observations, this approach is adequate.

"Organisations, however, are now demanding technical performance metrics that map to the bottom line."

Business managers are also expecting a clear outline of the end-user experience, set against service level deliverables.

In addition, poorly performing legacy applications are being subjected to intense scrutiny, introducing a new set of challenges to technology solution providers altogether.

All this has left a considerable gap in the capabilities of many IT and technical departments. How can the end-user experience be measured and monitored effectively? And importantly, how can service levels be negotiated against pre-existing applications - discovering in many cases that problem lies in an application itself and not the infrastructure.

Compuware`s Performance Management Methodology is built on years of experience. The company`s EcoSYSTEMS family has in the past offered a comprehensive solution to performance, management and monitoring headaches.

And now with Compuware`s Vantage Suite offering, the company is enabling organisations to negotiate achievable service levels and to predict how a new application will perform.

The Vantage suite enables cost-effective support infrastructure sizing, ensuring that service is delivered without over-provisioning.

"For example, our ClientVantage tool, part of the Vantage Suite, monitors and captures performance data from the end-user`s perspective. The tool pinpoints the cause of under-performing applications at the client end and monitors application transaction response times from the workstation, comparing it to a service level threshold," explains Wyly.

Compuware`s Vantage Suite represents a consistent approach to technical service, assisting organisations to monitor and manage the full cycle of pre-application to end-user deployment.