Get Instant Access
to This Blueprint

Infrastructure Operations icon

Establish a Program to Enable Effective Performance Monitoring

Maximize the benefits of infrastructure monitoring investments by diagnosing and assessing transaction performance, from network to server to end-user interface.

  • Organizations have grown from mostly on-premises hardware to a hybrid environment with a mix of on-premises, legacy, and cloud.
  • Organizations invest heavily into monitoring and tracking software, however, the business value that these investments generate is limited at best.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • While a hybrid IT environment offers many benefits, the increased complexity means that it is difficult to truly understand transaction performance as it flows through the application infrastructure.
  • Application performance monitoring (APM) tools have the power to provide end-to-end visibility into application performance, however, these tools do not work out of the box. APM implementations often lose value when the organization buys a tool reactively without considering business requirements.

Impact and Result

  • Organizations need to focus on the basics of infrastructure flow mapping and transaction profiling to establish a relevant baseline before engaging vendors. The chief enterprise architect needs to be involved in the transaction mapping process and help establish a common frame of knowledge for all members of the application and infrastructure teams.
  • All transactions are not created equally. A project that seeks to implement enterprise-wide performance management is doomed to fail. Focus on providing performance management support for a subset of the most critical transactions first. This will give the IT team an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the technology and support subsequent rollouts.

Establish a Program to Enable Effective Performance Monitoring Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should establish a program to enable effective performance management, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

1. Kick-start the performance management pilot

Determine which transactions are business critical and designate them as the pilot transactions.

2. Establish and evaluate current performance baseline

Gain visibility into your environment through infrastructure flow mapping and transaction profiling. Leverage these insights to build the performance baseline.

3. Build the case for additional investments

Leverage the insights from the performance baseline to determine desired performance levels. Determine the go/no-go decision for additional performance management investments.

Establish a Program to Enable Effective Performance Monitoring preview picture

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 3-phase advisory process. You'll receive 9 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Kick-start the performance management pilot
  • Call 1: Establish key components of the project charter and outline project timeline.
  • Call 2: Review transaction impact analysis and document transaction dependencies.
  • Call 3: Prioritize transactions based on business impact.

Guided Implementation 2: Establish and evaluate current performance baseline
  • Call 1: Introduce infrastructure flow mapping and transaction profiling.
  • Call 2: Review transaction metrics and outline tracking plan.
  • Call 3: Analyze baseline results and leverage insights to kick-start related projects.

Guided Implementation 3: Build the case for additional investments
  • Call 1: Document the quantitative and qualitative benefits of performance management.
  • Call 2: Assess the go/no-go decision and review the Business Case Template.
  • Call 3: Review the Executive Presentation template.

Authors

Darin Stahl

David Xu

Frank Trovato

Contributors

  • Andreas Grabner, Technology Strategist, Dynatrace
  • Jonah Kowall, VP Market Development and Insights, AppDynamics
  • Jean Yves Lamour, Digital Sales Development Representative, CA Technologies
  • Time Hengen, Business Development Manager, Nastel Technologies
  • Three anonymous contributors
Visit our Exponential IT Research Center
Over 100 analysts waiting to take your call right now: 1-519-432-3550 x2019