APM can optimize biz agility, revenue

With technology and Web 2.0 now integral to businesses, application performance management (APM) is increasingly critical to a company's growth and success, directly impacting not only revenue, but also agility, innovation, and brand recognition.

According to Blair Drenner, vice president of business development, Compuware's DynaTrace division, companies worldwide are moving from simply being concerned about preventing their IT systems from failing, to demanding more advanced ways to support performance management, particularly when applications are involved. Compuware, which manufactures software that monitors IT performance, acquired application performance monitoring vendor, DynaTrace, in July 2011.

Two trends catapulted the need for APM in business survival in today's marketplace, Drenner said in an interview Friday.

First, there is increasing technology complexity from the onset of e-commerce, Web 2.0, cloud and mobility, making applications even more vital to businesses and prevalent to their revenues, he said. And these modern applications add to, rather than replace, existing legacy, heterogeneous IT environments.

"So companies are spending more money just keeping their lights on, instead of innovating and bringing products to customers faster," he said.

Second, organizational complexity has also emerged because more people and business departments are now coordinating and working together to develop, test or run various applications in a company, he added.

"So with these technology and organizational complexities, you need tools to help coordinate and manage all that. And you have to do more with less, or you'll be out," Drenner said.

Noting that APM was one of the fastest growing markets in service management, he added that he had observed companies globally becoming more aware of the need to adapt to these market changes and "APM resonates very well", particularly with Asian enterprises.

APM bridges business, IT
Drenner reiterated that it is important to establish the relationship between IT and business and APM can help companies ensure this is achieved.

"[There is] absolutely a direct correlation between the performance and stability of an application and the revenue, brand recognition and agility of a company," he explained. "People have been talking about this for a long time--marrying the application, technology, bits and bytes to the business."

"The more services and revenue-generating activities move to IT, the more you will need to relate business to technology. And the key component that is driving a company's revenue and brand recognition is its application."

Hence, bridging the IT and business disconnect will allow a company to be agile and respond quickly to solve customer issues, he said, adding that this will also impact the bottom line.

"Most people don't know what the cost is of a performance problem [even if] it's just a few seconds... We're talking real revenue impact because their product's performance is stable. Revenue is increased because transactions are faster so they can process more orders; and there's the intrinsic value of brand recognition. If something works well and is stable, customers will come back to your site," he noted.