Keep a grip on IT quality with performance monitoring

The challenges

A lot of vendors, DevOps teams, fast releases, new technologies, an agile way of working, and influential end-users all make managing complex IT landscapes increasingly complex. Although parts of the IT landscape are being outsourced, the responsibility for the quality of IT still lies with the CIO himself. There is a need for insight into what is happening, who is responsible for it, and how it can be optimized. The impact of disruptions, or even downtime, is often considerable and is felt by the entire organization. Whether in terms of a damaged image, financial impact, or user dissatisfaction. Fortunately, there is monitoring. Right?

From technology to experiences

Traditional IT monitoring looks at the functioning of, for example, CPU, infrastructure components, or server metrics and is, therefore, able to provide good insight into the performance of the technical aspect of IT. What Sentia often encounters in practice, however, is that – despite the use of technical monitoring – the experience of the end-user is insufficient and the root cause for this is unknown. The reason: an end-user does not use that one infrastructure component, but the entire chain of IT components in which there are various dependencies.

With IT performance monitoring, Sentia looks at the quality of IT from the perspective of the end-user. In other words: by imitating the actions of an end-user and/or following them live, it becomes clear how the chain is performing as a whole. Is the chain available to the end-user? And what exactly does this end-user experience? How fast is it possible to log in and navigate within the application? In other words: what result do all chain components deliver together?

Performance monitoring for domain isolation

The use of app performance monitoring provides an effective steering tool for the IT department towards both the business and suppliers. In the IT chain, there are several suppliers who are each responsible for a specific component. When there is a disruption, a mutual ‘blame game’ is quickly created: all suppliers claim to deliver according to the SLA and to have no problems in their domain. Performance monitoring from an end-user perspective provides insights into the various actions within the chain, and can therefore contribute to rapid domain isolation. For example: is it possible to log in to an application, but not to search and save it? Then it is wise to first look at the database for possible disruption.

Proactive optimization for the business

The use of IT performance monitoring not only helps to respond adequately to disruptions. On the contrary, IT can proactively contribute to organizational objectives by optimizing the underlying IT systems. Think for example of increased conversion rates in a webshop because of a faster system, or more effective employees by optimally performing digital workstations. In all cases, it is important to measure from the perspective of an end-user and to map out the entire chain.

Performance monitoring is indispensable to prevent downtime, keep users satisfied and make a positive business impact.