What Is APM?
Application Performance Management, or APM, is not to be confused with Agile Project Management-you'll find both terms being bandied about DevOps floors these days, so be sure to get your terminology straight! In a nutshell, APM, as pertains to applications, is crucial for development-and this need not be limited strictly to apps.
Without APM, you don't know what you're dealing with; and you could quickly fall behind the competition. Every eighteen months or so, at the highest echelons of IT, computational capability doubles on itself. Accordingly, if you're developing software, you've got to transition as the tech does. Without APM, you're going to have trouble keeping pace.
The Necessity Of APM
APM is necessary in DevOps for a number of reasons. For one, new technology is exponentially more powerful than old technology, making old security nigh-defunct. As a point of reference, consider 4G and 5G wireless network solutions. 5G is 100 times faster than 4G. If you don't upgrade software, it becomes especially vulnerable to hackers. This is an ongoing process.
DevOps teams across the world have found APM protocols simplify and maximize resources toward apex development potential, helping teams outpace natural tech shifts. You can figure out where applications are working, where they're not working, where you can expect them to perform based on varying projections, and many other things. Following we'll cover several distinct advantages of APM:
- Isolation And Resolution Of Issues More Quickly
- Identification Of Clear Operational Thresholds
- Automated Protocols Reduce App Management Woes
- Issue Diagnosis And Cause Identification
1. Isolation And Resolution Of Issues More Quickly
APM helps you determine where there's an issue in your apps. Say you've got some sort of specific store-locator that isn't producing the results your users need. Maybe you've got an app that's supposed to show people where gas stations are, and what they're charging for fuel. However, when you use the app, it only shows the gas stations, not the fuel prices.
This could be an issue with your application that requires a solution from the gas stations themselves, because they don't properly list their prices. Or, you might need to write in an algorithm to seek such answers elsewhere, and deliver an "information not found" message when this data isn't available.
Regardless of where you're at in a hypothetical sense, APM helps you to isolate where the issue is in your software so you can narrow down the resolution process, getting things to their "cruising altitude" as swiftly as possible. Often APM combs through logs, and you can round out your tool-suite by using varying analysis tools-like this log file analyzer online.
2. Identification Of Clear Operational Thresholds
APM reveals where applications have limitations. For example, you may have perfect functionality of a given app provided traffic thresholds remain below a certain saturation. With APM, you can see how apps perform when you're at peak traffic, and whether you'll have to reconfigure to match market trends, or start designing an iterative upgrade of some kind.
3. Automated Protocols Reduce App Management Woes
There are automated protocols you can apply to your apps so that, for example, if a log error develops indicating a low amount of memory, APM software can automatically balance out the issue without requiring direct and time-intensive intervention.
Different automation solutions can be put to work here; what works best for your DevOps team will be different from other teams. Whatever your operational needs, automating repetitive app management issues will save time and money, helping you be more competitive.
4. Issue Diagnosis And Cause Identification
APM helps you determine what is causing app errors, and why. As they say, learning is half the battle. Think of APM tools kind of like hooking up a computer to your car's engine when the "check engine" light comes on. 99% of the time, the computer identifies the exact issue, saving the grease monkeys from banging around in your engine chasing false leads.
Fixing app issues at the software level can take a lot longer than examining an engine from the inside-out. At least an engine is more finite. With an app, especially one utilizing the internet and dealing with hundreds of thousands of users, where the issue is can take days to find if you don't have decent APM tools available.
Bettering The Totality Of Operations
APM solutions help identify issues with software, diagnose problems, automatically apply solutions, help you figure out what actual operational thresholds are, isolate issues, and overall facilitate more swift problem resolution. All these things foster competitive viability for DevOps teams, and can reduce development costs substantially while helping you produce more effective applications. APM is crucial.
