Application Performance Management Tool Goes Virtual

When it comes to rapid deployment, quick provisioning and high-availability in mission critical environments, going virtual is the way to go. Some of the leading providers of business transaction performance™ (BTP) solutions for keeping mission-critical applications humming smoothing across both distributed and mainframe tiers, are now launching virtual appliance versions of their business transaction management programs.

Virtual Appliance Part of Application Performance Development

Gartner Group, an independent analyst firm, has recognized the efforts of several companies who have been focusing aggressively on developing their application performance management (APM) capabilities into a balanced tool that covers their clients in all five of the dimensions of APM Gartner Group  uses to evaluate APM and BTP. Especially strong in component deep dive monitoring and application component discovery and modeling, Gartner has recognized that AutoPilot® M6 suite's new reiteration as a software virtual appliance is a visionary solution. It reduces costs through quicker deployment, on-demand capacity and scalability.

The new virtual appliance includes application, transaction and middleware performance management in a single VMware image. Deployment only takes seconds, making it all that much quicker for IT professionals, enterprise architects and application owners to begin experiencing the benefits of having a 360° view into how applications and architecture are performing.

One of the advantages provided by the new virtual appliance is the ability for existing customers to replace, maintain and upgrade the hardware platforms that are already running BTP without any interruption in service—no downtime of monitoring of mission critical environments. This new capability is complemented by the already existing grid support to enable easy failover for 24x7x365 of these essential core functions. Its on-demand capacity expands as load increases.

The basic AutoPilot product offering is still the same as its hardware based predecessor. The virtual appliance functions with a core complex event processing (CEP) engine that monitors the entire IT environment. Both transaction and operation data are sorted and evaluated by this CEP engine. User-defined transaction profiling and end-user experience monitoring are correlated with component discovery and modeling and application component deep dive monitoring to guarantee the most profitable flow of transactions from both the management side and the customer side.

BTP and APM's primary goal is to help business eliminate as many of the hidden costs behind business processes as possible. By eliminating this "stealth waste", businesses can provide better service at less expense. This new virtual appliance version of AutoPilot seeks to elevate application performance management to the next level, all while reducing expenses.

Only time will tell if the company's stated goals are being attained.

*Denise Rutledge enjoys researching and writing about technology products. Application performance management is an area she has been researching for some time. She also enjoys writing SEO optimized web content and SEO articles.