APM Networking - Performance Best Practices that can change your business

W H I T E PA P E R
BEST PRACTICES: APPLICATION PERFORMANCE management

NETWORK MANAGEMENTW H I T E PA P E R : A P P L I C AT I O N P E R F O R M A N C E M A N A G E M E N T
Network Management best practices
It is not news that applications run the businesses While performance and usage metrics from the routers, switches, links and load balancers that support these business systems are certainly virtually all of us depend upon; in fact, you could important and helpful, they don't reliably inform you about application argue that, in many cases, the applications are the service levels. For example:business, or are at least so intrinsically interwoven . Is link utilization of 60% acceptable?that the business would cease to exist without the . Is a router queue depth of 30 cause for alarm?application. Similarly, we are keenly aware that . Is a packet loss rate >1% the reason users are complaining about slow login times?"the network" is critical to the delivery of business . Is a network round-trip time (RTT) of 200 milliseconds going to affect services to consumers or end users; as these services the ERP application?continue to evolve-via service-oriented architectures The problem is that these metrics are not directly tied to meaningful and virtualization, for example-we become less able service level measurements. Want anecdotal proof? Try using "network response time" measurements to explain to a business manager that to separate the network from the application; in fact, the network is not causing the performance problem currently affecting the network is the service. his business.
As network technologies-devices, protocols, architectures, services, In our introduction paper, we emphasized that measuring true end-user etc.-have matured, they have become increasingly stable, and network experience is the catalyst that enables the transformation of element availability is no longer the dominant concern it once was. Interest has or component metrics into true application performance management; shifted to the service levels delivered by the network infrastructure, nowhere is this truer than on the network. In this paper, we'll examine resulting in a corresponding shift in management focus from availability some of the approaches and challenges to this transformation, focusing and event management to application performance management. on the application performance aspect of network troubleshooting and planning.Similarly, network monitoring and analysis tools have evolved into very capable commodities, delivering the foundation of a network management infrastructure. Network management consoles offer Start with the goal in mindnetwork topology mapping/visualization, and polling/trap mechanisms Today's IT professionals need to balance their focus between business can provide a real-time view of the health of the network components. goals and technology considerations. Customer-facing value delivered Increasingly coupled with traffic flow information from probes or NetFlow by technology has enhanced IT's position in most companies, and records, these network management solutions often seem to suggest globally-distributed organizations increasingly rely on the presumed that monitoring the health of the network is sufficient to understand availability of the always-on network. In fact, the success of many key application service levels, to measure how the network impacts end-user business initiatives is directly related to the delivery quality of a new response time. application service.2 W H I T E PA P E R : A P P L I C AT I O N P E R F O R M A N C E M A N A G E M E N T
So how do we define our network-centric APM goals? The simple answer The longer-term benefit is derived through the continual optimization of is to align these with the business goals, as expressed in end-user the service IT delivers to the business, with the opportunity to have a transaction performance. For example, take a business objective significant positive effect on the bottom line by reducing the cost of IT to process a new customer order in 2 minutes or less; in order to services and improving service quality at the same time. Finally, effective accomplish that, the six transaction steps must take no longer than 60 application performance management is fundamental for progression to seconds (allowing for 60 seconds of user think time), or ... [download for more]