Many enterprises are finding their way through the current wave of digital transformation, and a key obstacle they have to overcome is the number of users who expect 24/7 access to applications across any number of their devices. A growing number of enterprises are migrating applications and information stores to private and public cloud solutions, so that hybrid IT architectures – where information is stored in the cloud as well as on local systems – have become widely adopted.
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These more complex networks have made monitoring the performance of applications and systems more challenging, costly and time-consuming for IT departments. Enterprises around the world are realising just how challenging maintaining application performance levels has become within the cloud hybrid environment. Riverbed’s Global Application Performance Survey found enterprises which are more fragmented in their performance management approach face negative impacts on their productivity and, as a result, the bottom line. Companies require a fully integrated, proactive, agile approach to ensure application performance is conducive to business value.
Staying Agile
The Enterprise Management Associates’ 2016 ‘Network Management Megatrends’ study found 90 percent of organisations have established deployment plans in preparation for the hybrid IT infrastructures. Of this 90 percent, 70 percent have either completed or are in the process of deployment whilst the remaining 20 percent plan to deploy within the next two years. For the majority of these enterprises, deployment will be an ongoing process and will develop as applications progress and the business needs evolve. To increase agility within the organisation, IT departments need to regularly evaluate and adopt new cloud services to deliver applications more rapidly.
Achieving agility is easier said than done. Applications often falter or fail for a myriad of reasons – problematic code, network outages or server failures to name a few. As such, IT departments are often blamed. Riverbed’s Global Application Performance Survey found 71 percent of users say they frequently feel “in the dark” regarding why their enterprise applications are running so slowly.
The Bigger Picture
Most organisations’ approach to application performance management is not comprehensive enough – often it is far too fragmented. Separate IT teams use different tools to monitor network traffic, real-time communication issues, infrastructure, and application performance-related problems. Individual teams see what they are responsible for rather than the network ecosystem as a whole.
In addition, IT is faced with challenging intra-department communication due to the teams’ use of different metrics. As such, instead of fixing the problem straight away, IT teams struggle to determine the root cause of the issue – this reactive approach is a far cry from the necessary proactive approach required for a complex application-driven environment.
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To counter this fragmented approach, enterprises should implement holistic, real-time, end-to-end visibility into cloud and on premise application performance throughout the entire network. This way, IT is able to establish an overall view of how apps are performing and how they impact end-user engagement. By identifying the cause of issues, IT can fix them before the user notices. This proactive approach improves overall performance, visibility into application performance results and thus increased productivity and revenue for the organisation. Furthermore, enterprises can expect improved customer service, product quality and employee engagement.
New technology that allows for increased visibility, optimisation, and control ensures prime performance of enterprises’ applications – whilst maximising IT efficiency and productivity. In addition, new technology also permits IT to configure application infrastructure and architecture to respond to the organisation’s needs. The integration of these infrastructures with other systems within the network ensures complete delivery and the best possible user experience.
Visibility through the cloud
With businesses increased adoption of cloud technology, and the sheer mass of data that is being generated across networks – guaranteeing the best possible application performance is imperative for success. Businesses need to be more agile than ever, for they will only be able to stay competitive if they have a complete view of how applications are performing irrespective of their location. Once businesses have a holistic view of their network (both cloud and on premise) – they will have the performance insight they require to ensure they deliver and maintain business-critical applications – achieving increased productivity and an improved bottom line.
Paul Griffiths, Senior Director, EMEA & APJ, Advanced Technology Group at Riverbed Technology