What is Application Performance Monitoring (APM)? A Beginners Guide

Nowadays applications are a critical component that is used in various businesses.

These applications, be they employee-facing or customer-facing, affect user satisfaction or output, business success/failure, and organizational efficiency.

Application performance monitoring is hence a vital methodology that helps to verify that applications provide the performance, reliability, and user experience demanded by employees, partners, and customers.

By definition, APM encompasses various tools and methodologies used for measuring and controlling the efficiency of enterprise applications.

It enables the IT professional to realize several metrics concerning the application and even performance problems and promptly rectify the same in a bid to enhance the performance of the application.

Some of the parameters that are measured by APM tools include response time, CPU usage, and error rates all of which are useful in understanding the health of the application and can enable an organization to solve some problems before they occur.

As organizations have deployed more sophisticated applications in recent years, APM has become critical to providing a smooth user experience.

Modern applications are built to run in distributed environments, use various dependencies, and communicate with different components.

APM offers deep-level transparency of application operations ultimately enabling the IT department to determine how to solve congestion at every tier of the applications.

In this blog, we are going to discuss what APM is, why we need APM, how it functions, its advantages and limitations, and the various types of APM tools accessible in the market.

We will also discuss the top APM tools and vendors and how AWS can help with application performance monitoring.

By the end of this blog, you will have a comprehensive understanding of APM and its significance in ensuring optimal application performance.

Definition: What is Application Performance Monitoring

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) is the process of monitoring, and managing the performance of a software application.

It involves using certain tools or techniques to track the KPIs identified on the physical constraints of performance, or issues affecting user satisfaction or the performance of the business.

APM provides monitoring of performance parameters that are defined by different terminologies such as response time, CPU, memory consumption, failure rate, and network delay.

It gives a live view of how components within an app work and how the application’s structure is configured.

APM tools enable the IT teams to track and evaluate the performance of the applications in your infrastructure and enhance their performance and user experience by addressing problems before they occur.

Application performance management is relevant in understanding whether an application is performing as expected by users, business partners, and customers.

It enables organizations to meet higher levels of availability, response time, and reliability which in turn enhances user satisfaction with products and services while reducing reduced impact of poor performance on the business.

In conclusion, APM is an essential when it comes to the management of application performance, improvement of the quality of the delivery of applications to users, and generally realizing the good quality application software that users expect from organizations.

Why Application Performance Monitoring is important?

That means Application Performance Monitoring (APM) is an important task for several reasons.

First and foremost, it improves a positive user experience as the performance characteristics of the application are closely controlled.

This means that, given the current usage environment for applications, users demand that application performance be optimized at the highest level.

People expect applications to be quick, effective, and to function correctly.

If an application is slow or jam-packed with numerous occasions of performance complaints then there is a tendency for users will become dissatisfied which may affect business results.

They also pointed to APM as being relevant for business consequences, which is true because it provides a model for how people can and should work together.

The optimization of applications has a direct relationship with revenue, customer satisfaction, and brand image negative impacts have been observed.

If applications run slowly or are simply unavailable users will abandon transactions and hence have the potential of losing sales and revenue.

Further, negative user experiences reduce customers’ loyalty towards the firm and deteriorate the company’s reputation.

Thus, the main benefit of dealing with the optimization of application performance is to gain an understanding of how an application performs in terms of delivering the business value, that is to determine whether it is meeting the performance threshold required to support the business strategy and goals.

Besides, the evaluation of performance is facilitated by APM. It facilitates a timely detection of performance problems and solutions are Channel before they affect end users.

The metrics concerning the performance of an application also help the IT teams in managing finger-pointing since they can gather data on the various aspects of an application to find out what is causing it to perform poorly.

The proactive approach to performance management keeps this type of problem to a minimum and maximizes the efficiency of applications.

All in all, APM has the primary significance in conveying a good user experience, supporting positive business results, as well as efficient performance management.

Results from application performance monitoring can help organizations provide quality applications to their users and assist in the achievement of business objectives.

How does APM work?

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) works by continuously monitoring and analyzing the performance of software applications.

It involves the collection of performance data from various sources, such as servers, databases, and network devices, and the analysis of this data to identify performance bottlenecks and potential issues.

APM tools collect performance data from different components of an application, including server metrics, database queries, network latency, and user interactions.

This data is then aggregated, analyzed, and visualized to provide insights into the overall performance of the application.

By monitoring key performance indicators, such as response time, error rates, and CPU utilization, APM tools enable IT teams to identify performance issues and take appropriate actions to resolve them.

Effective APM involves a combination of automated monitoring, real-time alerting, and proactive performance optimization.

APM tools continuously monitor performance metrics and generate alerts when performance thresholds are exceeded or anomalies are detected.

These alerts help IT teams quickly identify and respond to performance issues, minimizing the impact on end users.

To ensure effective APM, organizations need to define relevant performance metrics, set performance thresholds, and establish performance baselines.

By monitoring these metrics and comparing them against the predefined thresholds and baselines, organizations can proactively identify potential performance issues and take preventive actions.

Overall, APM works by monitoring and analyzing performance data to identify performance bottlenecks, optimize application performance, and ensure a smooth user experience.

By implementing effective APM practices, organizations can deliver high-quality applications that meet user expectations and support their business goals.

Five Elements of APM:

1. End-user experience monitoring: As per a Gartner survey, end-user experience monitoring is the most critical element of the APM. It collects information on how end-users interact with the application, identifying any problems.

2. Runtime Application Architecture Discovery: This element of APM understands the application’s architecture and how different components interact during the runtime. With this, it becomes easy to identify dependencies and possible performance bottlenecks.

3. User-Defined Transaction Profiling: User-defined transactions traverse the architecture, which is why they are more important than we think. Transaction profiling refers to tracking individual user transactions or requests to understand when and where the events occur.

4. Component Deep-Dive Monitoring: This element involves monitoring and analysing specific application components, such as databases, servers, or third-party integrations. It offers insights into the performance of each segment, allowing for targeted optimizations.

5. Analytics: Simply having information is not enough; you need to make sense out of it – this is when analytics plays a role. It collects and analyses performance data, providing valuable trends, patterns, and correlations that aid in making informed decisions for application optimization.

What metrics does application performance monitoring track?

Here are some of the common metrics that a business can monitor using Application Performance Monitoring, including:

Response Time – Response time is one of the key metrics in a business for it updates how much time it took for a user to respond to the customer’s request. High response time implies that the user responded to the request without any delay, resulting in satisfied customers. These are generally measured by setting a predetermined threshold limit. If the count falls below the set limit, the solution will send an alert to the team and compare performance to an acceptable baseline.

CPU usage – Another key metric is CPU usage which can be tracked using this powerful software. Be it CPU utilization score or memory usage, the application performance monitoring solution tracks it all and notifies if the program is receiving the processing power it needs to function properly.

Error rate – With APM, users can run a complete thorough analysis of the modern applications and report error rates. For example, database query failure or inquiry times out. As the error rate goes beyond the set parameter, an alert will be automatically sent to the team updating about the potential future issues.

Transaction tracing – It provides a precise image of each individual transaction made within an application, i.e., any external call, database call, etc., to keep an update of all the transactions.

Uptime – This metric is highly crucial for any business that offers online service. Most service level agreements (SLAs), only permit a certain percentage of downtime during predefined intervals. However, with this monitoring tool, you can keep track of application availability and compare it with customer-specified levels.

Benefits of Application Performance Monitoring

Alongside providing real-time insights, application performance monitoring (APM) offers unique benefits such as:

1. Improved User Experience

Monitoring application performance ensures a smooth and responsive user experience. Organizations can minimize downtime and prevent frustration by identifying and resolving performance issues before they impact end users.

2. Operational Efficiency

APM solutions help streamline IT operations by providing visibility into application performance and automating the detection and resolution of performance issues, reducing the time and resources spent on troubleshooting.

3. Enhanced Business Agility

Organizations can adapt to changing business requirements and scale their applications to meet growing demand. Identifying performance issues and optimizing application performance ensures that applications can support business growth.

4. Reduced Costs

APM solutions help save money by minimizing lost revenue due to poor performance or outages. Organizations can avoid costly emergency fixes and reduce the need for additional infrastructure resources.

5. Data-Driven Decision Making

By analyzing valuable insights into application performance trends, organizations can make informed decisions about resource allocation and application optimization strategies.

Common Use Cases for Application Performance Monitoring

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) can be implemented across different IT domains to ensure optimal performance and user experience. Some of the common areas where APM can be applied include:

1. Web Application Monitoring

By tracking metrics such as page load times, server response times, and transaction throughput, organizations can ensure that their web applications deliver a fast and responsive user experience.

2. Mobile Application Monitoring

APM solutions help organizations monitor metrics such as app launch times, network latency, and API performance to ensure optimal performance across various mobile platforms and devices. This includes supporting modern frameworks such as Jamstack CMS, which rely heavily on APIs for functionality.

3. Cloud Application Monitoring

APM solutions provide visibility into the performance of cloud-based resources, such as virtual machines, containers, and cloud services, to help organizations optimize performance and ensure reliability in the cloud.

4. Microservices Monitoring

APM solutions offer transaction tracing capabilities that enable organizations to track the execution path of microservices-based applications and identify performance bottlenecks at the service level.

5. Enterprise Application Monitoring

APM solutions are also used to monitor the performance of enterprise applications, such as ERP systems, CRM platforms, and business intelligence tools.

By monitoring key performance metrics and user interactions, organizations can ensure that these mission-critical applications meet performance SLAs and support business operations effectively.

Advantages of an advanced APM platform

Advanced APM platforms provide several advantages in comparison to the traditional monitoring methods, such as:

1. Advanced cloud observability

AWS, Azure, and GCP are some of the popular cloud platforms used by a large group of businesses.

Basically, these applications, which run in containerized environments distributed across different cloud services, are made up of millions of lines of code and feature With the help of APM solutions, businesses can smoothly work on these platforms and gain detailed insights into the operations in the cloud environment.

The best part about these platforms is they do not require any configuration or training as they manage everything on their own and provide complete observability.

Right from tracking down the application performance to keeping a check on component status, everything is possible with the advanced APM platforms.

2. Continuous automation

With continuous automation capabilities, chances of human error will be reduced and all operations will be performed at a faster pace.

Be it automated discovery of components, identification of unusual patterns, or triggering predefined actions, all tasks will be completed quickly and too without the need for manual intervention.

Organizations must constantly automate operations to ensure proper application performance because humans are incapable of maintaining, configuring, scripting, and sourcing data in a cloud-native environment.

Automated processes will save time and human effort, resulting in an overall improvement in performance and customer satisfaction.

3. AI Assistance

The Application Performance Monitoring platforms use AI techniques and algorithms to run proper analysis on the information gathered from different applications.

With the help of AI assistance, users are able to find the root cause of the issue and detect anomalies at an initial stage, enabling quick solutions to the issue before it affects business operations. Further, AI methods aid teams in prioritizing and filtering alerts based on their impact.

4. Cross-team collaboration

By providing a centralized center where various teams within an organization may collaborate more successfully, advanced APM technologies enable cross-team communication.

These team communication platforms facilitate information sharing, collaborative problem-solving, and goal alignment among teams, regardless of their departments.

Your team members might belong to the operational department or development department, however, with the APM, teams gain a unified view of the overall app performance and related KPIs, resulting in quick solutions and effective decision-making.