Success Factors in APM Adoption

By: Larry Dragich Director, Enterprise Application Services

February 2013

Auto Club Group

Enterprise Systems Management:

Provide proactive system monitoring, maximizing system utilization to support the business needs.

Vision

Roles

Enterprise Systems Management will be the focal point for IT performance monitoring and capacity planning activities; achieved by partnering with the Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) within each of the technical domains and the application development areas.

Performance Monitoring (ESM)

ESM will be the focal point for performance monitoring activities, (i.e. Data Center alerts, Trouble Ticket Interface, Event Correlation) for events that occur within the Infrastructure and it’s components

Performance Tuning (SME’s)

Other technical domains, (e.g. Network, Server, Application Development), are responsible for tuning activities to make efficient use of resources, (i.e. defining thresholds, transaction timings, instruction text)

Continual Service Improvement (CSI)

Using the CSI concept (ITIL v3.0), our team drives the Application Performance Management (APM) meetings that convene bi-weekly to review and improve critical business application performance.

Larry Dragich, Director EAS

The Auto Club Group – April 2012

End User

Experience

Top Down

Monitoring

Reporting

(Metrics)

Bottom Up

Monitoring

Incident

Management

(ITIL)

End User

Experience

The EUE provides one of the highest values within the five dimensions of APM as defined by Gartner, in terms of application visibility for the business.

APM is the translation of IT metrics into business meaning (value). This is accomplished through multiple technologies and interlinking processes.

The success factors in APM adoption center around the EUE and the integration touch points with the Incident Management process.

Top Down

Monitoring

This is also referred to as Real-time Application Monitoring which is the cornerstone that gives the EUE its tangible value. It has two has two components:

Passive monitoring is usually an agentless appliance which leverages network port mirroring. Also referred to as Real User Monitoring (RUM) technology.

Active monitoring consists of synthetic probes and web robots which help report on system availability and predefined business transactions.

Bottom Up

Monitoring

This is also referred to as Infrastructure Monitoring which usually ties into an operations manager tool.

The Manager of Managers (MoM) becomes the central collection point where event correlation happens. System automation is the key component to the timeliness and accuracy of incidents being created.

Reporting

(Metrics)

Capturing the raw data for analysis is essential for an APM strategy to be successful.

These are key reporting metrics. Use 5 minute averages for real-time performance alerting and use percentiles for overall application profiling and Service Level Management

It is important to arrive at a common set of metrics that you will collect and then standardize on a common view on how to present the real-time performance data.

Incident Management

(ITIL)

The Incident Management Process as defined in ITIL is a foundational pillar to support Application Performance Management (APM).

This is a key component to the timeliness and accuracy of incidents being created through the Event Management process.

APM supports the CSI model and ties together specific processes in Service Design, Service Transition, and Service Operation.

Top Down Monitoring

Passive Monitoring (Port Mirroring)

Active Monitoring (Robots / Probes)

Bottom Up Monitoring

Reporting

(Metrics)

Incident Management

(ITIL)

Reporting – Service Level Management (SLM)

End User Experience

Events Incidents

TTI Engine

Data Center

Operations Manager

Event Correlation

Incident Management Service Desk

Metr

ics

Metr

ics

Metr

ics

Application Env. End-User-Experience

Incident Management Service Desk

Data Center

Operations Manager

Event Correlation

Passive Monitoring (Port Mirroring)

Active Monitoring (Robots / Probes)

Application Env. End-User-Experience

Reporting – Service Level Management (SLM)

Events Incidents

TTI Engine

Metr

ics

Metr

ics

Metr

ics

Enterprise Mgmt

Tools Device / App Agnostic

Feeder Systems

Other App Monitors Device / App Specific

Feeder Systems

Bottom Up Instrumentation

Infrastructure Monitoring

Infrastructure Agent Monitoring

SNMP Trap Receiving

Process Monitoring / Ping Scripts / Perl Scripts

Top Down Instrumentation

Application (Users Perspective)

Real User Monitoring (RUM) – Agentless

Synthetic Transactions (Probes Robots)

User Experience Mgmt. (UEM) Script Injection

Incident

Manager

Audible

Alerts

Ops

Console 3rd Party

Connectors

Trap

Listener Enterprise

Managers

SNMP

BSM

Web

Probes Service

Probes

Analysis

Engine

J2EE / .NET

Agents

RUM

Agentless

Incident MoM

Enterprise

Agents

3rd Party

Alarms

Ops

Agents

Front

Door (Custom)

Incident

Output Logical

Connection

ESM

System Monitor

Larry Dragich – EAS

Chris McDevitt, IT Architect

The Auto Club Group – May 2012

Data Center -------------------------- Operations Manager

-----------------------------

SNMP Listener

Larry Dragich, Director EAS

The Auto Club Group – May 2012

Real User

Monitoring

Routers /

Switches

UPS

Devices

PBX

Switches

Synthetic

Probes

Network

Sniffers

Web

Robots

Virtual

Servers

Encryption

Devices

WAN Optimization

Firewalls Servers

Bridge

Connector

Agent

Protocols SNMP

Traps

SNMP

Traps

Service Design

Service Level

Management

Availability

Management

Capacity Management

Service Transition

Change Management

Release Management

Service Operation

Event Management

Incident Management

Problem Management

Continual Service Improvement

Application Performance Management

Larry Dragich, Director EAS, The Auto Club Group – March 2012