Products SecurActive APS series Performance Management Performance Management
Performance management is an iterative process which aims at optimizing the value delivered to end users by the network and application infrastructure; its ultimate objective is to minimize the time end users have to wait to get a full response from the application through the network. It consists in 4 steps : measuring the actual performance, setting service level objectives, monitoring performance, implementing corrections and improvements.
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The key to application performance: end user experience
The key metric IT managers need is an indicator of the performance end users are experiencing. SecurActive provides a set of metrics, including one which synthesizes the End User Response Time. The concept underneath this metric is to provide a synthetic indicator of how well or bad the whole application delivery chain is doing for all user groups.
The End User Response Time depends on three main components:
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RTT (Round Trip Time) indicates the level of network latency (which measures how much it takes for a packet to be exchanged between the client and the server through the network)
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SRT (Server Response Time) indicates the level of application latency (which measures how much it takes for the server and application to respond to an applicative request).
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DTT (Data Transfer Time) indicates the time required for the application response to go through the network.
View the complete application delivery chain
Once you get a view of the evolution of the quality of the end user experience, you also need to be able to understand and explain its evolution. The application delivery chain relies on various elements which all have an impact on the overall performance. It is critical for infrastructure managers to understand the impact of each one: client, network, server and application.
3 areas of performance measurement
Network performance
The network is a key component of application delivery; monitoring its level of performance is key for improving the overall delivery.
SecurActive APS can provide a comprehensive set of metrics:
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performance indicators: connection times, round trip times.
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anomalies and performance issues: packet loss, retranmission, jitter, TCP errors ...
Application performance
Application performance can be measured at various level; it needs to be understood at all stages of the application delivery chain:
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DNS response time: how long does it take for the client to get an IP address corresponding to the server,
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Front end server response time: how long does it take for the front end server to respond to the client's request,
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Back end server response time: how long does it take for the back end server (e.g. a database server) to respond to the front end server's request.
Voice & video
Voice and video are now part of business critical applications: not only they may correspond to telephony (which by nature is critical), but also to new critical applications such as video conferencing. Being able to monitor these applications is also a crucial mission for infrastructure managers.
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Quality indicators: MOS, network latency, jitter, packet loss
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Volume indicators: number of calls established, caller, callee, codec
Adequate data presentation
All the data about application performance needs to be understandable by many departments and in many circumstances. It has to be presented in a format that makes sense for network administrators, system and application administrators as well as IT management and business users.
SecurActive APS takes in account your business context to present data in an easily understandable format based on business objects (zones and applications).
SecurActive APS will also present data in reports that are suitable for various objectives such as:
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reporting: providing a synthetic view of how a business critical application is being delivered to end users.
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Monitoring: providing trend and explanatory reports to monitor the key elements of the application delivery.
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Troubleshooting: providing in depth performance metrics and anomaly indicators to locate the root cause of an application delivery issue.
