Application Performance Management (APM): What is it and which tools help?
Companies are increasingly under pressure from digitalization. New providers are entering the market with app-based models, reshaping the competitive landscape. Customers expect increasingly powerful digital services that are not only fast and reliable but also provide a seamless user experience.
However, these new applications come with certain risks. A positive user experience is only possible with optimal performance. Therefore, an application’s performance is crucial to modern customer satisfaction.
But how can you ensure this? How do you maintain stable performance even during peak times? This is where Application Performance Management (APM) comes into play. Below, you will find everything you need to know about APM.
What is Application Performance Management?
APM stands for Application Performance Management, which refers to the monitoring and management of application performance. APM tools assist companies in managing all IT resources and continuously optimizing their performance.
An APM solution detects anomalies in the behavior of software solutions and their components within a company. With appropriate automation, error sources can be analyzed and optimized more quickly. Thus, APM proactively helps identify performance issues, improve response times, and enhance the overall user experience.
APM does not only monitor performance data but also the speed at which transactions are executed by end users and supporting systems. Continuous monitoring covers everything from individual databases or web servers to supporting infrastructure such as networks or virtual machines.
Why is Application Performance Management important for companies?
With increasingly complex applications, end users have high expectations for reliability and performance, such as response times. If software or a tool does not function flawlessly, it impacts key business processes, directly influencing customer satisfaction. This makes smooth performance of all apps and tools crucial. By implementing APM and APM solutions, companies can:
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Minimize costs: APM reduces costs associated with service outages.
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Save time: APM shortens the time needed to identify performance issues from days to minutes.
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Influence business success: With the right tools, companies can link technical data with business metrics. For example, they can measure the impact of a database outage on revenue and take preventive measures in the future.
Monitoring Application Performance: How APM Works
APM tools help developers monitor the performance and availability of business applications, especially when operating in various IT environments such as on-premises data centers, cloud services, or hybrid systems.
Each APM system’s configuration varies depending on the specific IT infrastructure requirements. However, APM and its tools generally follow these key principles:
End User Experience Monitoring (EUEM)
End User Experience Monitoring (EUEM) records response times and errors occurring on users’ desktop or mobile devices. This data helps pinpoint issues, such as compatibility problems, specific pages, or malfunctioning features.
There are two types of monitoring:
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Passive monitoring: Real user data is automatically collected in the background to detect performance problems early.
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Active monitoring: User actions are simulated to test and predict app behavior under specific conditions, such as high traffic.
The combination of automated real-time monitoring and simulation helps identify and resolve vulnerabilities early.
Runtime Application Architecture Detection and Modeling
A dashboard provides IT teams with a complete view of an application’s architecture, showing how different components are connected and dependent on one another. This helps understand relationships and respond quickly to issues.
To prevent performance issues, APM tools continuously monitor performance metrics, identifying vulnerabilities before they affect application performance.
Additionally, APM tools automatically model the entire IT environment, capturing application topologies, services, infrastructure components, and user interactions while updating this data in real time.
Custom Transaction Profiling
Transaction profiling, also known as Business Transaction Management, tracks individual user actions within an application. Each transaction—such as a login, payment, or data query—is analyzed step by step.
The tracking process includes all components involved, from the user’s device to servers, databases, networks, and final request processing.
This approach helps IT teams quickly identify performance issues and improve response times for critical processes. Developers can optimize weak components before they negatively impact the user experience.
Deep Dive Component Monitoring (DDCM)
DDCM focuses on specific application components, monitoring code sections, external service calls, database queries, and other elements at the code level.
The targeted analysis of individual components helps identify the root cause of performance problems quickly and make precise improvements without affecting other components.
Data Analysis and Reporting
APM software collects and examines large volumes of performance data to extract valuable insights. These integrated analysis and reporting functions help IT teams identify performance trends and resolve issues early.
A powerful tool can identify slow processes and suggest improvements before they impact overall system stability.
APM platforms collect data from various monitoring points and present them in clear reports, dashboards, and visualizations. This allows businesses to quickly identify bottlenecks and take necessary measures to enhance application performance.
Application Performance Monitoring: The First Step to APM
Application Performance Monitoring and Application Performance Management are often used interchangeably. However, there are subtle differences between the two terms.
Application Performance Monitoring focuses solely on monitoring application performance. The goal is to collect performance metrics, detect potential issues early, and analyze their causes.
APM tools are purely monitoring tools—they provide data but do not actively control or optimize applications.
Application Performance Management, on the other hand, goes beyond monitoring by also encompassing the active optimization of business applications.
Application Monitoring: What Parameters Do APM Tools Measure?
APM tools measure:
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Response times: How quickly does an application process user requests?
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System stability: How reliably does the application perform under different load conditions?
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Compliance with defined service levels: Are agreed performance benchmarks met?
How Do APM Tools Provide Detailed Analysis?
To understand how an application is actually used, Real User Monitoring is employed. This technique captures real user data, highlighting bottlenecks or delays.
Additionally, tracing aids in troubleshooting by tracking the entire process of a transaction across different system components, revealing dependencies between applications and infrastructure.
Modern APM tools also offer distributed tracing, tailored for microservices architectures. IT teams can create a detailed service map of all microservices within an application, helping pinpoint performance issues in distributed systems.
Since applications in complex IT environments depend on multiple services, analyzing these dependencies is crucial. APM tools visualize critical connections between components and resolve bottlenecks early.
APM Tools for Better Monitoring
Many APM tools effectively monitor application performance, helping businesses improve IT infrastructure efficiency and ensure reliable service delivery. One such tool is SolarWinds—a comprehensive solution that collects performance metrics, logs, traces, and user interaction data for a holistic view of application performance.
Key Features of SolarWinds:
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Centralized Data Analysis: Integrates data from logs, metrics, traces, and user interactions for detailed analysis and quick troubleshooting.
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Automated Bottleneck Detection: Uses AI and machine learning to identify performance issues early and take proactive measures before they affect user experience.
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Support for Complex IT Environments: Optimized for hybrid infrastructures, including cloud-native applications and distributed systems.
SolarWinds enables businesses to monitor performance, analyze performance data, and detect problems before they escalate—ensuring a stable system environment.
Choose the Right Application Performance Monitoring with QBS Software GmbH
Would you like to monitor your company’s application performance and address issues before they arise? Then ask about SolarWinds. As a trusted partner for Application Performance Management, we are happy to help you select the right solution.