Application Performance Monitoring from Correlsense

Cool Vendors Grow Up

Oren Elias — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:08:47 +0000

I was excited to see the recent news that Gartner analysts Jonah Kowall and Will Cappelli will be writing regular “cool vendor notes.” They offer great insight into the emerging players in our industry. This also marks the moment when companies begin to grow up:

“These research notes are fun to write and cover interesting innovative smaller technology companies to keep an eye on. Looking at the past cool vendors we have highlighted there are some phenomenal examples of companies which started small, were pointed out and grew up and were purchased or went public.”

Correlsense was awarded “cool vendor” status in 2009 for our pioneering tracing technology with non-Java applications, and it’s amazing how much has happened in 3 years.

We were included as a “Visionary” in Gartner’s APM Magic Quadrant last September. A feat that did not go unnoticed by Jonah:

@Correlsense sure shows you can go from cool vendor to magic quadrant participant in a couple years of features and focus.

We recently launched version 2.5 of our flagship product SharePath. This milestone included great new features, most importantly code level visibility. We added many new customers in various industries, recruited new employees, and gained more venture capital funding. This is just a sampling of all the growing up we’ve done.

I’d like to thank Jonah and Will for the shout out and we look forward to reading their future notes!

To see the full post on Jonah’s blog, click here:
http://blogs.gartner.com/jonah-kowall/2012/04/21/great-news-for-application-performance-monitoring-apm-startups-cool-vendors-in-apm/#comments

An Introductory List of Oracle Monitoring Tools

Correlsense — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:11:33 +0000

What tools provide visibility into the performance of Oracle technologies? After doing a Google search we realized there has not been a list compiled which outlines the various solutions available. This introductory list is a first attempt to organize them.

Most solutions mentioned give visibility into an Oracle Database but struggle with Oracle Forms based applications. The product descriptions come from the vendor sites.

If you would like your tool added or removed please leave a comment below.

1) CA Wily - Customer Experience Manager -

CA Wily CEM focuses on identifying and prioritizing problems that affect end-user service quality by analyzing individual transactions in real-time; providing customized real-time dashboard displays that give you the information needed to make quick, accurate decisions; enabling business-based prioritization of problem resolution; and displaying information needed by both IT and business owners to work together to meet Service Level Agreements.

2) Confio Software - Ignite
Ignite for Oracle was designed to identify root causes of Oracle database performance problems without adding load to your systems. Ignite 8's design allows for extended Oracle monitoring without hindering performance from your production systems.

3) Correlsense - SharePath

SharePath is the first ever integrated real-user experience and transaction monitoring solution for Oracle Forms- based applications. You can deploy SharePath in just hours without manual mappings, application-specific configurations or prior knowledge of the application internals. It provides a unique end-to-end view of application performance, and the visibility necessary to assure Oracle Forms-based applications are performing well and meeting end-user expectations and SLAs.

4) DBTuna - DBTuna
DBTuna is a comprehensive 24x7 deep-dive monitoring solution used to monitor Oracle 8i, 9i, 10g and 11g. It is designed to be simple to deploy and very low overhead, therefore is ideally suited to busy production sites or testing environments.

5) Intellinx - Intellinx

The Intellinx architecture is very flexible and scalable, providing a cost effective solution to organizations with 500 employees as well as corporations with 100,000 employees. Intellinx can be deployed in a wide range of configurations according to the organization's structure and needs. Intellinx may be configured for supporting a central auditing and investigation group that audits all end users as well as decentralized groups of auditors and investigators, each monitoring a subset of the users.

6) Knoa - Knoa Experience and Performance Manager (EPM) for Enterprise Applications

With its innovative architecture, Knoa EPM delivers precise metrics about application performance, as well as an unprecedented level of visibility into how end-users are interacting with the application. With this insight, application support teams can pinpoint and eliminate application/system issues, see shortfalls in end-user performance, and identify opportunities for further training.

7) ManageEngine - Applications Manager

Most business critical applications are database driven and need Oracle Monitoring. The Oracle database management capability helps database administrators to seamlessly detect, diagnose and resolve Oracle performance issues and monitor Oracle 24X7. The database server monitoring tool is an agentless monitoring software that provides out-of-the-box performance metrics and helps you visualize the health and availability of an Oracle Database server farm. Database administrators can login to the web client and visualize the status and Oracle performance metrics."

8 ) MoreVRP - MoreVRP for Oracle
MoreVRP® for Oracle DB takes you far beyond the scope of traditional database monitoring and management applications. It starts with optimal real-time monitoring and a smart repository of all relevant data on transactions and queries generated anywhere across any of the database instances that identify and log bottlenecks and problematic events. But far beyond monitoring performance and giving recommendations, MoreVRP is the only solution that has the unique ability to leverage the knowledge it collects to proactively reallocate resources across all active transactions in accordance with business priorities.

9) Nastel - AutoPilot6
Nastel's Expert for Oracle Database is an extensible data collector that automatically gathers information in real-time on all Oracle-based application transactions and processes and passes that information to AutoPilot M6.This gives you visibility into the performance and health of business application processes that flow across Oracle systems from your AutoPilot M6 consolidated dashboard. The expert is non-intrusive, and automatically collects information about Oracle servers and their components without affecting the database. Easily customizable business views graphically display process status and performance metrics explicitly tailored to the needs of individuals or groups of users, based on their job functions and your business needs.

10) Oracle - Oracle Real User Experience Insight
Oracle Real User Experience Insight enables enterprises to maximize the value of their business-critical applications by delivering insight into real end-user experiences. It can help identify lost revenue from frustrated users, reduce support costs by lowering call center volumes, accelerate problem resolution of poorly performing applications, and help businesses adapt to changing needs by providing insight into business trends and user preferences. It integrates performance analysis and usage analysis into a single offering, enabling business and IT stakeholders to develop a shared understanding into their application users’ experience.

Mastering P2V: Best Practices for Maintaining Service Levels upon Migration

Correlsense — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:18:31 +0000

Wednesday, May 30, 2012 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT

No doubt you are familiar with the established benefits of virtualization: improved efficiency and resource availability at a lower overall cost. Many IT departments, however, have discovered that virtualizing applications can create new and unexpected performance problems.

As businesses drive towards the distributed IT infrastructure model, how can you be sure that your application performance and service levels will not be sacrificed following P2V migration?

Join Correlsense and Emulex for an online seminar on how your business-critical applications can survive P2V migration without application or storage performance degradation. During this session, we will discuss:

-The growing complexity of the modern IT infrastructure and the accelerating pace of change
-Why it makes sense for application teams to care about storage, and vice versa
-The challenges of guaranteeing service levels before, during and after a P2V migration
-The importance of end-to-end visibility in monitoring application and storage performance

We will conclude with a discussion of the Correlsense and Emulex solutions plus Q&A.

Register today

Clabby Analytics Highlights SharePath 2.5 In Recent Report

Correlsense — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:13:37 +0000

Clabby Analytics recently released a report highlighting the new feature of SharePath 2.5:
http://www.clabbyanalytics.com/uploads/CorrelsenseSharepath2.5Final.pdf

The firm has previously highlighted SharePath’s non-intrusive approach and easy implementation. These factors have not changed with 2.5 - and
Clabby agrees.

New features include user response time monitoring, code level visibility, revamped analytics, and a new application dashboard for better usability. Making SharePath a comprehensive APM tool was the chief goal with
this new release. As Clabby highlights:

“Clabby Analytics likes Correlsense’s new integrated, broadened strategy. While a ‘best in breed’ approach may work in some areas of IT, when tracking application performance across distributed computing environments, an integrated product such as Correlsense SharePath 2.5 can provide a more accurate and complete picture of the health of an application flow...problems and bottlenecks and their relative impact on response time can be much more easily identified-enabling applications to be quickly tuned for performance.”

With increased adoption of public and private clouds, SaaS, and consumerization of IT, maintaining SLAs and gathering reliable performance data have never been more important. Users must see what is really happening with transactions in these complex
environments. Clabby concludes:

“With SharePath 2.5, users can see not only transaction flow, but also have deeper insight into application code, and how each component affects response time.... Correlsense has a strong, comprehensive APM solution for customers across a wide range of
industries.”

We are flattered by the kind words and needless to say, couldn’t agree more with her conclusions. We encourage you to read the full report: http://www.clabbyanalytics.com/uploads/CorrelsenseSharepath2.5Final.pdf

The APM Market Is Not For Chickens

John Reuben — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:20:45 +0000

I’ve been SVP of Sales at Correlsense for three years, and in this time I’ve had a lot of opportunities to meet with the clients. These are the people in the trenches using, or hoping to use, APM as their primary weapon against all the “interesting” situations that arise when managing applications in production.

A while back, I found myself lured into the southeast by a huge potential client and the promise of an amazing plate of chicken.

The client was an industrial scale poultry operation, the kind that supplies fast-food chains and grocery stores alike. Years ago, they had built themselves a transportation and logistics system which included, amongst other things, C++ code, extensive use of MQ, and proprietary protocols. For years, the system had worked just fine, but it had one fatal flaw. I call it the Jurassic Park Syndrome. You remember the film- a high-tech computer network was designed to keep bloodthirsty dinosaurs under control, and only two people (Samuel L. Jackson and “Newman” from Seinfeld) understood how to work it. With those people gone the system is inoperable, freeing the dinosaurs to do what they do best (eat everyone).

This was a similar situation, only with chickens instead of Velociraptors or Tyrannosaurs (which is a good thing).

Nobody in the organization understood the internals of their system anymore since the authors were no longer at the company. This was causing huge application problems. As a result, the team was spending hours trying to identify the roots of the issues in a system they had no map of. If you’ve ever been lost in a strange city with no map, you have some idea. If you’ve ever been lost in a strange city with no map while blindfolded, you’re getting closer.

Fortunately for them, they had a great attitude. Unfortunately for me, that meant hours of chicken jokes. Jokes that literally involved chickens crossing the road, about the operation being “out of cluck”, functionality “beaks and valleys”… it was unending and horrible. At one point I even tried to join in (“gee, looks like you put all your eggs in one basket”), and they didn’t get it. Awkward.

Anyway, SharePath could help them, because our product automatically maps any application without prior knowledge. It can also handle the non-standard technologies they use and allow them to get right down to the root cause of their application performance problems.

Afterwards, they took me out for lunch and I ate the best chicken I’ve ever had, anywhere, in my life. Fried chicken, roasted chicken, grilled chicken- it was all there and it was amazing. I commented that they were producing some of the best chicken meat in the country and they all glanced around the table uncomfortably. Turns out it wasn’t their chicken.

What a fowl experience.

* * *

Aligning Service and Product Strategy

Elad Katav — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:53:38 +0000

If you’ve been reading my blog posts, you know that I love my product. We all do here. But we also know that there are competitors out there doing a good job as well. The APM industry is quite competitive, with several companies saying very similar messages. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish one product from the next.

However, I think there are things we do better than the others. Ours’ is the most lightweight in the industry, it supports broad coverage in terms of technology, and our implementation process is streamlined and painless. Am I trying to market our product? Always- but this is not the reason I write these posts.

One of the keys to our approach to this whole thing has been to align our service strategy closely to our brand. I sit with my guys to figure out the best way to make sure we’re doing this; to ensure that our support and platform have the same message. It is vital that every member of my teams believes in the same product values and benefits. So here’s what we figured out after a recent brainstorming session:

Lightweight - Our SAAS platform is slim, with nothing but a neat Knowledge Base and a process to open tickets. This is designed to be a SharePath “Wikipedia.” Opening a ticket takes 30 sec or less, without huge forms or applications to fill – as lightweight as possible.

Fast - A day after the purchase date, we configure an account for every user; send them a welcome video (1 min and 40 sec long) and a link to download the product – a day after they’re up and running. The customer can start using the product the day after they pay for it. There is no need for a training session, PS days or anything like that. Just go ahead and start.

Coverage - There are multiple support channels for all of our users. Shoot us an email, call the support center or log in to our platform (from any device on earth) and you’ll find our KB; like a SharePath wiki, with everything you need – starting with implementation/installation guides and even a template project plan.

As I mentioned in the past, service is a product and it is important to provide your customers with the same message with both products – the service and SharePath. It is as true for an APM tool as it is for Skype.

Five Keys for Performance Management of Oracle Forms and E-Business Suite

correlsense — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:40:12 +0000

Today’s APM tools do not provide sufficient capabilities to perform real end user monitoring of Oracle applications. While these tools can track basic performance data, most solutions do not cover the entire Oracle E-Business Suite technology stack and it can be challenging to acquire the in-depth visibility needed to properly manage your application’s performance.

Join us for a webinar where we will showcase solutions for application support engineers, application owners, QA engineers, Oracle Forms developers and EBS Integrators. Topics include how to:

-Isolate problems before end users experience them
-Gain visibility into the potential source of bottlenecks in Oracle components
-Reduce the risk and overall time to rollout for new applications, Oracle Forms migrations and EBS upgrades
-Analyze stress tests to identify, isolate and resolve scalability issues before rolling out to production
-Monitor your end user experience with both real-time and historical performance metrics

Speakers: Mia Urman, CEO of OraPlayer Ltd. and Frank Days, VP of Marketing, Correlsense

Five Keys for Performance Management of Oracle Forms and E-Business Suite

View more presentations from Correlsense

Best Practices for Managing SaaS Applications

correlsense — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:54:45 +0000

The proliferation of SaaS applications like Salesforce.com is creating a host of new management challenges. For example, how do you measure the performance of applications you don’t host? What real-time data do you have to communicate with business stakeholders? How will you know if SLA commitments are being met?

Join us for a webinar exploring the best practices for managing SaaS applications, including:

Important ways that the management of SaaS and hosted application management differ
The unique challenges of supporting enterprise SaaS applications
Case studies demonstrating new techniques and tools for measuring the performance of hosted applications like Salesforce.com.

Traveling Transaction Modeling

Elad Katav — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:26:17 +0000

Over the past few years, traveling has become a major part of my life. I travel a lot for business, so I’m on the road a good chunk of the time. One of the most interesting (and daunting) things about getting from point A to point B is planning the route. This is most difficult when I have a meeting in New York City, because there are four possible (and reasonable) ways to get there. I could fly, go by rail, drive or take a bus.

Right away, the bus is a non-starter. It takes too long, the station is far from my home, and to be honest, it’s just not comfortable. Even though it’s the cheapest option, the quality of the seats multiplies by the length of the ride comes out to… well, you know how it is.

Flying should be the best bet. The flight takes only about 30 minutes. But with all the security at the terminal these days, the time it takes to get to the airport and the cost of the NYC taxi to wherever I’m going, it’s too much.

The train is fine, with good scheduling most of the time, and it does get you downtown at no extra cost, but if you want the best cabin, you have to pay for it. It’s expensive and depending on which train you ride, it can take nearly five hours to get to where you’re going.

Driving at least gives you some independence (and great music!), but it’s tiring and with gas prices where they are, it isn’t exactly a bargain. Tack on the cost (both financial and mental) of parking in New York City, and driving suddenly looks like a pretty bad plan.

All of these options have one problem in common – the scheduling is never accurate. You can’t be sure your flight will leave on time. Your bus could break down, you could hit traffic, or your train could be delayed for some reason. You always take the risk that the meeting will start without you, or not start at all.

What if we could track the data on that? Aggregate it based on EVERY ride, 24/7, all year long - how many minutes did we lose because of a flat tire, a mix-up on the runway, or a traffic jam? How busses perform in January, etc. If we had that information, we could filter it down and make the best decision on how to get there. Not just from an average, not just in general, but from real data. Can we have a database that tracks every individual ride, on every option, every day, and then aggregates it into a clear picture?

How often is the train delayed on Sunday? Can I get a comparison between today and last year? How many times has this bus line had to stop for a flat tire in March? Does it happen more in winter or in summer?

Now apply this to an application transaction. One little click of a mouse generates thousands of options, rather than just four. There are network devices, hardware (web tier, DD or – God forbid – a mainframe), you name it. Luckily, we do have a way to monitor them all. And the information we get is based on real data, not on an average.

Now who says that IT shows less progress than the travel industry? For now I’ll take my traveling decision based on 2 dimensions only – Price and Time.

3 Big Trends on My Mind

Oren Elias — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:26:31 +0000

It’s safe to say we’re in the midst of big trends emerging in the IT industry. Technologies continue to develop, particularly mobile and cloud. The overall economic health of US and Europe remained precarious, forcing organizations to continue trimming fat and improve efficiencies. IT professionals are learning to do more with less and reevaluate how their organizations are structured (think DevOps). Here is how I envision these trends emerging going forward:

1) Cloud Computing is here to stay. But what form will it take?

With the success of public cloud providers such as Amazon and Salesforce, I think it is safe to say cloud adoption will continue to increase in the coming months and years. It is interesting to note that large telecom firms (such as Verizon) will be gearing up their offerings. Microsoft and HP are also planning to expand their capabilities. These three firms are developing their services under an IAAS model (infrastructure as a service) which I believe will be the dominant trend. It seems like more and more companies everyday are saying to themselves: “Why do I want to run my own data center?” With these large-scale IAAS offerings, smaller companies can outsource these operations and save themselves some headaches. Now, the real question is: “Is this secure?” Will firms trust these software behemoths with their sensitive data and mission critical applications? It will be interesting to see how this develops.

In regards to the private cloud, there are several interesting options out there for dealing with virtualization management, metering and chargeback systems, automated configuration, identity management, self-service provisioning, application management, and more. To be blunt, I don’t think these offerings have matured enough to bring the visions of “consumerization of IT” into full effect. Many times, these solutions can be more trouble than they’re worth, especially for companies with scarce resources.

2) Mobile technologies will drive the Enterprise

2011 could be coined the year of mobility, think of the explosion of IPhones, tablets, Android, mobile applications, etc. We also can’t forget the tragedy of RIM and their service fiasco. The mobile trend will continue in the upcoming years but with an added caveat, it will be increasingly important in driving the enterprise. The BYOD (bring your own device) has already been a monumental shift in several organizations, and will only increase. Managing these mobile devices and applications will be the crucial goal of CIO’s in the future.

3) With Cloud and Mobile Growing, APM will play a bigger role

With the continued importance of cloud and mobile technologies, application performance management will play an even bigger role in IT departments than it does now. The overwhelming majority of mobile users expect their applications to have similar performance levels to those in traditional settings. Demonstrating SLA compliance in cloud environments will be crucial to vendors and users alike.

I am excited to see how these trends will continue to develop over time!