Application process monitoring is all about getting a comprehensive view of the inner workings of your applications, so you can make sure that they’re working as they should be. With APM tools, it’s easier for developers to see the issues that might be stopping their apps from delivering excellent experiences to users. What’s more, these monitoring services can even reduce the risk of fatal outages and downtime that can be seriously detrimental to any business. Since APM is all about the data for developers, there are a few features that matter more when looking for the perfect APM tools. Here are four capabilities a developer will always need from an APM solution.
Real User Monitoring
If you want to know whether you’re delighting your users, then you’re going to need an insight into the application performance on the user side. Today’s applications often use a lot of JavaScript, so it’s worth keeping a close eye on how long it takes a customer’s browser to fully load and render crucial web pages. A JavaScript error or slow-loading file could seriously damage your reputation. Real user monitoring is essential to giving developers an end-to-end picture.
Basic Server Monitoring and Application Metrics
Application issues can happen for many different reasons. Problems with CPU performance and memory could easily send your server crashing down, leading to an outage that’s spells disaster for your brand. Solutions like AWS monitoring and server monitoring are critical for any developer. On top of that, it’s a good idea to get an insight into the application-level problems that might be causing havoc with your UX. Monitoring metrics around things like transaction volumes, page load times, and more can give developers a wider view of what’s going on within their creation.
Application Log Data and Error Information
More often than not, when something goes wrong with an application, developers will want to see the logs before they see anything else. Log data is an insight into exactly what happens with an application when it’s out of a developer’s hands. APM tools often come equipped with access to plenty of log data, and insights into application errors too. With excellent error tracking, alerting, and reporting, some developers will be able to find common problems before they cause major outages for their users. Certain APM tools can even send timely alerts to developers when an error is about to hit.
Custom Metric Support
Finally, all applications are unique. That means that sometimes, developers need to track things that other companies or customers wouldn’t need to pay attention to. While standard server and application metrics are very helpful, you can get more out of an APM tool if you’re able to create your own custom metrics too. You might decide to use your APM custom metrics to find out how many log messages are being sent per minute, or how long it takes to process an important action in a queue. This kind of custom metrics should be easy to create with your APM, and easy to monitor.
