Web Application Monitoring & the Core of Your Business
Any business, at its core, requires a platform through which it markets or makes available their products. If this platform, however, doesn’t suit the needs of the customer, the business is likely to lose them.
In our case, this platform will be web applications that run on complex software and hard code. As is often the case, programs that work behind the scenes for these web applications don’t always guarantee a one-off trade. In fact, there might be several alterations to the initial code depending on how well the application performs.
Now, here lies the role of web application monitoring. One study suggests that 53% of people will abandon a page that loads for longer than three seconds, and one-second lag might cost online stores millions in sales per year, in addition to damage to a brand’s reputation.
Without a properly performing website, it’s not an easy gig to make sales. This is especially true if a season like Thanksgiving or Christmas is around the corner, where, because internet traffic is high, websites are likely to encounter problems.
Let’s take a look at some of the problems that an average web application faces, and how web application monitoring can help eliminate them.
Unhealthy Server
Our server is our central database, or the portal through which everything else is connected. If our server is having issues, we’re bound to run into even greater problems including critical data loss. This can further lead to the degeneration of the business because of rising repair costs, and service breakdowns.
With the correct web application monitoring software, however, this issue can be avoided. Web application monitoring allows you to monitor the status of a lot of different kinds of servers such as Apache, Oracle WebLogic, Microsoft IIS etc. As you give the server accountability on processing various items such as application pools, websites and cache, you may be able to identify faults with the server and therefore, consider the necessary changes that need to happen to bring it up to par.
Overburdened CPU
It’s very easy to put load on the CPU if the application runs inefficiently. There may be an excess of data present within it that makes it harder for the CPU to process it efficiently. Common symptoms of an overburdened CPU include heating up of hardware, jerky movements of pointer, and slow response time to commands.
Web application monitoring tools measure just how much energy is being used by any given function in the application. By monitoring the application over time, the monitoring tool is able to determine where areas of improvement are, what can be completely shut down, and what areas are not receiving attention at all. This way, the web application will have the potential to run more smoothly and faster.
Bad Memory
The most common symptom of a failing memory is a crash. The web application is most likely to crash if it doesn’t find enough memory within it to perform functions. The application may also not be able to fully project the correct graphics, and the graphics may end up getting displayed distorted.
The monitoring tool, in this case, will help to monitor how much memory is being used. If the memory being used is too much for the application or doesn’t seem right, then a few of the following steps can help reconfigure it to the best of its ability:
- Perform a virus scan
- Check the memory hardware
- Try reconfiguring the hardware
Of course, none of these steps would be possible without the use of a web application monitoring tool. The monitoring tool will help you diagnose the issue. That makes monitoring impeccable for the best possible resource utilization.
Too Much Network Traffic
High network traffic may mean web application malfunctioning and slower response times. There may be several causes to high network traffic; overused devices, faulty hardware, size of bandwidth etc. Network traffic may cause the firewalls, the servers, and the components to fail, and may cause your business significant losses because of the lack of availability.
The easiest way to keep network traffic in check is through a web application monitoring tool. Giving key insights along with metrics, these tools can help you determine the action plan you need to take to lower network traffic so that your application runs as smoothly as possible.
Reaching Disk Capacity
Another frequent problem that can be run into is using up all of the disk space available. Common symptoms of this type of problems include stuttering video or audio quality. Keyboard responses may become slower. Applications will freeze and crash with no particular warning sign.
Web application monitoring can help see the problem before it happens. Keeping a constant eye on disk space, and seeing what applications are using how much space, web application monitoring tools can help reduce some of the problems that may arise with disk capacity being reached.
Record-Play
In addition to being able to identify the functioning of critical areas mentioned above, web application monitoring tools can also help identify performance issues. By recording simulated end-user behavior and playing it back, you’ll be able to see exactly where the issue lies. With recorded playback, it’s easier to see how much time it takes for a page to load. From this, areas of improvement can be determined. Of course, different page types (HTML, Images etc.) take a different time to load. Each of these types can be understood in a better light given recorded response times.
Monitoring can also be done from various locations, both within the firewall and outside it.
Infrastructure
Web application monitoring tools will help see the relationship between various infrastructure tools being used and the performance that comes about thereby. These infrastructure tools include hardware, software, network and storage equipment and more.
Setting Goals and Criteria
The entire infrastructure of a web application monitoring tool depends on its ability to diagnose certain issues. Knowing these issues can go a mile in helping you understand where you need to improve and where, perhaps, resources can be used.
We generally do have an idea of how well a web application can perform. This makes it easy for us to set good criteria to test it on.
It’s also helpful to know our customers’ behavior. This will help us understand where our limitations are and what needs to go into the refinery once more. Web application monitoring helps us streamline this process by breaking it down into achievable steps and goals. For instance, if images take a long time to load, all our focus can go to developing a program that doesn’t take that long. Or, if the problem lies with excessive CPU usage, then we can focus on lowering the load on some of the functions.
Planning
Web application monitoring acts as a catalyst in the planning process for testing. Once we have the software, all that’s needed is a schedule to run it on. Thick planning is only possible if we have correct measurement tools. And these measurement tools are provided to us by web application monitoring.
Web Application Monitoring & Your Business
- Establishing trust is an important element of any business. This trust can only be established if the user is given an A-grade experience through the web application.
- With the help of web application monitoring, major issues like the ones mentioned above can be cleaned up and cleared before the web application goes live. Bottlenecks and other issues, when fixed, will give the user the best experience of your application possible and in turn, generate a trust rooted in reliability.
- The freedom accessed with fixing these issues will also bring in more traffic to your website.
- Shorter response times are only possible when the application is maximizing its resource utility. Once the goal of shorter response time is realized, it may serve as an impetus for the user to return to the website.
- When an application is monitored regularly, it helps to plan for major events such as Thanksgiving or Christmas. Major issues can be recognized beforehand and planned for accordingly.
- Costly downtime is minimized because bottlenecks are early fixed. The loss of revenue that will result from an unmonitored website, if it faults, is great, as we know it.
- Regular monitoring can give confidence and reliability in a system’s performance, hence giving you more peace of mind.
- Knowing exactly what is needed in terms of investment into hardware or software is only possible if there is a general consensus over what areas need to be fixed. Such a degree of knowledge about the working mechanisms of a system is only possible if a web application is monitored and its data is carefully studied.
Although the costs of web application monitoring may seem a bit much at first, they certainly beat the price for the loss of revenue that will result if websites are not properly monitored. Tons of complicated issues can be eliminated if resources are utilized to their fullest extent, and if bottlenecks are curbed.
