Cloud environments are a modern choice for all sorts of enterprises and their solutions, offering flexibility and resource efficiency to those who need it. But, as with any tool, it’s important to use them the right way if you want to get the best effect. In this case, that means managing cloud application performance to guarantee optimal resource usage.
Knowing exactly how to monitor your apps and improve their performance is no easy feat. Thankfully, you have JetBase on your side, a company with over a decade of experience. Today, we’ll talk all about cloud application performance management and teach you how to do it just right.
What Is Cloud Application Performance Management (Cloud APM)?
Cloud app management is a combination of processes and practices that all serve one purpose — guaranteeing your apps’ stability and efficiency. This means using data analysis and skillful coding to ensure your cloud applications are running in an ideal environment. Why does cloud application management matter?
Well, cloud infrastructure is unquestionably a huge force in the world, with $600 billion in annual spending and 41.4% of tech leaders planning to up their investments. But data shows the following about downtimes and outages:
- They can cost over $100,000 with 60% of losses in that range.
- Human error is a big factor, usually as a result of faulty procedures.
- Prolonged outages are becoming more common.
- Third-party companies are the main cause of outages.
It means that lax cloud application performance management can lead to major issues, ones that will make a big hole in your budget. It also highlights the importance of controlling and running your own optimization processes to improve cloud app performance.
For an enterprise, the act of managing cloud apps consists of three parts:
This way, you can assess the situation with enough data to estimate what needs to change and how to approach the problem. Boosting cloud app performance is a complex endeavor but a worthy one. Let’s discuss what APM can offer you.
Advantages of APM for Cloud-based Applications
Before investing in cloud application performance management, both financially and in terms of effort, it’s important to see the benefits of this process. Thankfully, they’re quite plentiful and provide a well-rounded set of reasons to commit to performance optimization. Here are the core reasons why APM is worth your while.
Tracking Performance
Using a suite of tools, you can closely monitor your app and understand where it runs into trouble or even find potential issues before they arise. This helps prevent major problems such as bottlenecks, where your app fails to handle concurrent users and load. The important thing is to approach this tracking comprehensively.
You need to analyze the app from the ground up, tackling each issue from its core. This means that, instead of just throwing more resources at the issue, check the code. Is it optimized to use resources efficiently? Could it be optimized further with cloud application management? This is where ingenuity and deep analysis are important.
Thanks to AI-powered tools, you can analyze the performance much faster, as well as set up automated checks. That way, you’ll always have insight into the system and receive alerts when a noteworthy issue pops up. It’s also possible to create protocols for specific cases, letting your developers address them efficiently and avoid negative influence on cloud application performance.
Smarter Resource Use
As we said above, cloud application performance management helps apps work more efficiently, so your resource use gets more structured. Diverting resources to processes that need them and cutting off operations during downtime are two examples.
One key aspect is load balancing, which allows you to support massive loads during peak use times. On the other hand, when there are few requests, the cloud scales down its consumption according to current, realistic needs. As a result, you don’t pay for excess resource use while retaining high cloud application performance.
Better UX
Monitoring your cloud app is not just about searching for hidden issues with the app’s code. It allows you to adjust the app to appeal to your end-users more, avoiding slowdowns and other performance issues.
It’s a crucial aspect of cloud application performance management, as you don’t just want to save money but ensure that your app offers high-class services. This is what UX adjustments are all about.
So, to sum up, with APM, you get:
Common Challenges in Cloud Application Performance Management
While cloud APM is undoubtedly a major source of improvements for a business, it doesn’t always come easily. Certain roadblocks can hinder your progress in optimizing your cloud application performance. You’re not likely to have issues with them if you have a skilled team like JetBase by your side. But to keep you properly informed, let’s quickly run down potential issues.
The first and foremost one is keeping the environment secure. When you’re doing cloud application performance management, you’ll be enacting a lot of changes in quick succession. This can leave the system vulnerable without regular backups, as well as security practice assessments. Assigning a section of your team to focus solely on security can help alleviate such risks.
Then, there’s the risk of reaching a bottleneck with your optimization due to lacking skills. Even a good team may struggle due to a lack of real-world experience. Working through this requires constant learning, as well as giving your team a reasonable timeframe to work in.
As we’ve illustrated, cloud application performance management comes with its own considerations and challenges. Thankfully, you know a company that’s an expert in this and will gladly help you handle APM. JetBase’s 10+ years in the market and broad set of industries mean we’re professionals deeply familiar with the task at hand.
Our portfolio includes work with a SaaS project, optimizing the app and creating custom AI-powered functionality, and a sprawling cloud platform. In the latter, our team helped cut spending, eliminate bugs and potential issues, and improve the front end, creating a modern solution.
This kind of experience is invaluable, and no amount of theory can replace it. That is why we’d gladly help you with cloud application performance management. Just contact us to get your cloud optimized.
Main Metrics to Monitor Using a Cloud-Based Application Performance Solution
Cloud application performance management relies on surveys and analysis. But how exactly should you measure its effectiveness? In this section, we’ll talk about the metrics you should focus on to guarantee your cloud app will be working perfectly.
Throughput
Assessing your app’s capability to process specific requests and transactions is one of the most important ways to understand how it can be improved. As you make changes, you obviously want to see throughput go up, matching even the highest demand from your users.
UX Metrics
As the name shows, this isn’t just one metric but a whole set. In order to guarantee user satisfaction, you need to:
- Keep an eye on how fast pages load
- Count clicks users make before reaching their goal
- Check how often users have to reload pages
This way, you will know what they experience and where frustrations may arise. Data that you gather from these metrics should set the course for your cloud application performance management.
Resource Use
Another metric centered around cloud application performance is the system's load on your hardware. CPU, system, and memory usage all affect the final cost of running the app while also determining how efficient the solution actually is.
Cloud Application Performance Management Strategies
Before we leave, we’d like to share a couple of essential ways that you can optimize your app’s performance. These are just the basic toolset that we always employ for our projects.
Regular Load Testing
Applying tests to ensure your app can withstand any number of concurrent processes will help ensure that your capacities match your growth. After all, your company’s success will require a proportionate increase in the app’s throughput. That’s why we recommend focusing cloud application performance management on estimating how resilient your application is.
Set Up Autoscaling
Another way to guarantee stability and flexibility through cloud application performance management is to establish autoscaling protocols. These will regulate the app’s resource usage and help it accommodate any requests without wasting resources. This prevents extra costs without limiting the app’s potential.
