Application performance monitoring definition
Application performance monitoring (APM) refers to a practice of managing, tracking, and ensuring the performance of applications. For example, it may involve collecting various pieces of software data, using it to identify bottlenecks, and ensuring the app runs optimally. APM strategies aim to maintain high service quality, minimize downtime, and deliver an optimal user experience.
See also: monitoring software, stress testing, application log, data logging
Application performance monitoring tools
- Log analysis tools. They collect and analyze application log data. But while these tools can help identify errors, they’re not great at real-time performance analysis.
- Error tracking tools. These tools are designed specifically to track and report on application errors. They can help in identifying and troubleshooting problems, but lack the broader range of performance monitoring features.
- Infrastructure monitoring tools. These tools focus on monitoring the performance of the underlying servers, networks, and other infrastructure components that an application relies on. However, they can’t provide much insight into the app’s performance from the user’s perspective.
- Network monitoring tools. These tools focus on monitoring the performance of the network such as latency and bandwidth usage. Just like infrastructure monitoring tools, they don’t analyze the app’s performance specifically.
- Manual performance testing. While regular testing can help identify a wide range of issues, it does not provide continuous, real-time monitoring and can be time-consuming.
