Keynote Systems` two new offerings aid end-to-end performance monitoring

Keynote Systems Inc., better known among e-retailers for outsourced web site performance monitoring outside the company firewalls, strengthens its offering in end-to-end system monitoring and aims to make performance monitoring simpler and less expensive for users as well with two new services in particular among several it is introducing this month.

Keynote’s Application Perspective provides an end-to-end monitoring and root cause diagnostics solution at what Keynote says is a lower cost of ownership than more complex software implementations generally required to provide the same level of information. Performance Scoreboard, a customized management portal for customers that have complex e-business systems and properties, provides real-time data on the performance of all applications and supporting systems in a single graphic interface.

Performance Scoreboard is a portal that offers a high-level view of performance activity across applications and systems. The primary screen is a grid showing various measurement points such as geographic locations, or outside network providers, on one axis. On the other axis are activities relevant to the web site’s operation, ranging from the search or checkout process to activity such as packet loss, a serious indicator of problems with data transfer. Cells on the grid show red, yellow, or green to immediately indicate performance levels.

Previously, customers would have had to go to multiple sources to get the level of data visible in the Performance Scoreboard, according to Roopak Patel, senior product manager at Keynote. “Scoreboard provides this data already configured in a way to the customer’s liking, in a format they want to see, and it’s refreshed at regular intervals,” he says. The result, he adds, is that problems are identified and diagnosed more quickly. That in turn directs them more rapidly into the hands of operations managers who can fix them, minimizing any impact on site revenue, he says.

Application Perspective, the second new offering, when combined with partner instrumentation software, delivers an end-to-end monitoring and root cause diagnostics solution at less cost than the cost of software to support the same functions, according to Patel. A key component of Application Perspective is an application monitoring agent, an appliance that monitors the various systems needed to serve up pages or applications, such as the checkout process or new order confirmation process, to the end user.

The two new offerings are complementary, he adds. “Performance Scoreboard gives you high level view with granular detail available when you drill down,” he says. “Application Perspective views the end-to-end performance of that application.” The Scoreboard, a business view, and the Application Perspective, an operational view, can be linked, he adds.

“IT resources are constrained today, and our services are aimed at giving you a view that most efficiently and effectively use the IT resources that you do have,” Patel adds. “With Performance Scoreboard, business owners can visually track various service levels and get IT involved when they need to. Then IT can use Application Perspective to do that true root cause diagnosis without requiring the large software investment tradionally required. Keynote is moving deep within the firewalls to give customers the end-to-end view.”