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30 Ways APM Should Evolve - Part 5

APMdigest asked the top minds in the industry what they feel is the most important way Application Performance Management (APM) tools must evolve. The recommendations on this list provide a rare look into the long-term future of APM technology. Part 5 covers the impact of APM on the Business.

Start with 30 Ways APM Should Evolve - Part 1

Start with 30 Ways APM Should Evolve - Part 2

Start with 30 Ways APM Should Evolve - Part 3

Start with 30 Ways APM Should Evolve - Part 4

20. ALIGN IT TRANSACTIONS WITH BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

APM must evolve to be more of a solution that analyzes how the business is impacted by IT. Currently, APM solutions focus on the technical details around latency or failures in infrastructure. Rarely, are these solutions usable by the IT liaison to the business, or the business itself. The next step in APM evolution should be to map business objectives or milestones to IT transactions and provide feedback to the business on the status of these objectives – whether they are compliance, order volume or process execution related.
Charley Rich
VP Product Management and Marketing, Nastel Technologies

21. FOCUS ON BUSINESS SERVICES

One key area which APM vendors have to recognize is a current weakness that must be quickly addressed is that the compelling business driver is not just ensuring the health, availability, and performance of "applications" but the business services which they support ... IT organizations are demanding a full stack, business service-oriented solution. The first vendors that get there with a complete story (and, more importantly, a complete set of capabilities) will be favored to win the long-term APM vendor race.
Bob Johnson
CMO, Optanix

Read Bob Johnson's blog: APM Evolution: Business Service Performance

22. DRIVING BUSINESS ANALYTICS

APM will be a driver for business analytics and this is currently the only way to really evolve APM technology. Supporting new technologies is no longer a USP but merely a way to survive.
APM agents have a real advantage in the way they can enrich business analytics via intelligent instrumenting and analyzing the data that they see.
Coen Meerbeek
Online Performance Consultant and Founder of Blue Factory Internet

23. SUPPORT FOR LOB

From looking at the product reviews of APM solutions on IT Central Station, I see that APM users want their tools to better serve the needs of the Line of Business (LOB). Reviewers of APM solutions, whether they are DevOps managers, applications owners, CIOs or operations managers, express the need for their APM tools to offer value to their peers in the LOB. Their wish lists include improved analytics, proactive monitoring of business transactions, and integration with business dashboards – all features that will enable APM to better align with the business.
Russell Rothstein
Founder and CEO, IT Central Station

Click here to read the latest APM product reviews on IT Central Station

24. SUPPORT FOR EMPLOYEES

Application Performance Management tools must be designed for today's consumerization of IT to provide the ease-of-use that employees crave but without forsaking the security IT teams demand for protection and compliance. Quite simply, these tools must help employees easily get the job done, especially since today's modern enterprise faces increasing IT complexity that forces teams to do more with less, while at the same time provide IT teams secure control over what is sent in and out of their organizations. It is crucial that these tools meet the demands of modern business because any potential security issue or non-compliant transfer can end up creating a situation of non-compliance and cost the company thousands of dollars or worse.
Jeff Loeb
CMO, Ipswitch

Read 30 Ways APM Should Evolve - Part 6, covering development and DevOps.

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Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

30 Ways APM Should Evolve - Part 5

APMdigest asked the top minds in the industry what they feel is the most important way Application Performance Management (APM) tools must evolve. The recommendations on this list provide a rare look into the long-term future of APM technology. Part 5 covers the impact of APM on the Business.

Start with 30 Ways APM Should Evolve - Part 1

Start with 30 Ways APM Should Evolve - Part 2

Start with 30 Ways APM Should Evolve - Part 3

Start with 30 Ways APM Should Evolve - Part 4

20. ALIGN IT TRANSACTIONS WITH BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

APM must evolve to be more of a solution that analyzes how the business is impacted by IT. Currently, APM solutions focus on the technical details around latency or failures in infrastructure. Rarely, are these solutions usable by the IT liaison to the business, or the business itself. The next step in APM evolution should be to map business objectives or milestones to IT transactions and provide feedback to the business on the status of these objectives – whether they are compliance, order volume or process execution related.
Charley Rich
VP Product Management and Marketing, Nastel Technologies

21. FOCUS ON BUSINESS SERVICES

One key area which APM vendors have to recognize is a current weakness that must be quickly addressed is that the compelling business driver is not just ensuring the health, availability, and performance of "applications" but the business services which they support ... IT organizations are demanding a full stack, business service-oriented solution. The first vendors that get there with a complete story (and, more importantly, a complete set of capabilities) will be favored to win the long-term APM vendor race.
Bob Johnson
CMO, Optanix

Read Bob Johnson's blog: APM Evolution: Business Service Performance

22. DRIVING BUSINESS ANALYTICS

APM will be a driver for business analytics and this is currently the only way to really evolve APM technology. Supporting new technologies is no longer a USP but merely a way to survive.
APM agents have a real advantage in the way they can enrich business analytics via intelligent instrumenting and analyzing the data that they see.
Coen Meerbeek
Online Performance Consultant and Founder of Blue Factory Internet

23. SUPPORT FOR LOB

From looking at the product reviews of APM solutions on IT Central Station, I see that APM users want their tools to better serve the needs of the Line of Business (LOB). Reviewers of APM solutions, whether they are DevOps managers, applications owners, CIOs or operations managers, express the need for their APM tools to offer value to their peers in the LOB. Their wish lists include improved analytics, proactive monitoring of business transactions, and integration with business dashboards – all features that will enable APM to better align with the business.
Russell Rothstein
Founder and CEO, IT Central Station

Click here to read the latest APM product reviews on IT Central Station

24. SUPPORT FOR EMPLOYEES

Application Performance Management tools must be designed for today's consumerization of IT to provide the ease-of-use that employees crave but without forsaking the security IT teams demand for protection and compliance. Quite simply, these tools must help employees easily get the job done, especially since today's modern enterprise faces increasing IT complexity that forces teams to do more with less, while at the same time provide IT teams secure control over what is sent in and out of their organizations. It is crucial that these tools meet the demands of modern business because any potential security issue or non-compliant transfer can end up creating a situation of non-compliance and cost the company thousands of dollars or worse.
Jeff Loeb
CMO, Ipswitch

Read 30 Ways APM Should Evolve - Part 6, covering development and DevOps.

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...