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Beyond the Perimeter: Why Application-Aware Network Monitoring Matters

Mark Troester
Progress

The modern world relies on applications: every business, regardless of industry, depends on them to varying degrees. Whether you operate a hospital, an e-commerce business, a farm or a factory, applications play a central role in day-to-day operations. Even a few minutes of application downtime can have disastrous consequences.

Consider this: according to a recent study, every minute of downtime costs businesses an average of $4,500, and outages typically last between 20 and 60 minutes. This means that at the very least, an outage can cost your company around $90,000 and potentially much more.

While most businesses focus on endpoint and perimeter protection to combat such incidents, there are many other factors that can disrupt an application beyond conventional perimeter breaches.

To effectively manage application experience (AX) and user experience (UX), businesses need greater visibility into the networks. This can be achieved through application-aware network performance monitoring (NPM) technologies.

How NPM Works

For many companies, application performance is a black box. They often become aware of issues only when complaints start pouring in, and even then, identifying the root cause can be time-consuming — a luxury most companies cannot afford.

NPM changes the game. It enables you to identify which applications are running below standard speed and measure response times for both the network and the application itself. This allows for quick differentiation between network delays and application delays when troubleshooting.

If the problem lies with the application, NPM provides IT teams with comprehensive information to resolve the issue. This includes response times for applications, transport times for the network, number of transactions, server response time, network transport time, responses in percentiles (maximum/minimum/average), number of concurrent users, and more.

Of course, not all applications require monitoring. NPM should be employed selectively, focusing on critical applications that are vital to daily business operations — such as customer-facing e-commerce applications. Additionally, it is crucial to integrate the information provided by NPM with the broader IT monitoring, management and surveillance ecosystem. In the realm of system security and operational efficiency, everything is interconnected.

NPM in Action

Let's consider a hypothetical scenario: you run a health insurance company. Thousands of users access your application daily to schedule doctor's appointments, make payments, and more. Suddenly seemingly out of nowhere, the application stops functioning. Complaints and calls flood in, and people are understandably frantic—after all, healthcare is of utmost importance.

At this point, many IT departments initiate the blame game or start grasping blindly for answers they know they may not find. However, with NPM in place, the next step is simple: consult the list.

What is the list? NPM solutions measure the response times and delays for every user-to-app transaction, aggregating them into a sortable list from slowest to fastest. This means that IT can swiftly identify the root cause of the problem and take immediate action to find a solution.

In 2023, seamlessness has become a basic consumer expectation. When a consumer places an online order, they expect to have the option of receiving it within a day or two. When they request a car, they expect it to arrive within minutes. And when they open an app, they expect it to launch within seconds — no more than one or two. Exceeding this threshold puts your company's reputation at stake. By implementing NPM, businesses can ensure that when application issues arise, they can promptly rectify them, keeping customers satisfied and preventing more severe consequences.

Mark Troester is VP of Strategy at Progress

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Beyond the Perimeter: Why Application-Aware Network Monitoring Matters

Mark Troester
Progress

The modern world relies on applications: every business, regardless of industry, depends on them to varying degrees. Whether you operate a hospital, an e-commerce business, a farm or a factory, applications play a central role in day-to-day operations. Even a few minutes of application downtime can have disastrous consequences.

Consider this: according to a recent study, every minute of downtime costs businesses an average of $4,500, and outages typically last between 20 and 60 minutes. This means that at the very least, an outage can cost your company around $90,000 and potentially much more.

While most businesses focus on endpoint and perimeter protection to combat such incidents, there are many other factors that can disrupt an application beyond conventional perimeter breaches.

To effectively manage application experience (AX) and user experience (UX), businesses need greater visibility into the networks. This can be achieved through application-aware network performance monitoring (NPM) technologies.

How NPM Works

For many companies, application performance is a black box. They often become aware of issues only when complaints start pouring in, and even then, identifying the root cause can be time-consuming — a luxury most companies cannot afford.

NPM changes the game. It enables you to identify which applications are running below standard speed and measure response times for both the network and the application itself. This allows for quick differentiation between network delays and application delays when troubleshooting.

If the problem lies with the application, NPM provides IT teams with comprehensive information to resolve the issue. This includes response times for applications, transport times for the network, number of transactions, server response time, network transport time, responses in percentiles (maximum/minimum/average), number of concurrent users, and more.

Of course, not all applications require monitoring. NPM should be employed selectively, focusing on critical applications that are vital to daily business operations — such as customer-facing e-commerce applications. Additionally, it is crucial to integrate the information provided by NPM with the broader IT monitoring, management and surveillance ecosystem. In the realm of system security and operational efficiency, everything is interconnected.

NPM in Action

Let's consider a hypothetical scenario: you run a health insurance company. Thousands of users access your application daily to schedule doctor's appointments, make payments, and more. Suddenly seemingly out of nowhere, the application stops functioning. Complaints and calls flood in, and people are understandably frantic—after all, healthcare is of utmost importance.

At this point, many IT departments initiate the blame game or start grasping blindly for answers they know they may not find. However, with NPM in place, the next step is simple: consult the list.

What is the list? NPM solutions measure the response times and delays for every user-to-app transaction, aggregating them into a sortable list from slowest to fastest. This means that IT can swiftly identify the root cause of the problem and take immediate action to find a solution.

In 2023, seamlessness has become a basic consumer expectation. When a consumer places an online order, they expect to have the option of receiving it within a day or two. When they request a car, they expect it to arrive within minutes. And when they open an app, they expect it to launch within seconds — no more than one or two. Exceeding this threshold puts your company's reputation at stake. By implementing NPM, businesses can ensure that when application issues arise, they can promptly rectify them, keeping customers satisfied and preventing more severe consequences.

Mark Troester is VP of Strategy at Progress

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 ...

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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 ...

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