Quest Software introduced Foglight for Windows Azure Applications, an application performance monitoring (APM) solution available via software-as-a-service (SaaS).

Available immediately as a beta, the newest addition to the industry-leading Foglight APM portfolio enables IT administrators to monitor performance and understand what end users are experiencing with Windows Azure-based applications.

Enterprises recognize that end users have high expectations from applications. The success or failure of an application often is determined by the end user’s experience in that application; however, IT administrators sometimes struggle to understand the end user experience, particularly within cloud-based applications.

Foglight for Windows Azure Applications enables enterprises to leverage cloud-based performance monitoring technology for applications built on the Windows Azure platform, and allows IT administrators to gain critical insight as to how end users interact with these applications.

Foglight for Azure Applications gives application owners and operators confidence that their users are getting the service expected, and the applications and infrastructure are performing optimally.

Specifically, the product provides:

- Insight at a glance into the current and historical availability, as well as the health of the application and its supporting infrastructure

- The ability to drill down into problems to understand both their impact and probable cause

- Insight into the quality of service experienced by the application’s users, combined with an at-a-glance view of response time, showing normal behavior and drawing attention to outliers

- A geographical view of performance and user location, drawing attention to problems affecting particular geographies rather than all users

- A true understanding of performance issues related to browser types, mobile device and other user agents, identifying compatibility issues and showing how users access the application

- Alarms that are reserved for truly important matters. In addition to appearing in the product, these can be forwarded to email clients so that IT staff are notified when critical issues arise, enabling them to take action when needed

“We have entered a new era with cloud platforms like Windows Azure," Steve Rosenberg, VP and GM – Performance Monitoring, Quest Software. "IT organizations now have the ability for extremely rapid and cost-effective application delivery. Our enterprise customers tell us that to capitalize upon this, they must have independent performance monitoring that provides insight into what end users experience with these applications. With the introduction of Foglight for Windows Azure Applications, we now offer performance monitoring solutions that enable enterprise IT departments to have a true picture of the end user’s actual experience with Windows Azure-based applications, quickly and proactively pinpoint performance issues, and resolve those issues before they impact the business.”