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What is BSM Anyway?

The Unique Relationship Between APM, Infrastructure and the End-User Experience

Defining BSM has always been a challenge. Many tool vendors have their own definitions of BSM, or use other terms such as ITSM, BTM or APM instead of BSM. At BSMdigest, we are not too strict about the semantics – we like to focus on the BSM concept, which includes all of these technologies.

In 2006 I wrote an article for BSMdigest – which I have included in this issue – stating that end-user monitoring was a key to BSM. It was easy to make that pronouncement, but the BSM technology did not live up to that expectation at the time. Today, I think there may be an answer: The new generation of Application Performance Monitoring (APM) solutions.

In the past, BSM has depended mostly on infrastructure monitoring. The new generation of APM tools not only look at performance from the inside, such as resource utilization, but also from the outside, from the end-user perspective.

“One of the biggest complaints the market has about BSM is that it does not reflect the end-user experience,” explains Berkay Mollamustafaoglu, Product Strategy Manager, Netuitive, Inc. “Everything may look fine according to your infrastructure monitoring tools, but the application could still be slow, the user could still be experiencing a performance problem.”

Agents on the user's desktop and transaction management are two effective components of APM that enable you to gain new visibility into the user's perspective and manage response times. Desktop agents are the most clear cut way to visualize the end-user experience but obviously it is not always possible to deploy an agent on every user's desktop. Business Transaction Management (BTM) provides reliable insight into the end-user experience, however, by monitoring the performance of all the components involved in completing a transaction.

“But once you have identified an issue with the user experience, you still have to find a way to determine the root cause and resolve the problem via infrastructure monitoring tools,” Berkay continues. “We are starting to see large enterprises using advanced self-learning analytics as a way to show context between dynamic virtual infrastructure performance and end-user experience data being generated by APM tools to deliver on the vision of Business Service Management.”

“In cloud and virtual environments it becomes even more important to have both infrastructure monitoring and end-user monitoring, to be able to do true capacity management,” he adds. “You have to optimize your resource allocation so that you can maintain fast response times. APM allows you to see the response times, and see where you can optimize the infrastructure to maintain acceptable response times, by adding servers, memory or CPU. You need these new tools to support new paradigms in the virtual world. Seeing the state of the business service is not the end goal.”

With the emergence of a new breed of APM tools and the migration to virtual and cloud environments, BSM is at a crossroads. This is probably a good time to officially evolve our definition of BSM to include APM, BTM, self-learning analytics and, most importantly, the end-user experience.

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What is BSM Anyway?

The Unique Relationship Between APM, Infrastructure and the End-User Experience

Defining BSM has always been a challenge. Many tool vendors have their own definitions of BSM, or use other terms such as ITSM, BTM or APM instead of BSM. At BSMdigest, we are not too strict about the semantics – we like to focus on the BSM concept, which includes all of these technologies.

In 2006 I wrote an article for BSMdigest – which I have included in this issue – stating that end-user monitoring was a key to BSM. It was easy to make that pronouncement, but the BSM technology did not live up to that expectation at the time. Today, I think there may be an answer: The new generation of Application Performance Monitoring (APM) solutions.

In the past, BSM has depended mostly on infrastructure monitoring. The new generation of APM tools not only look at performance from the inside, such as resource utilization, but also from the outside, from the end-user perspective.

“One of the biggest complaints the market has about BSM is that it does not reflect the end-user experience,” explains Berkay Mollamustafaoglu, Product Strategy Manager, Netuitive, Inc. “Everything may look fine according to your infrastructure monitoring tools, but the application could still be slow, the user could still be experiencing a performance problem.”

Agents on the user's desktop and transaction management are two effective components of APM that enable you to gain new visibility into the user's perspective and manage response times. Desktop agents are the most clear cut way to visualize the end-user experience but obviously it is not always possible to deploy an agent on every user's desktop. Business Transaction Management (BTM) provides reliable insight into the end-user experience, however, by monitoring the performance of all the components involved in completing a transaction.

“But once you have identified an issue with the user experience, you still have to find a way to determine the root cause and resolve the problem via infrastructure monitoring tools,” Berkay continues. “We are starting to see large enterprises using advanced self-learning analytics as a way to show context between dynamic virtual infrastructure performance and end-user experience data being generated by APM tools to deliver on the vision of Business Service Management.”

“In cloud and virtual environments it becomes even more important to have both infrastructure monitoring and end-user monitoring, to be able to do true capacity management,” he adds. “You have to optimize your resource allocation so that you can maintain fast response times. APM allows you to see the response times, and see where you can optimize the infrastructure to maintain acceptable response times, by adding servers, memory or CPU. You need these new tools to support new paradigms in the virtual world. Seeing the state of the business service is not the end goal.”

With the emergence of a new breed of APM tools and the migration to virtual and cloud environments, BSM is at a crossroads. This is probably a good time to officially evolve our definition of BSM to include APM, BTM, self-learning analytics and, most importantly, the end-user experience.

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 ...