Compuware: Making applications perform

With our comprehensive global experience of application development for a multitude of vertical markets, we've put together a few common scenarios to answer some of your basic queries.

Shutting down registrations on a website, a week after launch, amid a major £50m marketing campaign, with servers unable to cope with demand is about as far from an ideal infrastructure performance as a business can get. However, for one company this was reality. Implementing the PPM methodology will protect your business and your brand from the damage of these kinds of infrastructure performance issues.

1) We already have a load testing environment which isn't from Compuware but our organisation would really benefit from the Compuware PPM methodology. Can we still implement the other elements of PPM with our existing load testing environment?

Yes. Most of the elements of the PPM methodology will integrate with other development and load testing tools to improve the application deployment process.

2) Load testing is expensive in terms of both resource and time. Applications often fail as soon as the load test is increased to thousands of users. The result is an application going back into development, until its ready for a repeat load test. How is Compuware's solution different?

With PPM, the profiling that is carried out early in the development process checks the application will perform as intended on the infrastructure it will be running on. This prevents load tests from being repeated later on. In addition, the PPM solution offers a variety of simulation techniques so that organisations avoid the need for a complete infrastructure to test all the possible variables. All this results in the PPM methodology saving an organisation significant amounts of both time and money.

3) How does the PPM toolkit fit in with existing developer studio desktops? And will we own the software or will it be licensed?

PPM will sit on your existing developer desktops in their Visual Studio. Some parts of the PPM toolkit will result in new hardware for programmers to use. However, it all operates with minimal training and effort. The technology will be licensed to your organisation on a 'per user' basis. So, you only pay to license PPM users.

4) Business managers at our organisation are very keen to be able to understand application deployment more to be able to respond better to application deployment and development needs. How can PPM improve their understanding?

PPM actively facilitates coordination between different groups of people from developers to network profilers to management itself. Because it predicts performance issues, time is more plentiful for contingencies or the altering of expectations by everyone involved. This gives business managers an improved ability to create strategy based on likely outcomes. Not only that, but many elements of the toolkit such as ApplicationVantage, for example, are incredibly easy to use, read and understand by everyone, including business managers, so that there are less barriers between business leaders and IT.

5) What happens if we discover that the application under development will not perform effectively on our infrastructure?

There are a number of things you can do. Firstly, you can return the application to development and ensure your developers understand the restrictions you're working under: Compuware's DevPartner Studio can prove a valuable asset in making sure that developments are more effective.

An alternative approach is to grow your infrastructure to cope, or change the way that other traffic and applications are handled.

Finally, if the application is not mission-critical, and further investment is not viable, then you might decide simply to manage user expectations accordingly.

Find out more on the business benefits of PPM

If you'd like to understand the PPM methodology for deployment, click here.

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Feel free to ask any further questions about PPM by either e-mailing info@compuware.co.uk or you can call 01753 444 466 and speak to an advisor who will answer any questions you have.