SOA implementations need application performance management to work well

Its research, conducted online by TechWeb in the third quarter of 2008, finds customer service levels, line-of-business operations and productivity all suffering from poor SOA (service orientated architecture) application performance. “The survey found that while SOA deployments are on the rise and have achieved broad market adoption, there is a general lack of planning to manage the added complexity they introduce in production environments,” explains Prabhjot Singh, vice president of marketing for CA’s Application Performance Management business unit. “Mission-critical applications must be proactively managed, with the total customer experience in mind, to achieve optimum service levels. A comprehensive approach that links business value to application performance management helps ensure that SOA projects are successful once in production – and also enables rapid detection and diagnosis of application slowdowns and failures, to better manage the end-user experience,” he adds. The survey revealed that knowing about an application failure before receiving a call from a dissatisfied customer is one of the keys to success. Respondents indicated that the ability to measure the business impact of failed transactions, as well as collaborating on problem solving across departmental silos using a single set of performance data to pinpoint causes, are highly valued characteristics of a successful SOA performance management solution. CA’s survey targeted organisations in the US, UK, France, Germany and Australia that had either already deployed or are planning to deploy SOA-based applications – taking views from 615 technology professionals ranging from CIOs to IT management.