Business applications execute on shared IT infrastructure consisting of technologies running on distributed and mainframe systems. Performance metrics representing measurements of transaction flow latency across technology activities and network segments are used to provide valuable information to IT and applications operations teams. Monitoring transaction flow through these business applications requires insight into the technology components that support the business application since transaction flow latency is a homogeneous measurement across heterogeneous technologies on multiple technology tiers supported by distributed and mainframe systems. Typical business applications leverage legacy applications that have been executing on mainframe systems for years. Self-contained technologies (e.g., JEE) and new application architectures (e.g., SOA) require insight into the transaction flow in order to assure that applications are meeting business needs. Insight into all segments of the transaction flow is critically important to understand the performance of the application regardless of application complexity, technology or host. Extending the metrics measured to other business and technical functions provides a holistic view of the application with respect to topology, technology and information. This presentation will discuss the measurements, information and functions required to manage business applications across business and mainframe systems.
