Liquid Web Downtime. Loss of revenue. Major cybersecurity threats. Open vulnerabilities just waiting to be exploited.
These are just a few genuine threats businesses face when dealing with the devil they know: IT downtime and server outages.
And it’s not just the “little guys.” Even among the top 2,000 companies worldwide, the Global 2,000 report by Splunk discovered vital insights:
- Downtime hurts even the most robust and well-capitalized of companies, costing them approximately $49 million in revenue loss.
- On average, 44 percent of these downtime-related incidents came from app or infrastructure-related issues.
- By changing how IT infrastructure works in and for their business, companies identified as “resilience leaders” in the report exhibit behaviors and IT practices that ensure they “suffer less downtime, recover faster, and incur lower costs.”
So, how can businesses like yours lead the way and reduce downtime issues?
It starts with adopting a proactive approach to server application monitoring. Do this to search-and-eliminate issues faster, with greater precision, and definitely ahead of your users.
In this article, we’ll guide business owners who want to learn how server application monitoring can help optimize performance, ensure reliability, and protect the user experience and the bottom line.
What is application server monitoring?
Don’t let the name intimidate you: “application server monitoring” describes the process thoroughly. It’s when a business’s or organization’s IT leaders observe application servers to ensure performance is on track and consistent enough for the user experience you’ve promised your app’s customers.
To do this, an agent (or tool) integrated into the application completes a few critical tasks related to monitoring. Specifically, it:
- Tracks and sends data to the application server monitoring system.
- Presents said data on a dashboard for easy visibility.
- Allows a user (such as an IT specialist or business owner) to view the captured and compiled data about your application server’s performance clearly and coherently.
From here, you’ve got the essentials to make decisions around improvement, analyze signals that could indicate the incoming of a downtime “event,” optimize performance, and more. It’s application performance management at its simplest.
You’ll see that data is really at the heart of server application monitoring here. In fact, many advanced monitoring systems empower data-driven decision-making through features like alerts, historical trend analysis, and predictive analytics.
Why should you monitor your application servers?
Setting up application server monitoring might seem like a “nice to have” rather than a must-have.
And while that may have been fine a decade ago, application performance management simply isn’t optional anymore.
When surveying their customers, who are experienced enterprise and small business IT leaders in their organizations, LogicMonitor found several key insights that highlighted how non-negotiable it is to monitor your application servers — and what you stand to gain from the initiative when you do:
- 80 percent of respondents reported that performance and “availability” (of servers, processes, and other hardware resources) were important issues.
- They also agreed that 51 percent of these downtime outages were entirely avoidable.
- 74 percent of respondents champion proactive monitoring as the key to detecting and mitigating downtime faster.
Let’s examine these benefits on-the-ground and in-action.
Quick problem detection
Monitoring your application servers helps you quickly spot and fix hiccups before they cause major app disruptions.
Continuous application improvement
Monitoring provides in-depth app performance data that can help the product team launch better app updates. Analyzing metrics, such as response times and error rates, helps developers identify bottlenecks and optimize for better efficiency and user satisfaction.
Proper scaling plans
Do you foresee a rise in application users? Application server monitoring data reveals capacity, weaknesses, and strengths, aiding in effective scaling to handle increased load without performance issues.
Uptight security
Continuous application server monitoring makes noticing bugs, malware, and intrusions second nature. When these disruptions are noticed as soon as they happen, they can be dealt with quickly without hampering your application’s security.
Data asset management
Monitoring application servers goes beyond software to include physical hardware management. It can help detect server hardware that has failed, is showing signs of impending failure, or compromised and stolen equipment, which is crucial for data integrity and business continuity.
Customer experience and reliability
Address the full scope of all the above aspects and you’ve got a powerful application server monitoring process that ultimately translates to a reliable and consistent user experience.
One part of that process is creating a stable and responsive environment via rapid problem resolution, continuous improvements, proper scaling, and robust security. The other side of that coin is adopting and implementing performance-focused, reliable hardware ensures the application remains trustworthy for end-users.
We’ll survey the best available options for application server monitoring systems next.
Types of application server monitoring systems
Application server monitoring systems come in three main types, each with its characteristics, advantages, and challenges.
#1: Hardware-based systems
Hardware-based monitoring systems require installing dedicated physical devices on-premises to monitor application servers. These systems often demand a substantial upfront investment in hardware and infrastructure. They offer high performance with low latency, complete control over data and security, and do not rely on internet connectivity for monitoring.
#2: Cloud/software-based systems
Cloud-based monitoring systems offered as Software as a Service (SaaS) use lightweight agents on servers to transmit data to cloud analytics platforms. Installation is simple, with costs based on a scalable subscription model.
These systems are easy to update, have lower upfront costs, and are accessible from anywhere with internet access. However, they depend on internet connectivity, may pose data privacy concerns, and involve ongoing subscription fees.
#3: Mobile systems
Mobile systems are extensions of either a hardware or cloud-based system and are made available for on-the-go application server monitoring. They run on smartphones or PCs and have limited capabilities compared to the previous two.
How to choose the right application server monitoring system
To fully enjoy the benefits of application server monitoring, choose the right system for your organization. Consider these key factors when making your decision.
Can it track all your current application servers?
The best-fit monitoring system should track all your current application servers, whether they are hardware, software, hybrid, public, private, etc. It ensures you have a holistic view of your entire server infrastructure, making decision-making swift and easy.
A dedicated monitoring system like Liquid Web’s application hosting easily integrates and monitors custom hardware, software, and cloud-based servers.
Is the dashboard easy to navigate?
The interface should be intuitive and user-friendly since you’ll be using the metrics displayed on the dashboard to make critical decisions. An easy-to-navigate dashboard lets you quickly find and interpret the needed data, enabling faster response times to potential issues.
Does the company provide fast and effective customer support?
Fast and effective customer support is crucial for selecting an application server monitoring system. It ensures quick issue resolution, minimizes downtime, and helps you maximize system features for smooth, effective monitoring.
Prompt support also assists with navigating features and troubleshooting problems efficiently. Work with web hosting companies like Liquid Web, which stands out with its knowledgeable technicians available 24/7/365, ensuring you have expert support whenever you need it.
Can the server monitoring system grow with you?
When choosing a server monitoring host, ensure it can scale with your business. A scalable system grows with your needs, whether adding servers, shifting to cloud solutions or expanding your applications.
With Liquid Web, you can scale sizable workloads worry-free using high-performance hardware and add redundancy and servers to your application hosting with no migration.
Does the server monitoring system have other beneficial features?
Strategic hosting partners like Liquid Web offer other features, such as proactive monitoring, API integrations, and constant updates. These extra features help transform application server monitoring from a routine task to a collaborative process for maximizing organizational app potential.
5 best practices for effective application server monitoring
Want to make the most of your application server monitoring? Here are five practices to adopt right away.
1. Use different monitoring tools
Your application monitoring tool or agent shouldn’t be only performance-based. To capture as many metrics or data as possible, integrate other monitoring tools, such as cost optimization, security, and administration tools.
This way, you gain a comprehensive view of your application’s health.
2. Dig into metrics
Don’t just scan dashboard metrics for obvious abnormalities. Regularly analyze your monitoring data to identify subtle performance degradation, spot emerging issues early, and uncover hidden errors that could affect user experience while finding performance improvements and optimization opportunities.
When you treat your metrics as a starting point, not the finish line, you can achieve more with the data you have.
3. Set up alerts
Alerts notify you of issues or potential problems in your application. Setting up alerts for critical performance features allows you to quickly identify, assign, and resolve server errors or failures before they escalate and impact your application.
A robust alerting system enables rapid detection, assignment to the right team members, prioritization by severity, and escalation procedures for critical issues, ensuring swift and effective response.
4. Consider recurrent problems
If you keep spotting and fixing the same errors repeatedly, it’s time to conduct root cause analysis, implement long-term solutions, adjust monitoring thresholds, and document findings for future reference and knowledge sharing.
This will help you solve the problem once and for all and prevent wasting resources and time tackling the same problem repeatedly.
5. Maintain hardware installment conditions
Hardware-based monitoring systems are fragile and always have operational conditions that should be maintained for peak experience.
Ensure optimal conditions, perform regular maintenance, update firmware and software, and maintain a stable power supply with backups.
Have your web applications operating at their peak with Liquid Web
Every growing web application needs careful attention and consistent improvements. Implementing server application monitoring helps maintain peak performance and reduces the time spent fixing serious glitches and addressing user complaints.
This proactive approach allows you to spot and fix issues as they arise, preventing minor hiccups from escalating and ensuring optimal performance.
Our experts at Liquid Web can help equip your business with the best monitoring tools for your organization. With over two decades of experience in web hosting and managed applications, our team will address all your server application monitoring concerns.