App Performance View

Peter and Rebecca

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EDS Jumps on Application Performance Bandwagon

By Sevcik and Wetzel on Mon, 05/04/09 - 11:54pm.

It was only a matter of time before system integrators codified a set of application performance optimization services (joining the network service providers we have already profiled--see below). We've been eager to see who among the systems integrators would be first--and the winner is EDS (an HP company). Although other system integrators such as IBM Global Services provide custom solutions, to our knowledge EDS leads the pack in formalizing its application performance service offerings.

We recently interviewed EDS' Global Product Manager David Cordeiro for the inside scoop about the EDS Network Application Services portfolio. The EDS service lineup includes Network/Application Performance Assessment, Network/Application Performance Management, and WAN Optimization services, all of which are designed to meet the needs of Fortune 2000 customers.

EDS' Network/Application Performance Assessment service details what applications are running over the network and how well they are performing, and makes recommendations about what solution best fits the customer's requirements. The Network/Application Performance Management service provides ongoing monitoring of network and application performance, and the WAN Optimization service includes deployment and management of the acceleration and/or control products chosen to meet the customer's needs.

According to Cordeiro the impetus for the three services springs from a single pain point: "Whenever there is a performance problem, people blame the network first," and since EDS manages lots of corporate networks it feels this pain acutely. Cordeiro told us that: "With application, data center and workforce outsourcing, the edges of the tower are blurring--and drawing hard lines between them is becoming difficult. Those responsible for the network had to develop tools to fix [performance] problems or find their source."

Many EDS customers, smitten with products like Riverbed's Steelhead and Cisco's WAAS, have approached EDS to take over management of their WAN optimization solutions. Cordeiro told us that EDS decided it would be foolhardy to offer WAN optimization without wrapping visibility around it as well. For this reason, before a customer can buy managed WAN optimization EDS requires an application performance assessment, and EDS will only implement WAN optimization coupled with ongoing monitoring and reporting.

Cordeiro explained EDS requires performance assessment and monitoring because: "Unless we do a strong application performance assessment first, we might miss some of the causes of the performance problems, or maybe there's a problem with the architecture that WAN optimization might make worse. So we require bundling of an initial assessment with any WAN optimization project, and then we require monitoring in perpetuity because customers will call us every time their application experiences a performance problem." Cordeiro also mentioned that EDS provides application performance SLAs on a custom basis.

EDS uses NetQoS and OPNET as well as HP's own tools to monitor application performance. According to Cordiero enterprises lack the in-house expertise to make full use of application performance monitoring tools, so they look to EDS for its expertise to interpret the reports and look out for their clients' interests.

Not surprisingly, Cordeiro sees EDS as a better application performance management partner than a carrier because: "Carriers look up the OSI stack and focus on the network as an end unto itself, whereas we look down the OSI stack at the network as a means to deliver high application performance." He added that EDS has a leg up in application performance management because of its expertise managing both networks and applications. "A carrier doesn't have the motivation to solve performance problems outside their domain, whereas we can solve an application performance issue over the public network as well as multiple carriers' private networks."

We think that EDS has a good story, and is in well positioned to deliver a holistic service that melds knowledge about applications and networks. We welcome any comments or insight our readers have about EDS' application performance optimization services.

Here are links to past descriptions we have written about application performance management services offered by network service providers:

Orange Business Services