Web worst-case scenario

By Denise Dubie, NetworkWorld.com, 01/31/06

A recent survey of about 350 IT professionals revealed that 98% learn of Web site performance problems directly from end users. More than 50% of respondents that reported having Web application problems also said their company lost business due to the performance issues.

The survey also found that nearly half of all Web site problems take longer than one hour to resolve. And respondents on average said they believed that IT only becomes aware of 65% of the problems end users actually encounter on Web sites -- meaning site visitors don't always report the poor performance they experience.

But there is hope, according to respondents. Participants that use automated tools to monitor their mission-critical Web sites reported that the number of complaints from end users decreased by a little more than half. And those 6% of respondents using a "blended" approach -- consisting of a combination of enterprise management systems, synthetic transaction monitoring and real-user monitoring -- reported that 35% of problems were identified by end users, compared to the 50% identified by respondents that use tools to monitor Web sites, but not an integrated multi-tool approach.

The survey was conducted by King Research in late 2005 and sponsored by Coradiant, which makes TrueSight appliances to monitor Web traffic, applications and site performance. Coradiant says its product provides real-user monitoring, as opposed to synthetic simulations, and reports that Web sites using a blended set of monitoring tools including TrueSight can reduce performance problems down to 35%, while also more quickly addressing problems.

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