* Compuware moves its CloudSleuth community into production, ready for enterprises that want to test application performance across the cloud
Ask enterprise IT executives what most concerns them about using public cloud services and “application performance” is invariably on their lists. They have good reason — guaranteeing response times for applications that cross a nebulous cloud infrastructure is, frankly, impossible.
Ask enterprise IT executives what most concerns them about using public cloud services and “application performance” is invariably on their lists. They have good reason — guaranteeing response times for applications that cross a nebulous cloud infrastructure is, frankly, impossible.
But performance management company Compuware wants to ease IT’s concerns about placing applications in the cloud. Earlier this week, it announced the official launch of CloudSleuth, a free cloud community allowing enterprise IT and others to monitor the application performance and availability of cloud service providers using real-time data. This live version of CloudSleuth follows a preliminary beta site operational since April.
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CloudSleuth, which relies on cloud service provider participation, features two primary applications for now.
The first is Cloud Performance Analyzer, a new application that provides users the ability to evaluate the impact of cloud services on Web application response times. For this application, which continuously monitors a sample e-commerce Web application built with third-party content delivery network, ad and map services, provides an end-user perspective on application performance. For Cloud Performance Analyzer Compuware relies on the Gomez performance network it acquired a year ago, says Doug Willoughby, Compuware’s director of cloud computing.
The second application, Global Provider View, lets users see real-time performance and availability of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) providers in the cloud. Among other capabilities, this application provides continuous performance monitoring of availability and geographic zones on the most popular IaaS and PaaS providers from the Gomez performance network.
CloudSleuth, particularly with Compuware’s open market approach, is “definitely a good idea,” says cloud watcher James Staten, a vice president with Forrester Research.
“What’s nice about CloudSleuth is that it’s richer and broader than some early attempts at this that gives you lots of different pieces and performance indicators of cloud environments. It’s what you’d expect from the Gomez guys,” Staten says. “By reaching out to any and every cloud provider to be part of this and asking enterprises how they want this to work, Compuware has the potential to create a really nice community way of determining how to use the cloud most effectively.”
That said, Staten warns, CloudSleuth isn’t going to have an immediate impact. “This is about creating catalysts in the form of credibility and actual use that Compuware has to drive and get others to mimic,” he says.
“This is a pretty small market opportunity today, but if you look at the growth rate of cloud and companies doing things in test and development, this market will become very attractive, very quickly,” he adds.
To date, participating CloudSleuth partners include CDNetworks, Cisco, GoGrid, OpSource and others. Enterprises can test their applications and participate in the CloudSleuth community here.
