Contributed Article by Vic Nyman, BlueStripe Software co-founder

In my last contributed blog post, I wrote how IT organizations already run Hybrid Cloud applications, even if they don't know it.  In truth, many organizations know the Cloud is involved, however, the challenge for Operations is the dynamic details of where and how those systems are involved - and most importantly, how to get a handle on how they are performing for business applications. 

IT Operations teams are especially vulnerable to the unique challenges posed by production Cloud-based applications.  The business and financial executives that rely on mission critical business applications don't care whether an application is hosted entirely in the data center or entirely in some Cloud.  They only care that the application is running and that it is running properly.

"Not My Problem" is Not an Option

If a Cloud-based application component slows down the rest of the application, the Ops team doesn't have the luxury of saying "not my problem."  They must isolate the slow component, even within the Cloud and come up with a resolution plan. Making matters more difficult is the fact that Cloud systems, by definition, hide the connections between applications and the infrastructure they run on.

This management data gap can lead to Operations executives pulling their hair out, but it's not a lost cause.  There are application and transaction monitoring tools that break through the haze (so to speak) of Cloud performance to find the root cause of problems no matter where they occur, on premise or in the Cloud.

Transaction Monitoring in a Cloud Environment

While tools that monitor transactions in Cloud environments are not common, they're not some mythical breed.  When you're looking for management solutions, whether dealing with transaction performance or application performance, simply make sure that the management system includes key Cloud-based application management features, such as:

• Automatic Transaction & Application Monitoring in Cloud infrastructure
• Topology mapping inside the Cloud and out
• The ability to drill down into a cloud-based server stack to determine the root cause (even if it's controlled / caused by the Cloud operator)

When reviewing, or even trialing, these tools, make sure you match up their capabilities with your needs.  If you aren't a programmer, a deep dive tool would be overkill, and nearly impossible to interpret.  If you're running a specific platform in the Cloud, get a management tool that you know will monitor that platform properly.  Finally, if you're going to be running in a Hybrid environment, make sure the management tool can connect the on-premise transactions with the transactions in the Cloud.