应用改变IT

   “应用”这个词已经成了流行文化的一个元素，显然我们已经进入了一个“以应用为中心”的世界。企业科技领域也出现了类似的重大趋势：注意的重点从基础架构转向应用软件。据调研机构盖特纳公司（Gartner）估计，全球2000强企业中有20%正在将IT部门的工作重心转移到应用的监控和管理上来，而不再仅注重基础架构。

    这一现象的原因很简单：运行迅速而正常的应用软件直接关系到企业的营收。无论是交易、复杂搜索、数据库录入还是内部商业流程，对企业来说真正重要的是应用，而不是网络、服务器或其他硬件。此外，云计算正在迅速发展，它侧重于提供终端网络服务，而用以实现该目的的硬件与软件则是透明的，这一点也加速了上述趋势的发展。

    由业务部门推动的IT界趋势

    推动这一趋势的乃是公司里的业务部门，而不是IT部门，认识到这一点，这种剧变就显得更有意思了。盖特纳分析师威尔•嘉佩里注意到：“业务部门以及顶级高管们现在通常已经意识到，IT不仅仅是支持着后台工作的基础设施，还能够直接产生收入，是促成企业战略目标实现的工具，这些作用更加重要。”2008-2009年经济衰退迫使企业“少花钱多办事”，这种对效率的追求当然也推动了这种态度上的转变。

    这种趋势告诉我们什么呢？简而言之，我们正在实现这样一个转型：IT资产的主要存在目的从保障应用的可用性（“什么地方出毛病了？我能修好它么？”）变为改善应用的性能（“客户需要等多久？它对营收有多大影响？”）。

    如果你还属于落后的前一种类别，你可能会在竞争中输给更具前瞻性的后一种企业，这些竞争对手已经意识到，反馈时间慢两秒钟，可能就意味着收入减少4%，比如电子商务行业。

    这种巨大的变化不仅仅冲击着面向消费者的企业。我们最近手独立分析公司Quocirca委托进行的一份调查显示，各行各业公司首席信息官中，有82%认为终端用户期待其网络应用能有更出色的性能。这种期望值只会越来越高，认识到这一点的公司已经开始监控应用性能，藉此获得竞争优势。位于德克萨斯州、拥有60处设施的医疗保健公司CHRISTUS健康就是一个成功的典型。

    With the term 'apps' now part of popular culture, it's clear we live in an 'application-centric' world. In enterprise technology there's an analogous trend just as big: the shift in focus from infrastructure to applications. Gartner estimates that 20 percent of the Global 2000 are shifting the emphasis of their IT operational processes to monitor and manage applications, rather than infrastructure, in a central place.

    There's a simple reason for this: speedy and properly functioning applications directly relate to revenue. Whether it's a transaction, a complex search, database entry or an internal business process, it's the application that really matters to the organization, not the network, servers or any other hardware. The growth of Cloud computing and its emphasis on end-result web services, where the hardware and software powering them are meant to be transparent, is only accelerating this trend.

    An IT Trend Driven by the Business

    This seachange is even more interesting when you realize that the business side of the company is driving this trend, not IT. Gartner analyst Will Cappelli notes that: "Line of business and C-level executives now generally recognize that IT is not just infrastructure that supports background workflows, but is also, and more fundamentally, a direct generator of revenue, and a key enabler of strategy."i The do-more-with-less efficiencies forced by the 2008-2009 economic downturn certainly helped to cement this attitude shift.

    What is this trend telling us? In short, that we've moved from a world where IT assets focused mainly on application availability ("what's broken and can I fix it?") to application performance ("how long will a customer wait and what's the impact on revenue?").

    If you're in the reactive former group, you're likely losing ground to your competition in the more proactive latter group which already knows -- using an e-commerce example -- that only a two second slowdown in response time can equal 4 percent of revenue loss.

    This seachange applies to more than consumer-facing companies. A recent survey we commissioned from independent analyst firm Quocirca revealed that 82 percent of CIOs in multiple industries believe end-users expect better performance from their online applications. Those expectations will only rise. The companies that understand this are already using application performance monitoring for competitive advantage. One example is CHRISTUS Health, a 60-facility healthcare company in Texas.