Measuring what users are up to, particularly in any web-based business application where the users can be anybody "out there", is getting to be one of the more important aspects of managing the performance of business systems.

Giving users the best possible experience when dealing with a web-based application is one of the most important tasks in applications development - not just from the point of view of the prettiness of the website, but also from its efficiency in delivering any kind of service to customers.

This is intended to give IT departments a more comprehensive end-to-end view of real system performance over the web, particularly in terms of the level of service delivered to paying customers. Managing this issue can also be compounded by the realities of heterogeneous environments where Java and .NET tiers are obliged to interoperate.

Compuware is already flagging the expectation at users that measurement of end-user service levels will be taken further. Earlier this year the company acquired Proxima for its Centauri customer-facing service level management platform. The integration of Centauri and Vantage is expected to appear in the next quarter. ®

Related story

• Compuware buys Proxima (4 January 2007)