Application performance monitoring (APM) now requires coordinated decisions across fivedistinct dimensions of functionality: end-user experience monitoring; user-defined transactionprofiling; application component discovery and modeling; application component deep-divemonitoring; and application performance management database capabilities. Enterprisesshould use the results of this Magic Quadrant to help guide vendor selection decisions andevaluate how well the vendors support the various dimensions. Because vendors rarelydemonstrate equal competency across all five dimensions, an enterprise will often need to"mix and match" offerings from different product portfolios to achieve a best-of-breed fit forits own requirements.During the past five years, IT operations management has become increasingly application-centric. While most IT operations teams still regard the management of infrastructurecomponents (virtual and real servers, networks, and storage farms) as their core competency,they have increasingly come to understand that these elements deliver value to the businessonly in the context of the applications they support, and, therefore, unless infrastructurecomponents are managed with an eye to their impact on application performance, itwill prove increasingly difficult to justify the investment and labor time associated withtraditional IT operations management. Business decision makers have, in fact, been themost enthusiastic advocates of application-centric IT operations management among largeenterprises, precisely because they have grown more appreciative of the role that IT playsin enabling the unfolding and execution of revenue or value-generating business processes,and, to them, the most important and visible element that IT delivers with regard to businessprocess execution is the predictable and effective flow of application-based transactions. Mentions: AVIcode, CA, Compuware, Fluke Networks, HP, IBM, Inetco, MQSoftware, Nastel, NetIQ, Nimsoft, Opnet, OpTier, Oracle, Precise, Progress, Quest Software Free Download of Full Report Topics: Market Research, Competitive Analysis, Strategy, Market Intelligence