Choosing an Automated Testing Tool (Continued)

Performance Monitoring and Management Tools
Unlike other tools described above, tools in this category are used after the application is already in production by examining how the application is working in a real-world environment. In essence, these tools monitor the production environment to ensure that all requirements and defined thresholds are continually being met. Key products in this category include:

• Vantage (Compuware). This performance management solution for distributed applications monitors the application from the end user, through the network, to the server and database tiers. The tool helps determine the precise causes of performance bottlenecks by showing an application interacting with its supporting infrastructure. Using production metrics, Vantage also provides forecasting capabilities for efficient growth management.
• VTune Analyzer (Intel Corp.). This tool, which is offered for Java, .NET, and Linux, focuses on performance tuning and optimization. It looks at different configurations for servers and databases, determining how they all work together and making sure different settings are correct to give the most optimal performance. The Sampling capability allows developers to see results on system-wide activity and drill down to source code, while the Counter Monitor allows developers to examine a detailed piece of code in relation to performance counters.
• Optimizeit Enterprise Suite (Borland Software Corp.). This performance assurance solution for developers includes J2EE profiling capabilities in addition to code-level performance benefits. This allows developers to locate J2EE performance issues during the development phase rather than locating potential problems during quality assurance.
• ProTune (Mercury Interactive). This set of tools includes ProTune Delivery Service for tuning and optimizing production systems across the application, database, and infrastructure, and ProTune Validation Service, offering full-scale capacity validation testing of Web sites and Web-based applications, helping identify bottlenecks and capacity constraints within a Web infrastructure.
• OneSight (Empirix). OneSight is a dedicated production monitoring system is deployed inside a corporation's firewall. This product uses the same transaction engine as Empirix's e-TEST suite and is used for transaction monitoring of complex, dynamic Web applications and Web services.
• Tivoli Monitoring for Transaction Performance (TMTP) (IBM Corp.). This tool is designed to extend application development testing from IBM Rational to the production environment. Features include automated transaction decomposition, dynamically discovered transaction flows based on URL or J2EE components, simulated transactions to identify application performance issues, and detailed analysis of actual and simulated transactions to identify specific causes of performance problems versus general infrastructure availability.

About the Author
Karen D. Schwartz has written about technology for nearly 20 years. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including CIO, InformationWeek, Business 2.0, Mobile Computing & Communications, NewsForge, ZDNet, PlanetIT, Consumer Goods Technology, and Government Executive. Reach her by e-mail at karen.schwartz@comcast.net.