APM best practices: Dos and don’ts guide for practitioners

Application performance management (APM) is the practice of tracking, measuring, and analyzing software application performance and availability to ensure a smooth user experience and achieve business outcomes. APM helps maintain high-performing software applications by providing visibility into complex microservices environments and identifying performance bottlenecks. A clear understanding of an application's operation and a proactive APM practice are crucial for maintaining high-performing software applications. APM should be considered from the beginning of software development, and auto-instrumentation can help simplify the process. Effective APM involves end-to-end visibility, real-time monitoring and insights, and a user- and business-objective focus. Key principles of APM include proactive monitoring, real-time insights, end-to-end visibility, a user-centric approach, and continuous improvement. When creating an APM strategy, it's essential to consider factors such as performance monitoring, error tracking, infrastructure monitoring, and user experience metrics. APM can improve application scalability by enabling continuous improvements and increasing performance over time. To get APM right, select the right APM solution, manage cardinality to control costs, set up intelligent alerting, and train teams to promote collaboration. Finally, APM data analysis and insights are critical for tuning and decision-making, and can help teams proactively detect issues and optimize code.