Application Performance Management for Mainframe

Compuware’s Application Performance Management solution, known as Compuware APM, enables management of the end-to-end user experience, a superset of application performance testing and monitoring. It claims to make true user experience management a reality with monitoring of real, synthetic and third party users, together with business impact analysis. It can deterrmine the root cause of performance problems across environments and usually locate the line of code responsible.

It therefore facilitates good governance of automated business systems and helps to avoid wasted investment in IT. It complements development, by providing part of the feedback loop (considered part of DevOps at scale) between the production user experience and systems development/maintenance.

Compuware markets software solutions, including hosted software and software-related professional services, primarily through a direct sales force in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific, Brazil and Mexico. It also has an internal sales force in Lexington, Massachusetts, Richmond Hill, Ontario, and Maidenhead, England for its hosted software. Nevertheless, it does support independent distributors and partners as well, which, in conjunction with its own sales channels, gives it a presence in approximately 60 countries.

It markets its professional and application services primarily through account managers located in offices throughout North America.

It designs its marketing structure to help it keep abreast of, and respond quickly to, the changing needs of its customers, which, in essence, means that it regularly consults with the actual users of its products and services.

Of necessity, Compuware Mainframe Solutions are targeted at large enterprise customers with existing mainframe installations. However, its APM tools will be of particular interest to mature organisations with modernised mainframe environments that fully integrate mainframe and distributed solutions as business services.

Compuware’s APM solution consists of PurePath for z/OS CICS, PurePath for z/OS Java and Compuware Strobe.

Compuware Strobe provides root cause analysis for end-user experience/performance problems involving mainframe applications. It can identify SQL statements and DB2 system services using excessive CPU or wait time, based on detailed DB2 tuning information including catalog statistics and the number of SQL statement GET PAGE requests.

Compuware PurePath for z/OS CICS provides real-time CICS transaction monitoring for mainframe Service Provider or Service Requestor applications. It captures information for applications operating within one or multiple CICSplex regions and also monitors inter-process communications across CICSplex regions. It can also trace TCP/IP communications between CICS regions within a z/OS Sysplex and supports CICS Transaction Gateway and WebSphere MQ; Message Broker; and Enterprise Service Bus messaging technologies.

Compuware PurePath for z/OS Java provides similar transaction visibility and messaging technology support for the mainframe WebSphere Application Server z/OS runtime environment, including both batch and online applications.

Compuware’s Professional Services organisation operates worldwide and can assist not only with technology choices and implementation but also facilitate mainframe modernisation initiatives and assist with the integration of mainframes with the general IT environment.

Both classroom and online training is available.