AppSphere 15 - How AppDynamics is Shaking up the Synthetic Monitoring Product Space

How AppDynamics is shaking up the
synthetic monitoring product space
Ian Withrow – Group Product Manager End User Monitoring

History of synthetic
Synthetic is old.
Very Old.
•  Keynote Systems
dates to the 90s.
Think about that.
•  You probably had
dialup at the time
Copyright © 2015 AppDynamics. All rights reserved. 2

Traditionally synth has been built with capex
Source: Miran Rijavec (flickr) Source: gettheshot75 (flickr)

As a result this is the attitude towards customers
Source: Jon’s pics (flickr)

The cost of entry wasn’t a recipe for innovation
Source: Kevin Galens (flickr)

So here’s our checklist we’ll need for the
synthetic product of the future
1 •  We need compelling data that no one else has
•  It has to run on browsers users actually use
3 •  Scripting is painful, we need to make it less so
4 •  Global footprint day one
•  Combine together with other AppD products to create new value
Sources: *n3wjack's world in pixels (code), Caleb Roenigk (pencil), Hanna Sorensson (globe) (flickr)

Fortunately it’s not the 90s anymore
•  Cloud computing, web standards, and open source
technology have significantly lowered the barriers to entry.
•  Going forward success in synthetic will be about innovation
and execution. Not capital investment.

Open Source Tech:
WebPageTest
A real browser testing agent
Built and maintained by Patrick
Meenan at Google
Tool of choice for front end
developers when building websites
Here are just a few reasons we
picked it…

Can we do better than onload?
“The worst measure of user experience,
except for all the other options”

WPT Benefit #1: Visual based timings
Visual complete time –
How long it took to load
everything above the fold
Speed Index – How much
of above the fold content is
complete overtime
Source: Randen Pederson (eye), Sean MacEntree (speedometer) (flickr)

An example: Onload != User Experience

Visual times in action with AppDynamics
•  f

WPT Benefit #2: High quality browser support
IE Support Version 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11
Chrome/Firefox Latest versions
Others Safari (Windows)
Mobile Emulated mobile chrome, latest
One – 2 year wait for new versions
Not quite latest, e.g. Chrome 42
Emulated Old version of webkit
Webpagetest Legacy vendors
Webpagetest has the broadest browser coverage in the industry - handily

As a result
We have Chrome Firefox, and IE11
at GA
Time to market accelerated
Quality is vetted by Google &
thousands of website developers

WPT Benefit #3: Other features already built
•  Film strip/video view
•  Screenshots
•  Connection Usage View
•  TCPDUMP
•  Export to HAR format

Webpagetest does have one feature gap
•  No scripting… which is
important
# of pages per visit
<4
4 to 6
7 to 10
> 10
Source: Dimensional Research 2015

We know how users feel about scripting
Source: Andy Blackledge (flickr)

Proprietary scripting is vendor lock in

Fortunately there is a standard: webdriver
What is it?
•  W3C standard for remotely driving a browser via API calls
•  Selenium 2.0 is a common example of webdriver

SE Benefit #1: Selenium scripts are easier
•  Proprietary scripts, hard to
edit.
•  Selenium is:
–  Well established
–  Skill people put on resumes

SE Benefit #2: Continuing integration via API
The best script is the one you
don’t have to write yourself!
•  QA probably does already
•  Phase 1: Sync via our API
•  Phase 2: Push release
•  Phase 3: Profit
Source: Martin Fisch (flickr)

Having the best agent is pretty exciting but we
need a network
How should we do this?
•  Raise millions of dollars &
build out pops one
business case at a time?
•  Wait what about the cloud?
Source: Lenny DiFranza (flickr)

Cloud has been focused on few high scale
locations
The AWS model
•  A few high volume
locations
•  Microsoft, Google, etc
used the same cities
•  Synthetic needs capillaries
not arteries
Source: Matthew Hadley (flickr)

Cloud Benefit #1: Geo-distributed IaaS is here
Two Models:
•  Owned and operated - IBM
Softlayer
•  Federated –ComputeNext
•  We are on board with both
models
Source: Hanna Sorensson (flickr)

In the NA this means we go from 3 to 14
locations

In the EU this means we go from 2 to 11 locations

In APAC this means we go from 3 to 5 locations

This is just the beginning
These vendors all have roadmap for more locations
•  Since our integration is based on API driven deployment
and their APIs are standardized that means fast adoption
Source: Sascha (flickr)

Cloud benefit #2: Flexibility
Source: SNIJLAB Rotterdam (flickr)

Day one synth is integrated with the backend

Now let’s look at what the future could hold
User Traffic
RUM Session
Path Analysis
Script
Generated
Source: Uncalno Tekno (recorder), Dan Zen (paths) (flickr)

Idea #1: RUM simplifies synthetic setup
Source: wetwebwork (flickr)

Idea #2: Dynamically manage synthetic jobs
Source: Kevin Megens (flickr)

Idea #3: Continuous integration
Channel user behavior back
to QA repo for release
testing!
•  Reduce surprise nasty
regressions
•  Removes a lot of manual
work from the process

Putting it all together
•  Visual based metrics - Measure and benchmark what users experience
•  Browser support - Use the same tools your users have
•  Standards based scripting - Spend as little timing scripting as possible
•  Cloud infrastructure - Continually expanding network and flexibility
•  Continual integration - Synthetic and RUM together can do amazing things
Source: Randen Pederson (eye), Lenny DiFranza (clouds), Kevin Megens (machine) (flickr)

Excited? Limited program for early adopters
•  Until end of year
•  Limited to 10 customers in
NA, EU, and 5 ROW
•  Special price
•  2 free days of professional
services to get you started
•  Virtual user groups with
other program members
Source: Eric Danley(flickr)

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AppSphere 15 - How AppDynamics is Shaking up the Synthetic Monitoring Product Space

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