Performance Under Pressure: The State of Enterprise ... - Oracle

PERFORMANCE UNDER PRESSURE: THE STATE OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION PERFORMANCE AND AVAILABILITY

2014 OAUG SURVEY ON ENTERPRISE APPLICATION MANAGEMENT

By Joseph McKendrick, Research Analyst Produced by Unisphere Research, a Division of Information Today, Inc. August 2014

Sponsored by

Produced by

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary��3 How End-Users Experience Transactions and Applications��5 Improving the Customer Experience��10 What Do Application Providers Think About Impact of Cloud��16 What Do Application Providers Think About Impact of Big Data��20 What Do Application Providers Think About Impact of Mobile��24 Conclusion��28 Demographics��29

PERFORMANCE UNDER PRESSURE: THE STATE OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS PERFORMANCE AND AVAILABILITY, 2014 OAUG Survey on Enterprise Application Management was produced by Unisphere Research and sponsored by Oracle. Unisphere Research is the market research unit of Unisphere Media, a division of Information Today, Inc., publishers of Database Trends and Applications magazine and the 5 Minute Briefing newsletters. To review abstracts of our past reports, visit www.dbta.com/About_Us#Unisphere. Unisphere Media, 630 Central Avenue, Murray Hill, New Providence, NJ 07974; 908-795-3701. Join the OAUG—If you’re not already an OAUG member and would like to continue receiving key information like this, visit the OAUG at www.oaug.org today for information on how to join this dynamic user community for Oracle applications and database professionals.

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY of revenues to small firms. Industries represented include manufacturing, government agencies, educational institutions, IT services firms, utilities, and financial services organizations. Respondents also hold a variety of job titles, including business/ IT analysts, database administrators, IT/operations managers, developers/programmers, consultants, and IT managers. (See Figures 28–31 at the end of this report for more detailed demographic information.) The survey uncovered the following key points: n C onsumers report a range of issues that continue to be faced attempting to use applications and complete transactions. Slow performance and glitches are rampant. As consumers themselves, IT managers and professionals are not forgiving of performance issues. Just about all will give up on a website altogether after a third unsuccessful experience, and many will abandon the vendor well before that point. n S low response times at e-commerce back-end applications still remain as much of an issue as it was five years ago, with 85% reporting such problems. Five years ago, people were more tolerant of—and more accustomed to—delays of five to ten seconds. These days, a latency of even two to three seconds to load a page is considered too long of a wait. n A s complexity grows, so does the task of monitoring and managing enterprise applications. While enterprises are working to increase their visibility to performance issues, most enterprises still rely on customers contacting them by phone or email to find out about performance issues. Nevertheless, there has been a notable increase in efforts to automate the process of discovering performance problems. The survey finds an increase in respondents employing system management alerts that help enterprises address issues before they affect end-users and customers. n W hile only a handful of enterprises currently rely on social media to alert managers to application performance issues, it's likely more will begin relying on such communications to help monitor application performance. This may also result in a realignment of IT departments with marketing functions, as IT and social media staff will need to work in close coordination to make such reporting possible. t t

In a hyper-competitive and uncertain global economy, the ability to connect, communicate and deliver goods and services online, at a moment’s notice, separates the leaders from the followers. Among consumers, technology use is exploding, accelerated by a wide array of social, mobile, big data and cloud offerings. This has important implications for IT and application managers, who are charged with assuring high performance and uptime in the applications used by employees, partners and customers. The online channel has become crucial to organizations, which are under pressure to keep their back-end applications up and running on a 24x7 basis. This was understandable. While the online channel has become even more core to businesses these days, issues with application performance continue unabated. Performance must be a feature of these applications. These are the findings of a survey of 741 application and IT managers and professionals, which confirms that organizations need to be more proactive about addressing application performance, particularly customer and partner-facing applications. The survey, conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc. (ITI), in partnership with Oracle, is similar to one conducted among the same audience in 2009. The survey was conducted among members of the Oracle Applications User Group (OAUG), as well as the readership of Database Trends and Applications, an ITI publication. The stakes are higher than they have ever been. The survey finds that enterprises depend on their applications for a growing share of income. At least 35% estimate that $100 million of their companies’ annual revenues come through the online channel. Five years ago, only 9% reported such levels. In the past few years, enterprises have made some progress in working toward more highly available and well-performing applications for customers and internal end-users. However, at the same time, demand for online services and capabilities keeps accelerating, outpacing the ability of enterprises to fully keep up. As a result, many endusers continue to be frustrated by slow applications, unavailable applications and error messages. Managers and professionals participating in the survey were asked to provide information about their current experiences as consumers of applications, as well as any issues with the applications they oversee within their enterprises. They were also asked to provide future looking statements on the adoption of cloud, mobile and big data within their enterprises and the potential impact on applications. Respondents' organizations represent a range of organization types and sizes, from large corporations with more than $1 billion


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n W hile enterprises continue to leverage public cloud services, they are moving en masse to private clouds. A majority, 56%, of IT managers and professionals say they are running at least some of their enterprise applications on top of private clouds. This percentage will keep on growing, and within five years, just about all enterprises will have applications on private clouds. n P rivate, hybrid and public cloud are seen as a way by many enterprises to achieve their availability and performance goals. More than seven-tenths of respondents at “distressed” environments—those encountering multiple performance issues each week—say they will be running applications on public cloud services within the next three years. n A majority of enterprises are feeling the effects of big data moving through their applications, and more than one-third say they are experiencing issues with network performance. Close to one-fourth say application performance is also dragging as a result of the big data surge. n T hose organizations seeing applications impacted by big data are more likely to have adopted and to be planning to adopt cloud strategies, the survey finds. For example, among those organizations with a sizable portion of their applications affected by big data (more than 10%), two-fifths currently use public cloud services, and 70% say they expect to be employing public cloud within the next three years. Among

enterprises seeing little or no big data impact, 30% use public cloud services, and 66% expect to be using these services within three years. n T he difference between big data enterprises and those with smaller data stores is even starker when looking at current and planned use of hybrid cloud. Of the respondents with big data impacting their application, one-third use a hybrid cloud at this time, and this is expected to double to 63% within three years. Among companies with little or no big data impacting their applications, only 15% use a hybrid cloud, projected to rise to 47% in three years. n R espondents are divided on the question of how deeply mobile enablement is impacting back-end application performance. The mobile revolution continues to advance into the enterprise, and the impact on the consistency and availability of enterprise applications is increasingly being felt. Enterprises with mobilized applications are much more likely to be using cloud than non-mobile enterprises. Ever-expanding numbers of mobile users will tax enterprise applications to some degree, requiring more proactive measures to monitor and manage issues as they arise.

On the following pages are the survey results, documenting the opportunities and challenges that remain in delivering always-on, highly available applications to today’s end users.


5 HOW END-USERS EXPERIENCE TRANSACTIONS AND APPLICATIONS Consumers report a range of issues that continue to be faced by external customers attempting to use applications and complete transactions. Slow performance and glitches are rampant, as observed by survey respondents. As consumers themselves, IT managers and professionals are not forgiving of performance issues. Just about all will give up on a website altogether after a third unsuccessful experience, and many will abandon the vendor well before that point.

Respondents were first asked for their own personal experiences as consumers. Executives and professionals were asked how frequently they have encountered issues, and their responses to issues. As consumers, IT managers and professionals are more likely to be experiencing increases in the quality of their e-commerce experiences than they were five years ago. A majority, 58%, experienced issues with applications not working properly at least “several times a month.” These issues tend to be experienced with great frequency as well. One-third of the group, 32%, said they encountered glitches at least “several times a week” or greater. (See Figure 1.) The question is: how did these respondents—who are application managers themselves, and understand the inner workings of these sites—react when the sites they visited did not perform up to expectations? As end-users, application managers and professionals are forgiving of technical glitches—but only to a point. Two-thirds indicate they would simply try the site again at a later time if a transaction encountered problems, while 13% would keep trying. At the same time, 16% said their reaction to such problems was to abandon the attempted transaction and go to a competitor’s site. (See Figure 2.) Still, such issues eventually add up to lost business for application hosts, and this is a problem that has not diminished in recent years. Negative experiences with applications still leave a bad taste in many consumers’ mouths. Most will try the site again to attempt to finish their transactions, but patience runs short fairly quickly. Forty percent indicate they will typically give a vendor one more “chance,” while about one-third will allow for at least two or three attempts to do business with a website. This means 72% will abandon their transactions after a third try, if not

earlier. In addition, 15% say they are unlikely to continue to do business with the vendor. (See Figure 3.) When comparing the results with a similar survey conducted among application managers and professionals in 2009, it’s notable that there appears to be progress in ensuring greater durability in e-commerce experiences. When asked about the types of problems they have encountered with applications, there has been a notable reduction in most types of issues when compared with the survey from five years ago. For example, while still common, there has been a slight decrease in the percentage of respondents reporting receiving error messages disrupting their transactions. The number of consumers reporting seeing e-commerce applications down declined significantly, from 57% five years ago to 44% today. Likewise, the user experience has improved at many sites—in this survey, 38% report they have encountered such difficulties, down from 48% in the 2009 survey. (See Figure 4.) Slow response times at e-commerce back-end applications still remains as much of an issue as it was five years ago, with 85% reporting such problems. This is likely a product of increased traffic at sites, but also may be the result of changes in expectations about the application experience as well. Five years ago, people were more tolerant of—and more accustomed to—website delays of five to ten seconds. These days, a latency of even two to three seconds to load a website is considered too long of a wait. One of the most notable changes from the 2009 survey is the significant increase in online spending patterns professional-class consumers make at websites. A sizable segment of respondents, 42%, report they have spent more than $1,000 purchasing products or services from sites over the past year. This is up from 31% reporting this level of transactions five years ago. (See Figure 5.)


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Figure 1: How Often Are Applications Not Working Properly? (From a customer’s point of view)

Every day

8%

Several times a week

24%

Several times a month

26%

Several times a year

20%

Rarely

21%

Never

2%

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 20 40 60 80 100

Figure 2: Typical Reactions to Application Glitches (From a customer’s point of view)

Abandon the site and try again later 66%

Keep trying in the same session 13% Other 5%

Abandon the site and try competitive site 16%


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Figure 3: Impact of Negative Experiences on Future Purchases (From a customer’s point of view)

I will try 1 more time

40%

I will try 2–3 more times

32%

I will no longer do online business with that vendor

11%

I will no longer do online and offline business with vendor

4%

No impact

8%

Other

5%

00 20 100 20 40 40 60 60 80 80 100


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Figure 4: Types of Problems Encountered Over the Past Year (From a customer’s point of view)

2009 nnnnnnnnnnnnn

Slow response times

80% 85%

Received error messages

67% 62%

Site was down or unavailable

57% 44%

Site was difficult to navigate

48% 38%

Was unable to proceed to new page

42% 36%

Was kicked off page

23% 31%

Data was lost

15% 12%

Other

5% 5%

2014 nnnnnnnnnnnnn

0 20 100 0 20 40 40 60 60 80 80 100


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Figure 5: Average Online Spending Over the Past 12 Months 2009 nnnnnnnnnnnnn

$10 or less

1% 1%

$11 to $100

11% 8%

$101 to $500

28% 18%

$501 to $1,000

22% 22%

>$1,000

31% 42%

2014 nnnnnnnnnnnnn

Don’t know 7% 8%

0 20 100 0 20 40 40 60 60 80 80 100


10 IMPROVING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE As complexity grows, so does the task of monitoring and managing enterprise applications. While enterprises are working to increase their visibility to performance issues, most still rely on employees or customers contacting them by phone or email to find out about performance issues. Nevertheless, there has been a notable increase in efforts to automate the process of discovering performance problems. The survey finds an increase in respondents employing system management alerts that help enterprises address issues before they affect end-users and customers.

problems, up from 24% five years ago. Additional problems on the rise include being kicked off a page, or users being unable to proceed to a new page. The only issue that has not increased is downtime of applications, the survey finds. (See Figure 8.) Respondents tend to only be made aware of applications issues cropping up when customers do call in to complain. Eighty-five percent of knowledgeable respondents say they are alerted to problems by calls from end-users or customers. This is slightly worse than the survey five years ago, when 78% reported finding out about issues this way. The inability of enterprises to monitor performance issues as they happen exacerbates a negative online customer experience. It is also important to remember that only a small fraction of customers will actually take the initiative to call a company to complain about performance issues. (See Figure 9.) More systems automation has been introduced to provide greater visibility into application performance issues. The survey finds a significant jump in respondents employing system management alerts to find out about issues before they affect end-user access. This year, 60% of knowledgeable respondents say system management alerts help identify problems that may be occurring—up from 39% in the survey five years ago. A handful of respondents, six percent, indicate that they have been able to rely on social media channels to receive communications about site issues. While this is a relatively small percentage at this time, it’s likely more companies will begin relying on such communications to help monitor application performance. This may also result in a re-alignment of IT departments with marketing functions, as IT and social media staff will need to work in close coordination to make such reporting possible. The rise in the sheer volume of enterprise applications may be making it more difficult to reach many of these applications with end-user monitoring tools. The survey finds only about one-third of respondents indicate that most of their applications will stream user-experience monitoring information. This suggests that close to two-thirds of enterprise applications are operating with blind spots in terms of end-user issues. (See Figure 10.) In terms of downtime seen among enterprise applications, a substantial segment, 45%, indicate that they experienced between t t

In the next section of the survey questionnaire, respondents were asked about their experiences as managers or professionals overseeing enterprise applications. Overall, the rate of growth of enterprise application portfolios is increasing dramatically. More than two-thirds report the number of enterprise applications their organizations manage has increased over the past year. For one-fifth of enterprises, this growth has been “significant.” As business models evolve to enable greater social and online engagement, there seems to be an ever-greater number of applications, services and sites to monitor and manage. With this rising number of enterprise applications comes increased complexity, and increased difficulties being able to effectively monitor performance—whether outside-facing, or intended for internal users. (See Figure 6.) A majority of managers and professionals, 57%, admit that their external customers encounter issues with accessing their sites at least one to four times per month, if not more. Twentyseven percent even say these problems crop up several times a week. Again, the challenge may be in the raised expectations consumers have for sub-second response times – as they experience with major web services properties such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, or eBay. (See Figure 7.) For internal employees, the problems are even more frequent —close to three-fourths report users having issues several times a month. While the business impact of internal end-user frustration may not be as acute as that of external customers, the prevalence of such issues has implications for productivity. Slow response times continue to be the leading source of issues encountered by end-users. Nine-tenths of IT managers and professionals admit this is an issue their users are encountering. This is up from the 2009 survey, suggesting that there has been little progress in addressing this aspect of performance. This may also be an issue that tends to remain “hidden” from application managers, since end-users are less likely to contact them to complain, as opposed to instances where there are severe problems (such as a transaction being lost). There also is a greater prevalence of additional issues than five years ago as well. For example, 68% of respondents say their users have received error messages from their applications, up from 60% in the previous survey. Close to one-third, 31%, report their users had navigation


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one and 10 hours of outages, or roughly 99.95% availability over the past year. Another 30% say their application downtime exceeded a total of 10 hours. These numbers are about the same as in the 2009 survey. (See Figure 11.) How long does it take to restore an application that has been brought down? Forty-five percent indicate that it may take a few hours to have an enterprise application back up and running. Again, the ability to support sub-second transaction times with customers is critical to business these days—customers can easily

move to a competitor’s website in the event an application isn’t available. (See Figure 12.) The pressure is on enterprise IT managers and professionals to be able to deliver clean, uninterrupted experiences to customers at all times. As mentioned earlier, there has been progress on this front over the past five years. However, new technology paradigms have also entered the picture since then, both complicating and also adding new solutions to performance issues, as we’ll explore in the next three sections.

Figure 6: Change in Number of Enterprise Applications Over Past Year Increased significantly 19%

19% Increased somewhat 57%

57%

Decreased 4%

Has not changed 20%


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Figure 7: Frequency of Customer Problems With Respondents’ Applications (Among knowledgeable respondents)

External customers nnnnn

Internal end-users nnnnn

Every day 9% 17% 1 to 4 times a week

18% 25%

1 to 4 times a month

30% 32%

1 to 4 times a quarter

44% 25%

0 100 0 20 20 40 40 60 60 80 80 100


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Figure 8: Types of Problems End-Users Encounter (Among knowledgeable respondents)

2009 nnnnnnnnnnnnn

Slow response times

85% 90%

Received error messages

60% 68%

Application was down or unavailable

52% 49%

Application was difficult to navigate

24% 31%

2014 nnnnnnnnnnnnn

Were unable to proceed to new page 23% 28% Were kicked off page

28% 31%

Data was lost 14% 14% Other

6% 3% 0 20 40 40 60 60 80 80 100 0 20 100


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Figure 9: How Companies Are Alerted to Application Performance Issues (Among knowledgeable respondents)

2009 nnnnnnnnnnnnn

Calls from customers/end-users

78% 85%

System management alerts

39% 60%

Service level management alerts

24% 32%

Calls from senior management

21% 26%

Social media

– 6%

Other

5% 6%

2014 nnnnnnnnnnnnn

00 20 100 20 40 40 60 60 80 80 100

Figure 10: P ercentage of Applications With Adequate User-Experience Monitoring Information (Among knowledgeable respondents)

Up to one quarter of our applications 41%

More than half of our applications 34%

None of our applications 13%

One quarter to one half of our applications 12%


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Figure 11: Total Application Downtime Over the Past 12 Months (Total hours for all applications; among knowledgeable respondents)

150 hours (95%)

1%

0 20 100 0 20 40 40 60 60 80 80 100

Figure 12: Length of Time to Restore a Down Application (Among knowledgeable respondents)

4 to 8 hours 13%

< 2 hours 54%

(Total does not equal 100% due to rounding.)

>8 hours 5%

2 to 4 hours 27%


16 WHAT DO APPLICATION PROVIDERS THINK ABOUT IMPACT OF CLOUD Enterprises are embracing cloud strategies to support enterprise applications, and adoption is expected to double over the next three to five years. Hybrid and public cloud are seen as a way by many enterprises to achieve their availability and performance goals. More than seven-tenths of respondents at “distressed” application environments—those encountering multiple performance issues each week—say they will be running applications on public cloud services within the next three years. By contrast, 51% of respondents with high-performing applications plan to move to public cloud services. Likewise, close to twothirds of distressed environments plan to adopt private or hybrid cloud-based applications within this time frame, compared to 42% of higher-performing application environments.

Costs, flexibility, and the ability to move to self-service are the leading reasons companies are embracing cloud computing. At the same time, these new enhancements need to be balanced with application performance requirements. Adoption of new methodologies or service layers also incurs additional complexity, and with it, new performance issues. The move to cloud is inevitable, and IT and application managers need to embrace cloud services—both private and public—to better manage the availability and performance of their enterprise applications. This is changing the role of IT managers as well. Increasingly, IT managers are being called upon to help guide technology decisions for their enterprises. The advent of cloud does not mean enterprises will be able to tap into and automatically offer great functionality for their customers and end-users. Effective cloud deployments require IT expertise. When it comes to public clouds, 35% say at least some of their enterprise application portfolio is provided by third-party cloud vendors, a number that is expected to almost double within the next three years. Only a handful indicates that the bulk of their business is run in the public cloud, and this number is expected to accelerate over the next three to five years, to the point in which 17% expect to be running the bulk of their mission-critical applications in the public cloud. (See Figure 13.) While enterprises continue to leverage public cloud services, they are moving en masse to private clouds. A majority, 56%, of IT managers and professionals say they are running at least some of their enterprise applications on top of private clouds. This percentage will keep on growing, and within five years, just about all enterprises will have applications on private clouds. (See Figure 14.) At this time, a small segment, 14%, indicate that they run the bulk of their enterprise applications on private clouds. This percentage is expected to more than double over the next five years. Many organizations have substantial investments in their application infrastructures, and may be leveraging internal IT processes for competitive advantage. In addition, many companies prefer to keep some systems and data in-house for security or compliance reasons. Hybrid clouds—a mixture of

traditional IT, private and public cloud—offer a way to manage IT resources that are both resident within the organization, as well as cloud services coming from third parties. While hybrid clouds are only prevalent in a minority of organizations at this time, their adoption is expected to accelerate significantly over the next five years. Twenty-nine percent are running at least some of their applications on hybrid clouds, a number that will double in the next five years. (See Figure 15.) However, it’s unlikely that organizations will be running the bulk of their applications in hybrid clouds for the foreseeable future. Do enterprises currently struggling with application performance issues see the cloud as a way to resolve or mitigate some of these concerns? Cloud-based solutions—whether from public services, private cloud, or a hybrid of public and private approaches—may offer greater capacity on demand, as well as behind-the-scenes tuning expertise, to help address performance issues. Organizations currently experiencing high levels of application performance issues are more likely to be planning moves to public or hybrid cloud services than enterprises with such issues under control, the survey shows. Currently, “distressed” environments (respondents estimating that their external-facing applications exhibit performance issues on a daily or near-daily basis) and “high-performing” environments have adopted cloud at about the same rates, with more private cloud activity with high-performing applications. (See Figure 16.) Private cloud is on the radar of companies, regardless of current application performance requirements. At the same time, those experiencing issues are more likely to be considering adoption of public or hybrid clouds. More than seven-tenths of respondents at distressed environments say they will be running applications on public cloud services within the next three years. By contrast, 51% of respondents at high-performing environments plan to move to public cloud services. Likewise, close to two-thirds with distressed applications plan to adopt hybrid cloud-based applications within this time frame, compared to 42% of higher-performing environments. (See Figure 17.)


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Figure 13: Public Cloud Adoption for Enterprise Applications Now nn

Next year nn

In 3 years nn

In 5 years nn

100

Total adoption rate

Percentage of companies now running a majority of their applications (>50%) in public clouds

80 60

62%

63%

12%

17%

49% 40

35%

20 0

4%

6%

Figure 14: Private Cloud* Adoption for Enterprise Applications Now nn

Next year nn

In 3 years nn

In 5 years nn

100

Total adoption rate

81%

80

85%

68%

Percentage of companies now running a majority of their applications (>50%) in private clouds * Self-service environment within the enterprise

60

56%

40 20

26% 14%

32%

16%

0


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Figure 15: Hybrid Cloud* Adoption for Enterprise Applications Now nn

Next year nn

In 3 years nn

In 5 years nn

100

Total adoption rate

Percentage of companies now running a majority of their applications (>50%) in hybrid clouds * Both inside or outside the enterprise

80 60

55%

57%

10%

13%

41%

40

29% 20 0

3%

5%


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Figure 16: Current Cloud Implementations—By Degree of Current Application (Percent reporting they use at least some cloud services)

“Distressed” sites* nnnn

High-performing sites** nnnn

Currently use public cloud 29% 28% Private cloud 41% 54% Hybrid cloud 24% 24% (* Reporting one to daily incidents a week) (** Reporting 1 to 4 or fewer incidents per quarter)

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 20 40 60 80 100

Figure 17: Cloud Adoption Plans—By Degree of Current Application Challenges (Percent planning adoption of at least some cloud services)

“Distressed” sites* nnnn

High-performing sites** nnnn

Public cloud planned in 3 years 72% 51% Private cloud planned in 3 years 80% 80% Hybrid cloud planned in 3 years 65% 42% (* Reporting one to daily incidents a week) (** Reporting 1 to 4 or fewer incidents per quarter)

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 20 40 60 80 100


20 WHAT DO APPLICATION PROVIDERS THINK ABOUT IMPACT OF BIG DATA A majority of enterprises are feeling the effects of big data moving through their applications, and more than one-third say they are experiencing issues with network performance. Close to one-fourth say application performance is also dragging as a result of the big data surge. Those organizations seeing applications impacted by big data are more likely to have adopted and to be planning to adopt cloud strategies, the survey finds. The difference between big data enterprises and those with smaller data stores is even starker when looking at current and planned use of hybrid cloud.

The survey confirms that big data is another emerging force that is impacting applications. Over 60% of knowledgeable respondents indicate that big data has an impact on at least some of their enterprise applications. (See Figure 18.) For many enterprises, there is clearly a negative effect on application performance. Increasing volumes and varieties of data—with a push to deliver as close to real time as possible—is beginning to weigh on enterprise application operations. Onefourth to more than one-third of enterprises report additional performance issues with the rise of big data. Twenty-four percent say the advent of big data has dragged performance down, and 36% say it has had a negative impact on the manageability of their application infrastructures. (See Figures 19 and 20.) Those organizations seeing applications impacted by big data are more likely to have adopted and to be planning to adopt cloud strategies, the survey finds. For example, among those organizations with a sizable portion of their applications affected

by big data (more than 10%), two-fifths currently use public cloud services, and 70% of executives say they expect to be using such services within the next three years. Among enterprises seeing little or no big data impact, 30% use public cloud services, rising to 66% that say they will use these services in three years. (See Figures 21 and 22.) For private cloud, adoption is strong across both impacted and non-impacted applications. This indicates that private cloud is seen as a platform that can serve applications on both sides of the picture—both traditional and big data style. The difference is even starker when looking at current and planned use of hybrid cloud. Among the respondents with big data impacting their applications, one-third use a hybrid cloud at this time, and this is expected to double to 63% within three years. Amongst companies with little or no big data impacting their applications, only 15% use a hybrid cloud, projected to rise to 47% in three years.


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Figure 18: Percent of Enterprise Applications Impacted by Big Data No applications impacted by big data

40%

1% to 5%

12%

6% to 10%

16%

11% to 15%

10%

16% to 20%

8%

21% to 25%

3%

26% to 50%

3%

>50% of applications impacted by big data 9% (Total does not equal 100% due to rounding.)

0 20 40 40 60 60 80 80 100 0 20 100


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Figure 19: Impact of Big Data on Application Performance Better 17% Much better 6% Much worse 3% No change 53% Worse 21%

Figure 20: Impact of Big Data on Application Infrastructure Manageability Easier 18% Much easier 6% Much harder 2% No change 40%

Harder 34%


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Figure 21: Current Cloud Implementations—By Degree of Big Data Challenges (Percent reporting they use at least some cloud services)

>10% of apps nnnnnnn

No apps impacted nnnnnnn

Currently use public cloud 40% 30% Private cloud 75% 60% Hybrid cloud 32% 15% 0

20

40

60

80

100

0 20 40 60 80 100

Figure 22: Cloud Adoption Plans—By Degree of Big Data Challenges (Percent planning adoption of at least some cloud services)



Public cloud planned in 3 years 70% 66% Private cloud planned in 3 years 93% 68% Hybrid cloud planned in 3 years 63% 47% 0

20

40

60

80

100

0 20 40 60 80 100


24 WHAT DO APPLICATION PROVIDERS THINK ABOUT IMPACT OF MOBILE Respondents are divided on the question of how deeply mobile enablement is impacting back-end application performance. The mobile revolution continues to advance into the enterprise, and the impact on the consistency and availability of enterprise applications is increasingly being felt. Enterprises with mobilized applications are much more likely to be using cloud than nonmobile enterprises. Ever-expanding numbers of mobile users will tax enterprise applications to some degree, requiring more proactive measures to monitor and manage issues as they arise.

One thing is clear overall—mobilization is being adopted in a big way across enterprises. A majority, 80%, report that at least some of their applications are mobile-enabled, meaning they are readily accessible from users’ mobile devices. However, for the most part, only a small portion (14%) of respondents indicate that a significant portion of their application portfolios are mobile enabled. (Defined for purposes of this survey as greater than 25% of applications.) (See Figure 23.) Respondents are divided between supporting applications with mobile web environments, or supporting one or more of the range of native mobile apps (such as iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry apps). Each approach has its advantages. With mobile web, developer productivity is enhanced, as applications only need to be written once for mobile browsers, with a single set of code supported and updated. Native mobile apps, however, are seen as simpler, easier to use, and well-vetted through app store sponsors. The challenge for enterprises is that native apps require the writing and support of multiple codebases. (See Figure 24.) Mobile enablement is bringing a mixed picture to overall application performance management. While close to one-fourth of respondents, 24%, indicate that supporting mobile users has made it harder to manage enterprise application performance, 33% indicated it made this task easier. The largest group of respondents reported no change at all. It can be surmised, based

on the PC web experience, that ever-expanding numbers of mobile users will tax enterprise applications further, requiring more proactive measures to monitor and manage issues as they arise. (See Figure 25.) Those organizations seeing applications impacted by mobile technologies are more likely to have adopted and to be planning to adopt cloud strategies, the survey finds. For example, among those organizations with a sizable portion of their applications affected by mobile access (more than 10%), just over half currently use public cloud services, a number that will grow to 68% within the next three years. Among enterprises seeing little or no mobile impact, only 8% use public cloud services, a number potentially rising to 53% in three years. (See Figures 26 and 27.) Enterprises with mobile applications are also more inclined to be using private and hybrid cloud services, the survey shows. Forty percent now use hybrid cloud in some capacity, and 64% say they intend to be using hybrid cloud services within the next three years. By contrast, only 9% of non-mobile companies have hybrid cloud configurations, with 48% saying they will do so in the future. Seventy-one percent use private cloud, a number that is likely to increase to 84% within three years. Among non-mobile companies, 38% use private cloud, and 74% say they will be using private cloud within the next three years.


25

Figure 23: Percent of Enterprise Applications Mobile or Tablet Enabled No applications mobile enabled

20%

1% to 5%

28%

6% to 10%

17%

11% to 15%

10%

16% to 20%

5%

21% to 25%

5%

26% to 50%

6%

>50% of applications mobile enabled

8% 20 40 40 60 60 80 80 100 00 20 100

Figure 24: H ow Mobile Enablement Has Been Implemented for Enterprise Applications As HTML5 applications

21%

As normal web-based applications (possibly using a different layout)

37%

As native mobile device applications (i.e. as iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry apps)

42% 0

20

40

60

80

100

0 20 40 60 80 100


26

Figure 25: H ow Mobile Enablement Has Affected Ability to Manage Enterprise Application Performance Easier 25% Much easier 8% No change 44%

Much harder 2%

Harder 22% (Total does not equal 100% due to rounding.)


27

Figure 26: Current Cloud Implementations—By Degree of Mobility (Percent reporting they use at least some cloud services)



Currently use public cloud 53% 8% Private cloud 71% 38% Hybrid cloud 40% 9% 0

20

40

60

80

100

0 20 40 60 80 100

Figure 27: Cloud Adoption Plans—By Degree of Mobility (Percent planning adoption of at least some cloud services)



Public cloud planned in 3 years 68% 53% Private cloud planned in 3 years 84% 74% Hybrid cloud planned in 3 years 64% 48% 0

20

40

60

80

100

0 20 40 60 80 100


28 CONCLUSION Things have changed considerably over the past five years. In today’s online era, there’s a strong correlation between enterprise application performance and business success. As this survey of 741 application and IT managers and professionals shows, there are weak links in the chain between consumers and providers. One thing is clear: enterprises are moving to the cloud and see cloud platforms as a means to address application performance issues. This points to a changing role for IT and application managers, who will be looked upon to provide service brokering, leadership and direction as enterprises evolve to cloud services. Along with cloud, enterprises are increasingly adopting tools to help monitor performance issues before they impact customer transactions. However, this is still a work in process, and many organizations still are not made aware of performance glitches until they hear directly from a complaining customer. Mobile and big data—technology initiatives now part of many organizations—are adding new elements of both risk and opportunity to application performance. Both mobile and big data bring added complexity to sites—more to manage, more moving parts that need to be considered. At the same time, the ability to bring new insights and open up access to both administrators and customers adds a new dimension of capabilities to application sites.

As online consumers themselves, IT managers and professionals are not forgiving of online application issues. Just about all will give up on a website altogether after a third unsuccessful experience, and many will abandon the vendor well before that point. Reflecting the attitudes of consumers at large, respondents to this survey indicate there’s a good chance they’ll move on to a competitive site if they don’t get satisfaction. Of course, in today’s online economy, end-users expect sub-second responses, and aren’t willing to wait longer than a few seconds if a site isn’t responsive. Enterprises need to invest in tools and methodologies that will enable them to better track and monitor performance issues, before they begin to drive away customers – or create frustration among internal end users. Cloud computing offers one approach to manage the complexities of a multi-faceted, always-on e-commerce environment. The move to cloud is inevitable, and IT and application managers need to embrace cloud services— both private and public—to better manage the availability and performance of their applications. As this survey demonstrates, there has been progress in addressing these concerns—but enterprises need to keep pace with fast-changing technology and competitive environments.


29 DEMOGRAPHICS

Figure 28: Enterprise Application Suites in Use Oracle E-Business Suite 12.x

51%

Oracle E-Business Suite 11.x or below

26%

Custom-built solution

25%

PeopleSoft (all versions)

17%

Salesforce

13%

Oracle Fusion applications

11%

SAP

10%

Siebel

9%

JD Edwards World/EnterpriseOne (all versions)

5%

Infor

3%

NetSuite

3%

Don’t know/unsure

5%

Other

8% 20 40 40 60 60 80 80 100 00 20 100


30

Figure 29: Respondents’ Organizations’ Annual Online Revenues $1 billion

9% 15% 0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100


31

Figure 30: Respondents’ Primary Industries Manufacturing

15%

Government/education/nonprofit

14%

Services/consulting/system integration

11%

Utility/telecommunications/transportation 11% High-tech (including software and hardware)

9%

Financial services/insurance

8%

Healthcare/health sciences

8%

Retail

6%

Engineering

3%

Construction

0.4%

Defense

2%

Life sciences (including pharmaceuticals)

1%

Other

12% 0 20 40 40 60 80 100 0 20 60 80 100


32

Figure 31: Respondents’ Job Titles Business/IT analyst

19%

Database administrator

12%

IT/operations manager

11%

Developer/programmer

10%

Consultant

8%

IT technology director/VP

5%

VP/line of business director

4%

Application administrator

4%

System administrator

4%

Architect

4%

IT application owner

4%

CEO/COO/CFO or other corporate-level executive

3%

Chief technical officer/ chief information officer

1%

Other

13% 20 40 40 60 60 80 80 100 00 20 100
