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The success of any Digital Transformation initiative hinges on centering new and innovative technologies at the heart of business strategy . When organizations get it right , innovation and even disruption follow . Yet there ’ s an often-overlooked problem as organizations adopt more advanced and potentially lucrative business frameworks . As technology layers pile up , overall complexity likewise multiplies and , all too often , performance degrades .
Today , multi-cloud environments , containers , microservices , SaaS applications and a multitude of APIs introduce enormous numbers of connections – but also many possible failure points and security risks .
Simultaneously , as organizations adopt more complex cloud-based environments to support flexible work , traffic increases across networks . Ensuring that customers , employees and others receive the best and most secure experience possible amidst this mounting complexity is a daunting task .
Unfortunately , many organizations wind up with a limited view of their application and network performance as much of the network is out of their control .
However , top-performing organizations recognize that end-user digital experience observability is essential for Digital Transformation initiatives . It helps businesses avoid underperformance , interruptions and even security problems as what were previously blind spots are illuminated .
Eye on performance
One way to understand the problem is to think about a pizza delivery . It ’ s possible for a restaurant to produce a gourmet pizza but if the delivery motorbike hits a pothole and the pizza flies off the rack , it will likely be ruined . Applying this to the digital world , it ’ s evident that an incredibly sophisticated set of applications and capabilities can fail due to even the smallest delivery failure .
The outcome : a user waiting an unacceptable period of time or worse , they won ’ t be able to complete a transaction . Multiply this across many customers depending on the same backbone provider or DNS resolution service that has failed and we can see how profit and business reputation hangs on the line .
As organizations modernize and add technology components , the situation grows ever more complex .
What ’ s simple for the customer becomes ever more challenging for the provider . Peering into the stack and outward to various servers and systems – often scattered across the globe – can degenerate into a trip down a rabbit hole .
For example , a seemingly simple e-Commerce transaction might involve hundreds of hops and a couple dozen APIs . An employee working at home may have a misconfigured VPN that causes performance problems that extend out to their interaction with customers .
The answer lies in thoroughly understanding what ’ s taking place at any given moment . Is a problem rooted in an API failure at a content delivery network site in another state or is the culprit a local backbone provider ?
Is it an employee ’ s home router or their VPN configuration that is undermining the productivity of a remote employee or posing a security risk ? Without total visibility , an organization is left in the dark , having to resort to guesses about the problem and the solution .
Removing risk
Ultimately , all Digital Transformation initiatives lead to the same place : user experience . Customers , employees and business partners aren ’ t green , yellow and red lights on a dashboard or numbers on
a spreadsheet , they are people trying to accomplish real-world things , usually at speed , whether it ’ s viewing content at a website , buying a product through an app , or trying to get their work done in a home office .
The goal in every case is to offer a flawless experience . Yet , in order to accomplish this to the best of an organization ’ s abilities , two critical conditions are necessary . The first is a commitment to consolidating systems in the cloud – everything from the ability to dial up and down bandwidth and use containers and microservices to deploying virtual desktops and VPNs for employees . This builds a foundation for Digital
Howard Beader , Vice President of Product Marketing , Catchpoint
Top-performing organizations recognize that end-user digital experience observability is essential for Digital Transformation initiatives .
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