Given the rapid adoption of shared and virtualized infrastructure in the data center environment, a new approach is needed to ensure the effective performance of the IT infrastructure. Rather than monitoring individual nodes and components in the data center in a piecemeal manner, organizations need to monitor the performance of supported services instead - by correlating all the underlying components of the service. The monitoring approach for applications and services has to account for inter-dependencies and impacts of the shared and virtual infrastructure, and has to account for all the dimensions that can impact a service. Traditional tools that display performance indicators in isolation are no longer adequate in meeting the needs of today’s complex data center.

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